- Starts with a deck of cards being shuffled
- One player starts as the 'Grand Poobah'
- The game is played in rounds
- The Grand Poobah takes a number of cards from the top of the deck equal to the amount of players in the game
- They then distributes the cards, one to each player any way they like
- The cards represent a certain amount of points and a certain amount of votes:
Points
Red J, Q, K = 10 points
Red A-10 = 1-10 points
Black A-K = No points
Votes
Red A-K = 1 Vote
Black A-10 = 2 votes
Black J, Q, K = Three votes
- The Grand Poobah keeps score of how many points each player gets
- Players vote on who they want to be Grand Poobah in the next round
- The Player with the most votes wins the election. If there is a tie then the candidate closest to the left of the Grand Poobah wins.
- The player who gets to 70 points wins the game.
The dynamics of the game really makes it work. When you are the Grand Poobah you have to choose who to give the cards to and as the game goes on you try to make these decision as strategical as possible, to benefit you, or which might benefit you in the next round. It is easy to create alliances but just as easy to make enemies.
A massive component in the game is the negative feedback loop, this is very dominating. We found while playing its best to keep in between the middle and lower scores so that you do not rush ahead as other opponents choose not to give you any more points. When players do have less points they get a benefit from the opponents by collecting the highest scored cards. This stops people from getting bored of the game but is implemented too much which has an affect on the overall sense of achievement when you have the game handed to you, and is frustrating for the players that are taking the lead. This is very illusory as the games mechanics are not being changed but the players perception of where they are in the game is still manipulated.
The Dramatic Ark of the game has an undesired effect, instead of it sloping down it has a massive drop which i do like about the game and i think is different from other games. The game is unpredictable, players do not know who is going to win until the last move, and the instinct of the player to find a pattern is almost useless.
Iterations
We only made one iteration to the game. We did have a few more however unfortunately there wasn't enough time to implement them all. The one we did put into the game was adding hidden energy, these were 3 cards that players receive at the start of the game and they could use them instead of the ones they would get at the start of each round. You could only use them once and are hidden from your opponents.
We found this didn't really add much value to the game, it didnt make it more enjoyable to play and it kind of made the game a little unfair, for example i had all points which added up to 20 so i knew i only needed to get to 50 points an then as long as no one won within the next three rounds then i would win, and some people only had black cards which are no points.
The idea that i came up with at the last minute was only letting the Grand Poobah look at TWO of the cards that are drawn from the deck. No one else would be able to see anyone's cards until they are dealt out.
The Grand Poobah now can either gamble to take one of the cards he's seen or take one of the hidden ones for himself. From the two that he has seen, he's also able to choose who to give them ones to. I think that will give a good element to the game and will make the player feel less in control and hopefully dull down the negative feedback loop slightly but will not get rid of it completely because i also think it needs it.
Conclusion
I think this is one of the most enjoyable games we've played, and i also think there is a strange connection with this and the fact its difficult to find a pattern to use to play and feel that you have more chance to win, which is partly due to it being luck based. I wish we could have iterated more ideas that were floating about but its difficult to because you have to finish it to really grasp the drama at the end.
The Dramatic Ark of the game has an undesired effect, instead of it sloping down it has a massive drop which i do like about the game and i think is different from other games. The game is unpredictable, players do not know who is going to win until the last move, and the instinct of the player to find a pattern is almost useless.
Iterations
We only made one iteration to the game. We did have a few more however unfortunately there wasn't enough time to implement them all. The one we did put into the game was adding hidden energy, these were 3 cards that players receive at the start of the game and they could use them instead of the ones they would get at the start of each round. You could only use them once and are hidden from your opponents.
We found this didn't really add much value to the game, it didnt make it more enjoyable to play and it kind of made the game a little unfair, for example i had all points which added up to 20 so i knew i only needed to get to 50 points an then as long as no one won within the next three rounds then i would win, and some people only had black cards which are no points.
The idea that i came up with at the last minute was only letting the Grand Poobah look at TWO of the cards that are drawn from the deck. No one else would be able to see anyone's cards until they are dealt out.
The Grand Poobah now can either gamble to take one of the cards he's seen or take one of the hidden ones for himself. From the two that he has seen, he's also able to choose who to give them ones to. I think that will give a good element to the game and will make the player feel less in control and hopefully dull down the negative feedback loop slightly but will not get rid of it completely because i also think it needs it.
Conclusion
I think this is one of the most enjoyable games we've played, and i also think there is a strange connection with this and the fact its difficult to find a pattern to use to play and feel that you have more chance to win, which is partly due to it being luck based. I wish we could have iterated more ideas that were floating about but its difficult to because you have to finish it to really grasp the drama at the end.
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