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Game Studies | Full Compilation: Catch Me If You Can (G4)

  FEILYCIA JOY KURNIAWAN / 0373400 

Game Studies / Bachelor of Design (Honors) in Creative Media 

Full Compilation: Catch Me If You Can

LECTURE

WEEK 1 - Principles of Game Design

What is game design? The combination of creativity, technical skills, and user psychology. It is the art and science designing an interactive experience and to make it fun. 

Core principles:

> Player experience (how the game feels) - focus on emotion, user-centered design, flow state


> Gameplay mechanics (rules and systems) - primary & secondary mechanics, feedback loops 




> Storytelling

   - Player agency (allowing players to influence the story)
   - Environmental storytelling (story told thru world design and settings)
   - Narrative arcs (structuring the story around conflict, climax and resolution)

> Balance & Challenge (obstacles & rewards)

    - Difficulty curve (a smooth escalation in difficulty with the players skill to keep users     engaged)
    - Skill vs Luck (challenges that require the players skills but also allow luck into the challenge)
    - Player progression ( rewarding progress while maintaining a sense of growth and achievements) 

> Feedback & iteration (continuous improvement of gameplay & player experience of the game)


> Immersion & worldbuilding (creating a believable world for players to engage with)


Challenges in Game Design:

  • Over complication: make it simple but enjoyable experience
  • Failing to adapt: ignoring feedbacks or market trends
  • Monetization vs Player experience: balancing profit motives with player's enjoyment 
WEEK 2 - Balancing Fun & Educational Elements in Games

Strategies for fun & educational balance: 

> Learning through play (educational elements emerges naturally)
> Layered learning (unlock educational elements)
> Game mechanics as educational tools (directly teach concepts through gameplay) 
> Storytelling with purpose (using narratives) 

Why do we need the balance and what is the purpose?
  • Integrating educational elements seamlessly into a gaming experience
  • Successful games engage players while teaching them
  • By balancing the two, we can create a memorable experience that is entertaining and educating 
WEEK 3 
    INSTRUCTION


    PROCESS

    Week 1 - Group forming 

    Group 4 members: 
    • Lee Wai Xian 03655740 (leader)
    • Gwendalyn Firly Bong 0374580
    • Jesslyn Octavia Tjong 0374562
    • Khansa Raudlatus Syahiidah 0374511
    • Feilycia Joy Kurniawan 0373400
    We discussed which board game cafe we want to go 

    Week 2 - Ideation 

    We met up to discuss our game concept and came up with several ideas, but we decided to do a prison break type of game. 

    Initial Idea (Prison Break) 
    • Players: Maximum 6
    • Roles: 1–2 as police, the rest as prisoners
    • Goals:
      • Police: Catch all the criminals
      • prisoners: Exit the prison

    • Mechanics:
      • Players can move around a changeable map (modular layout).
      • CCTV cameras influence movement/strategy.
      • Each players has their own roles, Mechanic, Leader,
      • Criminals will be at the their respective cells (spawn points), at the 4 corners of the map
      • Police will be at the middle
      • Prisoners must complete tasks before escaping

    • Inspiration:
      • Based on the shifting pathways concept from Ravensburger Labyrinth
      • Escapist

    Week 3 - Board Game Cafe

    • We went to a board game cafe and played:
      • Unlock - escape room–style card game
      • Werewolf - storytelling game where villagers try to survive the night and spot the werewolves among them.
      • Ricochet Robots - puzzle board game where you try to move colored robots to a specific target spot.
      • Ludo - a classic board game where players race their tokens to the center of the board, based on dice rolls.

    • While playing these games, we discussed which elements of the game we can implement into our project.
      • Unlock was too complicated and Werewolf’s concept was too different from our approach.
      • At first, we didn’t like Ricochet Robot’s concept, but we take their board as our inspiration for our board
    After playing all of the game, we came back to ricochet robots cause we were interested on the board's design. We tried out our game concept using the board and it worked really well together. 


    What we took and further develop from Ricochet robots:  
    • The board
      • Wall-like obstacles
      • 4 separated maps with double-sided maps, so we can customize our own map.
    • Mission and target squares
      • Using tokens that correlate with a sign on the board as targets

    Week 4 - Refining Board & Mechanism 

    After getting the board inspiration form Ricochet Robots, we further discussed the mechanics for our own game: 
    • 5-7 Players, 4 prisoners + 1 cop
    • Map Design
      • 41x41 cm, 16x16 squares
      • Double-sided (like ricochet robots)
      • Add more blockades
      • Safe Rooms
    • 4 Randomized exits (Color-coded)
      • Throw the dice to indicate exit
      • Only 1 exit is open at a time
      • 2 squares each (Outside the board/external)
      • Once one prisoner exits, the original exit closes, so a new one opens
    • Cop Mechanism
      • After catching prisoner A, cops cannot catch prisoner A again for 3 turns
      • If a prisoner escapes, cops lose 2 turns
    • Prisoner Mechanism
      • 2-3 Task cards per prisoner
      • 2 Lives each
      • Prisoners are color-coded - red, yellow, blue, green
    • Movement Mechanism
      • 3 dices
        • Prisoner (normal)
        • Police (6-sided, 1-2-3 1-2-3)
        • Exits (4-sided)
      • The first exit color determines the first prisoner to go; order is clockwise
      • Cops roll the dice after every prisoner
      • When caught, the prisoner gets sent back to their cell + loses a turn


    We also met up and refined our board to make it nicer. 



    After finishing the board, we test the game again to test out the flow of the game, and test out the difficulty of the obstacles. 

    Week 5 - Proposal preparation

    We focused on preparing for the proposal presentation
    Game Study Proposal Presentation by Lee Wai Xian


    Week 6 - Unofficial User Testing

    We brought our game to class and ask other groups to play our game, we used this as our unofficial playtest 



    Feedbacks: 
    • The game can get a bit boring without the hazard cards.
    • Maybe implement adding specific tiles where players can get a hazard card if they landed on them.
    • The hazard card instructions were not clear enough, some hazard card power can be confusing.
    • But overall, the game was fun.
    Considerations: 
    • Add more hazard cards? or increase the players chances to get hazard cards
    • Put clear instructions on the hazard cards
    • Improve the safe zones and wall placement?
    Week 7 - Official Playtest 1 

    We did 2 playtest this week, the playtest with our own members, and other group members:

    Own feedback: 
    • Overall, we didn’t spotted anything odd, most likely because we already had many own playtesting before this official one.

    Madeline's Group feedback:

    Key Feedbacks:

    • The prisoners’ starting point(safe zone) is only applicable for players with the same colour, making them applicable for all players would be better?
    • Some hazard cards are only applicable for late rounds, wasteful if the players are eliminated early.

    Week 8 - Official Playtest 2

    We also did 2 playtest this week, with our own members and a new player 

    Own + new player feedback feedback: 
    • During this week, one of the group member was not here, but was replaced with a friend of our own. Surprisingly, she won the game being a cop despite its her first time playing.

    Week 9 - Group Discussion 

    This week we had a minor group discussion, to see what should we do for this week. We decided to complete and finalize the overall visual design for the board, components and the gaming mechanism on Week 10.

    Week 10 - Finalizing prototype

    What we did on week 10 :
    • Refine the board design.
    • Refine the hazard card design and instructions.
    • Refine the dice and player miniature designs.
    • Adding instruction booklet (in progress)



    Week 11 - Finalizing game booklet

    Finalizing all of the mechanics and compiling it into one documents and printing it out 



    Week 12 - Final Playtest 

    Jensen's group feedback 

    Key Feedback:

    • Safety zones allowing only one prisoner felt confusing
    • Hazard cards took a while to obtain in certain situations
    • Prisoners could still be eliminated quickly in some rounds

    Week 13 - Final Presentation

    Preparing final presentation slides, and compiling all the documents

    Game Study Final Presentation by Lee Wai Xian

    Week 14 - Final Presentation Recording

    Final Online Presentation

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLuxcSwsAg

    Final Outcome


    Progress Slides 
    Games Studies | Group 4 by Lee Wai Xian


    Proposal Slides

    Final Presentation Slides 

    Presentation Recording 
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSLuxcSwsAg
    LINKS

    Compilation of Mechanic Review: Link
    Compilation of Iterative Playtest Report: Link
    Visual Files: Link
    Recorded Playtest Documentation: Link

    Feedback

    Week 1
    Project briefing, no feedback 

    Week 2 
    Showed the 2 ideas we have to miss Anis, she said both are equally interesting and we can proceed

    Week 3
    No class, we went to the board game cafe

    Week 4
    We didn't have our physical prototype yet, so we used ipads, and miss Anis suggested we make the physical prototype
    For the mechanism, Miss Anis suggested the chance to betray/make teamwork to the game

    Week 5 
    No class

    Week 6
    Presentation week 

    Week 7
    We did the unofficial playtest, and we can proceed with the official playtest 

    Week 8
    After adding the betrayal and teamwork mechanics, it became more interesting 

    Week 9
    Online (self-directed)

    Week 10
    Online (self-directed)

    Week 11
    Online (self-directed)

    Week 12
    Final playtest and preparing for our final presentation

    Week 13
    Online (self-directed)

    Week 14
    Online (self-directed)


    Reflection

    From all of the modules i've taken during my time in Taylor's, this is my favorite module so far. Coming into this module I was a bit scared since I don't really play games, I was concerned what if I cannot think of a good idea for the game. Surprisingly, I really enjoy this module, more so I feel like this module is a breath of fresh air after all the other modules wreck me into dust :) . I was very grateful for Miss Anis to make the classes fun and engaging. And my groupmates that makes this module very very enjoyable. 

    Through this module, I've learnt how to brainstorm ideas and taking inspiration from existing games and making a whole new game from it. During the group discussion and iterations of the game, I saw the developments of the game. I also put more thought on games I play now, and see the components and mechanics they have
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