Introduction: There’s cold… and then there’s cold. Working in the bitterest of temperatures is its own special torture, but the slow thaw when you get back into the warmth is a delicious feeling. One might even consider it worth the trouble! In Twenty Below, players compete to glean the most warmth from a slowly thawing [...]
Yesterday, in my role as Teaching Assistant to Brenda for this quarter’s section of Game Design Criticism & Analysis, I supervised a student play session of Carcassonne. I noticed some interesting dynamics emerge between the players…
While not a trading game, Carcassonne incorporates a fair amount of diplomacy and interplayer negotiation. The tiles are the core [...]
Just an aside:
Last night I attended my regular Rock Band practice with my friends, and we chipped in to purchase the much-anticipated Boston pack. I’ve never had so much fun with a guitar controller First try on “More Than A Feeling”, Expert: 98%.
Game are just magic, aren’t they?
The other day I was present during a workshop in one of Brenda’s courses, in which students have to design a game using six object selected from the aptly-named “Box of Crap:” a largely random collection of dice, toys, and miscellaneous junk on the order of the sort you’d find in a vending machine or [...]
Introduction: Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye, and if the person is wounded it’s a race against time to save their life. In this game, players cooperatively take custody of a dying deck — with only so much blood in the body, your team can afford few mistakes. By acting together, you [...]
I’ve just finished reading an excellent history on one of my favorite subjects: tall ship history and combat. This particular work chronicles the ships, sailors, engagements, and politics of the War of 1812 — the last great naval war in the age of fighting sail (Bonaparte fell for good in 1815, steamships were on the [...]
[Republished from my thesis blog. See the previous example for more info.]
One possibility I have considered for the enactment of my game is placing players in the position of the evildoer.
I mentioned in a previous post the McDonald’s Flash game, in which players play as corporate magnates shepherding a simplified McDonalds corporation. The objective [...]
Introduction: Thunderstorms can be exciting, but if they knock out the power, then the excitement really begins! It can be annoying to find yourself without lights, TV, refrigeration, or any of the other electronic services people depend on, but an unexpected break from these creature comforts can often be invigorating in unexpected ways… and in [...]
A number of recent events — my 13th game design and it’s response, a post by Yehuda, and some first-hand play experience — have led me to reflect on the idea of cooperative games: specifically, games that feature all players acting together against the game itself.
All games are competitive in some way, even the conceptual [...]
Happens every quarter, you know how it is. I’ve been underground getting things done so I can enjoy that shiny 4.0 a little longer. I apologize for the lapse in content. I’ve been working on the thirteenth game design for my Sundays project, but I’ll be backdating it to Sunday just so the little calendar [...]