Games Studies - Final Compilation

23.9.2024 - 17.1.2024  / week 1 - week 17

Velicia Raquel Dewi Setiawan | 0369188 | Bachelor of Design (Honours) in Creative Media

Games Studies

JUMPLINK:

1. Lecture
2. Instruction
3. Final Compilation
• Exercises 
• Project 1: Propose a tabletop game design 
• Project 2: Tabletop gameplay information and data
• Final Project: Tabletop game & E-portfolio
4. Reflection

1. LECTURE

Week 1 - F2F (24 Sep, 2024)

1. Mr is still on Vacation

2. INSTRUCTION

3. Final Compilation

1. Exercises 

In the first exercise, we need to talk about our favorite game and why it’s highly playable and impactful for us. I chose the game Sky: Children of the Light. For the second exercise, we’re allowed to choose any developer and give a review on them. I chose the game developer of Sky: Children of the Light, thatgamecompany.

Exercise 1: My favorite video game & what makes this game highly playable & impactful

Fig 1.1 Exercise 1 Video

Exercise 2: Review an Established Game Developer/Game Designer

Fig 1.2 Exercise 2 Video

2. Project 1: Propose a tabletop game design

For this project, we needed to create a physical card game inspired by other games or taking the mechanics of other games and expanding them. Then, we make a proposal presentation of the game concept and framework.

Fig 1.3 Project 1: Proposal - Slides 

Fig 1.4 Project 1: Proposal - Video Presentation

3. Project 2: Tabletop gameplay information and data

In this project, we need to playtest our game to see if there are any problems with it, any imbalances in the game rules. After each game we played, we changed it up a bit every time to see what could be fixed. The documented data is in the Group Portfolio Website. 

Fig 1.5 Playtest Conclusion Discussion

Fig 1.6 Playtest Gameplay

 I did take a couple of notes during the playtest back then.

• For the first few games, it took us a while to understand the rules and we ended up learning as we played along.
• We changed the ratio of the cards (crew and aliens) for the aliens too, from 2 to 3 cards per alien.
• We also changed the value the aliens can have to 2, 3, 4, 5, while the crew only have 1, 2, 3. This was to give the aliens a better chance because, in the early playtests, the crew kept winning.
• We were struggling to keep track of the supply as it kept going up and down.
• The fun mostly came from players engaging with the mechanics of the game. In one of the games, one player gave the chance to let another player who wasn’t chosen contribute supply, even though the total supply was currently low. That chosen player ended up being a traitor and won the game for the aliens.
• As we kept playing (6 players), we found strats. One of them was that if a player was chosen 3 times and all of the revealed cards during those rounds were all crew, then that person was confirmed crew because the aliens only have 2 crew cards.
• The aliens' role and crew have a balanced amount of wins. It was honestly very fun to play. It’s fast-paced, so it’s not boring, and the gameplay is different every time because of the randomness of the d12 scenes.

Albeit it's not perfect or documented in detail, and I didn’t know that there’s a table format for it, but this was the changes and experience that I took note of during it.

Fig 1.7 Playtest Data

4. Final Project: Tabletop game & E-portfolio 

In this project, we do the final presentation of the card game with the final card prototype, along with the game rules and framework. The documented data is in the Group Portfolio Website. In this part, I’m also in charge of the slides and the final design for the game guide. The group also hasn’t done their part of the video yet, so I did mine first. It'll be updated when done.

Youtube Link

Fig 1.8 Final Video

Fig 1.9 Final PPT

Fig 1.10 Game Guide

4. Reflection

1. Experience

This module was quite fun to do despite the challenges. I didn’t think there would be a module where we’d make our own game, but it really helped me understand more about the process of creating one. From brainstorming ideas to figuring out game mechanics and keeping it balanced, it was a lot of work but also rewarding. Even though we were inspired by online games, some mechanics were hard to interpret in a physical card game, which added to the challenge. Playtesting was especially fun since it showed how fast-paced and different each game could be every time.

2. Observation

We spent a lot of time brainstorming and playtesting to ensure the game mechanics made sense and didn’t make the game too long or complicated. However, I wish we had been more organized and had more time to fully flesh out the ideas for what the game could’ve been. Everyone was juggling exams, papers, or other final projects at the same time, which made it harder to focus consistently on this project.

3. Findings

The playtesting helped identify imbalances and allowed us to make changes to optimize the game. Despite the lack of time and organization, the game was still really fun to play. It’s no excuse for not being better prepared, but I’ve learned how important time management is when balancing multiple modules. I promise to do my best to manage my modules better next time.