I'm not sure where to start on this, so I'll just begin. Maybe it will even turn into a rant. I've always enjoyed designing; I like to view myself as being on the creative side, with a fairly strong mathematical side backing it up. I believe that words, conveyed with passion and meaning, can be more powerful than even pictures and sound. Not to say that photos and videos aren't interesting, but when is the last time you were captivated by an engaging picture for hours on end?
Now lets take the potential of words and use them to create. It really doesn't matter what; it could be a poem, a story, a description of a chair. The idea is that words combined with inspired thought can become truly anything. This is the essence of design: take an idea, and make it happen. A single spark of thought can become an entire world like Middle Earth or Narnia. Now lets get to the best part: designing games.
But wait! Before I delve into it, lets get a little background going. Somewhere in Grade 6 is where it all really started for me. We had an assignment in English class to make up a story of whatever we wanted. This was the birth of my character Zenith (formerly Blade). He was strong, fast, and quickly learned Earth's ways, becoming a special unit in the military. I used my own ideas combined with inspiration from various books and movies to make a totally awesome short story of Zenith. I got a good mark, passed English, etc.
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| Zenith drawing, courtesy of my long-time friend Kim. |
The magic was that I enjoyed it so much, I continued on with the story and had a short trilogy before I knew it. It was a work in progress over several years and looking back on the first story, I could see how much my writing had improved. Despite this, the spirit of Zenith's saga remained just as powerful as when I first began to think him up. Now lets fast-forward a few years, lets say to January 9th, 2012.
INFR2330U. Game Design & Production 1. I've been excited about this class ever since I saw it on the academic calendar roughly a year ago. I found Dr. Nacke to be a very interesting individual and I personally quite enjoy his teaching style. I can't explain in words how refreshing it was to not be sitting in a big lecture room, struggling to listen to a professor drone on for three hours straight.
But enough said, lets get to the games! Our group of four played Infernal Contraption. Its a zany card game where the objective is to be the last player remaining with the card in their 'parts pile'. Each player is dealt an equal number of cards at the beginning, and the last player standing wins.
The way to achieve victory is in how the player builds their 'machine'. The machine is comprised of the cards a player places down; there are power sources, contraptions, consumables, upgrades, and a singular power core. The cards must be linked together with the proper connections (colour-coded) to add to the machine.
The game play comes from adding contraptions to the machines. Each turn, the player will 'activate' each contraption in their machine, each with its own effect, such as taking one card from the opponent's parts pile and putting it in their own. Upgrades and consumable help with these endeavours, while power sources help convert different connection colours to useful ones for the player.
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| A fairly simple machine in Infernal Contraption. 1-5 are in the 'main line' while the vertically stacked cards are called 'sockets'. Note each card is connected by the matching colours (purple is universal). |
There is a steep learning curve to the game, but once figured out, we were rolling through and having a lot of fun. As the game went on it became apparent that both which cards played, and their placement, had a big effect and certain strategies began to form. My own strategy was to place lots of 'siphoning' contraptions, to keep my parts pile supply up.
That's it for now, I'm looking forward to really getting into the design course. Every topic on the lecture list looks awesome, so I'm eager to get going.
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