Devlog 3

This week was a very interesting week of classes. The thing that really made me think the most was playing the game Up the River. It was the first real “boardgame” we tried in class and we had a lot of fun playing it. Playing the game made me think back to Chapter 4: The Player Experience. A great quote that sums up everything I am talking about, “Five layers of player experience: sensory, information, interaction, frame, and purpose.” Macklin and Sharp- Chapter 4: The Player Experience. I sensed the other players making moves, I used the information I gained from studying the other players’ moves, I interacted with the others by placing my calculated move, then I saw the reactions of my move, good or bad. After we played the game off the creator’s instructions, we got the opportunity to make some rules of our own to spice the game up. “One of the first things we do when learning a new field is to become familiar with the tools of the trade. In this chapter we look at the core tools of game design: constraint; direct and indirect interaction; goals; challenge; the interplay of skill, strategy, chance and uncertainty; decision-making and feedback; abstraction; theme; storytelling and context.” Macklin and Sharp- Chapter 2: Basic Game Design Tools. This direct quote from the chapter is what went into creating our own twist to the game. To add the aspect of challenge, we decided to add the fact that if somebody rolled a 6 on the dice throw, the back row would fall out of the game. This would knock players out at a fast rate, increasing the stress levels of the players. Once the time for gameplay was up, we had a reflective period to think on the experience as a whole. This game made us realize the types of players we truly are. We like to have fun and laugh from time to time while maintaining a competitive nature. I think we all took away the fact that there are so many different types of gameplay. “Like tastes in food, the kinds of play are not mutually exclusive. Where a dish might call for garlic, onions, oregano, and thyme, so a game’s design may require a mix of competition, player expression, and whimsy.”- Macklin and sharp- Chapter 2: The Types of Play. Overall, this was a great week and I look forward to see what else is in store!