1. Identify the basic elements in a game of your choice (actions, goals, rules, objects, playspace, players).
Game of choice: Ticket to Ride
Actions: lay tracks to claim routes, pickup train car cards, pick up new destination tickets
Goals: gain maximum points by laying tracks and completing routes for destination tickets
Rules: you can do one of 3 things each turn: (1) draw 2 train cards (either from the face-up cards or a blind draw from the deck); (2) claim a route by using the correct color of train cards and placing your trains on the board; (3) pick up new destination tickets (pick 3, you must keep at least 1)
Objects: train car cards, destination tickets, trains pieces, point tracking token
Playspace: game board
Players: 2-5; ages 8+
2. As a thought experiment, swap one element between two games: a single rule, one action, the goal, or the playspace. For example, what if you applied the playspace of chess to basketball? Imagine how the play experience would change based on this swap.
Games: Here to Slay and Azul
Element to swap: single action – challenging a move
Azul is typically a very reflective, strategic game. While there is opportunity to “sabotage” the other plays you spend a lot of time thinking about what tiles collections are ideal for you and what other players might need. If you wait another round to take your 3 red tiles will someone else take them because it aligns better with their goals? Is it worth it to take tiles that may misalign with your board but prevent someone else from gaining points? You think many turns ahead and weigh the pros and cons of the tile collections you take from the center. Here to Slay has plenty of reflection and strategy, but sabotage and interrupting other players’ game play is essential to the game. While there are many actions you might take to foil the plans of your fellow players, one is a challenge. You can place a challenge card on the table and roll to see if the player is able to make their intended move. You roll two dice, the higher roll wins the challenge. If you were to take this action and swap it over to Azul then Slay loses a very dramatic action – it would make it easier for players to play the cards they want and overall win the game. Taking out the challenge may save players from hating each other a little bit but it would shift the game to more silent strategies of betrayal. Azul, on the other hand, would become a little less reflective. If you had the ability to challenge the moves other players make, you no longer have to think as many steps ahead, you have a backup plan. If the tiles you need get picked up by another player you have the opportunity to block that and hopefully pick up those tiles at your next turn. It becomes a bit less reflective and more dramatic as we see in Slay.
3. Pick a simple game you played as a child. Try to map out its space of possibility, taking into account the goals, actions, objects, rules, and playspace as the parameters inside of which you played the game. The map might be a visual flowchart or a drawing trying to show the space of possibility on a single screen or a moment in the game.
4. Pick a real-time game and a turn-based game. Observe people playing each. Make a log of all the game states for each game. After you have created the game state logs, review them to see how they show the game’s space of possibility and how the basic elements interact.
Real-time: Mario Kart
- Starting line zoom start
- item box acquired, banana
- Player chooses right route, then center route
- Drifts edged and falls under water
- Magic carpet boosts
- Starts second lap, chooses left instead of right
- Throws banana to block red shell
- Gets blue shelled
- Chooses center route again, gets hit by moving table
- Goes unde water – collected item box from oyster
- Item gets stolen (ghost)
- Gets red shelled
- gets red shelled
- Moves to 3rd
- Collects 2 items
- Waits for player to get rid of bananas, throws red shell
- Center line, avoids moving tables
- Underwater to collect item, boost
- Collects coin, throws bomb
- Wins
Review:
- The maps are really fun and interactive, they over many possibilities of the tracks you could go on
- Items “spice up” the game but are not as fun when you are in first
- State possibility of being in first: not a lot of traffic but you will be receiving attacks; the items you get will be defense focused (ie banana, green shell)
- State possibility of not first: more interesting items, ability to use items to attack other players or for defense
- Environment influences how the karts move – ex speed up zones, sharp turns, flying, under water
- Game state can shift from first to not quickly if multiple attacks hit you
Turn-based: Hive
- Player 1 places spider
- Player 2 places spider
- Player 1 places ant
- Player 2 places beetle
- Player 1 places bee
- Player 2 places bee
- Player 1 moves spider 3 to pin bee
- Player 2 places ant
- Player 1 places ant
- Player 2 moves ant to pin bee
- Player 1 places ant
- Etc etc
Observations:
- Time between turns gets longer the deeper into the game as players think about moves more
- Players talk sometimes but not a lot
- Player 1 shocked when beetle moves from player 2 bee, creates jump in requirement
- Very pensive
Review:
- This is a game similar to chess – it involves a lot of strategic thinking and reflection
- Players are thinking multiple moves ahead
- Game state can shift to one person winning to another in just one move
