tablut revised

So last week we got to test are iterations for the board for my iterations I feel that they worked well and need a little more balance added. so my iterations (although I won't go into detail ) were to add a king piece (this was the one that worked well) and a barbarian army (which needs tweaking).
this blog is going to be a short one

A break from work a trip to the British Museum

Last Thursday we went on a class trip to the British Museum which is located in London the purpose of this trip you ask well the trip was to look at the existing and used board games mainly Sennett and Ur however they did have various other game pieces. what was even more interesting is that we were guided around by Irving Finkel who is an Archaeologist   and assistant keeper of the middle east department of the museum. So after that whirlwind tour around the game pieces we were left to our own devices and wondered around the museum I spent most of my looking around the exhibits mainly the witchcraft and Japanese exhibits which were both quite interesting(however there were still so many exhibits that I wanted to have a look at but never got round though...) although this was the first time I had been to the British museum i found it lacking something (I think this mainly due to the fact that I have stronger interest in natural history and science.) overall it was a good trip and it reminded me that there is only so much you can get from reading  you  need to go out and preform your own reaserch take this as advice  to anyone who  has ( unluckily)  stumbled across this blog

escape sennet

Last Thursday we played a reiterated version of Sennett called escape Sennett. This  version was different as it introduced a new mechanic of a monster piece and what this did was changed the mechanic of Sennett from being a competitive game to being more of a cooperative game because instead of playing against your opponent you now play against the monster piece. So what does the monster piece do well the monster piece is very limited when it comes to movement moving 1 along the first row an then move half of what the die had rolled and can't get past the river square. the other pieces objectives is to get of the board this can be done individually so that one piece move each turn or it can be stacked on to an opponent's piece meaning both players can move that piece. also 3 pieces of the same color will prevent the opposite color piece from moving.

Tablut

On Thursday we played a game called Tablut.  The aim of this game( for the white pieces) is to get their king to the corner or edge squares (depending on rules although corners is the more accepted rule.) and the aim of the black pieces is to capture and wipe out all the white pieces and prevent the king from entering the corner squares. each piece moves any amount of spaces (as long it is not occupied or special squares) either left ,right,up or down. The board is set up as so 8 white pieces and king placed in the center with the king on the throne square and 16 black pieces placed along the outside in groups of 4 this game can be played with any amount  as long as there is twice the amount of black to white pieces. e.g 12 white 24 black


Capturing 
Capturing is when a piece is trapped between the two pieces(vertical or horizontal)  of the opposite color example two black pieces on either side of white piece counts as capture however if a piece intentionally move between two opposite colors it does not count as a capture. The king piece can only be captured if it is completely surrounded by the enemy pieces also edges are also useful for capturing the king as they act as boundaries.


Special squares
Konakis or throne square is the starting square for the king once the king has moved he can't return to that square any other piece can pass through but not land on this square.
corner squares are inaccessible to every piece except the king.
also the center squares can only be landed on twice by the white piece  before the white has to move away from it

Duodecim Scripta

Duodecim Scripta  which translate to a game of twelve lines. the objective of the game is to get all 15 of your pieces onto the board by rolling the dice and which ever number is rolled you put a piece on the board ( stacking is allowed)  which start at "A" then to get all your pieces towards the end which is marked with an "E". Players roll 3 dice and can either choose to move 3 pieces each moving the value of the dice e.g 1 piece moves 2 one piece moves 4 and the last piece moves 6  or 2 pieces with the sum of 2 dice e.g i rolled a 2, 3 and  5  so i can add 2 to 3 or 5  or 3 to 5 and move a piece either 5, 7 ,8 then the other with the remaining die or I  can move one piece to the sum of all 3 spaces.

a single piece can take any opponent piece and vice visa unless they are stacked  stacking is when a piece lands on the same square so they can stack and move as one individual pieces stacks cannot be taken (unless you are playing Finkle's version which allows for bigger stacks to take smaller stacks).

also to get your pieces of the board you roll one dice to get the exact number you want.

The major flaw of this game is that it relies on luck in fact the major mechanic is luck. while luck it self is not a bad part of a game to much makes the game completely void of strategy. because the rules we played meaning stacks could not be destroyed made it so that any opportunity to stack was taken cause it is better to roll one die for 15 pieces than to roll a die 15 times for each piece. the game was changed first in to Tabula around the middle ages  then in to the modern game backgammon  with hopfully all the problems within this game fixed 

Ancient board games lets have a go

 On Thursday we played two ancient   board games the royal game of Ur and the game of Senet these games where both interesting however I feel that these games lack something. these games don't really have a story to them except to be used as representing the passing of the soul to the afterlife meaning that these games have. It also felt a little weird playing these games (even though these were just a paper games.) But what I mean is that it just interesting to know that pharaohs  and probably high priests were playing this game essentially (or theoretically) predicting their own soul passage through the underworld or teaching apprentices through this game play.

example of Ur image from http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/worldhistory/royal_game_of_ur/

What is a game?

Summary 

Well last Thursday we watched the TV show Games Britannia  episode 1 dicing with destiny.This documentary explains the origin of games in Britain starting with iron age games and also exploring the deeper meaning to games like snake and ladders. The most interesting part ( to me at least) is that games weren't always a scapegoat for some of the world's problems in fact games were used to determine outcomes and predict the future as well as finding enlightenment and were also played while waiting at churches and also how games (I guess you could say) got corrupted by gambling and being industrialized during the Victorian era.

Thoughts

(Well I figured this will be a better title because after watching this I had a lot of different thoughts and questions so  this is going to by 2 cents on the matter.)

So games did not always start of being a scapegoat for the media instead games were used as a way of explaining enlightenment ( Snakes and ladders) used for predicting the outcome of battle (Chess)

So playing games actually had use in ancient times but they were also used for recreation as well ( Nine men Morris being played while waiting in church). So this so that games are not as recent as people may think. It also brings a new field and understanding to studying ancient cultures  as well. 

So how does gambling and industrialization corrupt games? 

Well I feel that as long as there is a set of rules there must also be a set of loopholes within that system( I.E crooked dice card counting tampering with the pieces etc.) so gambling is not a new concept I also think that countless people have died over such trivial things as well. The reason why gambling corrupts games is that it makes the consequences of losing a game very real and destroys the escape from reality because your loss affects your real life possessions such as money or deeds to various properties and even your own life...

industrialization although a major benefit to the games industry ( By making games commercial) the major flaw is that like other industries it all became about money. so that is why there are lot of clone games or similar games out on today's market well the biggest example of this is the company EA as they buy out small but successful game franchises and have sequel upon sequel made. in hopes of earning more money the flaw with this is that most games turn out rushed and not worth the money because these games don't have the basic mechanic of games which to immerse a person to that game's world.

Medieval warfare is all fun and games or is it?

AGE OF EMPIRES II

One of my favorite games for the DS was Age of empires II: The age of kings  a  turn based strategy game that allows you to take command of  5 heroes/nations Joan of Arc( Franks ), King Richard I( Britons ) , Minamoto no Yoshitsune (Japanese) , Genghis Khan (Mongols) and Saladin (Saracens) The goal of the player is to either win via a skirmish  which allows the player to chose their difficulty their hero and map or via campaign where the player have to complete objectives for the various nations based on actual historical events.

So what can the game play be classed as?

Personally I would class this game play as Ludus as the only way to win is to fill in certain objectives such as make sure your general doesn't die or destroy all opponents units or win in a certain amount of days. However it is only this strict in the campaign mode where your objectives are based on the actual historical documents of the various heroes. But in the skirmish mode where you control most of the variables such as Map layout opponent AI & Difficulty toggle Fog of war Etc. This is also Ludus( meaning to play by objectives) because the only way to win is by destroying their opponent however it is not as strict as the campaign as it allows for the player to develop their own strategy and it is also dependent on what AI they picked and what difficulty level it is set to.

So what type of play is it

The most prominent  type of play is Agon (competition) as you are essentially fighting for your own units survival as well as be the first to find  and build on all the gold and food resources  be the first to rise though the ages and to research new technologies. The sole purpose of the game to defeat your opponent be it the AI or human player via the hot seating multiplayer option. So what other types of play does this game contain? Well I would say it contains elements of mimicry(simulation as you are essentially serving as the leader of the army or are you?  I say this because the game takes place in God view which means you are the overseer of the whole map (or the parts your nation has explored if you have fog of war on) and you control multiple units albeit one at a time but the turn doesn't end until you decide. So how does this show simulation? well instead of playing one role you can play multiple roles within the role of overseer for example you can either act as the fearless general leading your troops into battle or play as the general who values is town by staying on the town center using his/her skills to help benefit research or increase gold/food yield or decrease the cost of buildings. What I trying to say is that even if the player cant be physically represented in the game and depending on their own sense of imagination they themselves can take on the roles of these heroes and change them slightly to suit their own personal style.

Bibliography

the bibliography for  patterns in game design:

Bjork S & Holopainen J (2005) Patterns in games design Hingam MA: Charles River Media INC.

the bibliography for the games design reader a rules of play Anthology 

Huizinga.J (1955) "Nature and significance of play as a cultural phenomenon"
Salen.K & Zimmermen.E (ed.) Games design reader a rule of play anthology Cambridge MA: MIT press(Pp.96-122)

Journal bibliography 
Kyser. J & Texas A&M university & Sander.P  (2014)  Proceedings of the 18th meeting of the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Interactive 3D Graphics and Games Mechanics and characters (undated) Pages 7-14

Hello and welcome to my blog! 

Well now the greeting is done I guess I should tell you a little about my self. My name is George Davis and I am an aspiring games designer. (Although I haven't actually made a game yet...) I have spent the time studying  and now starting a games design course at University campus Suffolk. I have experience using  Maya and Photoshop now learning to use Unity and 3D studio max.

As part of this blogging assignment we had to interview each other so here are my answers to the 8 questions we were ask...

What is the title of the most recent fictional book you have read?

My most recently read book was NYPD RED 2  by James Patterson & Marshal Karp the book was the sequel to the previous NYPD RED (which i have also read). The book is about a special branch of the NYPD which focuses on solving high profile cases involving celebrities  politicians etc. This one is particularly interesting as the plot revolves around vigilante styled justice and makes you question whether it is right to take another person life just because they are evil. Or as the book puts it Do you think Hitler was evil in high school?

What is the title of the most recent non fictional book you have read?

The most recent non fiction book I've read is the computer design course book written by Jim Thompson Barnaby Berbank-Green and Nic Cusworth. This book is about  game design and core mechanics of  making a game and deciding what type of game you want to make. This is shown through out the book as it explains core mechanics such as difficulty curves, what defines a specific genre etc. This book also offers exercises which allows for practice such as drawing characters and level designs.(acts like a mini brief).

What is the last live music/theater/dance have you seen?

the answer to this one is short I haven't seen anything live because I am not interested in this type of thing .

what was the most recent film you have seen?

 The most recent film I saw was the guardians of the galaxy the film is about a a group of unlikely people who help save the world  the group consists of a human who is  a known criminal goes by the nickname star lord . A talking genetically altered raccoon known as rocket, a tree like alien called Groot and a bio weapon who is relate

How often do you read the newspaper ?

I read 2 papers form time to time mainly the Sun however I do like to read the metro as it is free in London and makes  commuting a little easier. The thing I like about the metro is that they have interesting articles and regular game reviews. however recently I haven't been reading newspapers .

When was the last time you went to a museum? 

The last time I remember going to a museum was the the natural history museum  to see the Charles Darwin exhibition. It was interesting to  see various creatures and how they differed form modern animals. 

How long do spend playing video games? 

If this question was asked before I moved to the hall of residents I would have said 20-24 hrs weekly but now I find that i haven't got the time or that i am bored of video games at the moment so now it more like 7-14 hrs per week if that. (however that might change when I get a copy of Super Smash
brother 4 3ds)

How long do you spend playing non digital games 

admittedly i should spend more time playing board games and card games as these are vital to a games designer as it allows for better understanding for game mechanics and interactions So i will say around 0-2 hrs weekly however the most recent non digital game I played was a card game called grave robbers which is set in the Victorian times where you decide whether to rob graves or not based on the objective cards you are given.

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