Sunday, 30 September 2012

Testing and Feedback



Today, the two lower groups were going to come in and play our game, and then give us feedback about it. We ran into a few problems before the other groups came in, the main one being the lack of a Dice, but because our board was set up next to a PC, we went online and found an online Dice. We also had to really quickly make some feedback sheets, and a Damage sheet, so we could keep track of the game easily; we also made six rulers so the game wouldn’t take ages with them passing a ruler to one another. Because there were six of us in our group, and it only took two to help with the game, we were told to go and have a play with some of the other group’s games.
Matt and I spent most of the time with Jack Walls group trying to play their game, although the people from the lower group left after a short time. We carried on walking back to our group every so often to see what was going on, but there wasn’t anything for us to do. After the first group had finished their game, we came back to the group to have a look at the feedback sheets; it was all good! We got given 8’s and 10’s, (although I never trust user reviews for anything), so we were all happy; until me and Matt were told by Azam, Umar and Ram that us and Ben had to help the next group after lunch...
Ben didn’t come back after Lunch, cause he was “ill” (FIFA 13 release day), so it was just me and Matt. I was going to keep track of the damage and health on the sheet, but as I went to sit down, it turned out Azam had already started the game, and expected me to know what was happening, I asked what I was meant to be doing, and Umar basically pushed me out of the way and took over my job......so I went and played Josh’s groups game. Their game was actually really fun, and the rules worked well, although I do think it needs to have all 6 possible players playing to get the best game (we had 4 playing). After that, we had another walk around, sat talking with other groups, and occasionally went back to check on our game.
After the second group had finished with our game, we went back and checked through the feedback sheets; this time, it wasn’t so good. The best we got was a 7, and worst was a 4; but still, overall above average scores, so we couldn’t complain. After having a look at all the other groups boards, I don’t think we should have made ours as big as we did, or make it purely out of the material we did, although it seemed like a good idea at the time. Overall, I think we did a good job as a group, and we got some very good feedback.

Other Groups Games...

Thursday, 27 September 2012

Video of Map Building


Video taken by Azam Khan.

Building the Map



When it came to making the Board for our game, we had to spend some time trying to come up with a good design for the map, because the one we had been testing with, we all knew wasn’t very good. After a while of some arguing and drawing, Ram quickly drew a design that we all agreed on.


After getting something the right shape for the base of the board, and sketching out our map onto the board, Ram, Umar and Azam started work on the map. The map is made out of some Black Cardboard stuff, which could be bent, cut and shaped into our map. Because of the colour of it, Azam started calling the map, “The Black Citadel”, which seems to have stuck as a name.


After making the important parts of the map, Ram and Azam started both trying to make doors for both teams to walk out of at the game start; for Ram, this went well, and he made a Sliding Door, for Azam, not so well on the first try, because the door had a massive failure rate when being opened, and couldn’t be closed the same way. Azam’s first door was eventually scraped.


On the next full day of working on the map, all of us were working on it. We were adding extra things around the map, reinforcing what had been done the previous day, and Attaching the Doors, which Azam had made a second of; this time, it worked a bit better, although it does still get jammed.


After finishing all the walls, towers and stairs, we stuck it all down on another, larger piece of the black card, so it didn’t look weird.


Because I wasn’t much of a help on the actual putting it together side (not that great at arty stuff), my role was mainly cutting Gaffer-Tape. Ben came up with putting rooms on the side of both doors as a starting area for the two teams.


Then the map was complete, and ready for people to play on it