Sunday 15 March 2015

16. My Design Document (Now Updated To Full Doc)

Ben Greenhalgh

Design Document

Game Design Overview

After editing and evaluating a chosen board game of my choice (Senet). I will now be showing how my past thoughts and observations can come together to properly form this new board game giving it a new twenty first century feel and name “Prosperity” this new recreation based off the original game of Senet has a number of different mechanics and dynamics which I have spoken about before. I will not go into long detail about the specifics on how the game works when played, as this has already been covered thanks to the last assignment. The main concentration therefore will be put into the design mainly only concerning the board, board-pieces and the movement mechanic e.g. Dice. The design theme throughout the game will be a “Egyptian” theme sticking to a set colour pallet and then speaking about why I have chosen to pick this design or these colours and backing this up with some research and possible references throughout the design document.

Gameplay

The game will be played until all 7 counters have made it to the end of the game board. Overall there are a number of different squares at the end of the game which can dramatically change the game play significantly which means the game can therefore be played strategically and players will adopt a number of different strategy ideas when playing the game which also means that the game can be very hard to predict and forward motion can be therefore judged by the other players but never properly understood like another game like Cludo which is a very popular game using mainly hidden information but you can also strategically predict player movement in my game as there are limited movement pattens within this game. Overall its the end squares on the game board which can change the game giving the player who is not doings so well the advantage to came back giving then the player in the lead a real struggle to hold this lead and giving the player in last place the hope of a come back into the game because the last thing a developer would like is a player giving up on the game because they think they are to are far behind. Human contraception can destroy a game if the player feels they are left out and there is no way they can continue and they are not enjoying there stay in the game then your game becomes obserlete. On the other hand the player in the lead my not like the last squares on the board everyone is then engaged in the game play ever hoping they can come back into the game if they can get past these end game obstacles and win the game.

Unique and Iconic Features

Most iconic Feature of the game is the number 7 Used to represent the Dice (7 sided Dice), the number 7 then being lucky and changing the game play as the number seven has its own rule different from the other numbers and there are 7 pieces which you move around the board and once all 7 pieces have been made it to the end of the game “The last square on the board” you have won the game or lost depending on if it was you that got all 7 to the end of the game and it was not your opponent. The overall board lay out is another iconic feature of this game using a futuristic feel of a once past game changing the old rules and making them more interesting in the present day. The last 7 squares on the game board the “special squares” have unique effects on the game which is another use of the number 7 within the game. Basically when I was planning the game I started with the simple idea of how can I change the game using the number 7 to represent everything making this the unique point about this game and overall this could be seen as the unique selling point of the game from a business point of view.


The Dice Design

The dice in my game is a pentagonal prism (a 7 sided dice). This will be a all black dice with white number text showing on every side apart from the side with the number 7 this will be shown in gold text as this has major significance to the gameplay when rolled . This is a game changing number on the dice and the best way to show this is may option was to change the number 7s text colour. Overall the dice design I very much like and is defiantly a iconic feature for the game changing the traditional D6.

Image of D7 (Pentagonal Prism)

Board Design

The game board will have 2 holes where you can place your marbles so there will be 2 holes per square where you can fit your marbles nicely into place per square there will be 30 squares in total 10 in each row with the last 7 squares the board being the effect squares where you will have to read up in the rules on to what effect have changed the game for that player who has landed on the square. Even though this is not the best way to help the game progress within the game mechanics. After much research into the board design I have come up with a nice simplistic design which still sticks with the overall theme of a Egyptian style feel when playing the game. Each square will have its own unique patten representing as much as possible the meaning of the effect on the game play e.g. I have landed on the 2 squiggly lines which the player can then work out means river and therefore have this in the memory so if they land on this again or another player lands on this they can go right I know that effect without having to look at the rules because the symbols are set in such a way that the player remembers the effect because they are so iconic and no two symbols are the same so this then playing on human philosophy even though in my game there will be no squiggly lines there will be bold Egyptian symbols.

The 7 Symbols which will be on the last 7 squares (E.G. 27 = Square 27 on the Game Board.

26 27 29
28 23 20 15

(Image of where the symbols will be on the board)


(Image of what the Board design should look mainly using the Light Orange Squares)

Game-Piece Design

My overall vision of the game piece is that they are strategically appealing for the playing and fit into the overall mechanics of the game. The game pieces will be marbles which will be able to slot into the game board. This has a subliminal message and the colours are set to represent the fact of this subliminal message, players should be able to expect independently the fact that these colours go with the game and should not have to question why they are blue and gold coloured marbles as they go with the theme. The subliminal message is the fact that the gold marbles represent the sands of the Sahara Desert and the blue marbles represents the water of River Nile. This is then player 1 and player 2 game pieces and these pieces will slot into the game board so the marbles don't role around. This one hundred presents in my opinion makes the game then stand out as I think is hard to think of another game which uses marbles as game pieces to move around the game board which can then be slotted into place around the game board.



Asset List

What is in the Game Box

  • 1 Dice
  • 1 Game Board
  • 14 Game-Pieces (7 gold and 7 black)
  • 1 Rules sheet

Appendix

Starting the game (First Turn) Roll the dice to see who goes first (higher number wins first move in the game)
How to win (When the game ends) The player who makes it to the end of the board with all 7 board pieces is the winner.
Setting up the game All 7 counters need to be placed on the game board and should go in cosponsoring order of gold marble square 1, blue marble square number 2 and so on going one after the other On the first 14 squares on the board.
Sequence of play Players take it in turns on movement using the dice in the game until they land on the last 7 squares of the game board which could change the movement sequence of the game depending on what you land on as they all have there own different effect of play.
Player Movement Players move around the board from right to left is a “S” shape. Movement is up to the player as they can chose what piece to move out all 7 of there pieces but is depending on there dice roll for specific movement amount e.g. 4 rolled = one marble moving 4 spaces you can hop other marbles which does not count as 1 movement space but can not hop 2 marbles next to one another e.g. B,G,B,B (G = Gold cant move because B = Blue has two in a row)
The Last 7 Symbolic Squares These squares all have there own Unique effects
Square Numbers 15,20,23,26,27,28 and 29


Square Number 15 sets the players piece back to one of the starting squares but gets to have a extra turn rolling the dice. (Sacrifice another game piece to get another piece further forward)


Square Number 20 is a safe spot and players cant hop over this space if a player is already in this spot but they can only stay in this spot for 1 turn if forgotten and the opponent calls out that they have been in the spot for more than one turn the this piece is sent back to the starting squares.


Square Number 23 When you land on this square you can steel the lucky number 7 dice role from your opponent but only if they rolls the lucky number 7 you can stay on this square for as long as possible unless a effect from another square moves you.


Square Number 26 this square gives you protection of this game piece and can not be effected by other square effects.


Square Number 27 this square allows you to swap 2 pieces around but there must be next to each other and must be the same colour for the swap to happen (no swapping to a open space there must me a strait swap of two different game pieces)


Square Number 28 this square lets you swap any piece on the board with any other board piece. e.g. (Swapping square number 8s board piece with square number 20s board piece)


Square Number 29 This Space is the last test before making it to the ending last square you must role the dice 3 times and call a number e.g. 3 you keep rolling until you get the number, if you fail to get the number then you must stay where you are and your turn ends if you get the number you may proceed to the last square.


The Number 7 Dice Roll If 7 is rolled on the dice you get to roll again and your opponent loses his next turn (So 3 rolls in total)
How the Game Ends When All 7 of your coloured Pieces reach the end of the board (The last square and then this means you have won Prosperity)









Mood Board






No comments:

Post a Comment