Board game analysis Level 4 games dev

Board game research:

Board Game: Catan

 

About game:

This game has a long set-up compared to many others; this long set-up time could deter players from wanting to continue (Mainly for new beginners).

The rule book was simple to read making the game more enjoyable as you can play whilst learning the rules.

There’s many mechanics to pick up on but all relatively easy to learn such as Building placements, trading, resources and collecting.

The game is fun to play with friends.

Unlike video games you can’t report anyone.

In this game you can team up to target one player.

The game has many expansions pack you can explore and try out which allows for diversity in gameplay potentially altering your strategies that you may have.

 

Board Game: Sonar

 

About game:

The rules are simple, and your turn is easy to navigate.

Moves are simple and the mechanics are fun to use such as being able to hide your movements, reveal parts of their location and having a hidden starting place in which your movements determine if your opponent can narrow down where you are. 

Great team building game as you must work together to find the other player’s ship.

The game can be seen as boring if you’re not into strategy games as this game relies on it.

The game has multiple maps you can go on and explore.

Something I find fun about the game is that you can also use the fact you’re in the same room to mess with their head whilst playing making them rethink their decisions.

This game really depends on your skills in teamwork where you and your teammate will have to combine strategies to win as you both might have differing strategies to begin with.

This game also has very simple game boards and rules that you always know what you are doing and what you can do on your turn.

 

Board Game: Monopoly

 

About game:

The game is simple, and the instructions are straight forward.

The game can get people very competitive and rage quite a bit.

Its good fun playing with friends as you can laugh joke about many things and add home rules.

An issue is it can bring out the worst in people so be cautious.

Monopoly is a very memorable game in which 99% of people have probably heard/played it.

This game has very simple mechanics involved such as rolling the dice and buying properties, but there are some additions such as trading, paying rent, collecting certain cards and jail. These mechanics make the game fun and enjoyable to play with friends or family.

 

 

Overall:

It seems the key to a good board game is based on the type of board game you are trying to make as there are different things that make a quiz board game good than what makes a civilization board game good. Based on the type of game you want to make the criteria for the game to be good changes, but one thing that all types need to be good is to be memorable in a good way. Having a game where if people are board its one of the first games they think off is amazing as its always in their mind people want the game as they will always be thinking about it when deciding what games they want to play, for me I know that whenever we are deciding on games one of the first games we can think off is monopoly not because it’s a great game as its not the greatest but it’s a game you just remember and instantly think of when thinking of board game 90% of the time.

Summary Questions:

1. Board games I have researched/played?

2. What have I learnt from them? (Mechanics; cards, dice, movement, general gameplay)

3. What interactions you enjoyed, why?

4. What interactions you didn't enjoy, why?

5. How would I improve it?

5. What mechanics you would like to use?

The board games I have researched are Catan, Sonar, Monopoly and the Catan expansion pack. What I have learnt from these games is that they lay out your turn in a simple way so that players no matter how new they are to the game can learn how to play quickly whilst playing the game. Other things I have learnt from all these games is that to make a good game you want to start out making something that is memorable that people subconsciously think of it when deciding what games they want to play, also I've learnt that you also need to make the game constantly interesting to not allow people to get bored so easily such as adding mechanics in that continuously alter the gameplay allowing for different possibilities each game you play. Some mechanics are simpler than others but not necessarily worst than others for example if you roll a double you get to roll again (Monopoly) isn't as advanced as say collecting resources to build things but they both add to the game in different ways in which I'm saying that your game doesn't have to contain only advanced mechanics to make it interesting you want to combine basic and advanced mechanics to create a game that's simple yet enjoyable to play. Another important thing I've learnt from playing board games is who can realistically play the game is it for 7+ or can children younger play the game, what you want to do is find what age your making your game for tailor it to them specific people as for 7 year olds you would add in things like complicated math problems etc and if you created your game for adults then you might not want to add questions or mechanics which are too simple for them such as asking them what 7+7 is or move around board by rolling dice make it to the end with nothing else which could affect them. In the games there has been a few interactions that I've enjoyed such as the trading in Catan as being able to gain resources from others is very useful when different people need different materials than what they are at currently. Another interaction which I've very much enjoyed when playing these games is from Catan which is how the dice rolling works as its not to move any pieces like it traditionally is, instead its used to determine what resources are handed out, whom they are handed out to and how many are handed out to each person. The reason I like this one so much is that the dice roll can change the fate of the game such as if you have no materials within a few turns you could have 7+ materials just from everyone rolling which allows for players to come back from nothing. With interactions I like I also have interactions in which I dislike such as the mechanic of buying properties owning the board as once you are behind its almost impossible to build yourself back up again, as this just takes what I find fun away from the game which is a potential underdog rising up possibly winning. The reason for my choice is that I'm someone who likes when games have ways to come back meaning when your down you don't instantly hate the game and want to quit before you've actually lost. I think the only game I would improve is monopoly by making sure there's other ways to build yourself up in the game making more possibilities to win. The mechanic I would add to improve the game would be something like random disasters where players could loose there buildings at random.