Pervasive Games

Pervasive Games are games you play in real life a great example would be the movie we saw La Decima Vittima in Eddie's sessions, and another example would be Battle Royale and The Hunger Games where you fight in a death/survival game, where you as the player your objective is to hunt down your opponents (Other people) until you're the sole survivor.

Design Document

Game Scenario

The version of Senet I created is called "Death & Afterlife" and the goal of the game is to reach all five human pieces with a dice of one to six to the finish (Afterlife). The first player to move all their human pieces (souls) to the Afterlife (End) wins the game.

Game Board

The game board is a shorter version of the game Senet, as it has three rolls of four. I designed the board to be a short adventure for the dead to travel to the afterlife, but not without penalites and other mechanics such as the Egyptian symbol of Anubis increasing the playlength of the game.

Penalty Square

Where player pieces are judged before entering the afterlife (Finish).

Anubis had a important role as the Guardian of the Scales, that weighed the hearts of decreased souls, Caroline Seawright "It was here that Anubis, as 'He Who Counts the Hearts', watched over of the weighing of the heart and the judging of the deceased." (October 8, 2001).

Invulnerable and Rebirth Square

This square is where player pieces attain eternal life, and the square near the start where the player pieces go back after failing to get into the afterlife.

The Ankha which is also known as the breath of life, the key of Nile or the Cux Ansata.

The Egyptian symbol represents many different aspects of life such as eternal life, Kristen Wilkerson "Its meaning represents aspects of life itself, such as "zest for life", "eternal life", or "future life". The reason for this interpretation is because the loop is the perfect symbol having neither a beginning nor end and stands for the soul which is eternal because it has sprung from the spiritual essence of the Egyptian gods." (August 1, 2009).

Start Death Square

This square is where the players deceased humans (pieces) all begin.

Finish Afterlife Square

This square is reserved for the player pieces that have made it to the afterlife, after passing Anubis's scales of justice.

Game Pieces

The player has five human deceased pieces and that relates to the theme of the game (Death and the afterlife) as these pieces represent what ancient Egyptian citizens may have looked like during these times. Ancient people having short black hair and white clothing that look like dresses.

With pieces like these its important to know if they're safe to use. These pieces are made of wood and the same size as pawns (2 x 1&1/4) from a chest board, and not recommended to be near children that would swallow them.

Dice

Players will have one dice number of one to six to play with to move around each turn.

Assets

10x human pieces

1x game board (8x10)

100x Cards

2x dice

Gameplay

The game mechanics will require the players some strategic thinking, using the dice based on luck to advance throughout the game. This would give the player a sense of tension against their opponent, and a sign of relaxation after their desired number has appeared on their dice roll.

The game only lasts for ten to twenty minutes depending on how lucky the player, or the opponent is with their number of rolls to achieve their end goal (Afterlife).

Games Britannia Part Three - Joystick Generation

We return to the finale of the documentary series of Games Britannia part three Joystick Generation.

This time round part three covers the topic of hard physical copies, and digital games and the impact it has on our society. The episode first starts off slowly but gradually it builds itself up to finally show the viewer of a popular video game during "their" time as there are other games that have now surpassed it in popularity wise and etc.

Though watching through it covered many great games such as Tomb Raider and Little Big Planet. In one part of the interview he gave a question on what they would like to create and they replied back with Saints Row 3.

It was a great documentary and one to certainally remember.

La Decima Vittima

So one day we saw this strange film called La Decima Vittima which was one of these "That its so bad its good" kinds of things. Though to be honest it was quite hilarious aswell, as it had the entire class laughing too.

So the movie is about one assassin to try and survive from another assassin and the sole surivior of "The Big Hunt" becomes really wealthy and has the chance of retirement. Though throughout the movie you see them killing each other but somehow coming back to life like it was nothing? The deaths were just really confusing overall but really funny too.

Overall though it was great enjoyment.

Tweaking Ancient Games

So we were tasked with tweaking one of the three ancient games we played in class, and I went ahead picking Senet as I liked it the most out of the three games of old.

My first iteration was to remove the sticks movement mechanic as it was kinda confusing, and to simply replace them with a dice number one to six for the player to move round, which was to say the least highly sucessful.

While I added in a battle mechanic to make the game more engaging, and of course to bring alittle bit of the competive side out. While developing this mechanic and giving it a test run with people I ran into a few problems.

During my second iteration I fixed the problem by only allowing the players to fight one piece, if they do not have the same amount of pieces their opponent has on the same square. Its only when they both have the equal amount they fight all whatever number they have one that square. It was sucessful after having people replay it again.

On the third iteration I removed most of the Egyptian symbols on the board, but to only replace them with new ones that kept the spiritual (Death and afterlife) aspect of the game. I moved them to different locations on the board to make things more interesting. Though of course I found a problem within these symbols I placed down onto this playing field.

The next iteration was the fourth where I deicded some cards had to be created or the Anubis judge of the scales would completely be irrelevant, and the Ankh Eternal life symbol would be really game breaking. So if the player answered correctly he would gain eternal life for one turn so that no players would be able to kill their piece. As for Anubis if you answer correctly you can enter the afterlife, but answer wrong your soul is destoryed and you're sent to the Second Life symbol (Near the beginning of the game).

After test running this it was sucessful.

British Museum Trip

Once the coach ride ended I and my fellow classmates found oursevles outside the enterance of the British Museum, and of course to top it all off with a tour guide aswell to show us round the place and etc.

Though I did not show much interest I was itching to look round the place myself to look at old ancient artifacts from the past. History is quite a interesting subject isn't it?

Games Britannia Part Two - Monopolies & Mergers

Continuing where we left off.

Part two of the documentary series is about the history of the game Monopoly which is at least over one hundred years old, and its quite outstanding and mindblowing how these board games can stand the test of time.

During that time Monopoly was called "LandLords Game" and it was solely created as a learning tool, and since that time it was redevelop and created into the famous board game most people know about today, Monopoly.

So far my interest has been sparked ever so more.

Ancient Game - Tafl

Another ancient game which goes by the name of Tafl which is a strategy board game from the Vikings in 400 A.D. The game is asymmetrical and has a odd number of squares on each side, and a certral square where the king inhabits with eight pieces as his defenders opposing the three attackers from each direction.

If a player is playing as the defenders then their goal is to take the King to the borders of the game inorder to win. If the player is playing as the attackers they object of the game is to surrond the king, preventing him from reaching the corners.

While playing the game myself it was pretty easy as the defenders to reach the king to the corners, the rules were really simple and overall the game just didn't feel like a challenge at all. I suppose it didn't really strike much interest me.

Also the pieces could only move in horizontally or vertically but it reminded me of chess and checkers.

Ancient Game - Tabula

Another game of old like Senet though I did not enjoy this game as much as I did with Senet. The game Tabula which means plank or board in Greek. In this game you have both players with fifteen pieces and three dice which you roll each turn.

The rules were simple as that of Senet's and you could do tactics such as block the player from progressing forward, pushing the player back by hopping on the same square as them or defending one of your pieces by having two pieces on the same square.

The playing value of this game for me is quite low, I don't think I would play this game ever again as I didn't like it very much.

Ancient Egyptian Game - Senet

Once class began we were given the great opportunity to play the ancient Egyptian board game Senet. It was quite a fun and lovely game with simple rules that a five year would even be able to comprehend, though the mechanic were that of sticks the player threw to determine how far one would move on the playing field.

During the game I came up with a few tactics such as moving pieces together to block the enemy, escaping penalites by moving other pieces in the back and taking out the opponents pieces.

To say the least it was truly amazing how a game thousands of years old managed to stand against time itself, and still be played by many gamers and inspiring/future game designers today.

Games Britannia Part one - Dicing with Destiny

After watching the three parts documentary series Games Britannia Dicing with Destiny, which was shown on BBC it covered many interesting topics about different types of games.

The first part of Dicing with Destiny were about games of old (Ancient games). What was even more interesting is that some of these games had links towards religious stuff, such as the well known game snakes and ladders which originated in ancient India, the game being about spiritual enlightenment.

Dice was even banned as it was associated with gambling which the chrunch deemed as evil, but this did not stop people from doing it in secret or just finding an alternative dice mechanic.

Its amazing to learn how games had such a impact on the past and to be used to make important decisions to predict a outcome of a battle.

Caillois's terminology - paidia / ludus and alea / ilinx / agon / mimicry

Caillois's terminology - paidia / ludus and alea / ilinx / agon / mimicry

• Ludus implies to the rules

•  Paidia indicates to enhance it

 Caillois Different Plays

• Agon

- Games based round competition such as Blazblue

• Alea

- Games based round chance such as Fate/Extra CCC

• Mimicry

- Games based round simulation such as Pocket Academy

• Ilinx

- Games based round vertigo such as Napalm of Valor: Helicopter Cacophony 3

Personal Thoughts

I think that Caillois's terminology of different groups would be helpful for our future career as game designers once we hop into the gaming industry, though it would likely be a pain for game designers-trainees that already know the terminology to relearn about it.