We Make Stuff For Fun

Using the original sketch posted in the last entry, Valeria made one of the coolest game boards I’ve seen made for someone. The board keeps much of the original draft, and grants a Clue-like aesthetic to the whole game.

We changed the name from Trini’s Tactical Takedown to Ghosts vs Hunters, something that’s a bit more explicit and easier to say. It also sells the point of the game instantly, rather than something more obscure.

We discussed two things, afterwards, namely how we would execute the game’s concept. We had two ideas, with regards to movement.

• Free for all: all players involved go on their individual turns rather than as groups. This would allow for a progressive reveal of the game.
• Team by team: allows players of a same team to talk to one another and strategise properly, to avoid metagaming (using out of game knowledge to one’s advantage in a game scenario) the opposing team would have to be deafened.
• We all move at the same time: everybody thinks about their placement and announces it after a set amount of time.

EXTERNAL PLAYTEST:
Multiple issues have arisen from an external playtest with other course members. First of all, there needs to be a game master of some sort, to keep check of everybody’s movement. This is an issue as we’d very much like the game to play as fluidly as possible, and whilst this is something that could easily be solved through a page or so of code, a human ‘computer’ is still required.

This also brought another issue, which was the execution and flavour of the game. For a lot of the playtest “nothing really happened.” In a sense, the game was resolved and the mechanics worked but there was no FUN, no interesting dynamics. A way to resolve this was to include a game master, or find a way make more meaningful choices. For now it very much feels like sauceless pasta. Luke, one of those we playtested with, claimed that for now

CONCLUSION:
The game’s core concept is present, however we’re missing some of the more interactive aspects. Execution of the mechanics seems to require a “game master” to have them done properly, but even then the issue now is centric around the player being the game master, rather than the game’s pervasive interaction instead.

After some deliberation, Triny, Valeria & I came up with three versions of how the game might be played:

• Option 1: Everyone moves at the same time (w/ Arthur’s idea)
  Round starts with everyone secretly choosing where they want to go
  The ghosts reveal their desired location to the game master as the hunters mute/deafen their voice chat
  The hunters reveal their desired location to the game master as the ghosts mute/deafen their voice chat
  Everything is revealed at the same time
  (EVENTS OCCUR)
  Round finish and repeat

• Option 2: Team by team movement
  Hunters round starts with the hunters secretly choosing where they want to go (teams cannot discuss)
  The hunters type out their location at the same time, and the mansion owner marks down the new location of the hunters
  (EVENTS OCCUR)
  Ghost’s round starts where the ghosts type out their location at the same time, and the mansion owner marks the new location of the ghosts
  (EVENTS OCCUR)
  Back to hunters round and repeat

• Option 3: Individual Team Movement (how order is decided i’m not sure)
  A hunter chooses where they want to go and types it out
  They move to that location
  (EVENTS OCCUR)
  A ghost chooses where they want to go and types it out
  They move to that location
  (EVENTS OCCUR)
  Repeat with every player

♦Second post. 13/11/2020, 10:53.♦

So evidently its been quite a while since I last posted on here. All this to say the conference project’s gone on smoothly. I’ll be clarifying a few things I left out in the previous post, and then moving on to report and analyze what the team and I chose to execute for this project.

I mentioned that the game concept we had in mind was rather similar to Fall Guys’ Perfect Match. The concept of our original project was practically identical. Like Perfect Match, at the end of a round players choose a square to stand on. If they choose the wrong one, they fall to their deaths (or die in our case).

What separated our original project from Fall Guys’ mini-game was the manner of choice. Perfect Match makes players rush towards a square that bears a fruit identical to the fruit which is shown on screen. During the 10 second waiting period (1 round), every square shows a different fruit until the round ended, and players had to find the “perfect match”. (Its in the name.)

Our game was not as complex. A grid of 9 squares was presented. At the end of the round, players chose their placement on the grid. If more than two players were standing on that square, they lost a life and the square was eliminated from the game. That square is then eliminated from the game, and cannot be used later on. Conclusion: Similar in concept but different in execution.