Challenges for Game Developers

[Patrick Haller]

For everyone who wants to learn how to create games, there's a new
subreddit [2] that's working through the influential Challenges for Game
Designers [1] by completing a challenge every two weeks.

It would be cool to also get together every two weeks and discuss / play
the games that we're making.

For example, the first challenge was to create a game based upon the
idea of a race. I spec'd a real-world game of eating at a hawker centre,
where we want to get everyone back to the table quickly and with tasty
food, so the winner is the person closest to the average trip time.

Since someone could win by getting something cold fast and then waiting
for a little bit, the strategic version uses victory points (VP):
1 vp for being closest to average time
1 vp for each first unique hot dish
e.g. when two ppl get mee goreng, only the first back gets the vp
1 vp for being the only player to get something cold

This allows for two strategies, the typical "hot" food strategy and a
risky "cold" strategy. In the event of a tie, the winner is the player
who spent the least.

Anyone want to play? ;)


[1] http://www.amazon.com/Challenges-Game-Designers-Brenda-Brathwaite/dp/158450580X/
Starving students can also find a copy on libgen
[2] http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedesignchallenges

[Atamert Ölçgen]

Why is being closest to average time more valuable than anything quicker? 

For timings 1, 2, 3 & 5; the average is 2.75 and 3 gets the vp instead of 2 or 1.

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Atamert Ölçgen

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[Patrick Haller]

On 2013-12-11 12:16, Atamert ??l??gen wrote:
> Why is being closest to average time more valuable than anything quicker?

Good point. The game tries to coordinate players so that they all arrive
back to the table quickly and at the same time.

What happens when we go to a hawker centre? Imagine a google maps view
of a hawker centre visit: a group of people walk over to the centre,
then the group explodes to get foods, and then the group re-forms.

The game seeks to minimize the exploded group time while incenting
people to get a diverse selection of foods.


One part of game design is defining the goals of the game: what value
will be created, how will that value be split between players? Ideally,
we create games that help us and our friends accrue wealth in any of its
many forms (saving time, preventing headaches, repurposing resources).

The other part is making it fun to play. ;)