Games Development Research (Evans super cool work)

 



Analogue Game deconstruction:

 

Settlers of Catan

Game structure and mechanics:

Lay down houses and roads to collect resources.

Long long set up time when you don't know the rules, can be a little complicated to start learning.

A lot of the game is based around dice rolls, RNG dependent.

Person with the most “Victory points” wins the game.

You collect the resources to then create more houses and roads, getting houses, cities and development cards can give you a varying amount of victory points.

The game can become very one sided depending on what happens. One team can get put in a corner and have very unfortunate luck.

Apart from strategizing where you first place the pieces, there is little skill to the game which can be frustrating.

You can trade resources with other players however, which can be a work around in case you run into bad luck.

 

Solar (Battleship but cool)

Game structure and mechanics:

It’s simple, just being a more modern version of battleships expect you can move around, and the other team must try and find your ship and blow it up.

You must call out which direction you move, the people on the other team can use this information to figure out where you are.

You have 2 hits until you die, and every time you move you get a point.

The points can be used for different things, for example 2 points allows you to get the X/Y coordinate from your opponent on where their ship currently is. 3 allows you to move once without telling the other team which direction you moved. 4 points allows you to shoot a missile at the place you believe the other teams ship is.

Main issue with the mechanics of this game is that when you find the other players position, it’s almost impossible to escape unless you have 3 points ready for a move where they cannot find your position.

Game has a short start up as well, and its very skill based. Unless you start to randomly missile each tile and get lucky.

Monopoly (The devil’s game)

Game structure and mechanics:

The game is simple, you move around the board and buy different properties which each give varying amounts of money the further onto the board they are. You can upgrade the properties to give you more money when other people land on them.

The last one with money or the person with the most amount of money at the end, wins.

There are special things you can land on which do different things, for example the Chance square, which can either be very good or very bad.

There are squares which can make you go to jail, which you either pay money to get out of, or roll a double on the dice.

This game is also incredibly dependent on luck. You roll the dice to move which means there is no real skill apart from being lucky and smart with trading.

You can trade properties on your turn with other players, you can do this with money as well. For example, 400 for a dark blue property.

The game can be very infuriating because of the luck factor, you could be doing amazing and then get unlucky landing on 3 squares and then you’re out of the game.

 

 

Overall Evaluation:

I think the key to developing a good board game is having a good balance between RNG and skill-based gameplay. In a game like monopoly, there isn’t really much skill involved which can make it annoying. In a game like Sonar, every move matters and it is completely skill based, which can make it irritating if you mess up once. I’ve found out that people get angry at either one, since the best way to get around this issue could be to have a mix of both. Some elements of luck and some elements of skill, but a game which is neither dependent on just one nor the other.


Conclusive questions:


What interactions you enjoyed and why?

I enjoyed trading in two of the games, and i think trading works very well as a competitive swing on any type of game. For example catan and monopoly would still work fine without trading, but being able to trade different things with different players adds a very interesting twist to the game. In sonar as well, the interactions between you and your partner whilst playing are necessary, but also add alot of depth to the game, since you can both talk and plan out your moves well.


What interactions you didnt enjoy and why?

An interaction which was hard to enjoy in some games was the rolling the dice. The random chance and pure luck in some of the games we played ended up annoying us more than making us want to continue playing. Monopoly is the best example of this, as you could be doing the best in the game with the highest lead, and then you could land on a unlucky space and lose all of your money. This is an issue i have with alot of different games which involve dice rolls as their main mechanic.

 

What mechanics would i like to use in my game?

Mechanics i would like to use in my game are: Trading, Cards being involved in someway, placing pieces down. Im not sure if i would like my game to involve dice as the main moving mechanic or deciding factor, though i would like to have a balance of RNG along with skill based strategy movement as well.























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