Unnatural selection ran into a brick wall.  The photoshop, illustrator and the printers we were using decided to not cooperate and so we were forced to print our entire board on a single sheet of standard printing paper. Basically made tiny balls of sculpy, dotted them with paint, and then assmbled a board with little dots and symbols to determine what type of terrain it was, and where the body parts were located.  We hammered out all the mechanics through a series of play tests and we are ready to compile the rules and play test further.  Now the challenge is to get all the materials ready, print, and be sure the game still works by the time it is ready to go.  Ultimately we are happy with where we are at, although we all can’t wait for spring break so we can replenish the health of our minds and bodies.  But at least we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Finals are really starting to wear down on us all and we just want to get some progress achieved on the game.  We discover it is extremely frustrating to not be given enough time to finish a product and to some artists it is not acceptable to leave works unfinished.  So work on the Four Horsemen is being blended into the work with Unnatural Selection.  As frustrating as it is we simply have to do it and we have to make good games out of each.

Unnatural Selection is now finally looking like a game.  We do a quick play test and discover issues with the board, stats, combat and breeding.  So more or less we discover we still have loads of work to do.  We start by tackling the board.  It was entirely too small so we made it larger.  The stats were improved by altering them in a simple fashion and combat and breeding were kept the same since their failures may have been the result of the statistics.

This meeting we discovered a lot of flaws with where we were at.  First of all we were using poker chips as a board and secondly we were still hammering out statistics.  So basically we decided on a design for the board and started developing a statistics and special abilities for each part.  This took a while because we wanted the stats to make some kind of sense both in terms of game balance and narrative so there was some debate but we ultimately understood that it won’t matter until after we tested how the game played.

Basically over the weekend we talked about what changes we need to make to the board, what changes need to be made to the cards and how the box needs to look as well as what size and who is responsible for what. The meeting section went pretty quickly, but we all stuck around and did some work until it got pretty late into the night and we simply needed to get food and sleep.

In terms of Unnatural Selection we determined what kind of stats we needed to have and roughed out a little bit some ideas on mechanics such as breeding, combat, defense, movement and the overall goal of the game.  The ideas were obviously rough at this point and needed to be hammered out during our next get-together but we were pretty happy with the place we were at.

Friday at 9am is usually a time for sleeping for SCAD students.  So waking up after a short week of extremely long hours is sometimes difficult.  We all managed to show up and got into rhythm.  First thing we took care of was making the board and throwing ideas out.  We took a set of poker cards and made a basic board and started discussing what kind of dynamics we wanted the game to have.  The discussion quickly led to having players be able to create a character from different body parts.  So Whitmore, being the talented sculptor that he is, outlined how it was possible to use wire, sculpy and magnets to make this a possibility.

So now we have a plan for the board and the avatars but we need a way to link them together.  We decided that special spaces would be assigned a body part and a player gains a part by landing on the assigned space for that body part.  By this time we have made a complete mess out of a class room and are disturbing a make-up class so we decide to call it quits and get some lunch.

Designers of this board game are:
Jason Coleman( J ), Jordan Sliz ( S ), Whitmore Benoit ( W ), and Thomas J L Kastner ( T ).

During this initial meeting we began the process of choosing the general feeling or theme for the game. We had developed a process in which we select the general theme from a list we have compiled that comprise of emotions or ideas we think are good. Here is the initial vote from the first list, after we eliminated ideas we were not motivated to do or had second thoughts about. (Ex. First vote is worth 3 points, second vote is with 2 points, and last vote is worth 1 point.)

1. Suicide – T2
2. Adrenaline -
3. Self-Esteem -
4. Vengeance – S1
5. Honor – J2
6. Schadenfreude – S3, W2, T3
7. Evolution/Reincarnation – J3, S2, W3
8. Revolution – J1 , W1, T1

After the initial voting we took the three highest scoring themes and then compiled the final voting list. Then we voted on which we enjoyed the most.

1. Schadenfreude. S3, T2
2. Evo/Reincar. S2, W3, J3
3. Revolution. W2, J2 , T3

The final tally of scores is as follows:

Schadenfreude – 5
Evolution/Reincarnation – 8
Revolution – 7

Evolution/Reincarnation ending up winning with Revolution coming in a close second. This means the majority of our efforts will go toward making a board game about Evolution / Reincarnation. If the initial theme begins to fail on a catastrophic level we will move toward the second place theme and move on from there. But the main purpose of this meeting was to gather ideas about the possibilities of the new board game.

[NOTE] – During the first portion, and ultimately the majority, of this meeting the main goal was to discuss the final aspects of design for a board game called Four Horsemen in which we are currently in the process of finishing. The design is done but artwork and a box needed to be created. So this explains why it was it took 2.5 hours to complete this meeting.

The initial process, after being assigned to a team, was to create an aesthetic for the game. We had a bunch of different ideas. The following list represents which ideas we came up with.

List of Emotions

1. Bitterness

2. Paranoia

3. Depressed.

4. Disgust.

5. Nervousness.

6. Rage.

7. Pain.

8. Resentment.

9. Thrill

10. Vengeance

11. Torment

12. Vulnerability.

13. Jealousy.

14. Negativity

15. Shame

16. Surprise

17. Confidence

18. Honor

19. Hate

20. Self-esteem

21. Shock

22. Arrogance

23. Anxiety

After determining the emotions we were interested we discussed which ones needed to stay, which ones needed to go and which ones were really similar and needed to be combined. So we compiled a secondary list of emotions.

Secondary List.

1. Self-Esteem

2. Bitterness

4. Paranoia

5. Vengeance

6. Shame

7. Disgusted

8. Honor

After compiling the secondary list we determined which ones we were really excited about and which ones could be eliminated, the goal was to bring the list to 5 options so we could vote on them.

Primary Election

1. Self-Esteem (self-pity/Honor)

2. Bitterness

3. Paranoia

4. Disgust

5. Vengeance

So now the voting process was to begin. We each had 3 votes, the first item you vote for would be awarded 3 points, second item voted for would be awarded 2 points and the last item you voted for would be awarded 1 point. Each member voted and here are the results.

(W = Whitmore Benoit, S = Jordan Sliz, J = Jason Coleman, T = Thomas Kastner)

VOTE

1. Self-Esteem W2, S2, J2, T2 (8)

2. Bitterness J1(1)

3. Paranoia W3,S3,J3(9)

4. Disgust W1,T3(4)

5. Vengeance S1,T1(2)

The votes were then tallied and the final list was presented to you, Brenda Brathwaite, to be approved or disapproved.

Winners – (eek Benda’s opinion)

______________________________

1. Paranoia ** (approved)

2. Self-Esteem

3. Disgust

Using a complex democratic process we determined which aesthetic we really desired to choose. This complexity may be seen as redundant but it actually made things fair and did force everyone to participate in the discussion. This means it wasn’t about the loudest person but rather what the group as a whole desired to work on. Not only did we discuss the pros and cons of each choice but also everyone was completely satisfied with the choice without the desire to switch.

Determining the Dynamics

At this time we were trying to figure out what we needed to do to make the player paranoid and things that made us paranoid. Again, we made a list of things that we thought would induce paranoia.

How to get the player paranoid/Things that make you paranoid

1. Betrayal

2. Government

3. Religion

4. Authority

5. Trust

6. Fear of losing stature

7. Death/Survival

8. Darkness

9. Confusion/Lack of Knowledge

10. Vulnerability

After making this list we decided that we could eliminate the length of it by taking things off and combining other things together. So we made a list of the combination of consequences in which must take place to induce paranoia.

Combination of consequences

1. Betrayal / Trust

2. Government / Authority / Religion / controlling factor

3. Confusion / Lack of Knowledge / Darkness / Unknown

4. Death / Survival / Vulnerability

This part of the process was actually a more detailed discussion of those which taken place during previous processes. We wanted to come up with some dynamics that the player would experience to make them paranoid.

Dynamics that will make a player feel paranoid.

1. The inability to completely trust someone they have to work with.

2. The inability to trust someone’s actions

3. Not knowing what lies ahead

4. Fearing your life will shortly come to an end via the other players

5. Fearing loss of assets

6. Lack of confidence in your own power or ability to survive without help

7. Being at the whims of another player

8. Fear of being controlled by another entity or group

Now that the dynamics were nailed down the first class ended and we went home to think of any kind of ideas for our next meeting. We asked people what made them paranoid and thought more about a theme for a game and mechanics as well. But nothing was nailed down. The next meeting would really determine the mechanics of the game and this is where the Four Horsemen idea was born.

Unlike normal chess that pits your wits against a player, the 4-player version makes you reconsider every strategy and every move. The game is filled with unexpected attacks and spontaneous alliances. But, after the initial shock of play, it’s really not much more exciting than a regular chess game. That’s not to say chess isn’t one of the best games ever designed, but merely to demonstrate that we were looking for something a little more tense. We tried several iterations of chess-like games. We came up with all sorts of gameplay mechanics and expansions of current trends, but eventually none of them fit the bill.

So, as any good design team should be able to do, we killed it before it dragged us down with it. It was here that we reassessed. We sat back down at the drawing table and strove to find a new way to induce fear in the players. We went through a few ideas, but ended up on artificial intelligence. We wanted elements the player couldn’t control. This is when we came up with the idea for the Four Horsemen.

At this point we were all kind of frustrated because we’ve been working for hours without any result to show for it. Until we decided to have an unknown factor we could introduce NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) to the game in which was the controlling factor. This really fit into the dynamic ideas and gave us a good spark of energy and motivation. At first we thought we were going to use the Queen Chess pieces as the 4 NPCs located on the center of the board. But then we decided against it and replaced the Queens with Horsemen. And since there were 4 horsemen naturally we think of the Apocalypse. This sent the group into frenzy of joyous laughter. Immediately we began to build the game and do research. We play tested that night once and were very happy with the result even though it was obvious more work was to be done.

The basic list of mechanics are:

1. Die rolling

2. Card Drawing

3. Player/NPC movement

4. Resource Collecting (Shield)

5. Resource Management / Battle

Things started to fall into place quickly. We play tested the game quite a few times and attempted to give some kind of artificial intelligence to the four horsemen. At first it was a simple priority list to determine which player they would move towards. It evolved into a more complex system in which gave the NPCs a targeting behavior, so that they would each target another player due to deferent reasoning mechanisms. This turned out to be a failure and was eliminated. It actually made the horsemen dumb and easy to avoid. However we did keep the other addition, which was the special ability. The special ability for each horseman gives them a bit of personality beyond their different looks and changes the patterns a bit as well.

Paranoia

There are several reasons why we chose the path we did in an attempt to make the player paranoid

Paranoid – adj. 1: characterized by or resembling paranoia

2: characterized by suspiciousness, persecutory trends or megalomania

3: extremely fearful

This being said, we’ve come to terms with the idea that most people get a little bit paranoid and afraid of dying when facing a life-threatening situation. A literal, and slightly abstracted, translation of the Revelation Of John would efficiently create a life-threatening situation for the player’s avatars and some people are actually paranoid about the coming of the Apocalypse anyway.

We decided that the most interesting method was to have the game itself induce paranoia rather than the game forcing the players to make each other paranoid. That doesn’t mean you can’t become paranoid due to the actions of another player but it does mean that everyone will be more concerned with the NPCs than they are with each other. So it is a pretty simple game with a simple strategy. You can either try to get a shield or hide in a corner and depending on where the other players move it is extremely important to decide which piece you would like to move or if you would like to move both of them. Implementing dice rolls and combining that with cards that will break ties and make the horsemen even more powerful will create an atmosphere of the unknown. The player will not know for certain which horseman will be moving next turn and they will not know how fast or slow it will be moving. The player will also not know if the horsemen will have their special abilities activated or not. What the player does know is that they either need to hide or get a shield because the horsemen are going to be killing someone soon. Also, in an effort to make players fear each other combat is possible by using shields so if a player has a shield then they should be feared, unless of course you also have a shield.

We believe paranoia does exist in this game because there are times when death is literally breathing down your neck and pestilence is staring you in the face. Sometimes you die, and sometimes you can barely escape and move far enough away for them to choose their next target. The person who collects the most shields isn’t always the winner. The emphasis on strategy is on player movement, horseman positions and resource management (shields). Luck is important as well. Though some could argue that luck takes away from games we believe strongly that it adds to the paranoia factor by making predictability nearly impossible. The player simply does not know which horseman will move next, how far it will move, if it is going to have an extra ability or how far the current player will move. Once all the shields are gone from play, things get really intense, as now it is only a matter of time before someone dies.