Cam - Games Dev

 We started out our development process with the idea of creating a board game version of the Steam game, FPS Chess. Because of this idea, we started with the base game of Chess and thought about how we would be able to add the FPS aspects to a board game. We decided after a short period of time, that using dice and giving cards stats would be the best way to do this, however, we initially had different numbers of the same dice being rolled for every piece. This is something we have changed over the course of the development, as we now use a full 7 dice set to allow for more variety and balancing in the stats of our pieces. At this point of development, we were still using our initial dice choice, but we had thought about using some sort of cards to allow for abilities and events to happen, as well as stat changes. Here is where we differed from just FPS Chess and looked more into YuGiOh as inspiration for a card based combat system. We spent a long time coming up with card ideas a...

  Settlers of Catan:   Settlers of Catan is a turn-based strategy game that can be played with 3-4 players. There is an expansion for the game that allows for 2 more people to play, expanding the game board to make space for them. It requires you to collect resources, trade with other players and finally build and expand your settlements to earn points .     Catan contains a simple 4-page ruleset that begins with setting up the board. There are some ways to set the board up as shown in the rulebook, but the idea is that it is random, and every game is different because of this . Once the board is set up, and the cards have been placed in piles near the board, the players will start placing their settlements and roads on the board and collect resources based on the tiles their starting settlements are connected to.   After this, everyone will take their turns, rolling the dice and collecting resources, then trading, and finally building.   The first per...

If rules are simple and easy to understand and learn, it creates a far smoother experience when playing. It is better if rules and mechanics are a bit overexplained rather than missing pieces of information and being vague. Games that had longer setup seemed to create a better playing experience and would go on for longer due to these extra mechanics that were in place. Having cards, handouts or something similar to keep track of inventory or belongings is a very useful system, because it is far easier to have visual representations of what you have than having to note it down. Dice and movement were very common mechanics in all 3 games, with Monopoly and Catan tying the two together. I enjoyed playing all 3 games, but Catan was the most fun. The mechanics were very enjoyable and worked well in unison. I really enjoyed the competitivity that was created through the trading mechanic and how much a simple trade deal could change the entire flow of the game. In the 6 player game we did, I...