Devlog #12 - Board Games wooo!

Hear ye! Hear ye! The ghoulish times of all-hallows-eve have passed, and now the wholesome times of turkey day cometh. But enough about that, BOARD GAMES WOOOOOO! 

Before the week started I filled my brain with as much board game knowledge as possible, starting with Soren Johnson's presentation at the Game Developer Conference, "How Board Games Matter". In his presentation Johnson references how the line between board games and video games has become more and more blurred, the more that video games, rightly, pull inspiration from board games. Most notably, according to Johnson, are board games transparent and consistent rules allowing for faster engagement, their use of abstraction to allow all skill levels to interact with the core gameplay, visible mechanics allowing for greater comfort for players, and their use of pre-luck, defined as: "Player's having the ability to react strategically to a random event", allowing for greater player choice. Later studying into Mary Flanagan's Critical Play: Radical Game Design and her chapter on board games, talking on how games historically have been more than means of play, but also a format to tell stories, teach children important values or skills, be art pieces or even simulations of war, and how that the interactivity and physicality of board games has made them important for understanding how and why humans play.

Using that knowledge, we entered into the week starting with playing board games. Our group, comprised of Gil, Amanda, Andres & myself, got together and played Disney's Jungle Cruise Adventure Game. I had a few complaints, mainly that the games mechanics relied too much on luck for how long the game was, but overall it was a fun time and a great example of what a board game could be like. 

I'm really excited to work on this board game project and to post more updates about it as we go along.