The game I chose to play for this critical play was Slapjack, a classic card game that could be played by families or friends with a target audience of ages 4+ and up. This game can be played with a standard deck of cards. The original creator is unknown, as it’s a traditional game with roots in 19th-century British games. In Slapjack, each player gets a set of cards which they can’t look at the values of. The objective is to collect all the cards by winning the center pile. Players take turns flipping the top card of their deck face up and placing it into the center, so everyone will see what card it is at the same time. Whenever a jack or a matching card appears, all players race to slap the pile as quickly as possible. The first player to slap the jack wins the entire pile and adds it to the bottom of their stack. If someone slaps the pile by mistake when there’s no jack, they have to give a card to the player who played the last card.
Slapjack is my favorite card game as it is never boring and is always testing both your reflexes and your focus. Some players are naturally quick and have lightning-fast reactions, while others try to anticipate when a jack might come up. My technique is to hover my hand just above the pile, so I can react quickly and lunge for the pile when I spot the jack or a repeating card. I’ve noticed that my friends who tense up under pressure often miss the jack/ repeat or slap the wrong card, which adds to the chaos and fun. The tension really ramps up when the pile gets large or when someone is running low on cards, since even players who are out of cards can slap back in if they win a pileI love seeing how competitive my friends get, and how unpredictable the game could be. However this also causes the game to last very long. The mechanics of Slapjack are simple, but the energy and excitement come from the fast reactions, the anticipation, and the friendly rivalry that builds with every round.
Slapjack is similar to the game my team is developing as they both are a physical card-based game.However, our game will also incorporate a stacking mechanic, similar to jenga, where players are stacking random objects in their house. In both games give players a random set of cards that can dictate their next move. In Slapjack, the unpredictability of when a jack will appear force you to adapt quickly, similar to our game, since the cards you draw determine what objects you must stack or what actions you can take. Both games depend on players to have both luck and skill, as the game requires players to react quickly to what’s in front of them.
One critique I have about Slapjack is it that those who want to win must have fast physical reflexes can sometimes exclude people who may have disabilities and have slower reaction times, making it less inclusive than games that rely more on strategy or creativity. A possible improvement could be to introduce cooperative elements, such as team play to keep the flow going. This remind me that for our game, we must be accommodating for everyone and prevent issues such as this from happening. Especially since our game requires a lot of physical activity, we must be mindful about different disabilities or things that may prohibit a player from playing to the best of their ability. Overall, playing this game helped me be familiar of some things to consider when designing a high tension and fast-paced game.
