Post Mortem

I uploaded my game to Game Crafter on May 3rd. Here is a link to my game.
http://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/villagers-of-the-newland

1. I redesign the paper house and building ruin and polished their texture with Jim Doughty.
2. I changed the knowledge cards to 8mm colored cubes, because cubes look more like cargo and the family of the exploration doesn't need to count cards any more.
3. I polished the final rule set, added textured paper for player to make origami sail boat.
4. I made card back and front for storm cards and family card.
   
5. I also made cover art.

What I really like about my game

1. I definitely nailed the my challenge card, "Bureaucracy". I built my core game mechanic around "Bureaucracy" by giving each player a unique ability so that they are each responsible for a specific task in order for the mission to succeed.
2. I love the origami parts of my game. At first, I only have the origami boat, because I was trying to build in the "Breath" aspect to my game by giving players a chance to blow over boats. After the playtest all the players seem to like the origami boat a lot so I added the origami house and building ruin into my game later.
   

What I would do differently

If I could do this again, I would try to build a better social value into my game. The game I have built is more like a fun game rather than a inspiring experience. The only value in my game is to teach player the upside and downside of the bureaucracy by experiencing it.

I would put more focus on my value card "Access to knowledge". Maybe I would build a game which players are the representatives of a nation in the United Nations General Assembly. At the meeting they will discuss the education development found for the third-world countries, but every player also has their secret ambition...

Overall, I like this Board Game Design class and the grow-a-game a lot. I wish the class had met every week. I wish at the beginning of the semester we had played more board games and we would use the grow-a-game card to brainstorm rapid game ideas.

At last, thanks Drew, Chris, Adam and Christian for this wonderful semester!

Villagers of the Newland Rule Set 2.0

Villagers of the Newland

Age: 10+

Players: 4

Play time: 30 ~ 45 minutes

Estimated Price: 28.99

Game Rules

Object

To become the winner of Villagers of the Newland, you need to get the most points among all 4 players after 4 round.

Background story

Players are the biggest four family in Newland. Player can name their family at the beginning of the game or just use their last names.

The modern civilization has ended hundreds years ago. Newland is only known place that still have resident. No one in Newland knows why and how the world ended. Only the four biggest families have secretly gathered some pieces of the modern technology, but there is too little of them to study.

Until one day, some villager found a ruin of the modern city on an island half day away from the Newland.

The four families raised money and formed a fleet to bring back the technology from the island. They works efficiently together, each family takes a unique task of this project.

However, each family also has their secret ambition which is to become the most powerful family after this project…

Scoring System

There are four kinds of knowledge in this game. They are Math, physics, chemistry and biology.

Each piece of knowledge worth one point, but if one player has 20 of one kind, every piece worth 2 points.

Set up

1. Players draw the one family card, 10 knowledge cards and one special ability card.

2. Show the family card and keep the rest in secret.

Turns

1. The family of the Craft goes first. The player chooses 5 ships out of 3 big ships and 3 small ships to join the fleet.The small ship returns in half a day, but only carries one cargo at a time.The big ship returns in one day, it has to spend a night over the sea, but it can carries four cargos in one kind.
2. After the family of the Craft selected the ships the Family of the Sea sailed them to the island.
3. The Family of Exploration gets on the island and draws 20 knowledge cards from the pile. Then they can pick out the cards that they want to bring back to the village and give them to the Family of the Sea.
4. The Family of the Sea put all the cards on to the ships. Remember the big ship only carry one kinds of cargo. The small ship back to the village immediately, the big ships spend one night on the sea.
5. The night comes. Every player closes their eyes, except the player has been possessed by the god of storm. That player can open their eyes and choose to knock down any ship on the table or stay silence.
6. The morning comes. All the remaining ships return. Players can vote to pick out the criminal. The one who got three votes have to show their secret ability cards. If he is the criminal, he doesn’t have the chance to share the knowledge this round. Players redraw the special ability card. If he is not the criminal or none of the player got three votes, game goes on to the next step.
7. All the cards go to the Family of the Order. The player openly separates the cards into 4 piles. Then the pick those pile in the order on their family cards, which is: Family of the Craft, Family of the Sea, Family of the Exploration and Family of the order.
8. Next round…

Reversion 2.0

Reversion 2.0

1. Vote system

• After all the remaining ships return to the village next morning, players vote out the criminal.
• The player who got three votes has to show their special ability card.
• If he is the criminal, he doesn’t have the chance to share the knowledge this round. Players redraw the special ability card.
• If he is not the criminal or none of the player got three votes, game automatically goes to the next step.

2. Family of the Trade

• Change Family of the Trade’s to Family of the Craft. They can pick 5 ships out of 4 big ships and 4 small ships to join the fleet at the beginning of every round.

3. Oder to pick

• Every round after the Family of the Order put all the knowledge cards in to piles, player pick the pile in the order written on their Family Cards, which is: Family of the Craft, Family of the Sea, Family of the Exploration and Family of the order.

4.Initial Knowledge Cards

• Instead of draw one card with 10 pieces of knowledge in one kind, players randomly draw 10 knowledge cards.

Playtest 2.0

Play test 2.0

When: March 30th

Where: ETC, 5^nd Floor Conference room

Who: Nicholas Fortugno, Drew Davidson, Adam Lederer, Christian Tsu-Raun

Observation:

3 of the players have ready played the game. Nick read my rule set and caught up very quick, so I don’t need to explain the whole background story and rule set again.

We didn’t spend too many times on playing. After a quick run through of the first round, Nick thought he already got the idea and start to give me feedback.

Feedback:

Nick:

The game definitely nailed the word “Bureaucracy”. The “each player control one part of the process” mechanic is very interesting.

The whole “vote out the possessed player” thing is weird. It’s too complicated to decide how to take over the voted-out player’s duty. Player can also use this feature to trap the leading player.

The family of Trade has too much information.

The Family of Law is very well designed. His ability is very unique and interesting.

Take out the trading system from the game. Players will just focus on trading and ignore the other strategies in the game.

The trader’s ability is to pick the pile first every time. The Family of the Sea picks next, then the Family of exploration, at last the Family of Law.

References:

Junta

Citadels

Lord of the ring

Playtest 1.0

Playtest 1.0

When: March 23th

Where: ETC, 2^nd Floor Conference room

Who: Adam Lederer, Christian Tsu-Raun, Drew Davidson, Guest

Observation:

• Players love the origami boat!
• Players like the simple representation of the knowledge.
• Players now sure what they need to do, since this is their first time to play the game, and every player’s role is different.
• Players figured out the depth of the game by themselves after one round of playing.
• Players think the Family of Trade is very powerful.

Feedback:

Adam: The initial Knowledge cards player start with should looks different from the knowledge card. So Player won’t mix them together.

Drew: The blow mechanic is cool but player will know which side is the blower by the wrecked ship. Use “blow” as a metaphor instead of a mechanic.

It’s taking too long to play one round of the game.

Guest: The family of trade should have 15 random knowledge cards instead of 10 cards in one kind.

Villagers of the Newland Rule Set 1.0

Age: 10+

Players: 4

Play time: 30 ~ 45 minutes

Estimated Price: 28.99

Game Rules

Object

To become the winner of Villagers of the Newland, you need to get the most points among all 4 players after 4 turns.

Background story

Players are the biggest four family in Newland. Player can name their family at the beginning of the game or just use their last names.

The modern civilization has ended hundreds years ago. Newland is only known place that still have resident. No one in Newland knows why and how the world ended. Only the four biggest families have secretly gathered some pieces of the modern technology, but there is too little of them to study.

Until one day, some villager found a ruin of the modern city on an island half day away from the Newland.

The four families raised money and formed a fleet to bring back the technology from the island. They works efficiently together, each family takes a unique task of this project.

However, each family also has their secret ambition which is to become the most powerful family after this project…

Scoring System

There are four kinds of knowledge in this game. They are Math, physics, chemistry and biology.

Each piece of knowledge worth one point, but if one player has 20 of one kind, every piece worth 2 points.

Set up

1. Players draw the one family card, 15 knowledge cards and one special ability card.

2. 2. Show the family card and keep the rest in secret.

3. 3. All three family (except the family controls the market) got 10 knowledge cards in one kind and 5 knowledge cards in one kind.

4. 4. The family controls the market randomly draw 15 cards from the pile.

Turns

1. The family of the sea goes first. The player chooses 5 ships out of 3 big ships and 3 small ships to join the fleet.The small ship returns in half a day, but only carries one cargo at a time. The big ship returns in one day, it has to spend a night over the sea, but it can carries four cargos in one kind.
2. After the family of the sea selected the ships and sailed them to the island, the family of exploration get on the island and draw 20 knowledge cards from the pile. Then they can pick out the cards that they want to bring back to the village and give them to the captain (family of the sea).
3. The captain can sent all the small ship back immediately then put the big ship in formation on the center of the desk where every player can reach.
4. The night comes. Every player closes their eyes, except the player has been possessed by the god of storm. That player can open their eyes and choose to knock down any ship on the table or stay silence.
5. The morning comes. All the remaining ships return. Players can choose to pick out the criminal by pointing at someone at the same time. The one who got three votes have to show their secret ability cards and stay in the hospital in the next round no matter if he/she is the criminal or not. The rest three players shuffle the secret ability cards and draw them again. In the next turn, players will take the responsibility of that absent player together. If they can’t reach on an agreement, they fail this turn.
6. Every player opens their eyes and unloads all the cards they get to the family of the order. The player openly separates the cards into 4 piles. Then the player take turns to pick from the pile. The player pick first this turn will pick last next turn.
7. The family of the market, can trade with the other players. The players write their desire on a paper and pass to the merchant. The merchant write what they want in return than pass back to the player. If the player agrees, they trade.
8. Next round…

Social value in board game journal #3

I checked out Brenda Brathwaite's board game Train and the gamecrafter in the past two week.

I was supervised how well the "value" has been built into the Train game. Players don't realize how inhumanly they had treated the "passenger" until they flip the final card.

This inspired me to indirectly guide the player to experience the "challenge". For example, in my situational, players have to work in a bureaucratic way to win the game. In this way players will realize the good and bad side of the bureaucracy. Later in the game, they might be given chances to adjust their work flow so that they can win the game faster.

Here is a rough thought on the game background and mechanic.

Background: A apocalypse world. Civilization has been destroyed by war hundreds years ago. Players are in the same tribe. The tribe recently found a city, laid in ruins.

Goal: Find out the ancient knowledge buried in the city and bring the tribe back to civilization.

Mechanic: Player will be divided into 4 roles, Seeker, Transporter, Analyzer and the Chief. They work and communicate in a linear flow.

Every role, except the seeker, can give their junior tasks by cards.

Every round, the player do their job than pass their work to their superior.

Things I haven't work out yet:

1. My value "Access to knowledge" is a very vague idea. If the goal of my game is to gather knowledge. How could I represent the knowledge? How could I classify them?

2. I haven't built "breathe" into my game yet.

3. I want my game to be mean full but also simple and fun...