[game_edu] game_edu Digest, Vol 67, Issue 9

[Michael Lubker]

Challenge Games' Warstorm might be worth a look.
http://apps.facebook.com/Warstorm

~M

On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 6:02 AM, <game_edu-request at igda.org> wrote:


> Message: 2

> Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:54:04 -0700 (PDT)

> From: Ian Schreiber <ai864 at yahoo.com>

> Subject: Re: [game_edu] Looking for articles,   books or other stuff

>        based on porting board  games to videogames

> To: IGDA Game Education Listserv <game_edu at igda.org>

> Message-ID: <777784.72114.qm at web39705.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

>

> Hi Carlos (and anyone else who might be interested),

>

> If you were talking about making a board-game version of a video game

> (digital to physical), I should shamelessly plug "Challenges for Game

> Designers" which has a chapter devoted to that topic.

>

> If you're going the other way, making an online version of a physical board

> game, I don't know offhand of any articles but I do know a few basic

> concepts:

>

> Basically, the design of the game mechanics is already done, but that

> doesn't mean you can fire your game designers :). Rather, it means your game

> design tasks must focus on UI.

>

> What makes a good digital UI for a physical board game? In general, it

> mostly involves simplifying the game interface with the goal of making

> gameplay faster and more streamlined. Examples:

> * Automation of non-decision-based tasks (e.g. setup, cleanup, upkeep)

> * Simplification of physically complex tasks to single button-presses

> * Where applicable, AI opponents to allow single-player play of a

> multiplayer game.

>

> In my classes, I like to use case studies. My two favorite examples:

>

> 1) "Hey, That's My Fish!" is a very simple tile-based tabletop game for 2

> to 4 players. In short, each player places several penguins each on their

> own hex tiles. On your turn, you select one penguin to move in any

> direction, any number of spaces... but it can't jump over another penguin or

> an empty space. After moving, you take the hex you started on off the board

> and place it in your score pile. If a penguin is isolated on its own tile,

> it is removed from the board and you score that tile. Game ends when all

> penguins are removed. The strategy involves trying to isolate other players'

> penguins on small islands while trying to trap your own penguins on large

> areas.

>

> The beginning of the game requires a bit of setup, as you have to shuffle

> 60 hex tiles and lay them out in a roughly-square configuration, rearranging

> them as needed to prevent too many clusters of high-scoring tiles. At the

> end of the game players must count their points (each hex is anywhere from 1

> to 3 points). The actual play of the game takes maybe 5 minutes, and frankly

> the setup and scoring takes as long as the play.

>

> Now, take a look at the game on www.brettspielwelt.de (there is a treasure

> trove of other board games there, and all free). Indeed, tile setup is

> automated, instantly making the game better. It also counts points for tiles

> automatically, so scoring at the end of the game is instant. At first, it

> would appear the online version is now superior to the tabletop version.

>

> But then, as they say, the designer grasps defeat from the jaws of victory.

> In end game situations where individual penguins are all isolated on their

> own multi-tile islands (which happens in most plays), in the tabletop game,

> players just manually collect all of those tiles. However, in the online

> version, it offers no "pathfinding" for islands and therefore forces players

> to manually click and move until all penguins are on single-tile islands. In

> other words, after the game is already effectively over, the players still

> need to spend 2 or 3 minutes just clicking and moving, over and over, to

> manually let the computer figure out that the game is over. Oops!

>

>

> 2) Compare several computer versions of the classic board game RISK. My

> favorite version, though you'll probably have to find an emulator these days

> to play it, was the version for the old Apple Macintosh. In the settings,

> you could tell it to keep rolling on an attack until you succeed or fail,

> and you could also place all of your armies in a single location by

> Shift+Click. Between those two things and AI opponents (with 3 difficulty

> levels) that take their turns instantly, you could finish a complete game in

> about two minutes... and while you may not have the satisfaction of

> trouncing other people across a table, you make up for it by having a game

> that takes minutes instead of hours, making it a great coffee-break time

> waster.

>

> Now, compare to a more recent version of RISK, on PC or console. Many of

> these have much nicer graphics, but do not offer the shortcuts that allow

> for play that the old Mac version did. These games still may take shorter

> than the original board game... maybe 10 to 30 minutes per play... but they

> still feel slow to me because I know there's extraneous things like cut

> scenes of armies attacking or showing the virtual dice rolling, which make

> everything take longer. Console versions in particular lack point-and-click

> functionality, forcing you to wait for a cursor to move around the map using

> analog sticks.

>

>

> Note that some mechanics translate better to digital versions than others.

> In particular, games where players act asynchronously tend to work better

> than those where play is simultaneous. Negotiation and trading mechanics

> tend to feel slow online compared to tabletop play; compare trading

> resources in person with Settlers of Catan, versus the XBLA version (and

> mind you, the XBLA version in particular did a stellar job at streamlining

> this aspect of play... but even still, nothing is as fast as just asking

> "anyone got grain for sheep?", having someone respond "no, but I've got

> brick", then saying "sold" and swapping cards). Games like Brawl or Pit that

> have everyone acting all at once are so difficult that it would make a

> pretty extreme challenge as a port. Magic: the Gathering is also

> challenging, not only because of the overly complex mechanics and card

> interactions, but because of all of the phases during play where players can

> interrupt one another to

>  take an action in response to another players' action; note that with MTG

> Online they go to great lengths to streamline this, allowing players to turn

> off their response prompts to certain types of events and having a

> Chess-like clock to prevent players from stalling the game too much.

>

>

> Hope this helps!

>

> - Ian

>




-- 
~ "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" - Benjamin Franklin

~ "In conflict, straightforward actions generally lead to engagement,
surprising actions generally lead to victory." - Sun Tzu

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