Final Game Projects, Fall 2009

The following are the blogs of the final game projects for Fall 2009.

Alphabet Soup Blog -- Alphabet Soup Website
Alphabet Soup is a word game where players compete in order to win letters until someone can make a word. Play-testers found it very involving and fun.



Hold Your Breath Blog -- Hold Your Breath Website
Hold Your Breath is a maze game where players are divers in search of pearls. Follow the maze to get in and out and get to the top with the most pearls.



Generation Genius Blog -- Generation Genius Website
Generation Genius is a trivia based card game pitting the younger generation against baby boomers, with questions directed at both groups. It's to your advantage to be able to cross generations.



Castle Escape (formerly Castle Crusher)
Castle Escape is a strategic board game which I think of as Stratego turned inside out. Players compete to get their princess character out of the castle and back home while trying to block their opponent from making progress.

Rainbow Five

To play, all you need is a good set of rainbow colored markers. If only they made a seven-colored mechanical pen.

Upcoming Class Schedule

October 14, 2009
• Last day to work together in class on your first group games, web sites, blog, box, board, etc.

October 21, 2009
• Peer Review for Final Game Concepts -- bring two proposals
• Game Evaluations for First Group Games

October 28, 2009
• Presentations – 5 minute pitches. Pitch one of your game concepts to the class. You have five minutes to do so and should use some visual aids. You must also turn in to me descriptions of your two game concepts. Remember, your proposals are worth 5 points each, and group leaders will receive a 5 point bonus.
• Kickball Groups

The final game proposals should be like the initial game proposals -- about two pages in length with some form of illustration. It is important that you do TWO proposals and workshop both ideas on October 21st, even though you are only going to present one idea (your best one) to the whole class. I want you to test your creativity and expand your possibilities before deciding on one to present. Game concepts can be for any type of board, card, or tile game, so long as it would be possible to design that game in class and create a usable prototype for others to play. As with the first games, you should create a final game that anyone can download and recreate based on your instructions and online materials (without any special tools or craftsmanship.)

I will update the remainder of the class schedule here shortly.

Web 2.0 Image Editing Software

Students often ask how they can edit images at home if they don't have Photoshop. I usually have recommended GIMP, which I have used with success and find quite intuitive. I have also seen books on using GIMP and I like some of its features. But I saw a great post recently that links to "Free Online Tools for Images and Graphic Design," which seems like the inevitable next step:

• Phoenix
• Pixer
• Pixlr
• Splashup

Good Places to Find Pieces

There are lots of great places online to find pieces. Here are some:

• Board Game Design
  Has a very good collection of game pieces.
• EBay
  More and more useful for finding pieces.
• Michigan Toy Soldier Company
  Has an excellent selection of small toy figurines, including soldiers, pirates, and gladiators.

Slicing up your image

In order to print out your game board image, you will probably need to slice it up into pieces, save the various slices for web and devices, and then insert the pieces into a Word document to print out.

Fall 2009 -- First Game Blogs

The Fall 2009 class size is a bit smaller, and we have five groups of three students each for the first games. Students were allowed to choose between a pizza box game or a grid game. Here are links to their team blogs as they develop their first game concepts:

• Flying Toppings
  A skill based pizza-box game that resembles shuffle-board with pepperoni and sausage.
  
  
• RU Rah Rah
  A game for Rutgers freshmen, who have to make their way to orientations on all four campuses to complete the game.
  
  
• Rainbow Five
  A strategy game like "Connect Four" but you have to get five different colors in a row to win.
  
  
• Quest for Dominance
  Four teams of pirates compete to find the treasure. Still in development (hence the non-pirate title).
  
  
• Field Goal Frenzy
  A flick football game with a dose of strategy.
  

Final Project Websites

Here are the websites of the five final games for the Spring 09 semester.

The Road to Rock
http://theroadtorock.weebly.com

The Riddler
http://theriddler.weebly.com/

Jungle Escape
http://junglescape.weebly.com/

Dooituhgen High School
http://dooituhgen.weebly.com/


I Bet You Can't!
http://ibyc.weebly.com/

First Group Games and Sites

Here are the five group games and websites from the first half of this term:

Serengeti: Hunt or Be Hunted
This was the most impressive looking of all the games, with a board as big as the Serngeti plain.

Pirate Pete's Booty
Rrrr and Shiver me timbers! This be a fun kid's game!

SAT Schoolhouse Shuffle
An SAT-preparation game for high school students. I was amazed that I could still answer some of the math questions!

Galactic Warfare
Sort of "Knightmare Checkers" (as opposed to Knightmare Chess) meets Battlestar Galactica.

Sink City
Four countries race to find Atlantis.