Last class we had a prototype testing with our classmates. Each game was played twice, by different groups so we could receive feedback and make necessary changes to our game. I opted to stay with our game to explain and hear the critiques my peers had for us. Overall, the game ran very smoothly and only a few minor adjustments need to be made for the game to be clear. One foggy area that we had was the question of what happened if there was a tie for the highest bidder. In our original brainstorming, we thought it would be feasible to have an open bidding war between the tied bidders. However, after hearing the suggestions of our outsider play testers we took the advice of one student and decided that in the case of a bidder tie, the tied players would chose one card from the money deck. Who ever held the highest amount of money would then be the winner of that particular round and therefore, take the item card of his or her choosing.

In addition to the mechanics and workings of the game, we also chose to enhance the appearance of our cards. With color added, we are now able to distinguish between the different categories and sets that exist in this game. We also tried to make the cards have little text as possible and chose to instead include mini pictures of what the finished set entailed. The appearance of our cards is simple, yet well thought out and easy to read and comprehend. We all are exited to see our game works out in class again!

Today we play tested the game and thought of ways on how to improve or alter our card game to make it more effective and re-playable while still being fun. We have decided, for the most part that the basic core mechanics of the game were well established however score keeping and bidding on items wasn't as clear. We added a point system in this point system each card will be worth a certain amount of points and the points will be worth twice the amount if the player has a complete set of items. The points will be added up at the end of the game and the player with the most points is the winner. In addition to the point system, we decided to add a total of three item cards for players to bid on as opposed to one. By doing this we hope to make the game play smoother  and faster and allow for players to acquire more items.

Details of the Game!

The main purpose of this week was to hash out the actual details of the game such as how many cards we should have or what they should look like. We decided to keep the idea of two decks of cards: the items deck consisting of sixty cards and the money deck consisting of seventy-five cards.


The Items Deck:

• 52 Item cards. (arranged in sets of two or three. making a set will double the cards value and help a player gain more points.
• The item cards will have the following sets: Animals (3), Electronics (3), Luxuries (3), Concert tickets (3), houses (3), Cars/vehicles (3), and autographed items (2)
• The sets will be repeated in the items deck to make it easier for players to collect them. 
• Also, we decided to change the idea of a "trading period" and instead have ten trading time cards in the items deck. When a trading card comes up, players have the option to trade. 
• Within the items deck, there will be 5 cards that are considered "big ticket items" When this card comes up, layers will have to bid on it blindly, that is not knowing what the actual item is.
• We decided to categorize the item cards in a point system to determine their worth at the end of the game. 

Money Deck:

• The money deck will have sixty money cards: 5 $5000 cards, 10 $1000 cards, 15 $500 cards, and 30 $100 cards.
• Dummy Bid Card: allows you to skip a bid and exchange as many cards as you want. (10 will be in the deck)
• Trading card: This card can be used when a trading time cards shows up in the items deck. It allows the player to force a trade between them and anyone of their choosing. 

What would actually be on the card:

• Name of the item
• Picture of the item
• Category of the item
• Point value (for use at the end of the game)
• List of other items that belong in its set.

Now that all the smaller decisions have made made about our game, we can work on creating the cards and actually playing our game. By testing the game, we can fix the unexpected problems that may arise that would only be noticeable when you play. We'll see how it goes. 

                                                                                         

Core Mechanics:

In our second week, we developed the details of the core mechanics of our game.  There will be a pile of cards which represent money and a second pile of cards which represent items.  The game, as described previously, will be based on bidding on items with cash cards.  Each time a player bids, he/she can retrieve cards from the cash pile.  This pile will be faced down and the cards will therefore be picked randomly.  The player will retrieve one less card than what he/she has bid.  For example, if a player bids $2, the player can retrieve 1 cash card from the pile. The money given away will be put back into the cash pile and will be shuffled during the trading period.  The game will end when there are no more item cards left.

Trading Period:

After each third round, there will be "Trading" period.  At this time, players can trade with someone who has cards that the player may want.  Instead of trading, the players can also decide on purchasing the item from the other players at an agreed price.  The goal of this trading period is to obtain more cars of a set in order to increase the player's net worth.

Sets/Categories:

There will be different sets of cards with different values pertaining to each set. We have decided on the following sets, which we believe will be interesting to the players to collect:


Low Value Sets:
Electronics 
Concert tickets


High Value Sets:
Houses
Vehicles: Cars, Trucks, Buses, SUVs
Luxury Items: planes, yachts, helicopters

Variable Values:
Animals: tigers, polar bears, chinchillas, dogs, cats

Bonus Cards:

There will be bonus point cards in the cash card pile which will be worth an extra bonus point at the end of the game.


The details on the values of the sets and final structure of the game will be decided on this week, so stay tuned!