Tabletop Game Process-"01 Exploration"

It's a long way away before we can even start our actual game designs for our tabletop games but in the mean time we're starting out by experimenting with and exploring the different games out there to get an idea of what we can do with our games eventually and what we should look out for and avoid. So here's a list of some of the games explored by myself and others so far:

Game 01- "Bad Grandmas"

Range in Complexity- The game is easy to learn and play. It helps that the whole game can be understood by reading just one page of rules, movements, and how the game mechanics function. The goal of the game is simple: Each player selects a card from the deck and puts it face down. They then turn it over and whoever has the strongest card (based on the points established on each card) wins the round. Whoever has the most points by the end of the game wins.

Design- The design of the cards is readable and stylish. Each Grandma card is comedically illustrated and unique so it adds some flavor to the game.

Print Out Difficulty- Not hard what so ever. It shouldn't even take ten minutes to cut out the whole thing since it's just a basic deck.

Like or Dislike- I liked the game and found it fun to play with my friends. It enjoyable as well to just sit and watch others play it. It's also a quick game to play if you're into fast paced gaming. The first game I played with a classmate lasted less than 8 minutes.

Bad Grandmas

Game 02- "12 Realms"

Range of Complexity- Medium. There are a lot of rules and moves to remember. This isn't the type of game for anyone who doesn't want to have to play for a long while and keep track of their character's skill points and other necessities.

Design- The design of the game is actually visually striking. The map, character cards, Dark Lord cards, tokens, etc. are all detailed and eye-catching and fit with the theme of the fantasy style battle/adventure game of 12 Realms.

Print Out Difficulty- There are a lot of pieces to print out and cut. The amount becomes even larger if you use more than one Realm map.

Like or Dislike- I didn't like the initial game because my friends and me literally spent more time reading the game rule manual than we would actually playing the game itself. Also, some of the rules need some slight editing as they might be confusing to read at first.

12-Realms

Game 03- "Unbound- Endless War"

Range of Complexity- Easy to learn and definitely fun to play. After doing a couple rounds with another player the game becomes better understood and then the real fun begins as you try to take each other's bases

Design- Most of the pieces are simple hexagons with space areas, events, and base designs illustrated onto them. The smaller token like pieces serve as the units which you'll use to move about the hexagon plane as the game progresses and eventually use them to battle against the other player's units to take over their base. There's even a card for each player that has an simple list of the rules and card actions you can take during your turn in the game.

Very considerate to design a mini-rule page for each player.

Print Out Difficulty- Easy. There are a number of pieces but they're not hard at all to cut out since everything is basically the same shape. Time to cut out everything should be less than 10 minutes.

Like or Dislike- The game is really fun once you really get into it and try to outsmart and strategize your opponent. My friend and me played a game that lasted almost an hour because we were having a good time with it. It's just a good game too play too if you like to be competitive and use simple strategies.

We started like this...

 And ended with this. 

I won by making it to my friend's base with a number of my little units as seen here. This is actually a good example of what a gradually progressed game should look. The turned over hexes here are ones which can't be revealed until you move a unit to that piece FYI.

Hexit-strategy

What did I learn so far?

• Keep your game simple enough that a player doesn't find it too much too handle.
• Don't have so many rules that you end up spending more time trying to understand them all or remembering them than actually playing the game.
• Give the player the ability to make a certain number of choices within the game to keep it interesting. For example: Give the player the chance to manipulate the game board in a small way like moving pieces around or adding a piece to it to give them an advantage. The Endless War game was good with this.
• Make a game fun! You shouldn't have a game where the player just wants it to end because of sheer boredom.
• DON'T MAKE YOUR GAME RULES HARD TO UNDERSTAND. It shouldn't be a mystery to read through a gaming manual and have to interpret everything.