Personal log Rabi Afram

Week 1

This week I worked with the group during two meetings, we sat down and worked out systems that we wanted to implement into a board game. The primary focus was a system that allowed the players to build the game world so that it would be different each time.

Me and Jonatan also played around with some numbers for the board size. We have a estimate ratio for each different piece.

There is also a temporary movement system and a few available actions for the players, such as destroying an adjacent tile and claiming tiles. Its all very rough and we all see instant flaws with these systems. We will focus on the board building system and come back to these other systems later.

Week 2

This week we refined all systems for the game. The board building system is looking much better with six different game world pieces atm. They consist of plain pieces (grass), block pieces(mountain), resource pieces(mine) and then three different pieces with walls. The progression was very slow for building the world so we decided that a small piece was going to be built by the players from start by giving each player five tiles and then placing them down one at the time. This way the movement system would not be redundant in the start of the game.

We also looked at the resource system and decided that claiming each piece up to a resource tile meant players didn't want to move more than one tile at the time thus making the movement system redundant. The players will now gain a resource at the start of their turn if they have a resource tile claimed and there is a clear walking path from that tile to the home base tile. I think this worked out a lot better. We added a rule to this system that would prevent two players from instantly claiming one resource back and fourth. It a resource is unclaimed you can simply claim it by walking on top of it. But if a resource is already claimed by another player you need to pass an entire turn in order to claim it. We also added a rule that said that you cant claim a resource if another player is occupying it.

The movement system was refined slightly by using a four sided dice to determine how far you can move. We added a few rules that said that you can always chose to move less than what the dice showed but you always have to move at least one tile. This worked better than using a six sided die and dividing the result by two. The board prototype is a lot bigger than last week so moving up to four tiles per turn feels balanced.

The last thing we did was add an entire system for actions. This is a system that temporarily bend basic rules in the game and also change the board game world. It also allows players to mess with other players. This system really helped bring fourth our aesthetics. The rules for this system can be found here: Action Cards

My role this week was focused on the action system, both adding features and balancing. We did a lot of prototyping with changes between each session.

Week 3

This week we started by testing two other groups games and their systems. One of the game systems we tested were was a good combat system that could be used for prolonged battles between multiple players. The rules were very unclear about everything and without someone from the group that created the system there to explain them we were unable to test it. Except the unclear rules the system was very well balanced and thought out.

The other game was some sort of mining game. The primary system was an action system that also functioned as a point system. The points gained would be looped in with the actions available for the game. It was a very interesting system but the game itself could ether take a very long time or a short time depending on when the players wanted to end it.

I have written down examples for different game scenarios that were unclear to the groups that tested our board game. I have learned that you cant over explain any detail when it comes to systems. We have started to polish the visuals for our game and we came up with the "Wizards of Goldmoor" for the board game. We changed some of the pictures to reflect the name. We changed the bomb to a fireball and we also changed the goldmines into cities because other groups found confusing with mines and mountains.

Week 4

This week started by testing two new games. I was testing one of the games and it was called Iller Candy Game. It was a game with a long narrative introduction that was unserious and didn't really add anything to the game. It just left me with a allot of questions. The game itself was based around a resource system that had you picking up items in one part of the game and then dropping them in the next part. The game and its systems were solid in the fact that it was playable without any questions about rules. However the game was over quickly and one of the core systems witch was a combat system was unused because the game was so short. You accumulate cards that are in three different colors. In order to use them in the game you need to have three of one color or one of each color. The cards are picked up by stepping on specific tiles on the game board. But there isn't any focus on stepping on these tiles. You are often left with just a few cards and you may be able to use one attack in an entire game session.