Our activities this week with card and board games really put an emphasis on the delicate balance of all the parts of a game that is required for an optimal gaming experience. Fullerton points out these different parts in the reading: players, objectives, procedures, rules, resources, boundaries and outcome (Fullerton, 2019). It was interesting to see this played out while playing games in class and changing one of the rules. In my first game, Exploding Kittens, we changed some of the rules that took away elements of fairness and made the game more chaotic and frustrating.
It is also very interesting to see how different analog games get players to be more invested with the premise of the game. While this is typically easier to point out in video games, with board and card games it is sometimes more subtle. Fullerton describes that “The base-level e ect of the premise is to make it easier for players to contextualize their choices, but it’s also a powerful tool for involving players emotionally in the interaction of the formal elements” (Fullerton, 2019 pg 45). I found the premise of Secret Hitler to be especially effective in this area. It took the historical context of the rise of fascism and political contexts and turned it into an immersive experience within a game full of strategy and deceit.
I hope to effectively incorporate this balance in my first project where I plan to combine the rules of fairly basic traditional games (checkers and original card games like war) and a more immersive premise and/or story behind the set of rules and mechanics in the game. It seems to be more difficult to do so with analog games considering you cannot animate characters and add dialogue to tell a story, but some games have achieved quite engaging player experiences with analog games (such as Secret Hitler, Midnight Ultimate Werewolf, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Coup, etc). I am hoping to achieve a medieval aesthetic with my design that will play into the already seemingly royal nature of traditional playing cards and combine it with rules that set up a procedural rhetoric reflecting upon the political actions of medieval times.
Works Cited:
Fullerton, Tracy. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, 4th Edition. 2019.
Facts! I think without even realizing it, I always engage in analog games more when the premise or the context is more apparent. For example, Secret Hitler has a pretty cool looking pieces and board design which causes me to engage more in the game. It would not be the case if we are just using pieces of white paper instead of cards. I also agree that analog games can only create premises through static arts and physical objects which have their own benefits and drawbacks.
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I agree that analog games are a lot more subtle in getting players interested in the premise than video games are. However, in a way, analog games make it easier to have players feel truly like they are part of the premise. While video games provide more detailed premises and making the premise more lived-in, the details also serve to emphasize the line between fiction and reality, not to mention that rules are a lot more strict due to programming. On the other hand, analog games tend to illustrate premises through its set pieces, but the premise itself is not very detailed and allow freedom of imagination, allowing players to easily insert themselves into it. In addition, since there is no programming to enforce rules, the use of “house rules” makes the customization of analog games much easier.
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