Week 6- Cards!

1)  “Your rules actually do not have to cover all possible cases, if covering those cases would add too much to the length of the rules”( James Ernest, Writing Effective Rules: page 6, Brevity) This is part of rulemaking I struggle with the most. Being short and sweet to the point. I struggle with good and bad information. We want the player to understand and get excited after reading the rules so prolonging them can confuse and already put negative bias towards playing the game. So the understanding of making the rules unnecessarily complicated and making them simple is the ultimate goal. I thought “The Crew” in class overcomplicated the rules. I must say that the didn't feel as hard as everyone thought it was I just thought the explanation of the rules was bad. The book felt too complicated and tough to get through. But the gameplay made it easier to learn.

2) Part of the fun of games is how they generate interesting challenges by forcing us to overcome limitations on our actions or resources. (Macklin and Sharp (Ch9 conceptualizing)page: 6) I feel this is the most important objective in the game-making process. In my opinion, I like a challenge and it makes it better when the game forces you to think critically. However, it can be too much. If too hard can feel complicated and people only play it when they want to think. So maybe there a scaling difficulties? In class, we saw this with "The Crew” This game was cool but for some people the skill level was high. Turning off most people and their attitude toward the game. I think there is a balance between skill and players. having the skill range too high and too low can both be problematic. 

3) "The prototyping and internal playtesting process might reveal a new design value." (Macklin and Sharp (Ch10 Prototyping) Page: 1) I really agree with his statement above. the play-through is my favorite way to get hands-on with a game. I like it in two ways: A) I am a visual learner and understand better with a hands-on activity.  therefore playing the game and learning along the way is way better than reading the rules and being ready to go for the game. B) Next is that when playtesting a new game we can see the flaws and kinks in the game when playing it firsthand. I also think it is important to think of yourself as a player and not a developer to get rid of any bias that might come. Another great point is you can get a judge of the game and strategy by acting as a player. You can answer a lot of questions by playtesting.