Playtest 1 Unit 2

     I was able to playtest/review three games. I was unable to playtest Group 6’s game as when we conducted the playtesting their materials weren’t posted. I was able to playtest the games of Group 12, Group 3, and Group 11. I thought it was interesting how different everyone’s paper prototypes looked, based off of the desired player demographics, theme, and game type that everyone was given. I think it is interesting to see how people had to design the prototype with the limitations that our online class has. Everything had to be either printable through a PDF so that meant people had to be more cognizant of what they were designing and if they didn’t have a traditional game board drawn up, being very specific on what the gameboard or player cards looked like. For example my game comes with a blank marshmallow template that people can print out so they can draw and personalize their own marshmallows so it reflects what gear they chose or their own personal design choices. We also have gear cards that add different abilities or effects that change how the player can play the game, how effective the damage they deal is, or how much health they have. 

The Game whose formal evidence I will be reviewing is Group 3’s game: Bake and Take.

• Objectives:

The objective of this game is to complete the recipes before the other players. 

• Resources:

In this game the resources at your disposal are the recipe cards, the game board which holds the appliances so the players can process the ingredients, and the ingredients tokens themselves which players earn through rolling the dice, and at the beginning of the game. 

• Players:

  In this current iteration of the game, there can be up to four players. 

• Rules:

The rules of this game are very clear. To progress in completing the recipes of the game one needs to gather ingredients and process and prep a recipe. This game explains each section of the rules in a way that is very easy to reference back to when the game gets confusing or you forget what number you are supposed to be rolling for.

• Procedures:

The procedures in this game are fairly simple. A majority of this game’s action or inaction is decided by a dice roll. The players roll the dice and use the numbers to pick how many ingredients they choose. The players also roll the dice so they can process the ingredients to complete their recipes. 

• Conflict

The conflict in this game comes from the fact that you are trying to complete both recipes before the other player. The goal of this game is to beat the other player before they are able to complete their recipes either by stealing ingredients or by just having the luck of rolling better and having better luck picking ingredients.

• Boundaries:

The boundaries of this game world are the gameboard and pieces.

• Outcome:

The outcome of this game is essentially random, it’s based off of the dice rolls so it is more luck-based than skill. One can strategize on how to best optimize the rolls or the usage of ingredients but that isn’t helpful if the player keeps rolling poorly with their physical dice or has rng with their dice-rolling app/website.