board game 2

board game 2

the brief was in a group of three or four create a game of your own design based on the platformer style of games, this game had to playable however we are not expected to create a perfect board game( the definition of a platformer is a game which is built heavly around jumping from platform to platform, platform to ledge, stairs to ledge and so on usally taking place on a single contained or scrolling screen however in modern times the platformer genre has also made it into the full 3d, this genre of games first started in the 1980s with such classics such as donkey kong and the super mario series) the time given to design
and produce our board games was again one week including the class time we had left.

group:

.zoe

.james

.rhy

once i had found which group i was in we started coming up with some basic ideas about how the game should look and the basics rules of gameplay, at first it was quite hard coming up with ideas due to the fact the only platforming games we had ever player were on the computer and consoles with the exception snakes and ladders which is a game that soully relies on luck so the gameplay is to easy.
the first idea we came up with was climbing up a pyramid from a side view however this ended up looking like every other platformer so we changed the perspective to a top view this gave the game a nice spiral like effect however this produced the problem of having to make the drops appear like drops and not just a background texture.
we all desided that we should all make are own designs for the game and then meet up and mix the final designs together.
my design:
i started my design in the library i wanted it to look as real as a i could but at the same time be clear about where the spaces are so the players dont become lost, to achive this i took a photograph of a limestone brick  and duplicated it in photo shop until it made a 10 by 10 grid, after i had made the grid i added markings to show the payers where to go and a few graphics to add appeal.
 once we had all of the designs we made a choice on which one was best this turned out to be zoes.

rules:
Number of players:
2-4
Start Point:
All players must start on the ‘Start’ square
Deciding who goes first:
To determine which player moves first, everyone must roll the dice once and the highest number gets to start, with the next highest going second and so on. If players roll the same number then they must roll again until one of them gets a higher number.
How to move:
Players move depending on the number which the dice shows (e.g. If you roll a 5 then you move 5 places on the board)
The Objective:
All players start with a brick which they must have to complete the game, the objective is to complete the pyramid by carrying the brick to the top.
Gaps/Jumps:
Players have to roll an even number to jump over it, dependent on the number which the player has rolled, the gap itself doesn’t count as a move (e.g. roll a 4, and your directly in front of a gap then you jump over and move 4 places, not 3)
If you roll an even number and are several spaces before the gap then you can jump over it when you get to it and continue
If you are directly in front of the gap after your last turn then roll again to determine whether you can jump over it
If the number rolled is odd when a player is either several spaces in front of a gap or directly in front of it then they fall down the gap. If you are on the 1st level then go back to the ‘Start’ square, on any other level you fall down to the previous level (On level 3 you fall down to level 2, if you’re on F3 go down to F2, if you find that when you move down you’re on a gap then move back however many spaces until you reach the platform/bricks)
If you fall down a gap then you lose your brick
Double gaps work exactly the same as single gaps
How to find your brick:
The brick is placed on a different square on the board, to determine where it’s been placed pick up a card and read the co-ordinates
If your brick has been placed on one of the previous levels then travel backwards (e.g. when you roll a number on the dice go back that number of spaces), once you have collected it you can then travel forwards again
Tunnels:
If you land on a tunnel then move to the other end of the tunnel which is further up the board, the colour of the bricks surrounding the tunnel decides which one you come out of
You can’t use the tunnels to travel backwards (down the board)
Winner:
The player which reaches the finish square with their brick first wins; you have to have your brick in order to win

good, bad and improvements:
the main good point about this game is its look, you can clearly see where each square is and where the boundary are however the one thing that makes this game almost unplayable as allot of our fellow class mates pointed out is there are to many pit falls that keep forcing the player to return to the start of the game, on top of this the rules about the pits are not clear enough so there were many different interpretation of the same rules.
a few improvements that would make this game great are as follows

1. make the rules more clear so the player knows where he or she can land 
2. less pitfalls 
3. make it clear if a player can pick up another player brick 

review of mario based game:
the mario based game was one of the better made games in the class because of its clear rules and simple gameplay  on the other hand the reason the game was so simple in the first place is because it soully relied on luck. something that would improve this game is if there was a way to screw over the other players progress maybe in the form of cards you can collect by landing on certain spots.

review of the climbing game:
i personally found the rules of the climbing very confusing in fact after playing we found out that we had been playing it completely wrong the entire time but other than that the graphics were well done and the layout was well though out. the only improvement i would do to this game is make it simplular so that the rules are not miss read and acted on differently to the designers idea.