Battle Royale Continuation, pt 1

...Last post was the outline of the game prototype for the Battle Royale game adaptation...
...This post was an attempt to elaborate on that and possibly expand on the idea of the prototype...

Last week was the team discussion that we all attended with regards to the prototype design, and as such a debate ensued to come up with some design options. Though the team agrees that it is feasible to continue on the current concept, some tidbits of aspect needs to be changed.

With regards to this problem some of the aspects that might need to be changed are:

• The map, since it is too plain and some aspects need to be elaborated even more
• The items, we discussed on what are the items that are going to be used in the game
• The cards, card design is needed, some basic background and some consistent themes are of the game
• The form of communication, one of the most crucial things to this game, as the game is mostly text based
• The special terrains, the map needs to have more of an elaborate terrain to be explored and gives certain pros and cons.

With the broad scope of possible expansion and addition to the game, the group has decided to split their tasks to elaborate more on specific problems. But the decision has been made by the group on what could make the game better.

For this part of the expansion, I helped in the creations of special terrains that with high chance of possibility will be included to the final game. It has been decided by the group that there would not be a bonus of the attacking or the defending capabilities of a player, it does, however, gives certain advantages and disadvantages to the player regardless of that.

Some of the special areas that need to be considered are:

• Water: doesn't allow the player to stay at the same square for two consecutive turns, doesn't allow the  player to go back to the spot they come from.
• Mountain/Hills: gives +1 Line of sight to the players, stackable with the Binoculars for a total of +4 Line of Sight
• Residential area: indicates the player of nearing danger between 2 blocks to his current position. It doesn't show where the exact area of danger is, though.
• Shrine: gives a passive +1 Health point regeneration.
• Lighthouse:  gives +2 Line of sight to the players, stackable with the Binoculars for a total of +5 Line of Sight
• Clinic: gives a passive +2 Health point regeneration, needs to be at least a 2 person party
• Farm Coops and Houses: lets the players hide, losing their hit point regeneration capabilities.
• Reef/Cliff/Beaches: must rest for at least one turn when the player reaches this spot.
• Building: Resting in the building, will grant them one ammunition for their ranged weapon
• School: permanent forbidden place, in use for the quest purposes.

These are the current possible special terrains, subject to change.

Prototype design: Battle Royale

The game idea that will be implemented is the game adaptation of Battle Royale, a board-and-text game to be created. The game would focus on the player being in part of the "Program" in which is required to be the last one to survive.

The game would consist of:

• A board for all of the players to see (Will be shown in the whiteboard or projected)
• A game master board to indicate the movements of each player and the position of the scattered items
• A small board for each player to be able to document the places themselves
• A set of cards as the weapons and special items for the game
• Tokens for counter of the ammunition.

The team (LinCheAn, alphablu3, verguzjansen, and me) would be divided to certain tasks:

• Production Leader (verguzjansen)
• Design Contributor (Alphablu3)
• Idea Leader (me)
• Documentation (LinCheAn & verguzjansen)

The game would use the image in the front of the novel as the main game board, with special tiles to be added, the special tiles will not help people to buff or debuff their players, rather increase their passive skills such as regeneration or line of sight.

Main map

A little snippet for the game:

• Objectives: Be the last player to live
• Character: The players would play as themselves, playing the "Program"
• Materials: 
• Printed A4 small maps for the players and the game masters
• Big Projected map for all the players to see
• A set of cards as weapons and special items made from thick paper

The players does not have any special powers or weaknesses, they do, however have been distributed a weapon or special item randomly.

Gantt Chart

Click to expand

Quest! - Battle Royale

Heard a little something-something that is called Battle Royale? If yes, good. If not, perhaps these images will let you know some sort of ideas:

Le Japanese Release Novel Cover

 Le French Release Theatrical Poster

Le Group shot of Wild Seven on the second movie of Battle Royale

Battle Royale is a novel by Koushun Takami, it revolves around the theme of high school students trapped away in a deserted island to kill each other just to survive. Due to the arising cult followers to the novel, several adaptations have been made, a total of two movies and three manga (Japanese comic) serial has arisen through this work.

...The novel however, has not yet created a spawn of their own game, which is why I intended to make one for this subject...

The game designed would be a text-and-board game with an addition of a factor of randomness just like they did have in the novel. It would consist of a main board and an individual player board to control of their characters' stats.

...Enough talk, I want to have some parts undisclosed right now, before I have to show it in the final session...

This week, the theme is Quest, in which I was tasked to design a quest for the game I was developing, and what I popped out is when Mimura (a character from the work) is actually scouring everywhere to find materials to build a bomb to destroy the command center of the "program", which almost results in a success if it wasn't for Kiriyama's intervention.

The bomb in this story, would possibly end up the ordeal all of the students are going through as of that time, as it is sufficient to destroy the command center of the "program" itself.

So the quest I am designing is:

- Create a bomb.

With the reward of:

-Instant Win.

Here's how it goes:

Bomb fragments are spread about somewhere in the map, these include: 

• Fertilizer
• Kerosene
• Charcoal
• Sulfur
• Pesticide

There would only be one of each items the map.

A player to an alliance of three can collect all these items separately and needs to be able to build it (building the bomb, the player(s) would be kept stationary and vulnerable to attacks without attacking back) for 2 turns.

After 2 turns, the player(s) need to bring the bomb back to the headquarters (school-zone) and detonate it for instant win, with the bomb, going to the headquarters won't be a violation of the forbidden zone rule (this applies to ONLY the headquarters zone).

The bomb could also be used to instantly kill a group of other players, if used in desperation of life-safety.

Should a bomb fragment be in a forbidden zone, that fragment is considered void and ultimately affect the validity of the quest too.

Mise En Scene: *You guess what*

So this week, rather than the design challenge with a theme, A Mise En Scene (I feel more... Intelligent now, using french and all) was the requirement. Mise En Scene is the visual thematic approach to a story, it does not contain any words but contain the major element of the story and all. We all gathered in a group (The usual: alphablu3, LinCheAn, verguzjansen and I), pick a particular person and portray those people without words, with only graphical images and implicit details.

We have decided to go with someone very famous, that is...Well, you have to guess...

Without further ado, the Mise en Scene has started:

City, probably some sort of a medieval-victorian era architect

 Dagger, doesn't ring any bell, does it?

House, is there any relationship between the girl and the lady? hmmm...

Heart, Love? Heartbreak? or the physical heart?

A guy, well, animated goodly, I guess.

 Lady on a sunset ledge, What a beautiful sunset! Does it has anything to do with something?

 Pen, Seriously, what is with the pen?

 The same guy and a girl? Do they have any relationship?

Knights Fighting, too bad they don't have lightsabers!

Suicide? Some death?

On the porch together, I don't know...

This is supposed to be a give away... who is this guy?

Had fun? If you have guessed it by now, congrats! If you haven't, redo it!

(...or scroll down to see the answers...)

PS. It's Romeo and Juliet, you just had to look, do you?

Review: Literature Time! Alice is Dead - Chapter 1 (2009)

Most of the people here would know Alice in Wonderland: yes, the story of this young lady Alice where she fell inside a rabbit hole and went to the magical place called Wonderland (*Spoiler*Which is actually just her dream, or is it?*Spoiler*). We all will know the characters that are portrayed in the story, there's Alice, there's the White Rabbit, the Queen, Mad Hatter, The Chesire Cat and others.

We would all somehow think that a game based on a children's movie back in the 1950s (and a book made much earlier than that) would then be somewhat created into a kid-friendly game, with all the minigames and educational scripts and some other kiddy stuffs.

But this game just proves everybody wrong... Enter:

Alice is Dead - Chapter 1

...With a title Alice is Dead, and the creepy background, there would be no way that this would end up being a kid-friendly game...

Alice is Dead is a mystery puzzle solving game that induces the minds of the players to the somewhat cryptic story behind the death of Alice. The point-and-click game starts with the mystery of not knowing who the main character is, and it smacks the face right up with the image of the skeleton of Alice.

Yes, that Lady... is Alice...

The game requires a lot of puzzle-solving that needs to be done and through it's somewhat blur gameplay, a lot of thinking is required. For instance you need to pick the lock on the blue door to go through the next phase, escaping the room via the box.

...Yeah, that kindof cryptic... I had to refer to the walkthrough for some parts also...

The goal of the game is to find out what is going on, and why did something happen, and that something got Alice killed, who is the main character that are stuck with Alice at that time?

It's all nothing but a mystery... which will unfold in time when the story progresses... and with the creepy background music playing... the ambient atmosphere of dystopia Wonderland, will enchant you in ways it may, or it may not supposed to be...

Play Alice is Dead - Chapter 1 in Kongregate Here!

PS. The main character is the bibirthawte, now you need to just unscramble it.

Mouse Lab: Review on Playtesting

So what I have to do is to have the previous design playtested, and I became the observer of the people playing the game... These are the results:

For observer to fill in
Game title	Mouse Lab			Observer		Dillan Martin
Location	JCUS Campus			Environment
Prototype version	1.0			Date		26, March, 2012
Key game elements intended to test: Game play, navigation, mechanics, aesthetics, challenges
Playtester type (tissue tester, peer designer, etc): Tissue tester & peer designer
Other testing data collected (video, photo, etc):
To tester: Please fill in the number that represents how you felt during play and feel afterward
I felt fun when playing
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel the game’s premise exciting
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel the controls make sense
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel the story enhance play experience
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I can find information needed on the interface
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I felt confused about the navigation
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel the game play too long
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel the game play too short
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel want to play again
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel the game concept is impressive
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel that the game play is simple and easy to understand
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel that the game play need much improvements
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel that that game is not challenging enough
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel that the game is potential
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel that the game is suitable for everyone
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree
I feel that the game is suitable to develop on other platforms
Strongly Agree		Agree	Neither		Disagree		Strongly Disagree

From my own prespective, this game could have gotten better if it wasn't developed in a small-scale prototype, something such as a computer-based game should be fitting towards this, since the movement of the cat is fixed and the line of sight needs improvement... And to note that the difficulty of the game is somewhat too hard, this needs to be a little softened upon, increasing the range for the mouse to spot mousetraps I think is one of an important thing to do.

Draft Design #3: Escape!

Theme of the week is: Escape!

...and through another collaboration with alphablu3, LinCheAn and verguzjansen, We have came up with something special, what we would like to call: Mouse Lab!

...And Voila, once again!

...not that in any sense the map shown above you makes sense at all at this current time, but, here comes the explaination.

The story of the game is about a mouse being trapped in a labyrinth (note: Lab stands for Labyrinth, not Laboratory). Inside the big labyrinth, the mouse needs to find pieces of cheese that are scattered around in the place somewhere. Using their keen sense of smell, the mouse could identify which squares contain the cheese and this has been indicated with the slightly-orange-shade-of-yellow on the map above. After gathering all the cheese, the mouse needs to go to the mouse hole indicated in dark blue on the map.

...That sounds quite straightforward isn't it? and it's not going to get any harder somewhat, it's just a mouse gathering cheese...

That's where we spruce things up, there would be 2 obstacles that halts the mouse in their search of the golden cheese; enter: Cat and Mousetrap.

Simple rules put upfront, the mouse will die if the mouse touches a cat or a mousetrap. The difference between these two are that the cat are able to move one or two steps every time the mouse move.

...That is still quite simple, isn't it? Just need to avoid the cats and the mousetraps, they would be clearly indicated in the map, aren't they?

That's where the things got even harder for the mouse....

The mouse is only limited to 4 line of sight radius for cats, so he may not know where and when the cat might show up. And a staggering 2 line of sight radius for mousetraps. These are in for the surprise and difficulty factor for the mouse...

Think you can have what it takes to be the mouse?

Well only if you can solve this:

Voila... THE COMPLETE LAYOUT OF THE MAP, with the traps and cat paths and everything.

The point is that the complete layout is the only thing the players would not see, the masters of the game define the location of the cat and the mousetraps and tells them to the player. which will then take preventive measures to make sure nothing bad is going to happen to the mouse.

Regardless, this game will be up for playtesting some when in the future.