The FInal Week

The final product of our board game is almost due, so this week the group worked on finishing toches and just fixing the little problems in order to make the game run smoother.  We play tested with our other classmates and found their suggestions to be very helpful.  We got advice on how to change some of the action cards and after making these changes the game ran a lot smoother. Our group also found Professor Parks idea of creating a certain amount of peeks each unit needs, to be extremely helpful. The game had finished way too fast the first time we played it, so each unit needing peeks definitely slowed the game down. The group also worked on perfecting the directions and the reference card. They both needed some changes due to the new rules we created. Another change we made was making money left over at the end of the game be counted as victory points. Many of our peers requested that this change be made and when my group thought about this proposal, it made perfect sense to us as well. The group did have some trouble agreeing on how to fairly convert the money into victory points, but after a long discussion we came to an agreement.

The group also faced some minor difficulties with getting the game all ready to be submitted.  One issue we are still facing is how we are going to fit our large game board into a box.  We also faced some trouble when trying to get the cards printed double sided. Luckily we did solve this problem by cutting the cards out and gluing the backs on before lamenation. Overall, we worked really well together and I think the final game turned our great.

Blog Post 5

This week were in the final stages of creating and finalizing our game. In our last class we found a few problems and mistakes and rules that didn't necessarily work. Also we found a few cards that were very off balanced and could be described as the "god card". So we had  our work cut out for us. We got together as a group and finalized all the rules, we really did not have any problems agreeing on the rules, at this point we were so used to changing rules and trying to make it better. We had to finalize the card and that was our biggest problem. It became a lot more expensive then we originally thought. Also the back of the card design that we originally created did not center itself correctly. So we had to scrap that idea entirely and think of a new plan to go with as far the back of the card design.

After spending multiple hours in staples trying to figure how to work our the card printing  situation, we finally got them printed without a back. Taking the idea from "pokemon" with a uniform back design scheme, we printed out something that looked like an obstacle illusion to put on the back of the cards. We created a box, using a shoe box and made a rule book pamphlet that explains everything perfectly.

Game Post 4

During this week we were touching up the game and making some final tweeks in order to make the game flow better. While we were play testing we realized that the skill cards were too powerful and having 3 point cards was making it extremely easy to beat obstacles and no one was failing obstacles. If no one failed obstacles it would make it so none of the players would want to challenge the other players to their obstacle course. We then tried making only 1 and 2 point skill cards and that made the game go way too slow and no one was ever able to beat any of the obstacle courses. Our problem was finding the happy medium we needed to create an enjoyable game that had equal skill and obstacle cards. We also looked up designs for making a back to the cards because we did not previously have one. We talked through many different ideas, but finally agreed on an eyeball. The group also began working on the rule book and making sure everything was clear and would be understood by all the players reading it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Later in the week two of the group members met up in order to work out some glitches. They went through and changed some of the cards that proved to be too powerful while playing the game. They also worked on the grammar on the cards to make sure it was clear what the players got from picking that card. The other two members of the group got together to fix up the graphics on the cards. These two members also began coloring the graphics and cleaning them up. They also discussed what would be the best way to print the cards.

Later the group also got more play testers to give us their feedback and see if the many little changes we made over the week helped the flow of the game. From the feedback of the play testers, as a group we decided to make a few more changes. First we added four more obstacles and then we began thinking of ways to make the skill cards look better. Going into the last week of the game our group still has a lot of work to be done, but with a lot of time and hard work I think our group is on the path to a great game.

Week 3 Blog Post

In the last class the group had a dispute about the mechanics of the cards whether to make the obstacle cards multipurpose by putting stat points on them and completely dropping skill cards, or stick with the original idea and have both obstacle and skill cards separate. In the end we decided to keep the skill cards because of the possibility of the players to be overwhelmed  with to much to follow on a card. With the dispute resolved we managed to progress through the mechanics a bit more by deciding to split the cards into three different decks one for skill, another for Obstacles, and a third one with higher costing obstacles and better skill cards that players could draw from later in the game.

Although we were suppose to meet later during the week, we ended up cancelling due to two out of four members ended up with some last minute events came up. But the obstruction didn't stop there, the files that had the card designs and layout were corrupted and couldn't be recovered. But luckily most of the images were already cropped saved so remaking the card templates was much easier.

Later in the week although we all couldn't meet together, we were able to find a group of play testers to play our game. From observing the play test, we found out that players tend to lean towards the skill deck when drawing preparing for a challenge rather than focusing on their own obstacles. Also the players found that the advance deck wasn't as necessary as we originally thought as it just made players draw from that pile when they hit the requirement ignoring the original obstacle pile entirely. On the second play test we got rid of the advance deck and merged it with the decks. The game flow gradually grew faster but even then the the players still leaned towards drawing skill cards. Although the game flow grew faster compared to the first game the flow of the game was slowing down in late game. Because of the gradual speed decline the most points people were able to score was 2-3 points. So with this play test we learned we have to speed up our game flow, rework some of the card effects to balance the game, and try to divert the attention away from skill cards.

Second Blog Post

In our last class the objective was to find a main staple that will make our card game function. We had previously agreed upon adopting the idea of a card game based on an obstacle course. After many different inputs from all group members, we had a lot of difficulty how to make the game work without any major problems that could be seen off the bat. Originally the idea was to make it a deck building game with one currency in order to build your deck stronger and stronger and compete with other players also trying to build their deck, but because of our groups lack of overall experience and understanding with deck building games we had no choice but to throw away this original idea.

Later in the week we met up outside of class and decided to try and reevaluate our game concept. We had a ot of great ideas bouncing off of each other, and almost abandoned the idea of using skills cards. Instead of using different types of currencies to buy better and stronger obstacles and skill cards we would use the cards in our hand as currency, so when you wanted to play a obstacle, you can discard cards in your hand (whether they are skill cards or obstacles) equal to the number on the obstacle. We decided to give players a few options of play on their turn. At the beginning of a players turn they can draw a card whether it be obstacle or skill (there will be two separate piles to pick from at all times). Then their option is to either to build an obstacle to stack on to their chain, challenge another person obstacle course, or just draw another card and end turn. In order to beat a person obstacle you have to have the correct skill cards at your disposal to beat them.

At first we saw some problems with this. Players could never build an obstacle and therefore never be challenged by others. So we decided to make a rule that each player will start with an obstacle that cost nothing to play, and if a player has no obstacles when challenge they have no choice but to build  an obstacle on their next turn. Also we created a rule that I felt was an interesting aspect to this game, obviously as the game goes on a player is going to want to build stronger obstacles that they draw to their hand so a player can also sacrifice cards that are on the playing field to build stronger obstacles. This can be both good and bad because you make you course stronger but if you don't have as many obstacles then your course is easier to beat. Another rule we modified, is when a player is challenges another players obstacle and beat it they don't collect their actual obstacle card like originally planned. Instead they just collect a card from the discard pile and put it in their reward pile and the first player to collect 8-10 reward cards wins the game. Also we plan on adding an effect on the obstacle cards for when you beat or lose to an obstacle. These effects may vary from collecting card to discarding obstacles that are in play making you choose wisely what obstacle you choose to challenge and when. That is what we are dealing with right now.

Selecting a concept for a new card game

On September 12, the development of a brand new card game began.

Four Rutgers students in New Brunswick, NJ gathered in a tiny computer lab located in the basement of an old classroom building. Each student presented their own original idea for a new card game concept. These ideas were not for the standard 52 card deck - rather, these ideas were infinitesimally more original.

One of the students - Joseph Nguyen - was randomly selected to lead the brainstorm on that fateful Thursday. Each idea was carefully presented and discussed: a card game for car enthusiasts, a dating game, a fantasy football game, and an obstacle course game were all presented as potential ideas for the group's project.

In the end, the leader (Joseph) determined it would be best to bring the obstacle course game to fruition. Everyone accepted the decision gracefully, and became eager to further develop the idea.

I was one of the four students sitting at the table. The obstacle course game concept happened to be my idea. In short, my vision for the card game is that it will involve players creating obstacle courses in a far-away, magical land. Players will also be collecting skill cards, in order to successfully complete other obstacle courses. While this brief description may make it sound complicated, everyone involved agreed that the game should be simple enough for anyone to easily start playing.

Stay tuned next week for another update on the development of this revolutionary card game.