week 9

This week in class we hit the ground running with our Battle Battle projects and for me personally its been a very humbling experience as a designer and creative in general. I've really struggled with feeling like I'm being creative this week and I'm just not sure why. all's this said however me and my group have pulled through and i honestly truly think weve come up with the bones of something truly special. In any case however, our current unit is all about balance and design with intention regarding it. 

.<span class="x_ContentPasted0" <this="" week="" in="" we="" hit="" the="" ground="" running="" with="" our="" battle="" projects="" and="" for="" me="" its="" been="" a="" very="" humbling="" experience.="" personally,="" i="" feel="" like="" i've="" really="" struggled="" being="" creative="" but="" my="" group="" have="" definitely="" created="" an="" experience="" so="" far="" that="" i'm="" both="" excited="" about="" happy="" to="" keep="" exploring.="" honestly="" though="" just="" wish="" had="" some="" more="" ideas="" coming="" me.="" any="" case="" current="" unit="" is="" all="" balance="" design="" intention="" regarding="" it.="" “<="" span="" style="color: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;"> “Fairness is key to how players perceive randomness.” this was a quote i pulled from Zach Hiwillers “Randomness” and it's a core idea behind the sort of  “balance we've been working with in our projects as of late. Our game is a game of randomness at its core, main mechanics revolve around dealing and taking damage that are determined by dice rolls, which as most everyone can understand is a game of chance. But what i noticed when we played was that it didn't feel “random” so to speak, this thanks in part to the fact that our games “randomness mitigation” is very high, even though we have random aspects we </span>give players lots and lots of agency to determine the level of that randomness. For example, one character can add a +5 to a dice roll, this allows them at any time to mitigate a dice roll by at least plus 5. Another aspect we have is a function in which players may swap “positions” to again mitigate damage that might be dealt to another player. All this in part, means and shows that though our game is random weve managed to give just enough mitigation to keep it from becoming totally oppressing. The second reading was the “Game Design Document” which was to me a guide all about how to manage and keep track of game design data. For m most of my life an idea of a document like this was always a scratch piece of paper in my journal id eventually lost in the black hole that is my backpack. But with this reading I've learned it can be an all-essential guide to the game you're creating. A sort of Rosetta stone so to speak. Forgot a procedure? Check the doc. I think of it like music, how often would you write a riff out for a piece and then forget how you played it the next day. How do you fight that? By notating of course! It simply makes life easier and the process simpler and by using it within our current project we've made significant progress.

Edit Note : I have no idea what the like random code in this post is? i copied this text from my email because i wrote it out on another computer and just resent it  to myself but i cant figure out how to get rid of it. My apologies I don't mean to clutter the screen.