Weeks 9 to Now.

So again I delay in posting. Then internet issues delay it further. And finally being very sick pushed it even further back. So yeah... lots of posts all in one again.

Week 9

So this week the group went over something called KAIZEN, which was meant to help our group figure out where our problems were and how to fix them We were even showed a diagram that likened it to a ship. The group is the ship and our problems are anchors holding us down. It was only by solving our problems that we could raise the anchors and sail on to make a great game.

After that we went to work on our game again, this time in two groups. One would focus on numbers and business models for how we would sell, ship and market the game. The other group, which I was in, instead focused on making the game and finishing it. This meant mechanics, rules and the like. So working with the members we went over and finalized a rule sheet that told how to start and play the game as well as how the different card types worked,

Week 10

This week after we got together we again split into the 'business' and 'design' groups. Since last week we had finished our rules, this week we created and fleshed out creatures. Including a few mechanics for them as well. We ended up designing about 4 regular creatures for each environment and then a sort of environment lord for each of the seven areas. Like a powerful Kraken for the Ocean environment.

This was followed by spring break. And while I originally planned on posting all of this during said break, my internet was acting up so i couldn't. Turned out the dog chewed on a few cords without anyone noticing. Dumb mutt.

Week 11

And this week was filled with the sickness I mentioned. Being unable to really go more than twenty minutes without rushing to the bathroom was not a state to come to school in.

As such I sadly couldn't do anything.

Week 12

And now came today. In class we first had a more in-depth look at sprints and game design before a fire drill. After we came in and got back to the teacher's lesson, we ended up having another drill. Good god, what was with the interruptions today?

Anyways, the teacher told us about 'User Stories' and told us to make a basic one right there to make sure we got the concept. We churned ours out pretty quickly and easily and then went back to our two groups to work. Since we had creatures done we began working on our upgrade cards. We came up with a lot of ideas and before we left for the day, we all assigned ourselves to work on the environment cards before next weeks class. Overall I think our game is coming together nicely.

I'm dumb, but here's 8 for 1

So for my CSG-110 class I am required to make a blog post each week talking about what we learned and what we did. I on the other hand am both stubborn and dumb as I have been knowingly neglecting this due to a personal dislike of blogs in general for a few reasons. However seeing as my grade will depend on this, I'm starting it now to make up for lost time.

Week 1

For the first class, we were split into two teams and then each team was told to come up with a game idea. Research it, develop the basics of how it would work and play and sound, how it would be marketed, who would play it, and why people would pay for it. We were told to do all this in our groups because at the end of the semester both teams would pitch their game idea and the winning pitch would begin development next semester. The better our idea and the more research we had to back it up, the better the chance our idea would win and the higher our grade would be. Beyond that, the first day was spent introducing ourselves to our teammates and setting up ways to meet up outside of class for weekly meetings. Our group decided on using Skype. We were also told to come up with a team name and eventually a logo to go with it.

We chose the name Krak3n Inc.

Week 2

So this week after we all gathered into our groups, we watched a movie about the history of video games. Most of this I admittedly already knew, it was just the names behind them that were new to me. 

After the movie our teacher went over the first chapter of our book with us and the various roles a person plays on a game development team. Once he finished, we were tasked to choose members to fill each role on our team.

Week 3

This week opened with another movie, this one about Indie Games. In the movie, we learned a lot about a few big indie titles like Braid, Super Meat Boy and Fez.

From there the teacher went over more about how the groups should work and the roles its members should have before letting us get back to our brainstorming and researching for our game ideas.

Before this we had put lots of ideas and thought into making a puzzle/platformer already. Our online meetings were spent talking about ideas and designs for it, and our group time in class was as well. However when Emil asked for research data to back it up, sadly we hit a wall. We had all these ideas but none of us had put much into research about how the game would market or how existing games of the same genre already have. So after our group researched best selling game genres and games, we got a couple wildly different conclusions. One was that strategy games were the best selling genre, the other was that the best selling games of the previous year (that we could reasonably try to make given our college course constraints of course) were action games with platformers not being a best seller but still in the top 10. Our group leader in the end decided to switch our focus then from a puzzle/platformer to instead making a card game.

I'm going to be perfectly honest, that irritated the hell out of me. All the idea and thought the team had put towards the first idea was now pretty much worthless. That. Really. Irritated. Me.

Week 4

So this week, after having the week to think about it, I realized that switching to a card game was probably the best decision that could have happened in my case. While I play lots of different games, except sports games, I practically live and breath card games. I actively play and collect two games, used to do the same for four others, know how to play two more, and know the bare basics of three others that I can ask a friend for a more in depth look at at pretty much anytime. Safe to say I know a lot about card games and how to balance them if we got to actual single card designs.

So now that I had stopped being mad about it, I put my all into making this idea work. The first thing the group did was debate on how to make it unique. What was going to draw people in from the other card games? Why play our game over the others?

After some talk, we came up with something that just about every trading card game does; they all win by beating the opponent. Outside of certain games that have some type of 'instant-win' card or combo such as gathering Exodia in Yu-Gi-Oh! or Near-Death Experience in Magic the Gathering, every card game has you battle against one or more players and you win by reducing their life to nothing.

                   

So the first way we were going to make ourselves different is how the player would win. We decided we'd have different special cards referred to as 'Environment' cards that would affect how the field was played, different play for each different environment. Not only that but each would have a list of conditions on them, and if a player fulfilled at least one condition before the opponent/s then they would claim that environment. Claim enough and you win. In this alone, we already had a pretty unique set up compared to most card games. Instead of being a fight, our card game was more akin to a race.

Week 5

To start this week off, the teacher had us watch a short YouTube video about game development. Specifically about the Minimum Viable Product.

The video explained mainly that while thinking big was nice, it was mostly the downfall to people that were trying to make their first game. What was important for a persons' first game was to make the bare minimum required to play it. Once the bare minimum was made and proven to be enjoyable enough, you could either ship it out there or add to it, so long as it didn't make that minimum any less enjoyable to do so.

So now here's my team making a card game. What's the bare minimum of a card game? Well, a single deck of course. Though that led to a debate on whether or not to make a second deck as while two copies of a single deck make a viable minimum, they would get boring right away simply being a mirror-match. I was, and still am, of the opinion that two decks would be better. Should our product win, we will need to develop and balance enough cards for a single standard size set which in trading card games means around 220 to 250 separate and unique cards. If we make one deck, we show off the basics of the game as well as what that one strategy could do. If we make two on the other hand, we show off the basics plus how said basics interact with different strategies that would be possible with the game we are developing.

                        

Thinking about them, something along the lines of the above were what I was thinking of doing. Two decks that didn't show everything about the game in the slightest. However, they showed both how to play the game by the basics, as well as a couple strategies that could be played out of all the viable ideas the game has had over the years. The two decks are also very balanced towards each other so there's always the fun of not knowing who would win between the two, which helps repeat matches against others stay interesting and fun as the two players could play either deck and switch off after they would get bored with one, thus doubling the play and entertainment from the product despite the product not changing at all. While one deck would show off the bare basics for how the game plays, two would do that and keep the player engaged and interested in buying. A minimum viable product that could also be a great seller on its own. Even to the current week 8, we still hadn't decided entirely if we would do one deck or two, only that we would do one for sure and if we had enough time we would make the second to play against it and if not just make a second copy of the first.

Week 6

Here on week six, we spent our time going through the basics of how we wanted our game to play and work. How you start, turn order, and even a few basics on how to play. We also decided on names for the base card types, such as what our creatures would be called or the environment cards would be. Not specifics but the overarching types as we haven't gotten to specific card by card designs yet.

We also began talking about how it would be marketed. Seeing as I go to a couple different card shops every two or three weeks, I volunteered to ask about how much it costs to sell a card game at their stores and the various prices that must be paid as well as the earnings behind it.

Sadly I still haven't had a chance to go to a card shop since this day so the questions are still unanswered.

Week 7

On this day... we...

Um...

I'm going to be honest here...

I don't remember anything big happening week seven other than some talk about how we would present come week eight, and even that was minimal as we just spent more time going over how to play our game.

Just... just look at the image above. It applies here too.

Week 8

So now our current week, early presentation week where we had to give a basic pitch of our game idea. Our presentation was okay in theory and the teacher even complimented our team leader on being excited about the game which would have made him feel excited about it as well except for a couple problems.

First was that the math in our presentation was wrong.

Second was that the slides of said presentation were also mostly boring. A couple interesting ones but mostly plain text with a plain image that didn't do much other than be there to see.

We were told that we needed to work on the numbers as they were very important when trying to sell something or get someone to fund you, which is what the pitch is meant to simulate. You can't ask for an investment of X when the payout of Y is hardly worth much more if that.

We also needed to make the presentation more visually appealing. As it stood, while it was clear to read, it was also very boring to.

After that we were sent back to class while the other group presented. In our free time we went over our presentation and added plans and ideas for making it better for the next attempt we'd get at week fifteen. Once Emil got back with the other group and told us theirs was better, we were called one by one to show our blog and be rated by our teammates.

As already dictated at the very top of this blog entry, I'd been willingly ignoring the blog portion of this class. Now it was being thrown in my face to show the whole class. That was kind of humiliating. As for being rated by my teammates, they rated me highly so hopefully that makes up somewhat for my lack of doing this.

Over the course of the team being evaluated though we came to notice something; while we all tend to like and work well with our teammates, we are very disorganized. Not enough was being kept track of or was being tracked by only one or two members, which came to bite us as one of those members was absent today. Going forward we have will fix this but as of the end of class today, we all pretty much had to deal with the fact that the other team seems to be doing much better than we are.