26/10/2012 robs lesson notes

ask yourself the following:

• what challengers do the players face, what actions do they take to overcome them?
• How do players affect each other
• is the game perceived by the players as fair
• is the game re-playable? if so why?
• what is the games intended audience
• what is the "core" of the game, second by second minute by minute the things you do over and over that represent the fun part.

In this lesson we played a basic game of battleships. Our task has been set to make iterations to the original game and see how it plays. We have decided on adding retaliation guns on the ships in predesignated areas. For example if you fire and hit their destroyer that has 3 retaliation guns however if you hit one of the guns only two would fire back as a retaliation.

So with the basic battleships the challenges are simple arrange your ships in any order the same with the opponent and you take turns firing at each other to hit the ships. The iteration we made adds a new dynamic. So if you hit depending on the retaliation shots received you know what ship you are hitting and where to hit back as to not trigger more retaliation shots.

To show this as an example and more clearly here is a diagram below:

As you can see on this board there is two example hits. On the top hit your opponent scored a hit however in this hit he missed all your ships turrets so in instant retaliation you fire back three shots. Now straight away the player knows what ship this is and roughly whereabouts he hit it so to reduce the retaliation shots received, See when you hit the ship and know what shots you got back you can play it safe and not hit this ship again for a while as not to keep triggering retaliation shots this can be done in two ways wait till his destroyer is hit and with his retaliation shots take out that ships remaining turrets or most of them with no retaliation or little retaliation as retaliation shots are all instant or quite simply hit one of the other turrets in his go but he would receive a retaliation shot for every remaining turret on the ship. On the other hand if the player uses no strategy and basically hits the next block that would invoke another two retaliation shots as that ship still possesses two of its remaining turrets.

On the second example he hits the ship straight away on its only turret and receives no retaliation shots.

There is many more fun iterations you could add to this to make it more interesting however this iteration was still very fun to play. 

The players effect each other by taking turns to fire shots on each others board. Now the players are not aware of the locations of these ships and some good strategies evolve from this mechanic.

Is the game fair? I would believe so you both equally have the chance to strategically place your ships and the equal chance of hitting. With the iteration however depending whereabouts you hit an opponents ship would effect how many extra shots one player gets over each other.

I believe the game does have quite a bit of replay value but only on the bases of game score. The game itself its very basic and is the same pretty much every time you play it.

The games intended audience would be families nights and a game your young children.

The core mechanics of the game are to cleverly place your ships to mislead your opponents and the mechanic of strategically make shots as not to waste your hits.