Week 8 - Prototype 2: Save Our Stars

Name of the Game: Save Our Stars

Number of Players: 2-5

Time to Play: 30-60 minutes

Object of the Game: Return all the stars to the Sky

For this prototype we were asked to make a board game that invokes a starry night or nocturnal atmosphere, similar to the painting Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh. This wasn't the first time I had seen the painting, but I never knew the history behind it, and all I knew about Vincent van Gogh was that he cut his own ear off and was in an asylum at some point in his adult life. Either way, this didn't change what I felt when I saw the painting. As most people would I looked at the painting of the sky, the swirling brush strokes having caught my attention, then the firey elemental part  in the front caught my attention as well. Next was the church being the tallest building in the painting of a small village. The village really caught my attention; it brought back memories of memorable starry nights. All I could think about was how when I went to the cottage and went camping how visible the stars were compared to the city. That just made me think about those trips and how people escape to these small quiet places to be together and enjoy themselves.

We decided to use the idea of a team or community to create our game in such a way that players can play however they want, but they are also all working to a common goal as a team. We want players to feel what it is like to be in a team of different people working together, we intended the emotions to come out through dynamics and we structured the game in such a way that we knew what dynamics would arise.

To simulate the nocturnal atmosphere we gave our game a short story in which the stars have fallen from the sky, and the players are working together to put them back in the sky. To make the players feel like they needed each other we introduced the black hole.

The black hole would suck stars out of the sky at random. To stop this from happening a player would have to go and close the black hole, but this is risky since the player can get stuck in the black hole, and only another player can save them. A player can choose not to go close the black hole, but then the black hole will continue to take stars from the sky.

While playing the game it reminded me a lot of times when you need to make a difficult choice that involves other people. You can be selfish, but this may upset other people and result in something bad happening to them. You can be selfless and always help others, but this makes other people's problems your own.

To be honest it reminded me a little of how UOIT Game Dev is structured in terms of teams; we all rely on one another and at the same time we have our own individual goals. I found that the art and emotion in our game was in the dynamics that we intended the players to experience.

Alternatively we could have created our game in an opposite way. We could have created a one player game, and this player is working alone to complete a seemingly insurmountable task, and we could have designed it so that it is nearly impossible to win. This would have invoked more feelings of frustration and loneliness, but it would not have allowed players to experience what it means to be a team, rather it would make them wish they had a team.

Setup:

1. Each player picks an avatar (from the colored gems).
2. All players start from in the center (the Sky) of the board.
3. Place 5 star gems in the center (the Sky) of the board.
4. Place star gems along the outside of the entire board.

How to Play:

• Roll a die to move around the board in any direction.

Rules:

• When you land on a spot with a star on it, physically pick it up and keep it with you in your inventory. 
• You can hold a maximum of five stars at any given time.
• At any time you can also return to the Sky and put the stars you have in your inventory in the Sky
• To place stars in the Sky you must stop there; if you rolled a six but only moved two spaces to arrive at the Sky space to unload your stars, your turn ends.
• When a player rolls a six a black hole appears on an empty space on the board furthest from all the players. 
• There can only be a maximum of five black holes on the board at once.
• The player that cause the black hole to appear also takes a black hole token. 
• As long as this black hole is on the board, the player keeps that black hole token. When it is their turn again (and for all turns hereafter) they must roll a die for the black hole; if they roll an odd number a star is taken out of the Sky (center space) and taken out of play (off the board).
• To destroy a black hole, a player must go to a space adjacent to it or the same space as the black hole and roll a die for himself and the black hole. The higher number wins. If the player loses, they are sucked into the black hole, all the stars in their inventory are taken out of play and that player can no longer move or battle. If the player wins, the black hole is destroyed and any player who was sucked into the black hole is revived.
• If there are no more stars in the center of the board (meaning the black holes sucked the last star out), the game is over and all the players lose. If all the players are sucked into black holes, all the players lose. If there are no more stars except for the ones in the center of the board, the game is over and all the players win.

Art In Games:

To me art is anything where I feel something significant when I experience it or if it brings back a memory that I personally find significant. I know that this is vague, but it's difficult to explain. 

For example, when I played the game Heavy Rain, I felt very connected to the characters in the story because I was essentially determining their fates. I cared and felt responsible for whatever happened to them. I would compare this to when you get attached to characters in a TV show or a book, except a more powerful connection. 

When I played the game Flower, I couldn't believe just how much fun I was having. I felt emotions of happiness, relaxation, and at times guilt. Through the sounds and visuals the game depicts what is essentially our world. The message was that we have allowed nature to go to waste and we have destroyed nature to build our cities (that's where the guilt came in). I loved that the game was about restoring the balance.

I also enjoyed Journey, by the same developer as Flower. The fact that the story is told without anybody or anything saying words left it up to me to decide what the story was about and what was happening. I felt curious for the entire game and enjoyed exploring the world. The multiplayer was also interesting since you couldn't actually talk with other players directly and interacting much more challenging but cool at the same time.

Starry Nights in Games:

I've only ever experienced a couple starry nights in games. 

One game where I experienced a starry night moment was Grand Theft Auto IV. One of my favorite things to do in GTA was just to get a helicopter and get to the tallest building and just look at the city at night.

Another game where I experienced a starry night (more nocturnal atmosphere actually) was Batman Arkham City. I really enjoyed the movement system in the game and the dark, grunge environment. But I really like doing the classic Batman perched on a gargoyle shot then diving off and gliding. I would say this is more power fantasy than a starry night though. But I love Batman and associate him the most with the night.