A few weeks of game design

So a few weeks has passed and a lot has happened so I am going to try to summarize a bit.

I have learned quite a bit but as usual, the more you learn the more you realize you do not know. But the thing with game design, I think,  is that no matter how much you read from books or learn from lectures you still have to try it out. That is where you learn the most. Luckily I have been in a bunch of group projects.

 

The first one was a workshop where we were tasked to come up with a concept for a game based on keyword that we got. My group got “My dream is to drive a rally car through the Sahara desert”.

Based on this we came up with kind of a first person survival game where the player drives around in the desert to find fuel for the car. The player could also get out of the car but only for a limited amount of time, without the protection of the car the harsh sun takes its toll. There was also a story as to why the player is in the desert. It was the players fathers dream to roam the Sahara but he died before he could do it. Thus the player embarks on the journey instead. A photo of the father could be seen if the player looked around inside the car.

 

The second group project was to reverse engineer a digital game and make a paper prototype of it. Basically a board game.

My group chose the fantastic game “Faster Than Light”.

We named it “Pirates of the Saharabbean”. Here are the rules we came up with:

Pirates of the Saharabbean

Rule Compendium

Set up the Game Board and select a Game master if not one is already decided. The Game master act the role of the shop and play for the enemy ships.

The Game master will also hold the Random Occurrence Cards for the player to choose from.

The Game Master starts with:

1 D20

Shop Cards:

Shop card

Lazer 2

Lazer 3

Cannon 2

Cannon 3

Dodge 1-4 indicator

Dodge 1-7 indicator

Dodge 1-10 indicator

Random Occurrence Cards:

2 Zone one enemy Random Occurrence Cards

2 Zone two enemy Random Occurrence Cards

2 Zone three enemy Random Occurrence Cards

1 Empty Dunes Random Occurrence Card

1 Loot-Wreck Random Occurrence Card

The Player starts with:

1 D20

The player ship gameboard piece

Player sheet

1 Shield marker

1 Dodge 1-2 indicator

Lazer 1 (2 damage, minus shield value)

Cannon 1 (2 damage, ignores shield and costs ammunition)

30 max HP

The Player starts at the location marked with start and can move one movement step in any direction on the board.

Once the Player has reached a new step, one of four Random Occurrence Cards will be drawn and provided by the Game master. Two of which are enemy cards that are based on the current sector the Player is in.

Green for sector one.

Blue for sector two.

Red for sector three.

The other two Random Occurrence Cards are Loot-wreck and Empty Dunes.

Shops will be located on specific locations on the board.

Shops are the only way to buy upgrades for the ship, weapon upgrades, dodge upgrades and shield upgrades. The shops are also the only way to regain HP and is also a way to regain ammunition for the canon. Everything is purchased here with doubloons (db for short). Doubloons are a currency that are looted either from finding Loot-wreck or defeating enemies.

The Player can not stay too long in a sector due to that the Player may only move in a forward direction. The Player can not move backwards from current location.

Once the Player draws a enemy card combat ensues. Combat is turnbased.

A D20 must be rolled too see who initiates the attack. The one of the Player and the Game Master who gets the higher digit starts the round.

When the round starts the initiating ship picks which equipped weapon they want to use to attack with. Two weapons of the same type can be attached to the ship at the same time.

A D20 will be rolled at the start of every round as a Dodge roll to see if the attacker hits or misses the target. If the number exceeds the Dodge roll value, the attacking ship hits, if not it misses.

Lazer attacks do the damage mentioned in its respective card minus the shield value of the targeted ship.

Cannons do the damage mentioned in its respective card, ignores the shield value and removes one cannonball from the inventory.

When HP reaches zero, the targeted ship is destroyed. If the Player is destroyed the game is lost and the Player has to start over from the beginning of the game.

When the final boss is defeated, the Player wins.

Set sail and go forth, become a legend among The Pirates Of The Saharabbean!

This is the gameboard that I made

After that I ended up in another group and we were to make another game concept based on what a randomize story generator gave us.

The concept became a survival horror stealth game about a 40 year old woman seeking answers about her husband that got lost at sea. Set in the 19th century harbor town.

And lastly the current group project where we are to come up with a concept for a space shooter. Space in this means that the game do not have any gravity. Also we got key words this time as well, desert and noir.