This week we were given the assignment to create a playable paperback game in 24 hours.
We were told to choose an already existing game and duplicate the player experience from that game. To do this we had to analyze what we liked about it, what was the games essence, and cut it out of the game and turn it applicable in a paperback prototype of that game. For example: one team chose tetris, which to them was a timed challenge experience.
We chose snake. For me, Snake was a game about growing longer, and it felt amazing to see yourself grow. However our team decided on making a tabletop game about becoming your own doom under pressure.
We drew ladders on an A3 paper, and constructed ropes that the player could place between the ladder to move between them. This was vital to the game.
There were four ladders on the paper. At the top of each ladder was a letter, starting from left to right A,B,C,D. At the bottom of the ladders were colors, Blue, Red, Pink and Green. The player draws two cards, and gets assigned a letter and a color. During thirty seconds the player places ropes between the ladders in order to make the avatar move between them. The avatar has to cross the first rope it comes into contact with. When the thirty seconds are up, if the avatar can not move to the color it was assigned, it’s game over.
After the player has scored 5 points, one for each level complete, and one for each bonus point gained, the player has to guide two avatars to two separate points on the board.
All in all we didn’t succeed in recreating the snake experience, but we had an extremely good time, and we all felt pleased with the game we had, disregarding snake. It was an entertaining game that did get harder the more you played it, which is what we set as a goal.
As Adam left the island we had no more lectures in Game Design and Analysis but we still had plenty to do with our essays. We are all struggling and maintaining different teams to complete our tasks, and most of us seem to be enjoying ourselves.