January 11

Today in class, we had two speakers come in and talk to us about board games and some of their processes they use.  Throughout the whole presentation, I learned two very different things.  One in a broad generalality, that if you want to do something, start doing it, but don't quit your day job over it. Something can be fun, but you need to be able to apply it to your daily life, and make a living out of it.  The second thing that I learned was in regard to our final project of making a game.  We should focus on a theme of a game, and then from there go and try and make a game out of it.  Usually doing some sort of spin off of a game or two and trying to incorporate the two of them into one unique game.  Those were the two biggest things that I learned out of the presentation.

After the lecture had finished, we were able to play a game designed by Phil (I believe).  I do not remember the name of the game we played, but it was teaching kids how to color coordinate, and identify figures, and matching them together.  The game was fun, but you could clearly see that the game was designed for a younger audience.  With 6 players playing at the same time, we ran out of cards and the game ended sooner we thought it would.  When it wasn't really your turn it was easier to lose track of what was going on and look at your phone or get distracted talking to someone.  When we were playing for points it really became a competetion to get the most points and find the spots that would work the best.

After his game, I got taught a game called Carcassonne.  The game was really fun, and kept my attention the entire time.  It is a tile game, and while laying the tiles down, you could get points and eventually win the game.  The rules were easy to follow, but when it came to the points aspect of it, I was confused, but that I will learn later on.  This game focuses more on a community aspect, trying to work together, but at the same time allowing yourself to win and get ahead.  Because of this game experience in class, I am actually going to take it home tomorrow night, and learn how to play it better so I can teach it to my classmates.  I loved this game because it was short, simple, and really anyone can play it.  I had a ton of fun playing it.