Week 4

This week we focused on integrating the theme a little more into our game.  We changed the name of our game from "Conquer" to "Conquest".  We decided this is more fitting for our game since conquering is more about taking over other people's land while conquest is more about buying new land/your own land.  Since the theme of our game was not well integrated (we could change the theme of the game to anything and it would still work the same way), we decided to add ability cards.  By adding the ability cards, we're creating a story for the players and the game.  The players will have a reason for picking the cards that they are.  These cards will give the players in the game a special ability, such as being able to draw extra food resource cards or being able to move anywhere on the board.  Although we have almost all the mechanics of the game figured, we still need to playtest the game with other players.  This will help us figure out if the theme still needs to be integrated more in the game.  If other players feel like they are really a part of the world/story we have created, it will give us assurance that the theme is actually well integrated.

Week 3

For this week we really focused in on the components and the dynamics of the gameplay. We found the the only way to know for sure that the dimensions and rules were going to be functional and playable were to play test the game itself. We are currently in the process of doing that. However, aside from he dimension, we found that there isn't much to work on for the dynamics of the game, since we already know where we will be headed and have completed after we play test the game. The thematics portion of the game is where we found a lot of components to work on. This week we realized that our theme does;t exactly correlate with the design and feel for our game. Which is why we decided to take on the construction and settling campaign feature opposed to the original battling and conquering feature to the game. We have changed the games name to Conquest, rather than Conquer. The players can now have the imaginational mindset that they are on a conquest trying to expand and scout to further lands and grounds throughout the board, opposed to fighting and conquering the lands instead. We found that the scouting and building theme for the game gave nicer appeal and even a better match up with the dynamics of the game opposed to the more common fighting and pillaging theme. Come next week, our board will be playable, as will our resource cards be thematically forces as well. We will have our game at a functional level with completeness as well.

Week 2: Take Off

I missed class 2 weeks ago, so when I came to class this past week things were moving pretty quickly. I met all my group members and the base of the game was already created. I came into the group hitting the ground running.

We already established that one core mechanic of the game involved drawing 2 of the 3 resource cards every turn to either move their totem or purchase a tile. This week in class, we came up with a few more core mechanics. These new additions include drawing 3 resource cards instead of 2 after the 5th round, and in order to buy a time, one must need the correct amount of resources stated on the tile.

Other things we figured out was the layout of the boar. We came to the conclusion that the board layout should be 7x7, so 49 total squares on the board. After a couple play tests, we'll know for sure if we should add or take out another row and column. Some of the resources we will use in the game are wood, food, and coal which are your everyday essential supplies to survive. Players can only buy one tile at a time and the value of the tile can go from being 1 point (easiest) to 5 points (hardest). Each tile will have a point value and will have the corresponding amount of resources needed to obtain it. An idea we were toying around with is when a player owns 3 tiles that are all next to each other, they get a bonus but this idea is only a possibility and we still haven't discussed what the bonus may or may not be.

We also talked about the dynamics of the game. The game will start when the players randomly placed the valued tiles around the board. The corners are each given one black tile that has no value and 3 tiles around it with a value point of 1. Each player will start off on the black corner spot and with one food card. When the first player goes, they draw 2 resource cards and are dependent on the map around them. Players have to strategize which cards to draw depending on the tiles around them and what resources it needs to be bought. The game ends when either each tile is owned by a player or when there are no more moves a player can make to move or buy a tile. At the end, the players count up their tiles and the player with the most points wins.

This is just the beginning our process, but so far we think we have a solid game. We still want to include some sort of battle/player interaction mechanic like maybe attacking a tile and conquering it? With more play tests and our first prototype due this week in class, we will figure it out soon.

The Start

The game conquer has been set into place. The essential idea of the game is to conquer valuable land that will yield the player the most points once the game ends. Much of the mechanics are pretty raw and seems to be simple enough to understand but a through playtest will allow for many of the issues to arise so we can start working on it.

The game has each player working on gaining resources by drawing 2 out of the 3 resources every turn and looking at their adjacent area around them. Each tile has a different value and the higher the value, the more resources it will cost. Each player starts the turn off by drawing 2 out of the 3 resource cards and deciding to either move their totem in any direction by one spot or by purchasing a tile of land of which they are currently on top of or in a one tile radius from their totem.

Currently the game allows for players to block off areas if they conquer all the spots around them to go after big valued tiles that aren't so easy to purchase. This is one of the game mechanics that would allow for strategy to be placed in the game and allow players to look at the board and plot their second, third, and even fourth moves before they have even taken their turn. This game is simple to understand and will allow for players to play and understand the game quickly, but the more they play it, the more they will understand the strategy behind it and start planning on how they will make their decisions based off of the board.

One mechanic that has been suggested to enhance the game deals with players being able to attack or overtake other players land tiles. Currently there is no actual set action in the game for this, but its a great idea to help generate a more stimulated and interactive game as well as create a meta game so players can work on manipulating others and forming alliances with others. During the next class, the group shall work on fine tuning the core mechanics as well as working on different ways to enhance the player interaction and fighting mechanics as well.