Design Iteration and Ideation
- Hiding information from players (storing state and tracking with RFID)
- Collaborative play against on-board AI
- Goal for the board, different goal for players
- Resource allocation?
- Collaborative survival
- Tracking HP / status effects (visible/invisible, traps) / scoring
- 2-6 bear game
- Shop mechanics
- PVP battles where calculations are laborious
- Scotland Yard: One player "Mr X" has their location hidden from the other, "detective" players, who are hunting Mr X
- Nintendo Land - Luigi's Ghost Mansion: Similar to above, but one "Gold Ghost" player is hunting the other players
- Settlers of Catan: Players trading resources with each other (and with static merchant ships) is encouraged and almost required for success
- Spirit Island (/ Desert Island): Players play as spirits of the land and try to ward off the Invaders (who play autonomously i.e. by the rules)
Max: The game has to feel like a normal table-top game, rather than a video game. Any AI we make should be in the form of a GM, not a player, and a human GM should be able to take its place (though they may have complex rules to calculate)
Gabe: I think if we limit our hardware to rfid, servo motors and maybe some computer vision (I am unfamiliar in depth cv) then our chances of our project working well is much higher. I'm going to veto anything that's analogue.
A board with integrated technology could be expensive. A key design consideration for us could be how to make a more general board that is a platform for many different games.
- We wouldn't need to actually design any more than one game for the board, but a generalised board would nonetheless be a useful proof of concept.
- This would also allow us to make different maps for our Dracula's Castle game.
Friday 23rd August Physical Token Interaction options
• Any time a player puts a piece on a sensor, the game attempts to read it and perform the action immediately
o Players cannot move pieces around for planning
o Mistakes/accidental placements are pushed through immediately
o Definitely a very bad idea
• Players can use e.g. a button to switch between two modes, one where the game does not attempt to read pieces, and one where it does and moves all moves through immediately
o Allows players to do their turns quickly, without constantly pressing a button to push moves through
o Also allows players to move pieces around the board freely
o Could still result in players making a mistake in their moves that then can’t be undone
o Possibly not super intuitive? Would also need to show which state it’s in
• Players can move pieces around the board without the game trying to read in the tokens until the players press a button to confirm the move
o Always allows players to move pieces around freely, without keeping track of anything else
o Requires the most interaction on the players’ part to put moves through (2-3 per player turn), however perhaps not that different from a vampire player asking for confirmation of moves from the other players regularly
Problem cases
o What if, while moving pieces around the board for visualisation, the players forget the piece’s position, resulting in them attempting to make an illegal move?
o Don’t tell them anything other than that the move is illegal and laugh at them until they make a legal move
o Display which room a player is in when it is their turn, so the information is easily visible
o Or display legal move options before the player moves, but that seems like overkill
o Display the room the player should be in and/or their legal movement options when the player attempts to make an illegal move
o Just say “lol I’m gonna let you make that move even though it’s illegal”
o Having named rooms probably makes this a way easier problem to handle