Norwich game festival talk

 

Board Game Reflection

“In this reflection I will be very critical of myself and my team looking deeper behind what succeeded or not within the development”.

 

(Overview of our ideas and game)

Me, Ethan and Harrison create a Star Wars board game using other games as references and building upon them. First thing was to look at other Star Wars board games out there, in which there was many, and expand upon them taking some mechanics, character ideas ect which would be useful in our potential game. Then after looking at other Star Wars board games, we also looked at general popular board games like monopoly, although we moved away from this later, and catan. Our first concept of the game featured an open board like in our final game, but we didn’t get far with idea thinking it was too complex to do in the time given. Our second concept of the game featured a board and a few mechanics from monopoly such as, Jail (But done slightly differently with the amount of time in there), the dice rolling for movement (Very generalised many games have this) and chance/community chest cards (Done in our own way more focusing on Star Wars). Below are some images of the first edition of are game, as you can see cards are very simple in design and complexity, the board itself is also the exact same but with a small twist with paths going across the board being able to go backwards and forwards through them.

After much consideration for advice and feedback given to us, we decided last minute to change our idea and go for a different concept for the game although it would mean we were on the clock. The new idea was us adding upon our original idea of an open board and what I done was add mechanics from other games such as rolling some dice to move, getting a double on your dice roll means you can jump into hyperspace, picking up cards and trading with one another. I was able to manage getting the idea and board together in one night sending over what pieces I needed making for my teammates to make whilst I get on the with core mechanics and making the game playable for testing. The result was quite good considering how we were rushing and almost out of time to get it in ect, there was just a few factors holding us back, but we got through them which led to our final rendition of our game. Below are some images of the final game.

As you can see much more thought went into the design as well as the mechanics, we made tokens, character cards, credits and much more creating all of these within the last day and a half. Ethan and Harrison really pulled through at the end to create what they created although many things could have been better.

 

(What I believe to have gone well and what didn’t)

Personally, I believe that the development of the game and the teamwork dynamic went well overall leading to the result. Throughout the development of the game, we changed so many ideas and tossed so many things out the window whilst adding so many more until we eventually got the first edition of the game, but that was short lived as the game has a drastic update changing the idea once again, but all this really helped our team buckle down and get it finished. The main idea around the game and most of everything else was done by me and so was all the changes such as the final drastic change. The reason the team dynamic went well was because after the weekend of being in the team I realised that neither of the other two are big speakers or people that throw ideas around meaning that I had to take control. What I mean by that is that I told them what I needed them doing such as card designs ect and this really helped as they got on with it very well the card designs came out amazing and overall, the game looked visually good.

What I thought didn’t go well was communication within our team and overall idea advancement, what I mean by that is when I presented an idea there was no questioning it or possible improvements said which meant I had to just go with the idea I had and take it as it was. When it comes to our team communication there was barely any talking about our idea much and when it came down to presenting our idea in class, I was the only one to speak about it and explain what it was. Even with my ideas they basically just agreed with everything I said, and all my additions were good when me personally know I could have done better with a lot of them. I’m not going to lie I’m socially inept, but I had to pull through and things got better from there on out, I’m not saying this to poop on my team with malicious intent. The reason I’m being critical is for all our sakes so that we can improve and become better learning how we truly work together as id hope they are also being very critical of me in a non-malicious way. As for idea advancement, I believe there was no point where ideas got questioned or improved upon with feedback from my team. As the somewhat leader of the group, I put out 95% of the ideas and mainly only got positive criticism from my peers overviewing the development which meant that I was limited on my ideas not having enough improvement to them. I just feel like this could be a big reason for why the game didn’t reach its full potential.

 

(How the idea of the game progress throughout development)

This could be said with 3 stages of the development, Stage 1 first ideas, Stage 2 revamp based on already popular games and Stage 3 the final idea going full circle.

Stage 1: The 3 of us tossed around ideas me being the main contributor, with these ideas we decided to create a base idea which included an open board and 4 star wars factions battling each other in space. This idea was them not improved upon or added to for the following 2-3 days and communication in the team was nothing. With the no communication and nothing had been done it was looking like we wouldn’t have a game to present or even show off to other people within our class. Our base idea was simple with a board like catan and 4 playing pieces.

Stage 2: On the Monday morning following this I got to work creating a board game based on monopoly and Only fools and horses’ game, and with this we had something to show for our time. At around this point I realised my team needed someone to take charge in which I stepped up and got to work assigning roles so that we all had something we could be doing. With all we presented it to our peers and had a test game which let to many problems being found and a lack of enjoyment in the game. We gained critical feedback on the game which led to that idea being scaped and putting us against the clock. This to add was my fault so I tried to limit my teams work and put it on myself as I called the shots to do the change. The things they were working on was kept in the game but had only a few tweaks needing. We basically scrapped our first thoughts added generic pieces and a board like monopoly with an extra pathway or two then created 3 different types of cards to be used throughout the game.

Stage 3: With 2 days remaining to create a playable build of the game I worked nonstop at it and created the additional bits we needed and a new game board whilst finally getting communication from the team. What we did was scrap the monopoly like board at go back to the open board layout like catan but not at same time, we kept the 3 different cards and added a bunch more mechanics into the game. These mechanics include character tokens, character cards, abilities, shop system, credits, locations and roll a double to hyperspace. With these changes made we were ready for our rule book to be made and a test run which although had problems went well for an idea that I came up with in 30 mins.

Overall change in the game throughout development:  The idea started out as an open board with some character pieces in which this was barely anything to go off and after this small thought was said the communications stopped as no one bothered to say anything new. This led to a drastic change first of two in which the first thought was scraped and I decided to take control of the team and start to get references to go off such as the monopoly board. Using the monopoly board, I added a few more pathways and added our own cards which gave us a working game in which after play testing we realised the game wasn’t going to work out which led too our final drastic change which was another rework of the game 2 days before hand in. In these two days the game once again changed, but back to the original idea with many upon many additions to the idea now with the team communicating somewhat and working as a proper team. In this final rendition we had an open board, 4 different characters, a theme, character cards and other new mechanics, locations on map and an objective.

 

(Overview of my team)

As previously mentioned, a few times the team started off shaky as there was no communication and barely any connection within the team, but saying this I believe when we did start working together and we knew our roles we worked well together. Harrison and Ethan were non talkative people which meant that no communication made and with some failed attempts I finally got each of us a role and got us working. I believe that if I didn’t step up the team would have failed and that none of us could have made the game alone, it was our teamwork in the end which helped us so well. Overall, our team started off bad but gradually got better over time and with this we’ve came to know each other’s abilities or at least I have in which if I’m paired with them again ill know what to do to bring out the best in each of us.

 

(What would I have done differently)

From the get-go I would have thrown around more and more ideas and tried much harder to get my team to contribute from the get-go that way our game could have started off like the product but with more time to play test it. Another thing is that I would have probably also started off with getting to know fully each other’s strengths and abilities to gauge what we can do and where we would be most beneficial. These are the two things I would change as there isn’t anything else personally, I think the team done alright and worked together well so there no need to change anything about that and the game I also believe was good in my eyes I just wish we had the more time to refine it way more. If I was given another chance at this project after doing it once before I believe like I’ve stated above that I would first get to know what my teams’ strengths are and how we could work most optimally to create the best game, we could together in the best time possible.

 

(How I thought my game fit into the original criteria)

I believe that my game fit the original criteria for the board game as it is based off already built popular games and we were able to present the idea to the class as a stable game. We were able to break down our game and identify the strengths and weaknesses within it, also we met the main requirements such as components in the game (Tokens and cards ect.), player interaction and victory conditions, scoring, turn structure and game flow, randomness, and strategy elements.

 

(Things I would add if I was given more time)

If I was given more time on this project, I would have added a new phase in the game where its ai based and plays have very little influence over it, this is so that the game moves faster, more pieces are being used and new mechanics can be introduced. Also, I would add more locations around the map and more ways to travel to get to other people and other locations quick being able to complete bounties at a faster rate than before. Another thing I would change is the win condition of 7 million credits as that is too high, so my solution would be to bring that amount down to around 4.5 million and up bounty completion rate. Finally, I would change a mistake on the bounty cards and tool cards in which the tools shouldn’t cot more than the bounties give you and that there should be a limited price range for them and a certain amount you can earn from bounties so that your not getting paid little for a bounty.