Bang! The Dice Game aka “Everyone Shoot at Mommy”

The developer’s site (http://www.dvgiochi.com/giochi/) is in Italian. For a great description of game play in English, check out this review over at boardgaming.com.  I’m a huge fan of Bang!, the card game (and several expansion packs) which I will write up another time. Continuing on my recent trend of analyzing dice games, we’ll start with Bang! the Dice Game. I realize this is backwards, as it came after the fantastic card game, but it’s also simpler, and easier to digest. Basically, each player gets a certain number of lives, based on which character they play (probably 7-10). On their turn, each gets to roll 5 dice. The dice have the “1” range, and the “2” range, which allow the player to shoot others at a range of 1 or 2 people away from them, basically the person sitting next to them, or the person sitting next to that person. The dice also includes beer (drink one to regain a life), gatling gun (get three of these and you can shoot everyone at the table), dynamite (roll three and your turn ends immediately) and arrows (take an arrow from the pile of small cardboard arrows on the table. As soon as someone takes the last arrow, everyone loses a life for each arrow they have accumulated. Each player can reroll a few times, and then ‘spend’ the dice in their final role as they shoot, drink and get hit by arrows. Who do you shoot? Well it depends. In addition to getting a character and that character’s special powers (one character allows you to drink a beer for free at the start of every turn; another makes is so that when someone shoots you, that person has to take an arrow), you are also given a role which determines your goal. The Sheriff wants to kill any outlaws or renegades. The Vice-Deputy wants to keep the Sheriff alive. The Outlaws want to kill the Sheriff. The Renegade wants to be the last man standing. Everyone at the table knows who the Sheriff is, but the other roles are kept secret. Of course, if you play at our house, I’ll just tell you now, I am always the Sheriff. I don’t know why, it’s done by a random card draw, but I’m always the Sheriff, which means most of the other players want me dead, and the often get their wish. But, that’s beside the point.  What is important here is why the game is fun.

• Number of players: You can play with just 3 players, and we often play with 4, but I think the balance of the game really needs at least 5 to be fun. If you only have a few, the game is over too quickly, and players don’t feel that they actually made an impact by their choices. Especially when you are the Sheriff and everyone is shooting at you, you usually only last about 3 rounds with just 3 or 4 players. Having said that, if the game required 5 players, we’d hardly ever play it. I think this happens in multiplayer games. It’s easy to overlook the optimal number of players, but it’s important to think about. Similarly, when you have a game or educational intervention that will be used in a class, such as a one-computer/class environment, having a game that is played with 4 people making decisions is significantly different than one that is played with 20 people making the decisions. The number of players is as important as the anticipated length of the game, or other factors about the environment in which it is played.
• Beautiful cards in Italian, with great packaging: I talk a lot about production values, and good graphics are the baseline. Let’s talk about Italian, though. I don’t know that every game in the world needs to be designed in two languages — that’s not the take-a-way here. What is important is that, as a player, I feel I get a little something extra here. It’s fun to read the language on the card, noting that I am the Sceriffo. I feel like I’m in a bit of a secret club, playing something that normal people may not have access to. (Which couldn’t be further from the truth, just look for the game on Amazon or any major game outlet). This small detail may have originated in adding English to the game so that players outside the developer’s home country could enjoy the game, but it speaks to the power of a little something extra in the game. To me, the Italian language is superfluous, but I like having the extra something that isn’t crucial. It’s hard to know in game design when to remove everything that is not necessary, but this detail is a vote for leaving something in. 
• Clear feedback: We know the importance of this in game design, but it’s really clearly pointed out in this game. How many arrows do you have? How many are left until we all lose a life to them? How many lives does the renegade have left? By designing their icons simply, and making them easy to understand, playing is cleaner: each player doesn’t have to work so hard to collect the information they need to develop a strategy.
• Balance: If I ever write a book about gameplay, it will be called “Clear Feedback and Balance”, as that is more than half the value of any good game. (That’s actually not true… I am writing a book, and that is SO not the title!) The balance on this game varies a bit with the number of players, but generally, each player feels like they got a fair shake. That’s important, especially since each character brings a special set of skills. If you feel at the beginning of the game as though the player left to you gets an unfair advantage, that colors the entire experience. Different but equal is crucial.
• Mix it up: By offering different characters and different roles, the game feels different each time you play. It’s the same idea of having multiple achievements to bring the player back beyond simply trying to win the game. It’s a very easy way to enhance replay ability.

In some ways, this dice-inated version feels like a rip off of the superior card game: but it does succeed in making a quicker version of the game, with easier entry for different players. We can play this with our 6  year old, where the card game is a bit too much for him. The flip side of simplicity is depth: and we lose some of that in this game. It doesn’t keep us from playing it a lot, though!

Escape the Curse of the Temple

Yep, lately I’m enjoying the dice-based games. As in Zombie Dice, Escape the Curse of the Temple gives you the chance to roll a set of dice… but this time, it’s against the clock, and everyone at the table is rolling their dice at the same time, so that everyone can get out of the temple together. If everyone doesn’t get out, you all lose.

Everyone’s player starts in the center square, and must roll the right 2-dice combination  to get onto the next square (as printed on that square)… say, a blue key and a red flame. Whenever someone rolls two green walking dudes, they can add a new square to the board. Some boards have special treasures you can roll for, some have curses you can roll to get out of. As the team puts new squares on the board, the group will eventually reveal the exit…. and everyone has to make haste to get to the exit. Along the way, you roll to get the green gems (little plastic green gems… my kids love them, and I love the fact they aren’t cardboard pictures of green gems). The catch? (Other than the sheer probability of everyone rolling the right dice at the right time), you only have 10 minutes. Download the song and you’ll hear a soundtrack throughout the game, with rousing jungle drums. At 2 key points, everyone has to get back to the center square… if you don’t make it back, you lose one of your dice. Also, you can ‘lock’ your dice if you roll one of black curses on your dice… but you can unlock them if you get a gold icon.

I’m making this sound more confusing than it is.

What I like about Escape the Curse of the Temple is:

Soundtrack as a timer: It’s easy to forget how tremendously important sound is to building tension and release in a game. Even in such a short experience, the sound in this game makes it raucous, exciting, and fulfilling. If that were the only benefit to this game, I’d encourage game developers to play it just to feel the difference of a simple game with and without a soundtrack. Fortunately, it has other benefits.

Easy entry: I was introduced to the game by someone who already knew how to play it, so I don’t know how easy it is to learn when you have to read the instructions, but it is super easy to teach someone. This game is the perfect example of “Let’s play together and you’ll get the hang quickly.” Similarly, it’s easy to commit to learning this new game because you know it can’t last more than 10 minutes!

Expandable challenges: With the expansion packs, you can do a great many cool things to make the journey harder, more interesting and more challenging. Even without it, you can play an ‘easy mode’ or a harder mode. This flexibility is perfect for families with players of different ages or gaming abilities. The expansion pack is the board game equivalent of the ‘additional achievements’ to unlock in video games, and it really enhances replayability. By tossing in different new challenges, it means every game feels different.

Clear goal and clear instructions throughout: You don’t have to remember anything, or strategize per se… you just look at the card to see what you need to roll. Because the central challenge of this game is beating the clock, the simple interface is critical.

Quality production: The cards, the dice, the weight of the boards, the feeling of the gems all contribute to the enjoyment of holding the game, playing it, sitting around the table with it. The clear interface is also language-free, making it easily accessible to non-readers and worldwide where only the box and instructions need to be localized.

We have a few of the expansions, and love pulling it our for kids or adults. I think it’s a powerful game to play in a game development course or program as well.

http://www.queen-games.de/games.aspx?ProductId=8

The Iron Giant

Upon reflection, I feel like I should have named this blog, Spoiler Alert! It really only matters when I talk about movies, because in dissecting how something was designed, I will talk about crucial plot elements… I am assuming that you, gentle reader, are only engaging in this blog because you want to see what someone else thinks of something you have already experienced. Besides, this blog is really for me to become a better writer and figure out what I value in designed things… and if you come along for the ride, even contribute in the comments and make it a conversation… great!

If this is not the case for you… say… if you are trying to figure out if you should watch the movie, “The Iron Giant”… stop reading now, and go watch it. 

I remember watching this when it first came out… delighting in Harry Connick Jr’s voice as the lovely beatnik metal artist, Dean, and just loving, loving, loving the movie. Now, many years later, I have the opportunity to watch it with my own boys, and through the lens of realizing this is one of Brad Bird’s creations (of The Incredibles and Tomorrowland fame, among others). I remember why I loved it as I did.

• Stellar character design:  Spend some time Googling fan-created art from this movie, and you’ll realize what an  incredibly strong visual foundation the artists gave the movie.  The voice work and casting is perfect.  Visually, from the amazing design and animation on the giant, through the snarky over-the-sunglasses looks of the beatnik, even the ever flowing locks of hairs falling from Hogarth’s mom’s bun, these characters are so… real. Not real in that they exist in this world, but real in that I have an immediate familiarity with them. Even the annoying g-man’s use of handles when talking to Hogarth, “Ain’t that right skipper, kid, ranger, kiddo,” makes me feel as though I’ve entered this story, and I know each of them and who they are already. Which is quite telling given the overriding theme of the movie.
• The overriding theme of the movie: You are who you choose to be. That’s it… that’s crucial. When you are scared, when you are angry, when you are defensive, overwhelmed, when you have to make tough choices, even when you are in love or grieving, you are who you choose to be. The movie tells us that, and shows us that. You are who you memorialize with art (as the city did with their poignant statue), who you value to spend time with (as Annie, Dean and Hogarth do at the end of the movie), and who you think you should be (as the giant decides with the deer in the woods)… and no one else can define that for you. Dean reminds Hogarth that the bullies at school can’t define him. As Kent Mansley showed us at his worst, in fear and pride, he was who he chose to be, only understanding the consequences of those choices when it seemed too late. Even at this crucial point in the movie where we think the military might be the ones responsible for the Giant’s undoing, the general reminds us that the army is only a group of people led by individuals. It is the general who returns the only found piece of the Iron Giant to Hogarth.
• Therein lies hope: I had a magical moment with my seven-year old as we watched this tonight together. He was incredibly sad as it became clear that the Giant would sacrifice himself. I wondered for a moment if we erred in showing it to him too soon… I watched as his little chest heaved a bit as he choked back a sob. As the movie made its gentle transition to the ending, I prepared for the talk I would give my son to help him deal with the loss of the beloved character. As Hogarth opened the screw… my son bolted upright… with a huge, enthusiastic look of triumph on his face. “WAIT,” he said, “remember… remember how the giant can turn on his head antenna and put himself together to be whole again? That can happen again! Remember!” He saw the hope in this movie. While we know that as adults, we don’t ever fully retrieve a loved one who is lost to us, there is beauty in knowing that the spirit of a good person lives on. And while we are living, no one is fully lost when they can choose to be someone different, someone better. THAT is the basis of hope in who we each are.

What I loved about Tomorrowland was the spirit of hopefulness, and particularly in how that hope was tied with science and progress and unity. I felt the movie was a bit heavy handed in hitting us over the head a bit too much with the theme and message. In The Iron Giant, the theme is clearly stated, and referenced throughout, but the movie does not suffer from this heavy handedness. I can’t explain the difference in why it worked in one, and not the other. Thoughts?

And oh, holy cow, look what I just found! The Iron Giant will return to theaters this September! 

Incidentally, this would look awesome in my office. Or this. Or this. Just sayin’.

Jurassic World

I read the first book, saw the first two movies, and had a fairly good idea of what I would get in this 4th theatrical iteration of the Jurassic series.  Still, the movie worked and I enjoyed it. Here’s why:

• Respectful nod to the first movie: by having a character straight up say in the movie that “the first park was LEGIT”, it includes everyone in the audience in the joke. The first movie was subtly referred to throughout: professor Ian Malcolm was cleverly calling out to us from the back of a book we glanced in a few scenes;  the banner that fell so dramatically at the end of the first movie literally provided light and guidance to the characters exploring in this one, when it was burned as a torch; in different scenes we saw the cool night-vision goggles, John Hammond’s amber cane, the iconic opening gates. When doing a follow-up, don’t pretend you are covering new territory: embrace was was good in the first one and let the audience know you are doing it in a playful, purposeful way.
• It created a world I wanted to be in: Granted, the minute we realized a couple getting a divorce is sending their kids to a theme park with dinosaurs, we know it will end poorly. Yet… I wanted to be in those kayaks paddling along next to the Brontosaurus, I wanted to see the T-Rex eat the goat, I wouldn’t have minded being in that hamster ball either. I wanted to be in this world, and was immediately invested in the outcome of the world, not just in the outcome of the key characters.
• The graphics were amazing: I’m usually the one to point out that we don’t care about graphics as much as people think we do, but in a movie like this, our eyes want to linger. The integration of digital creatures in the real world was seamless, without jerky animation or weird color matching. For this movie to work, that had to be perfect.
• The evil villain is a changin’: OK… the bad guy in this movie was waaay to obvious… I thought the 80s meant we could leave the obvious Boss Hogg bad guy out… and here we had him. He takes others’ drinks, he smiles at the death of others, and he wants to militarize dinosaurs as weapons. I’m done with him. Increasingly, I like movies that show no villain (Inside Out), or a complex or misunderstood villain (Malificent), or a villain who is the way he is because he made different choices than our hero when given similar circumstances (Big Hero 6)… and I’m not alone. While I could leave the InGEN dude out of this movie, we had to have someone who’s pride would goeth before the fall, and he drew the short straw. More importantly, we saw animal villains in this movie, and it wasn’t always clear whose side they were on. Audiences of all media are accepting more complex examples of good and bad, and I like that.

In many ways, this movie followed its established formula perfectly. We may tire of it eventually, but key components worked so well, they should be considered standards for future development of many different types of experiences.