Dev.log Yellow

Creating a game from scratch is always exciting and at the same time daunting. Having a clean slate allows for the creator to go in a myriad of different directions in terms of scope, theme, gameplay, feel, etc. It doesn't always go smoothly as there are bound to be bumps in the road when mapping out all aspects of a game, such as the concept of originality. Your product or game can be really fun, but if it doesn't have the slightest bit of creativity to it, it won't go anywhere.

I had the challenge of making a card game with a standard deck of playing cards, but the catch is that it has to be mostly original and not just a copy paste ruleset of another game, like playing Go Fish mixed with Poker. When approaching this the first thing I thought was "What's a core rule that hasn't been used before for a standard deck of cards?" I figured starting small and working up would be the best approach, and I came up with health points. Normally you'd want to have a specific amount of cards to climb to a threshold or pass it. I decided to flip that rule and make it where the less valuable your cards are, the better. With each card you earn, you would be more disadvantaged. Another consideration is "How do I make this accessible to everyone"? In games where you have to lie, have fast reflexes, or think quickly, kids and adolescents would be horribly. Then I thought to use a random number factor, like rock paper scissors as a deciding factor for matches and duels. I figured this way my little brother could always have a equal chance of beating me. I then fleshed out the rules some more, tweaked values and finished the assignment.

While I think that my final product would be fun to a degree, the main thing that matters is the balancing and the outcome. I also feel while my idea is somewhat original, I don't feel that it's the best result I came up with. I have little knowledge on the spectrum of card games, the amount of them and their rulesets. This puts me at a huge disadvantage because I could repeat mistakes or flaws that could've been avoided had I done more research. I feel I need to play many more board and card games in general to get away from the controller every now and again. Until I have more people test out my game, I won't truly know what more can be offered and what is severely handicapping it.

In light of the #scholarstrike (Links to an external site.) on 9/8 and 9/9, consider how game designers can address social justice issues in their games. What does an antiracist game look like?  Brainstorm a game that teaches about racism explicitly or implicitly. What meaningful actions and choices would the player make in such a game? Can playing a videogame really do anything to combat racism or implicit bias? Remember to reflect on this exercise for your dev.log

This is a very difficult topic to cover because social issues, humans rights, and politics usually get jumbled or mixed in with each other and a civil discussion can usually fall apart. I will try my best to explain my views and why I view them that way. When I tackled this question, I decided to use The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt as a base because that game tackles a myriad of social issues maturely in a digestible and fun manner.

To answer what does an antiracist game look like, I might have to look towards Wolfenstein, because in that game you literally kill Nazis and literate America in a time where the Allies lost WWII. But from what I remember, it didn't really go deep into social issues and went to Witcher for that instead. In a game that is supposed to teach racism and to answer the prompt of what those meaningful actions and choices should be, I mentioned a deep morality system, dialogue tree and party system would work. I went deeper by saying these systems would need to be tweaked here and there, but it could work with some elbow grease. The final part, can playing a video game really do anything to combat racism or implicit bias, I said yes and no. I mentioned yes because unlike other mediums, you have an active role and are solely responsible for a character within that world. I also said no because while it can spark a thought, ultimately people can't change unless they want to change. I feel games can influence one's thoughts and actions, but not definitively change a person.

I don't feel like I should change any of my answers as I laid them out. Racism is a complex topic because everybody has their own interpretation of what it is. Maybe I could better structure my answers and throw in some details here and there or change around some things. I really had the intention that if I wanted to make a game and answer these questions, I had to be as unbiased as possible. I reflected about how many times I've seen social justice and political figures try to inject politics into games that don't really benefit from it and listed them off. Bottom line is that