The game I played was Uno by Merle Robbins. Uno is a card game, but can also be played online and is targeted towards people of all ages. The game works by dealing a hand of seven cards to each player, then the players take turns playing cards which have to match either the color or the number of the card before, the first player to get rid of all their cards wins. The game our team is creating, Mooney Ranch, is a card game where you draw cards which have abilities to take cows or protect your cows from being stolen. While both games require minimal skill to play but have some elements of strategy creating the aesthetic of challenge and fellowship, Mooney Ranch has more mechanics that let players more freely interact with each other evoking a stronger fellowship aesthetic and has a different goal than Uno .
Both of our games include the mechanics of playing cards that influence other players and a draw card mechanic which introduces an element of randomness to the game. Every card you play in Uno influences what the next person will play, if you play a blue seven, then the person after must play either a blue card or a seven unless they have a plus four or wildcard. This mechanic creates the dynamics of strategy since you have to manage your colors and choose which would be best to play in order to win, leading to the challenge aesthetic of the game. While playing the game, I choose the strategy of saving my special cards like skips, plus two/four, and wildcards since I believed that these cards would give me the best chance of winning when I was close to Uno/one card left. Similarly this mechanic causes the dynamic of retaliation causing repeat interactions leading to the aesthetic of fellowship. When I was playing the game, the special cards that more directly influenced another play such as the plus two/four or the skip caused the greatest sensation of fellowship and were the most fun to play. These special cards in uno are similar to cards our game like the outlaw which allows you to take a cow, the currency of the game used to win, from another player.
I save two wildcards demonstrating the strategy dynamic in Uno
Though both Mooney Ranch and Uno have the mechanic of playing cards that influence other players, in Uno the players can only directly interact with the player going right after them, whereas in our game you have the option to interact with any player playing leading to a greater fellowship aesthetic. One concern I have with this difference in mechanic is the increased difficulty to win in our game compared to Uno. In Mooney Ranch, if you have more cows than the other players you are going to be targeted by the rest of the players. In Uno this wouldn’t be possible since there is a more rigid structure. As I continued playing the game I also noticed the balancing of special cards to normal cards. While playing the special cards was the most fun, they were also the strongest cards and had to be balanced. In contrast in Mooney Ranch there are the same amounts of each card even though there are some cards which are stronger than others.
My hand consists of only one special card to five regular cards
The largest difference between Uno and Mooney Ranch is the goal of the game. To win in Uno, you have to get rid of all your cards before your opponents, on the other hand in Mooney Ranch the goal is to collect as more cows than your opponents by the time all the cards have been used. I noticed the strategies I used while playing both games were significantly different due to this. As mentioned before in Uno I tried to save my special cards, but in Mooney Ranch I found that I used my cards whenever there was an opportunity to prevent others from getting cows or help myself get more cows. I felt like this was due to the fact that since by playing any card in uno you passively work towards your goal of losing cards allowing me to save up the special cards which would come in during the final moments. In contrast in Mooney Ranch I had to be more active in using my cards to get more cows.
Both Mooney Ranch and Uno share many similarities in the style of game and mechanics, but gives player the ability to interact with any player they choose rather than a fixed rotation like in Uno. On the other hand, Uno has better card balancing ensuring that each card’s strength is matched by its rarity, which is something we could add into our game.
