Title: L1-LAB01
Course: RITA MC - VIDEO GAME DESIGN HYBRID > Section: Module 1

LAB1/Challenge 1

Take a Video or Photos/Slide Show of your Game in Play. You can add game automation and scoring devices, or boards.

- Consider how to shift the idea of the game into a Video Game Design.
- Present, Play, Demo and “test” the game on Hybrid 1 Meeting Day.  You can take and submit your video on that day. (bring your OWN SD Card)

Level  1 Game Challenge 1

From CHALLENGES OR GAME DESIGNERS

non-digital exercises for video game designers

The challenges are to grow progressively more difficult and are designed to make you comfortable with the process of game design in a non-digital format.  These are foundation game design challenges.

1. The Path

For this game, you are going to explore the race to the end gameplay dynamic discussed earlier. The game should allow two to four players, be about progressing on a path, and make them go from point A to point B. The first player to point B wins.

As the game’s designer, it is up to you to figure out the theme, the game bits and the mechanics.

Components REQUIRED:

Any materials to create prototype.

2. Deliverables (2)

·         Board game prototype or

·         Card-game prototype or

·         Tile-based-game prototype or

·         One-page write-up of detailing a potential game design

Suggested Process

1. Determine a theme and a goal.

Where are the players going, and why are they going there?  Choose a theme that involves some interaction between the participants, to make things interesting.

2. Identify mechanics.

Start simple. Visualize a track that goes from the beginning to end that is broken up into a bunch of different sections. It may be 100 spaces or tiles or cards that ultimately build the track on which your players are going to “race”. Now think of the mechanic that will get your players moving on that track.  The simplest one is rolling a die. Next consider things you could do to make play more interesting. For instance, you could have an action that speeds you up or slows your opponent down.  Does the narrative suggest any obvious mechanics?  For example, if your game is about a relay foot race, you will need a way to pass the baton (perhaps suggesting a tradeoff where maintaining a higher running speed gives a higher chance of accidentally dropping the baton).  To add some player interaction in a foot race, perhaps you would change them so that the racers are robots with lasers that can shoot at one another, which suggests mechanics for shooting and dodging.

3. Identify the conflict between players.

How can you screw up someone else’s progress or accelerate yours?  What is the tradeoff?

4. Playtest

Every time you add a mechanic to the game, test it. Does it make the game more fun or less fun?  Does it support the core of the game? Does it work the way you originally thought it would?

5. Create the deliverables.

1.