Monday, 16 March 2015
New vs Old games journalism
Games journalism began in the same manner as most other journalism; very fact filled, focusing on the mechanics of a game and how it plays, and that's about it. By the early eighties, it had flipped to more magazine like proportions, with the majority of popular games journalism being both written and viewed by games' major market; young adults.
After that there was a downturn in games journalism across the pond, but it stayed strong in Europe, and in the nineties came the internet. Once again, a new form of journalism arose, and journal articles on gaming were like streams of consciousness on screen, written by the same people that went on to become major gaming publications like IGN and PC Gamer.
Joystick Generation
IN the final installation of the series wooley looks at Video Games.
Wooley starts by discussing the revolutionary games of the 80s like Elite, a trading game set in space with what was then phenomenal 3D graphics and brings us on a journey through the ages, looking at influential games such as Tomb Raider with it's iconic character Lara Croft and a handful of other classic video games from the 90s.
The journey continues on to the present game with possibly one of the most controversial games ever made Grand Theft Auto. The series ends with a mention of MMORPGs, games such as World of Warcraft and Runescape where the player is in control of a digital avatar in a parallel, digital realm filled with other players.
Wooley starts by discussing the revolutionary games of the 80s like Elite, a trading game set in space with what was then phenomenal 3D graphics and brings us on a journey through the ages, looking at influential games such as Tomb Raider with it's iconic character Lara Croft and a handful of other classic video games from the 90s.
The journey continues on to the present game with possibly one of the most controversial games ever made Grand Theft Auto. The series ends with a mention of MMORPGs, games such as World of Warcraft and Runescape where the player is in control of a digital avatar in a parallel, digital realm filled with other players.
Games Britannia: “Monopolies & Mergers”
Part two of game Britannia started by explaining a game from the 18th-19th century called the mansion of bliss. This game was made to get more children into school the whole aim is to reach the middle of the board which had a huge Georgian house. It was a way of telling the lower/middle class that you can aspire to more in life if you behave proper.
After success in the UK the mansions the game was copied in America, however there were some changes made, instead of a nice Georgian house at the end it was replaced by president of a company. It was telling you to work hard and you will become rich. You could say the american dream come from this morality based game by saying to win you need to be rich you need to be powerful.
In this episode they also talked about a game called br'er fox and br'er rabbit this was a game made to raise debate about redistribution of wealth from land owners. It helped raise debate about a sensitive subject by making a safe setting your disconnected from the subject your just playing a game. From this game we ended up with a classic board game monopoly.
After success in the UK the mansions the game was copied in America, however there were some changes made, instead of a nice Georgian house at the end it was replaced by president of a company. It was telling you to work hard and you will become rich. You could say the american dream come from this morality based game by saying to win you need to be rich you need to be powerful.
In this episode they also talked about a game called br'er fox and br'er rabbit this was a game made to raise debate about redistribution of wealth from land owners. It helped raise debate about a sensitive subject by making a safe setting your disconnected from the subject your just playing a game. From this game we ended up with a classic board game monopoly.
Expanded Bibliography
Brathwaite, B. and Schreiber, I. (2009). Challenges for game designers. Boston, Mass.: Charles River Media, a part of Course Technology.
scott jon siegel, (2007). How to write rules (without confusing people).. [online] Available at: http://numberless.net/blog/2007/04/09/how-to-write-rules-without-confusing-people/ [Accessed 16 Mar. 2015].
Short, E. (2015). Opinion: Why Time-Management Games Ought To Be Great At Story-telling (And Why They Mostly Aren't). [online] Gamasutra.com. Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/18769/Opinion_Why_TimeManagement_Games_Ought_To_Be_Great_At_Storytelling_And_Why_They_Mostly_Arent.php [Accessed 16 Mar. 2015].
Trefry, G. (2010). Casual Game Design. Burlington: Elsevier.
Wabshall, M. (2015). ‘Come Out Come Out, Where Ever You Are’. Casual Connect Magazine, pp.36-38.
Sunday, 15 March 2015
Design Document
The Royal Game of Ur 2.0
Scenario
The Royal Game of Ur 2.0 is a four player game aimed at males between 8-18 turn based race game where each player has to navigate factions of their army across the battlefield while avoiding or fighting their opponents armies. A fight takes place when two or more factions land on the same square, the fight is decided by a dice throw where the losers faction removed from the board. The object of the game is to get all of your factions across the battlefield.
Board Design
Since the game is based on armies moving on a battlefield the game board should have a design similar to risk looking like a map to show the armies moving from one area to another, the board should not show as much of the world map as it does in risk though. The board would be made of cardboard so that it can be folded up as it would be too large to store not folded.
When thinking of what the pieces should look like i thought about what the type of game is, since the game has battle elements and is based around moving troops along the board i decided that the pieces should look like soldiers, i then did some research into toy soldiers, i looked at the real life versions of the toy soldiers in Toy Story as i think they looked the best quality and they had the most variety of types of soldier. I chose soldiers as this ties in with the theme of the game. The pieces should be made of plastic so they're durable, easy to make and easy to replace if any pieces are lost or broken. The pieces should vary in appearance with each player getting 5 sets of 2 different solders, this again represents the fact that the player is controlling a whole army. The pieces should have good detail on things like their clothing faces and any weapons they have
Asset List
1x Box
1x Instructions
1x Game Board
4x 6 sided Dice
4x 6 sided Dice
10x Black soldier pieces
10x White soldier pieces
10x Red soldier pieces
10x Green soldier pieces
Rules
- The winner of the game is the first person to get all of his/her pieces off of the board.
- All players must start with all of their pieces off of the board.
- All players roll a dice, the player that goes first is decided by which player rolls the highest number, if two players roll the same number both players roll again.
- Play goes around the board anticlockwise.
- Each player's turn consists of one dice roll.
- At the start of their turn the player whose turn it is rolls the dice.
- If you have no pieces on the board you must roll to get one of your pieces onto the board, this throw also counts to how far the piece moves along the board , for example if you roll three you would move one of your pieces onto the board and also move that piece two spaces.
- If you already have a piece on the board you can also choose to add another piece
- You may move multiple pieces per turn, however putting a new piece onto the board takes one move.
- You cannot stack counters
- You cannot be attacked while in a safe zone
- If your roll would put you onto a pre-occupied safe zone you must land on the space before the safe zone, you may use remaining moves to move other pieces.
- If two players land on the same square a dice is rolled to decide the outcome of the battle, the loser of the battle removes their piece from the board, they must then roll again to get the piece back onto the board
- If both players roll the same number in a battle then the roll is re-done.
- You must roll the exact number to get your piece off the board
Referances
Siegel, Scott Jon. 'How To Write Rules (Without Confusing People).'. scott jon siegel. N.p., 2007. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.
Museumofplay.org,. N.p., 2015. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.
Images
Toy Soldiers
Risk board
http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1048787_md.jpg
Missed opportunities (Parlett workshop)
UCS ran a Games Workshop for all years hosted by David Parlett. Who is most known for his "Spiel des jahres" game Hare and Tortoise which is a non traditional race game where instead of rolling a dice to move forward you spend carrots and earn them to propel you round the board whilst also trying to get rid of a lettuce cards.Dave Parlett has won many other awards including the Spiel Des jahres (game of the year) in 1979.
Unfortunately I missed this session that was run as i was ill and subsequently missed out on what I saw as a great opportunity to gain valuable information surrounding games design and the opportunity to learn a great deal from David Parlett.
Unfortunately I missed this session that was run as i was ill and subsequently missed out on what I saw as a great opportunity to gain valuable information surrounding games design and the opportunity to learn a great deal from David Parlett.
What the hell is going on ?? (La decima vittima)
La Decima Vittima translates from Italian into English as (The 10th Victim) The movie was in Italian with English subtitles. The plot of the movie is a about the contestants on a TV show of some kind in what is basically a pervasive game of assassination but with real assassinations. This was a very strange film to say the least and it was hard to tell what was going on in certain points this was not helped by the fact that the film was in Italian however the plot seem'd very random and just went from one killing to another with little reason as to why. The movie also adds in a romance between two of the assassins who cant decide if they want to kill the other person and gain the prize money or live happily together. this results in them both faking their deaths one after the other causing even more confusion as to what went on and the movie seemed fairly funny. Everyone in the room seem'd to been joying the weirdness of the film.
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