Game Design and Production Blog 7 - Macbeth Board Game: MacMafia (INFR 2330)

Macbeth Board Game: MacMafia

Hello! Welcome to my blog!

Today, I will be talking about the recent assignment given to us for the Game Design and Production class.

Our teacher Professor Nacke, had given us a Shakespearean game to make… JD,  Tyler and I had met up with no clue whatsoever to do with this. We brain stormed ideas, but for a while, we didn’t know what we could do for the game, until we came up with a random idea. We all enjoyed playing a "mafia" game in which killers, doctors, detectives and civilians are chosen, and you have to eliminate the killers (the mafia). So why not try and incorporate that within this game? That is how we came up with MacMafia.

Now were for the roles,  and structure. Mafia, is for a large group of people, and is likely not to be played with a small group (a larger group is more fun and keeps the game going longer with more suspense).

First question was, who is playing? Roles? We obviously took Macbeth, and MacDuff, but then another role was King Duncan, and also, the Narrator. So then we decided to make the larger game be for 5-10 people. The full roles in which were there are, Macbeth, MacDuff, King Duncan, the Narrator, three witches, Lady Macbeth, Lady MacDuff, and Banquo (given that  Macbeth, MacDuff, King Duncan, and the Narrator must be roles in all games).

Now here came the question... What was the structure? So next, we made it so that, if four people are in play, Macbeth, MacDuff, King Duncan, and the Narrator are definite roles, and if five and up, then the mafia rules are used. With this, we came into the knowledge that we would need to make two rule-sets.

Here is part of the mafia rule-set:

How to play:

Shuffle the cards and deal them out face down. (***Each player must not reveal cards to anyone but themselves***)  The only player that everyone can know is the narrator, the narrator see’s all.

Step 1 – Everyone but the narrator closes their eyes. Narrator will then call upon the killer(s) to open their eyes and point at who they choose to kill. Once killer(s) decide who the victim is they must close their eyes.  Narrator will then call upon the doctors to open their eyes and decide who they think should be saved; they then proceed to close their eyes. Narrator then lets the detective(s) open their eyes and decide who they think the killer is. Once the detective(s) come to decision the Narrator will either nod to let them know if they are right or not. The detective(s) then close their eyes.

Step 2 – The Narrator then calls upon everyone to open their eyes. Without revealing who the killer is, the Narrator must tell who the victim is. If the victim was not chosen by the doctors then the player doesn`t die. If the victim was not the chosen player to be saved by the doctors then that player must reveal their card. Once dead you do not need to close your eyes when told too, but cannot give away other players roles.

Step 3 – The Narrator then opens the floor for discussion to nominate who the killer(s) is/are.  Every player is given an opportunity to convince who they think the killer is.  After this each nominee will get a chance to do whatever it takes to convince as many people as possible why they’re not the killer. Once this is over the voting process starts, which every nominee gets the most votes dies. Keep in mind if you are either Macbeth or King Duncan you want to try your hardest to stay alive. 

***Repeat steps 1 to 3 until either Macbeth or King Duncan dies***

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Here is the rule-set for 4 people:

How to play:

Shuffle the cards and deal them out face down. (***Each player must not reveal cards to anyone but themselves***)  The only player that everyone can know is the narrator, the narrator see’s all.

Step 1 – Everyone but the narrator closes their eyes. Narrator will then call upon the killer(s) to open their eyes and point at who they choose to kill. Once killer(s) decide who the victim is they must close their eyes. The Narrator then lets the detective(s) open their eyes and decide who they think the killer is. Once the detective(s) come to decision the Narrator will either nod to let them know if they are right or not. The detective(s) then close their eyes.

Step 2 – The Narrator then calls upon everyone to open their eyes. Without revealing who the killer is, the Narrator must tell who the victim is. Once dead you do not need to close your eyes when told too, but cannot give away other players roles.

Step 3 – The Narrator then opens the floor for discussion to nominate who the killer(s) is/are.  Every player is given an opportunity to convince who they think the killer is.  After this each nominee will get a chance to do whatever it takes to convince as many people as possible why they’re not the killer. Once this is over the voting process starts, which every nominee gets the most votes dies. Keep in mind if you are either Macbeth or King Duncan you want to try your hardest to stay alive. 

***Repeat steps 1 to 3 until either Macbeth or King Duncan dies***

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It was really fun to make this game with my friends, and I am excited to see what challenges our professor gives us next.

For further information on MacMafia, see our game or ask!

Thanks for reading my post!

Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!

Questions to consider:

1. With what you saw above, what do you think about the game? If you want to see the full rule-set, comment, and or email aaron.p.providence@gmail.com
2. Would you like to play the game?

Game Design and Production Blog 6 - League of Legends: The Board Game? Card Game? (INFR 2330)

League of Legends: The Board Game ? Card Game?

Hello! Welcome to my blog!

Today, I will be talking about the game League of Legends. Although very complex, I would be trying to see if it could become a board game or not.

Recently, I have been playing the video game League of Legends (LoL) a lot. So much, that before the last GDP (Game Design and Production) class, I had only 40 wins, and to date, I now have 101 wins. This is a lot, because, each game could span from 20 minutes to as long as 70 minutes (the longest game that I have ever played). Also, from the last class, I had a win - lose ratio in which was 40 : 63 respectively, but now it is 101 : 100 . If you do all of the math with that, I had played 98 games since the last class… excluding games that I have faced against "bots" or AI (artificial intelligences) within the game.

LoL is a territorial game, in which involves teamwork. Your goal is to destroy the other teams towers, and to go into the enemies base and destroy their nexus. To do this, you must become powerful by fighting, gaining money, buying items, in which make you stronger, or harder to kill. As you become stronger, if you strategize well, you should be able to destroy the other teams towers (turrets). Each team has 10 towers. There are three lanes, top, middle and bottom, in which each have three turrets. In each teams base, they have two towers protecting the nexus.

The nexus within each base, generates minions for the team. There are two different colours of minions, blue and purple. There are normal minions, caster minions, and super minions. Super minions are only generated after a team destroys an inhibitor (each team has 3 inhibitors, one in each lane, but are located at the edge of the base, towards each lane. Below is a picture of the map.

If you have anymore questions, or want more insight into the game, go to the main website.

League of Legends

As I keep playing the game, I would always feel that I would want to see if it would be able to be made into a board game...however, as I thought about it, could it be turned into a board game? Or card game?

As I continue writing this blog, I shall see if I can create either a board game or card game.
 

If it was a board game, there would be many pieces, as to make for all the characters, and statistics would need to be kept…

WELL, I made up my mind...its going to be a card game.

This card game of LoL can only be played with even people up to 10 people (2, 4, 6, 8, 10). There would be a deck for each character. Each deck would consist of the character itself, and their skills. There would be a deck for health, and a deck for mana. As they level up, the characters are able to specifically pick up cards, depending on what bonuses they have or not.

Each character has a certain amount of health cards. As characters lose health, depending on how much each health card represents, it gets flipped face down, showing that they do not have that health anymore. Health cards cannot be discarded, because each character has a base amount of health, so unless they had an item that gave them health later, and then they sold it and got rid of it, they should always keep the health that they usually would have. For example, if I start with 50 health (5 cards, 10 health each), unless I got an item which gave me more health, and then I sold it, I should always keep those 5 cards.

Each character is only able to have 6 items. The item builds should be located within the rules. There will be a deck for each item, showing what items it needs before you get it so you buy all of them properly. Because there are many items, you would have many decks, and there would be multiple decks for each items, because, if everyone is able to get 6 items, what if they all got the same one? Six times per player? Then is would be 10x6 in which would be 60 of the same item.

There is mainly two flaws within this card game in which I would be wanting to create...not an easy battle system, and the minion battle system. The lanes, nexus, towers and all, could be easy, but as minions are sent out, killed, and more, it would take more time, and more production to think about.

This is all that I have for now, but I am really interested in actually creating it.

Thanks for reading my post!

Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!

Questions to consider:

1. From reading the above, would you want to play this game? Would you like to see it created? (it was just an interest of mine for a short time, but we'll see!)
2. Did you like the structure for the game so far?

GDW Progress - Intermediate Computer Graphics Blog 7 (INFR 2350)

Hello and welcome to my blog! Here I will be talking about progress in which we made for our game.

In my previous blog, I said that I was making beast models. What was a problem in our last semesters game, was that, we were able to play the game, but because of the high-poly creatures and weapons, the game would lag and be extremely slow, so that you would not be able to combat your enemies properly. I remade the models so that they were easier to animate and manipulate, and also be able to have many of them in the game and have the game not get any slower whatsoever. Though this was hard, with some consultation with other modellers, it was easy to make. It can be better, and over the summer, I plan to make high resolution models, but for now, here are the new updates creatures...or at least two of the newest.


Here is the bear:

Here is the Lion:

Thanks for reading my blog! Until next time!

Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!!

Game Design and Production Blog 5 - Individual Homework

Welcome to my blog! This post is for my Game Design and Production class. In this post, I shall be talking about individual works that we are supposed to finish for homework.

First Individual Part: Card game: War --REMIX!

Our task for this remix of a game was to change rules and to make it more skill based. Here are the rules, and then I will give my remix to the certain part of a game in which makes it more skill based.

Players: 2

 Materials needed: one standard 52-card deck of playing cards (with Jokers removed)

 Setup: Shuffle the deck of cards and deal out half to each player. Players take their cards in a single

face-down stack.

Progression of Play: Simultaneously, players flip over the top card of their deck. If the cards are of

unequal rank (number), the higher rank wins the “battle” and that player takes both cards and sets

them aside in a discard pile (Aces are high, then King, Queen, Jack, then 10 down to 2). When a

player runs out of cards in their deck, they take their discard pile and turn it over to form a new deck.

 Wars: If players flip over cards that are equal rank, it starts a “war.” Players each deal three cards

face-down, then flip up a new card face-up, and the higher rank of the new face-up card wins all face-down and face-up cards. This process is repeated if the new face-up cards are the same rank,

continuing with additional “wars” until eventually one player wins.

Resolution: The game ends when one player runs out of cards, or when one player must play cards for

a “war” but they do not have enough cards remaining in their deck and discard pile. That player loses

the game, and their opponent wins.

This game has no decisions whatsoever. The game mechanically plays itself, and the players merely act as tools

to play out the game to its pre-determined conclusion.

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My remix to the game was this:

During war, you look at the 3 cards you play face down, and then flip 1 card face up. The card face up card competes for the higher rank with the opponent's face up card. if you lose, you have 1 chance to redeem yourself by flipping one of the 3 face down cards to try and beat their card's rank. If the opponent was going to win before you redeemed yourself, they do not flip one of their face down cards.

A video will be uploaded later.

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Second Individual Part: Tic-Tac-Toe  --REMIX!

Our task here is to submit a new rule-set, a proper description of the game, and appropriate documentation. Here is the all of the above:

Players: 2

Materials needed: Surface of which you can draw a 3 x 3 grid, and a writing utensil.

Progression of Play: Simultaneously, each person fills out a spot of the grid until one person get 3 of their specific kind of symbol in a row, column or diagonal. As stated before, the objective of the game is to get 3 of a kind (getting 3 of your symbol in a row, diagonal, or column makes you win the game). During the gameplay, you try and block off the other person in which makes them unable to get 3 of a kind, while also, aiming to get 3 of a kind yourself. The symbols are either X or O.

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Here is my remix of the game and rules adding some Luck.

Players: 2

Materials needed: Surface of which you can draw a 3 x 3 grid, and a writing utensil.

Progression of Play: Simultaneously, each person fills out a spot of the grid until one person get 3 of their specific kind of symbol in a row, column or diagonal. As stated before, the objective of the game is to get 3 of a kind (getting 3 of your symbol in a row, diagonal, or column makes you win the game). During the gameplay, you try and block off the other person in which makes them unable to get 3 of a kind, while also, aiming to get 3 of a kind yourself. The symbols are either X or O.  If someone is going to win, you can roll a die for a chance to block them. To do this, you must roll a die. If you roll a 6, you may interrupt their turn and place one of your symbols where you want to either win, or block them off.

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My addition adds luck to the game to see who wins.

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Third Individual Part: MONSTERS Corp. --REMIX!

Originally, Monsters Corp. was a game of skill. Here, our objective was to turn an already made game of either skill or luck. If its originally luck, turn it into skill, and if skill, turn it into luck.

Here are the rules of Monsters Corp.:

MONSTERS Corp-

Players: 2-4 people

Included: one die, tile-game

First to Get majority of board wins

rolling dye to choose order of turns.

and then proceed clock-wise

first to acquire all land wins.

every tile has a monster. lvl 1-20.

every monster you defeat, you gain a level. in order to defeat a monster, you must roll a number, when added onto yours, kills the monster. That part that the monster was on, becomes your land.

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To acquire another person's land once they've already conquered it:

The strongest monster in which each person had beaten face off, and each roll a die. If the die and the monsters lvl together are higher than the other monsters, then the person with the higher monster and die win and conquer that land.

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Teaming:

You are only allowed to team up with one person who is weaker than you, or the person closest to your level. If neither of these things occur, for example, you are level 10, and everyone else is level 20, then you may pick who is your partner.

 This is because with the amount of monsters that there are, and the amount of strength that each have added to the die roll, would be too one-sided.

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Death - once all of your land is taken, you are disqualified and kicked out of the game..YOU LOSE.

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Here is my remix of the game Monsters Corp. in which adds luck.

MONSTERS Corp-

Players: 2-4 people

Included: one die, tile-game

First to Get majority of board wins

rolling dye to choose order of turns.

And then proceed clock-wise

first to acquire all land wins.

every tile has a monster. lvl 1-20.

every monster you defeat, you gain a level. in order to defeat a monster, you must be either, a higher level than the monster, or, roll a number with the die. That part that the monster was on, becomes your land.

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To acquire another person's land once they've already conquered it:

The strongest monster in which each person had beaten face off, and each roll a die. If the die and the monsters lvl together are higher than the other monsters, then the person with the higher monster and die win and conquer that land.

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Teaming:

You are only allowed to team up with one person. However, now you determine this by rolling a die. At the start of this game, you rolled a die to see who does first. That person is now player 1. Each person after(clock-wise), are given a number in which increases until 4 is reached. When rolling the die, if you get your own number, you cannot team up with anyone.

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Death - once all of your land is taken, you are disqualified and kicked out of the game..YOU LOSE.

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My changed rule mechanic in Monsters Corp., makes the game more one-sided. This is a positive feed-back loop now stationed within the game.

Thanks for reading my post!

Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!

Questions to consider:

1. Do you think that the third remix was too simple? If so, leave some feedback
2. What did you like about my changes?

GDW Progress - Intermediate Computer Graphics Blog 6 (INFR2350)

Hello and welcome to my blog! Here I will be talking about progress in which we made for our game.

In the past few weeks, we had another meeting to verify what we would need to have done for our game to have it running by the desired date. My task was to finish all models given to me, so far, I was able to finish all weapon models and now I am to finish the beast models for the game... Though the Weapon models were easy to make, I could have done a better job with the texturing. Through seeing what we have been doing with the game, I am realizing more about myself as a model maker.

Here is an example of a weapon that was made.

This axe is a new instalment that the group wanted within the game. They had told me to "add an axe" so I would think of an axe that people use today, but what they had meant was the axe that you see above. The way that I had found that out, is through them laughing, and us having fun. They told me that the sides of the axe were as dangerous as the top, but on a modern axe, the top isn't lethal, so this one came to mind, and that's how I had modelled it. I'm nervous, but excited to see what the beast models will look like!

Thanks for reading my blog!


Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!!

GDW Progress - Intermediate Computer Graphics Blog 5 (INFR2350)

Hello and welcome to my blog! Here I will be talking about progress in which we made for our game.

With the classes going by, its been really stressful, so some progress may have been postponed with incoming assignments from alot of classes.

With our group, what has been an update with the game is that, the characters are getting ways of making decisions (like making a decision bank). For example, there are good decisions within the game, in which could be used, for example:

[Quest Description]  [Amount of Gold]  [Availability]  [Quests left]

1.) Kill Wolves          100            Always

As seen above, that would be just one of the decisions that could be made for the game, however there are more.

I, myself, not being great at programming, find it tough to do the homework questions. With help from the programmers in the group that I am in, I am starting to find it a tad easier to understand shaders, but it is still quite difficult to make and implement them.

The first shader that I had made on my own, was the Toon and Cell shader. But even then, understanding the types of things that i would need to put within the .cg file was confusing...not to mention what was needed to put into the main .cpp file.

In the end, here is my result, it worked perfectly, however it took tons of work:

Thanks for reading my blog!

Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!!

Elevator Action: The Board Game - Game Design and Production Blog 4 (INFR 2330)

Elevator Action - The Board Game

Welcome to my blog! This post is for my Game Design and Production class. In this post, I shall be talking about the recent game we had just made for this previous class.

In the last class, we were talking about feedback loops. To my knowledge with what I had learned, there are two feedback loops. Positive and Negative.

A positive feedback loop are effects within the game in which get stronger in magnitude in each interaction. For example, it rewards player on player, so their probability of winning is stronger. It destabilizes your games, gives it a faster ending, and  the emphasis is put on the early game in which determines the victor.

A negative feedback loop are effects within the game that get weaker with each interaction. For example, in a racing game, the 1st player is at a disadvantage. These effects stabilize the game, it can cause the game to take longer, and has emphasis on late game.

There are three ways to eliminate feedback loops. One way is to sensor, in which means deleting a rule. A comparator and or activator, is changing or deleting rules.

This week, our professor told us to make a prototype game, and then he also gave us a side project in which was individual writing, but group effort.

What was funny with us making the prototype, is that in preceding classes, our professor broke down prototyping for us so that we could have fun, but not too much difficulty with it. So far, within our class, we came up with a few points that lie within prototyping games.

Pros:                                                                             

• Cheap
• Fast
• Easy to change
• No guilt
• Model most gameplay
• Eliminate junk ideas

Cons:

• Can't model twitch games(dexterity, time)

• Fog of war(losing general idea of game)

• Complex Calculations

• Eye Candy

• Risk of losing focus(minds wandering)

With these points in mind, he gave us a project to remake a game in which was in the 1980's. We chose Elevator Action. It was a lot of decision making, thought processes and effort. However, with what our teacher said the last class, it was easier than what we would have done before. In previous classes, although things were prototyped, we were making more detailed versions.

What was hilarious, was that in one of our classes our teacher pretty much said, that between fine and grotesque? Its more 7/8 grotesque and 1/8 fine. (The lines used, were funnier, but I don't know if he'd want me saying it online...just being respectful...I'll ask him later...and if he says its fine, ill change the text!).

It took us two hours to complete the game. When we are done presenting, I will upload pictures at the end of this post.

Sorry! Back to the main story and thought.

After we had finished the board game of elevator action, we had another group project to do. This one was to change or delete a rule within the game "Liar's game" which is a game played within the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean". Here's a YouTube link that explains the Liar's game well.

Liar's Dice Video    

For our individual part, we had to give the positive feedback loop within Liar's game, make a change or delete a rule, and then show the repercussions for this.

If you know the Liar's game or have just watched the video, then this next part will make sense.

Within the game “Liars Dice”, the positive feedback loop appears more and more often, with each die that is lost. The more dice that are cast out of game, means that liars are more apparent, and whoever has more die has more probability of not lying, therefore winning.

I changed the rule with losing dice. What I had said, is that instead of losing dice, to make it so that people have strikes. What I would think would happen, is that people would take more risks and the game would be longer.

As I had predicted when I changed the rule, I was right, which gave me a little self satisfaction.

This was a fun project, and the work was quick and successful, so I was happy having no real homework to do that weekend. I hope to have more enjoyable classes!

Thanks for reading my post!

Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!

Questions to consider:

1. After reading through this, and watching the video, would you play the "Liar's Game"?
2. With the rule changes I made to the "Liar's Game" do you think that I made it worse? Or made it more even/better? Let's get a discussion going.
3. Would you like to see the "Elevator Action" game that we made into a board game?

Shaman King Master of Spirits 1&2 - Intermediate Computer Graphics Blog 4 (INFR 2350)

Hey, Welcome to my blog! This is my fourth post for my Intermediate Computer Graphics Class.
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While growing up, Shaman King was my favourite Gameboy game. As I grew older, although tastes changed, games advanced, systems changed, and the world grew, I still had an immense love for it. In this blog, I will be talking about Shaman King Master of Spirits 1 and 2.

Shaman King Master of Spirits 1

In this game, this is where Yoh, had gained his first spirit Amidamaru. Amidamaru is a master samurai.

In the game, there are little spirits in which float around. These spirits could be said to be particles that attract around the main character. They could be using a seek algorithm and, also have a certain shader in which blends two textures together. One of a certain flame flicker, and another.

There are also certain shaders that change a certain textures colour with rain, as seen in this battle between the main character and a subcharacter named Ryu.

This game continues until Yoh gets close to becoming Shaman King.

Shaman King Master of Spirits 2

In this version of Shaman King, Yoh is in the middle of the tournament and is out to defeat his twin brother Zeke.

With these games, even though they are simple and low quality, complex programs can be instilled into them. The definition, thought process, story, and battle style really makes the player interact and like the game...at least I did ? Haha

Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!

Questions to consider:

From above or a gamplay video off of YouTube, would you play it?

Take this game play vid for consideration.

Final Boss Fight. Shaman King Master of Spirits 2

Tutorial Issues(Voice) - Intermediate Computer Graphics Blog 3 (INFR 2350)

Hey, Welcome to my blog! This is my third post for my Intermediate Computer Graphics Class.
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Even regarding the name of this post, do not take it to heart. I'm making this post solely for information purposes and because it's not fair.

As students come into the room, what expect is to hear a very informing tutorial. I am not saying that our TA is not informing. He is quite smart, and teaches efficiently...but only when you can hear him properly. What I think should happen in the class is that he should use a microphone system, the portable should change, or he just elevates his voice while teaching.

The first tutorial that we had in the class was informing. We downloaded needed programs and were able to finish our first shader. The second tutorial was less informing and more troublesome. Because he didn’t have a legitimate reason to go around class and did not speak up, some people, including myself were not able to keep up in the class and get all programming notes and be caught up to speed as to how shaders are made, processed, and how to format them to do different things. Although we are able to learn by ourselves, it is just extra help and confirmation with what the TA teaches. I am not saying anything bad about him, because he is generally a good person from what I know, he teaches well, and etc, however, with the space, its unfair because his voice does not stretch throughout the classroom.

Sorry if this offended anyone. It wasn't meant to. Just a suggestion for everyone to learn better. I'm Sorry.

Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!

Programming Issues(Shaders) - Intermediate Computer Graphics Blog 2 (INFR 2350)

Hey, Welcome to my blog! This is my second post for my Intermediate Computer Graphics Class.
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When I first came into this class, I never thought anything would be too wrong...that was until I looked at the homework questions that we were given…

When I looked at them, an immediate fear came over me and I was scared about my mark in this class…

On top of that the way that the questions are structured scare me.

To be honest, I am not the strongest programmer out there...in fact I am quite weak, need some help and need to improve. The questions once completed lose quality points. For example, if the question is 15 points at the beginning, once one person completes it and shows the professor, it diminishes 1 point per completion, so it would then be 14.

I want to make this blog longer, but to be honest, I don't really think I can, my main concern was getting my voice out about how I was in this certain class, but we'll see how I do. I won't give up hope with this class.

Another issue that I had was what shaders were. In the first class, it was very difficult to understand what shaders were....as classes continued I learned that shaders were programs that add definition to games...but we'll see what more I learn!

Homework Trolls! I shall Defeat you!

Kazekumaru -- Peacing Out!