PaARRide and PaARRejudice!

The game our development team, Jazz and Awol, created revolves around the story of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen but mixed in with pirates and is called, Pirates and Prejudice. We deliberated on how best to emulate the intertwining and sometimes hectic story of relationships and first impressions between the large caste of Pride and Prejudice. We eventually came to the conclusion that a card game most mimics these characteristics as a card game offers a great interaction between players as well as mimic some of the haphazard events that happen to some of the players (such as when Elizabeth suddenly receives a letter saying that her sister has the cold) with the shuffling of the cards.

We then had to decide how to include pirates into the mix. We then came up with the idea that we would reverse the perspectives, meaning that we would, instead, focus more on the men's side of the story where as the book more focused on the woman's side (mostly Elizabeth's) so that the players now took the role of suitors for the five Bennet daughters. We then analyzed the Bennet daughters and came up with what each of them were looking for in a marriage and it turned out wonderfully as each daughter's needs fell into three categories, love, wealth, and violence but were in different combinations for each. With our concept put together, we went to work creating the mechanics and assets of the game described below. The idea was to have a polished looking game so we opted to have the cards professionally printed with laminated surfaces much like those found on store-bought card games.

Game Pieces:
The game consists of two decks, a pride deck which contains 68 cards and a prejudice deck which contains 56 cards, as well as numerous tokens representing to amount you have accumulated of each category (love wealth, or violence).

• Pride cards - These cards mainly yield positive benefits for the player who draws them such as additional wealth or love. 

• Prejudice cards- These cards on the other hand provide a means to interfere with the progression of other players by allowing you to do a great number of things to them such as force them to lose tokens or allow you to steal tokens from another player. 

• Event cards - These cards revolve more closely around the happenings of the story and are special as they are neither Pride or Prejudice cards but are hidden within both decks. When an event card is drawn it is played immediately and the player who drew it must resolve it or face the consequences. 

• Tokens - These represent the three "resources" that a player can collect within the game and are simply a visual reminder of the amounts they have. 

Rules:

Setup:

1. Players pick which of the five Bennet girls they aim to court.
2. Players then decide who goes first.
3. All players start with ZERO love , wealth, and violence.

Gameplay:

1. The current player draws either a Pride card or a Prejudice card.
2. If the card the player draws is an Event card, it must be played immediately, unless otherwise specified, and that player is forced to resolved that card or face the consequences. 
3. If the card they draw is NOT an event card, that player has the choice of playing it immediately or to hold it in their hand. 
4. The player then has the choice of playing cards from their hand, trading, or ending their turn. 
5. Should they acquire "resources" from the playing of cards, that player takes tokens from the token pool and places them into their respective token piles representing Love, Wealth, and Violence.
6. After the player has finished playing their cards, their turn has ended and the player to the left goes next.
7. The game ends when a player achieves the required amount of love, wealth, and/or violence needed to woo their selected lady.

Additional Rules:

• Each player has three token piles representing Love, Wealth, and Violence.
• Played cards are placed into their respective discard piles.
• Pride cards in a player's hand can only be played on THEIR TURN. 
• Prejudice cards in a player's hand can be played at anytime. 
• Cards in a player's hand can be traded with other players BUT can only be traded with the player who is currently taking their turn. Example: Wally is currently taking his turn therefore the other players can only trade with him but Wally has the choice of trading with any of the other 4 players. 
• Should a deck run-out, simply reshuffle the discard pile of that deck, and place it face down on the spot of the run-out. 
• Each Daughter requires a different amount of resource(s) for you to court her.

The Ladies and Their Needs:

• Lydia requires 20 violence
• Elizabeth requires 20 Love
• Mary requires 20 wealth
• Catherine requires 10 violence & 10 wealth
• Jane requires 10 love & 10 wealth
• Lydia requires  20 violence

Territory Acquisition Game: Pirate WaARRs

"Raise the anchor!" you cry as the wind fills you sails and men dash to and fro on the deck of your great galleon! The Great Wall, separating East and West, stand before you. Beyond, lie the mysterious lands, filled with untold riches and ripe for the taking! The world belongs to those take it! So raise the colours and conquer what is rightfully yours!

You play a captain of a pirate ship bound for the mysterious lands beyond the wall with full intent on making them yours. But at the same time you must protect the lands you call home from those who intend to do the same. Solidify your reign in your own lands? Or rush to the bounty beyond the wall? The choice is yours.

Pieces:

• 1x Pirate WaARRs Board
• 16x Ships (8x Red, 8x Blue)
• 28x Island cover tiles
• 24x Treasure cards 
• 84x Island Cubes
• 1x D4 dice

Setup:

1. If there are 4 players, each team covers 14 of their own islands, in any formation they wish. At least 1 island must be covered on each row.
2. If there are 2 players, each player must cover 21 of their own islands, in any formation they wish. At least 1 island must be covered on each row.
3. Each island has 3 slices, each has one island cube on it with the green side facing up representing that it has yet to be conquered.

Gameplay:

1. Each player starts with 2 ships and places their ships on their respective docks (the brown spaces). Players located on the same side of the center “border” are on the same team.
2. Roll a D4 to determine who goes first.
3. That player then rolls a D4 to determine how many spaces they are allowed move in total. Example: If Alex has 3 ships and rolls a 3 he is able to move 1 ship 3 spaces or move all his ships 1 space.
4. That player can then move their ship to any adjacent blue spaces on the board.
5. Once movement has finished play continues clockwise.
6. When a player is placed adjacent to an island that player has the choice of conquering that “slice” of the island. Unless it is already conquered by another player, in that case see Combat.
7. When you have conquered a slice of an island turn the island cube so that your affiliated colour is on top.
8. The game is won when all the islands on the opposing side are completely owned by the players of the opposite side. Example: White wins when all the islands on the Red side are conquered by the Blue team.

Additional Rules:

• Each island is broken up into 3 “slices”. Each “slice” is worth 3 gold.
• Gold is the currency of the game and can be used to purchase additional ships as well as be used to bargain with other players for slices of island.
• Use paper to keep track of your gold.
• To pass to the adjacent blue spaces on the other side of the "wall" (signified by grey spaces) a player must pay 5 gold to pass.
• Each player can command a maximum of 4 ships total.
• Players must pay 20 gold to obtain an additional ship.
• New ships always start at their respective docks.
• No more than 8 ships per team.
• Treasure chests are scattered throughout the board, placing a ship over a treasure chest allows a player to draw a single card. 
• These cards have the ability to give gold to the holder, take gold from another player, forcibly take a slice of an island, allow a player to pass the border unchallenged, and to take over an entire island at once, wipe them clean of their previous owners, and destroy opponent’s ships, and destroy your own.
• These cards can be held in your hand and can be played at anytime unless specified.

Combat:

• Two players, an invader and a defender, combating each other for a slice of an island must roll a D6 and the player with the higher roll keeps their slice. In a tie defender always wins.
• If the invader loses then they are sent to one of the red spaces on the “border”, the opposing team’s choice of which space they are sent to.
• If the defender loses then they lose that slice of the island. 
• When a ship is destroyed it is taken out of play and must be repurchased back into play and counts as a new ship.

The game so far, from a design perspective, seems to be rather exciting as it makes the player to make numerous decisions during play which affect the out come of the game. I look forward to play testing it and hopefully it does not require too much tweaking.

I thought when we convened on Tuesday morning that the game would be complete and that all we needed to do was play it, I was wrong. We still needed create the cards that were obtained when a ship is placed on a treasure icon as well as put the title of the game on the board. "Lucky" me that I just so happened to bring some of my paints from home. Originally, I brought them to touch up some of the game pieces i painted last night (that took a long time) but since we needed to get the title on the board I volunteered my services. So I got to work painting the title, mere hours away from submission. Though there was one mishap in the painting of the title. I had accidentally wrote them words in reverse, meaning that instead of "pirate WaARRs" it read "WaARRs Pirate". It was a good thing I wrote out the title in pencil first before painting or I would have been in trouble. As for the cards we quickly came up with proper titles for them and places wrote instructions for each, we simply needed to print them out. Sadly, we have yet to do a proper play test of the game. But it should be alright, right? :(

Alpha-male!

The sun sets and darkness falls upon the forest. A family wanders through the trees searching for their way home. Beasts lurk in the dark, sniffing, hunting, the family's sent is caught! Howls rise up through the dark. The creatures dash through the trees homing on their prey. The family walks through a clearing, the beasts silently circle the area, the family is trapped. One of the beasts bears down on the father of the family, "wolves!" he cries. A gunshot cuts through the night, both fall to the ground lifeless.

You are a member of the pack, your leader, the former alpha-male, is dead and the family is defenseless. Now who will lead the charge? Who will get prime choice of the spoils? Will it be you? Compete against the other members of the pack by circling the track and collecting alpha-points. But be careful as just as there are spaces that give you points there are also ones that take them away.

The game is played as such: 

1. All players begin on the starting space.
2. Players role a D20 to determine the "alpha-level", the minimum number of "alpha-points" that each player must attain for the ends space to become open to them.
3. Each player then rolls a D6 to determine who goes first, highest role is first.
4. The players then roll a D6 and move that number of spaces clockwise, unless effected by "interference". See interference. 
5. All instructions on the space landed on must be carried out. 
6. The game is won when a player with the correct number of alpha-points lands on the end space. 

Interference

• Head-butting/Lunging: a player can pay 5 alpha-points to “push” either another player’s or one’s own piece to go one square farther than their movement roll indicates. 
• Tail Biting / Backtracking: A player can pay 5 alpha-points to “pull” either another player’s piece or your own which decreases the movement phase.
• These techniques must be called out after a player rolls for movement but before they reach their designated square. It must be spontaneous, no planning allowed.
• A player may only choose to play ONE of these moves at a time per turn ( this includes the other players as well). Example: Jimmy CANNOT lunge 3 times on his turn but he CAN lunge on his turn then tail bite on Gary's turn.
• There is no limit to the number of players who can use these moves at one time. Example: Gary rolls a 6 but before Gary can move 6 spaces Timmy calls tail bite, Cindy calls head-butt, and Jimmy calls tail bite (6-1+1-1=5). So now Gary moves 5 spaces. 

Additional Rules

• All players start the game with 0 alpha-points.
• Should a player land on the end square and does NOT have the required number of alpha-points then the end square does nothing and the player must continue around the track. 
• The players must land on the end space EXACTLY. If your movement role dictates that you pass over the end space then you must continue around the track.

The game was first played on September 18, 2012 by four players, Zee, Patrick, Basm, and myself. The beginning of the game was a little rocky as none of the other players had played the game before and I had to explain the rules. But things quickly picked up after that and I found that they enjoyed the fast pace of the game with alpha-point tokens flying from their piles, to the point pool, to other players's piles, and back again and vice versa. It was a beautiful chaos. I also found that they liked the competitive interaction between the players and were genuinely engaged in the game as they seemed to feel some sense of loss when forced to give up tokens and annoyance when tokens are stolen from them. The game proved to be a success, and the players looked forward to playing it again. 

Despite the general enjoyment of the game some issues came up during play. Such as the size of the spaces, I found that the spaces were not big enough to accommodate the size of the player markers, especially when more than one were on the same space. In addition to that, the instructions written on each space appeared "fuzzy" and were not easily read. I also found that the balance of the game was off as players were progressing too slowly. The amount at which players lost tokens, though lower than the rate at which they gained  tokens, was too close to the amount they gained slowing the progression to a crawl. Even a player who was able to attain 10 tokens, with a few bad moves, was left with a measly 2-3 tokens. Despite all these unfortunate revelations, there was one pleasant discovery. A player, Zee, suggested that the tokens be placed in the center of the board for easy access by all players. Even though I initially intended for the center to be a space depicting the "defenseless family" where, upon victory, the winning player would place their marker. But this proved to be a much better used for the space. 

To fix these issues I would need to employ the use of a bigger board so as to make enough room for the bigger spaced or to expand the spaces inward toward the center. The problem with the "fuzzy" printing can be easily fixed by either printing out the instructions via computer or simply using and ink pen as oppose to a marker, which would create much crisper lines. But as for the balancing issues, I think i would have to decrease the amount which players lose tokens and the amount they are forced to give away, probably by 2 tokens. 

Other than these problems the game was a rousing success. 

The Game I Played

http://www.gt-holding.de/sites/default/files/ligretto_packshot_0.gif

Recently I played a game called Ligretto, the object of the game was to get rid of all your cards before everyone else. The Game supports up to 12 players and takes a relatively short time to play; around 15 minutes.

The game itself is very simple and as a result uses very few rules. The rules that do exist are as follows:

1) Each player gets 40 cards, ten of each of the four colours (red, green, yellow, and blue).
2) Players shuffle their cards and place 10 of their cards facedown in front of them along with three cards           placed next to it face-up.
3) Now the game begins where players simultaneously discard cards into the middle of the table in accordance to their colour and rising numerical order.
4) The goal is to get rid of all your cards in the 10 cards "stack" you placed in front of you via the three cards you placed face up. It is these cards you discard into the middle.
5) Once on of these 3 cards is discarded it is replaced by the top card in your 10 card "stack"
6) First to discard all their cards from their "stack" wins!

*if you cannot discard any of the 3 cards in front of you then you may look at every third card from your hand and discard from there only until you are able to discard from your "stack" again.

I very much liked the simple system of rules and its lightning fast pace which kept the game exciting. Though i disliked how even though you were "competing" against other players there is little to no interaction between the players. I would have designed that aspect a little differently, implementing some sort of system that allowed a player to directly influence the other players cards such as the use if "special" cards that bestow certain powers to their owners. But then again, the implementation of such a system would effect the simplicity of the game as it would require additional rules and regulations.

Either way, the game was fun and I look forward to playing it again with a group of friends.

Animations of a Beautiful Game

You awaken on a plane heading for some unknown place when suddenly, turbulence, fire! The plane plunges into water, breaking apart as it does. You are dragged down under the surface, you struggled out of your seat and swim for the surface, avoiding debris as best you can. You break the surface of the water, gasping for much needed air only to find yourself in the middle of the ocean, pieces of the plane burning around you as they slowly sink into the dark abyss of the ocean.

In the distance, a moonlit tower can be seen, questions race through your mind: How? When? Why? But such thoughts were pushed to the back of your mind as the chill of the water began to take hold, you swim for it. Upon reaching the tower you find the architecture strangely modern but again you do not linger on such things as you are still soaking wet and the cold of the night air did not exactly help, You enter the strange tower, electric lights snap to life. 

A nearby staircase led down, deeper into the tower, you descend. Lights come to life before you as if leading you and follow not knowing where they will take you. You end up in a round room with some sort of submersible docked in the center of the room. Curious, you closer to the contraption, it is spherical in shape and seems to be made of brass. You enter it wondering what the interior looks like. The door slams shut behind you as the sub quickly descends into the deep. 

You begin the panic, quickly trying to figure out how to get the thing to go back up when a screen descends inside the sphere and a slideshow begins to play, along with some voice that spoke of freedom and hard work. Finally the show ended and the screen lifted to reveal...a city! And according the voice its name was Rapture! 

The scenes I just described was, of course, from the much acclaimed video game Bioshock.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/86/Bioshock_series.jpg

Although I will admit that it is not my most favourite game, this because I do not have a single favourite game but more of a series of favourite games. Despite this, the unique setting, amazing weapons, and a drop dead story that will blow your mind made this game one of the best games i have ever played in my life.

In terms of animation Bioshock displays quite a hefty number of animation components and concepts spread throughout the entire game ranging from the extraordinary to the mundane I am posting this in an effort to try and identify as many of them as possible.

The game is set in an underwater city called Rapture and due to civil strife has fallen into disrepair so of course there would be a myriad of of different water animations to be seen through out the game such as:

Water quickly flowing ( seen throughout  Bioshock Water)

Water flowing up against a wall (best seen at 0:39 where the water meets the wall in  Bioshock Water)

Water shooting out of cracks in walls ( best seen at 0:29 in  Bioshock Water)

Water flowing off of players face (seen at 0:29 in Bioshock Water)

                      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC7Q_ShAnwA&feature=related

Rough water surface (seen at 0:13 of BioShock Water Demonstration - HD)

Calm water surface ( seen at 0:19 of BioShock Water Demonstration - HD)

Water splashing onto water (seen at 0:26 of BioShock Water Demonstration - HD)

Distortion of buildings and other objects found outside the walls (seen at 0:33 of BioShock Water Demonstration - HD)

Water flowing down walls (seen at 0:41 of BioShock Water Demonstration - HD)

Water flowing down stairs (seen at 0:45 of BioShock Water Demonstration - HD)

Water drops and ripples (seen at 0:52 of BioShock Water Demonstration - HD)

Water falling (seen at 0:58 of BioShock Water Demonstration - HD)

                                   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-utU84zp-Q

Light reflecting off water's surface (not sure if this is more attributed to lighting or water either way its seen at 0:12 of Bioshock Water Animation Sequence)

                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysSO5H2Xe1c

Truly, the variety of water animations is astounding, the attention to detail shows the developers talents and devotion. But that is not all that requires detail, the weapons do too so as to make sure that each weapon "feels" right when swung, fired, or thrown. All to create that satisfaction of crushing all that stand in your way. Though due to the sheer magnitude of the number of weapons and abilities available within the game I will not go over every single unique animation used by each and every weapon and ability but instead I will use a general set of animations that cover all the weapons and/or abilities.

Weapon Displayed on screen 

Weapon Fired 

Weapon reloaded

Abilities Fired

Abilities Reloaded

*all animations mentioned seen throughout video

                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijSpGpZ8ZFo

Now that I have covered what you shoot with, now its time to cover what you shoot at. Again, because there are numerous different enemies who use numerous different weapons I will be using general terms to describe various animations used my most if not all enemies in the game.

Enemy walking (seen at 2:27 of first video)

Enemy running (deen at 5:33 of first video)

Enemy attacking (seen at 2:13 of second video)

Enemy being damaged (seen at 2:13 of second video)

Enemy dying (seen at 2:15 of second video)

                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEzT4_8atCg

                                 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhaXMFvVsfg

As one can see there a many, many animations for just about everything within the game and as such i am unable to cover all of them so if you have viewed all these videos and are still thirsty for more Bioshock by all means feel free to purchase the game yourself and experience the grandeur that is Bioshock first hand.

A new beginning

I came to this place in hopes that it is more hospitable than the last place.