[Game Changers] Slide Killer: A Party Game
And now it is time for the final action project of the year! For the last three weeks, we have been in only one intense class called Game Changers. In this class, we have been focusing on board game development and design, all culminating in this final project where we designed our own board game, but we’ll get to that. In our first week, we looked at some game vocabulary as well as designing our first very bad and rushed games, just to get a little practice. We also played a number of games to try and get a wide view of all the different types of board games.
In our second week, we started thinking about the action project, as well as looking at some game designers. I personally researched a little about Gary Gygax, famed creator of Dungeons & Dragons. We also had an interview with Jason Eggington. He runs MagiKids, an organization that is trying to spread Magic: The Gathering to schools as he believes it is beneficial to kids. In our third week, we’ve mostly just been working on our Action Project, but we also went to a game store called Good Games and played a few different games to see what they were like. We also wanted to see what the game store environment was like. All of this effort has led up to this final Action Project, where NM, S(K)T, and I have created our game, Slide Killer!
Have you ever heard of the fast-paced, fun new party game for all ages, Slide Killer? In it, you are either a Villager trying to survive, a Doctor trying to keep everyone alive, or a Slide Killer, trying to murder everyone. The game takes about 20-30 minutes with fifteen players as accommodated by the purchased version and about 15-20 with ten players, as accommodated by the Print and Play. Will the Killer win by murdering everyone else? Or will the innocent people win by voting out the murderer? Read on to learn more!
Slide Killer Rules
Thanks to thegamecrafter.com, we were able to find out the production costs of our game! Using high quality cards and boxes, it would cost about $6.87 in USD. This means we would likely have to price it at around $12-$15, as of course we would want to make a profit.
Reflection:
This has been a very fun project, both the lead-up and the actual production! It has been quite a process to get to this final product. We started with a variety of ideas, from adapting a video game into a board game format to making something similar to Dungeons & Dragons. We settled on this one because it seemed the most feasible with the time frame and was something we all knew about beforehand. We definitely did not want to start something that only some of us knew about.
Our first version is somewhat similar to the final, except each person only received one card and there was a bit of a mechanism to see a secret role. Our second iteration was a complicated contraption using a sort of lever system, and while that would have been interesting to see, it seemed very clunky and not user-friendly. Our playtesters suggested we go back to cards, and so we did! Version three involved cards again, and we playtested this version with better results. We still were using the one card system, except now the cards had a front and a back, and the sliding system had not yet been worked out, so what we would do is try to discreetly show the cards to each other. This was also quite clunky and our playtesters gave us the sliding idea. We then changed from one card to two, as it was not possible to slide the cards with it showing one of the roles on the back. This was essentially our final version, just without the amazing art. We added the art and now we have our final version! We received quite positive feedback from our playtesters for our somewhat unique fast-paced, stressful gameplay.
As for my personal contributions to this project, I was very much more involved in the behind-the-scenes work than the creation of the physical product, as I’m not the most crafty person, although I did help with that. I used Game Crafter to figure out how much the project would cost. I wrote the script for the video and figured out which outfits we would need. I wrote up the slideshow to show our progress as well as designing it and finally taking some of the pictures. I’d say we all shared leadership roles over what we had knowledge over, but I definitely laid out tasks on what we had to do and made sure we did them.
As for what I’m most proud of, I would say it has to be the video script. I had a lot of fun writing it and I really let my creativity create a product that is funny and informative, as well as hopefully hooking to potential buyers. I’m also very proud of our teamwork. We all have very different areas of expertise so making them all work together and complementing each other’s weaknesses was very helpful. I believe this game shows how effective communication we had.
In conclusion, I very much enjoyed this project and class as a whole. It was a nice change of pace from normal classes while still feeling like school, I believe this to be because we were still learning things. If I were to do this project again, I would probably attempt to do more in the art department, but other than that I thought everything in this assignment went very well. This concludes the final Action Project of 2021. See you next year!
In our second week, we started thinking about the action project, as well as looking at some game designers. I personally researched a little about Gary Gygax, famed creator of Dungeons & Dragons. We also had an interview with Jason Eggington. He runs MagiKids, an organization that is trying to spread Magic: The Gathering to schools as he believes it is beneficial to kids. In our third week, we’ve mostly just been working on our Action Project, but we also went to a game store called Good Games and played a few different games to see what they were like. We also wanted to see what the game store environment was like. All of this effort has led up to this final Action Project, where NM, S(K)T, and I have created our game, Slide Killer!
Have you ever heard of the fast-paced, fun new party game for all ages, Slide Killer? In it, you are either a Villager trying to survive, a Doctor trying to keep everyone alive, or a Slide Killer, trying to murder everyone. The game takes about 20-30 minutes with fifteen players as accommodated by the purchased version and about 15-20 with ten players, as accommodated by the Print and Play. Will the Killer win by murdering everyone else? Or will the innocent people win by voting out the murderer? Read on to learn more!
Our ~1:30 long commercial
Slide Killer Rules
Thanks to thegamecrafter.com, we were able to find out the production costs of our game! Using high quality cards and boxes, it would cost about $6.87 in USD. This means we would likely have to price it at around $12-$15, as of course we would want to make a profit.
Our game is also available as a Print and Play version, available here.
Reflection:
This has been a very fun project, both the lead-up and the actual production! It has been quite a process to get to this final product. We started with a variety of ideas, from adapting a video game into a board game format to making something similar to Dungeons & Dragons. We settled on this one because it seemed the most feasible with the time frame and was something we all knew about beforehand. We definitely did not want to start something that only some of us knew about.
Our first version is somewhat similar to the final, except each person only received one card and there was a bit of a mechanism to see a secret role. Our second iteration was a complicated contraption using a sort of lever system, and while that would have been interesting to see, it seemed very clunky and not user-friendly. Our playtesters suggested we go back to cards, and so we did! Version three involved cards again, and we playtested this version with better results. We still were using the one card system, except now the cards had a front and a back, and the sliding system had not yet been worked out, so what we would do is try to discreetly show the cards to each other. This was also quite clunky and our playtesters gave us the sliding idea. We then changed from one card to two, as it was not possible to slide the cards with it showing one of the roles on the back. This was essentially our final version, just without the amazing art. We added the art and now we have our final version! We received quite positive feedback from our playtesters for our somewhat unique fast-paced, stressful gameplay.
As for my personal contributions to this project, I was very much more involved in the behind-the-scenes work than the creation of the physical product, as I’m not the most crafty person, although I did help with that. I used Game Crafter to figure out how much the project would cost. I wrote the script for the video and figured out which outfits we would need. I wrote up the slideshow to show our progress as well as designing it and finally taking some of the pictures. I’d say we all shared leadership roles over what we had knowledge over, but I definitely laid out tasks on what we had to do and made sure we did them.
As for what I’m most proud of, I would say it has to be the video script. I had a lot of fun writing it and I really let my creativity create a product that is funny and informative, as well as hopefully hooking to potential buyers. I’m also very proud of our teamwork. We all have very different areas of expertise so making them all work together and complementing each other’s weaknesses was very helpful. I believe this game shows how effective communication we had.
In conclusion, I very much enjoyed this project and class as a whole. It was a nice change of pace from normal classes while still feeling like school, I believe this to be because we were still learning things. If I were to do this project again, I would probably attempt to do more in the art department, but other than that I thought everything in this assignment went very well. This concludes the final Action Project of 2021. See you next year!
Amazing acting!!!!
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