Lab 2.0: Game State, Mechanics, and Prototyping

Game Design

If you missed the discussion, here's the topic in a nutshell (or at least in a PDF).

With your team, create a game prototype using one of the challenge levels at the bottom of this document. Follow each of these steps:

  1. Determine a theme and goal.
  2. Identify the mechanics you want to use.
  3. Identify the conflict between players.
  4. Playtest, redesign, prototype. Repeat this cycle as many times as possible, improving the game with each iteration.
  5. Deliver an artifact that describes the game mechanics (rules), theme, and how your game fits our formal definition. Make sure you explain how your mechanics supports the game's theme. Include diagrams or images if you have a board or other visual elements.

Easy Mode: Create a race-to-the-end game.
Normal Mode: Create a territory acquisition game.
Hard Mode: Create an exploration game.1
Insanity Mode: Create a game with a theme based on an historical war that does not use territory acquisition or the removal or destruction of an opponent's tokens.2

1Part of the Solid achievement.

2Part of the Solid and Bose-Einstein Condensate achievements.