Devlog 5

This week, September 19 and 21, was basically split into two different topics, one for each day. On Tuesday, September 19, we continued to playtest the sports board games we designed in groups. In Chapter 5 of Games, Design and Play: A Detailed Approach to Iterative Game Design, the four steps of the iterative design process are listed: conceptualization, prototyping, playtesting, and evaluation. The latter two of these, playtesting and evaluation, were what we put into practice on Tuesday. As an example, we found during our playtesting that players disliked being unable to move on their turn, so we evaluated this result and changed the design of the game in response by adding a rule that players are always able to move at least one space on their turn. Additionally, Chapter 8 of Games, Design and Play discusses the role of collaboration and teamwork in game design, including the assignment of roles and responsibilities and tools such as communication. I took on the responsibility of editing the shared document we were using for the rules of our game, but due to lack of communication, I made some changes that did not align with the other group members' ideas and had to reverse the changes after the fact. I now understand that I should make an effort to communicate with others in the future to solicit their opinions before making changes.

On Thursday, September 21, we switched gears to discussing the history of playing cards and played a card game, Sushi Go!, as an example. In the article "The Playing Card Platform", Nathan Altice states that "[w]hen chance comes into play, uniformity guarantees fairness" in reference to the identical dimensions and back patterns of standard playing cards. Sushi Go! follows this principle with its cards, which allows the game to be fair; chance is still a factor, but players' decisions and strategies play a much greater role in determining the outcome of the game.