Week 4

Last week, we played the game with the changed rules and some new cards. As Professor Parks recommended, we decided to add a new rule which is drawing threeingredients from the top of the deck and put them face up in the middle of the playing area. This made our game more successful and interesting. While playing the game, we kept figuring out how to make the game better. Because of the public roll, we were able to get a lot of choices and these wild cards created the game more difficult and interesting. The game was very successful and we played the game without the troubles or hesitations. After collaborating to make the game successful, we decided to create some menu and rule book for references and new wild card that can add interesting factors to the game. We also designed the back of the cards, and organized the rules for other people to understand it fast and easy.

A new wild card which is called “one of your ingredients is not fresh” will take away one of the ingredients that each player has. This will hinder a player from winning the game and also provide difficulty towards this game.  Also, we designed the back of the cards with image of sushi chef and the title “Sushi Chef.” The back of the cards will indicate whether this card is an ingredient, wild or roll card. Next week will give us the last chance to improve the game before the presentation. We will work hard to revise the game in order for other group members to enjoy this game.

--Younsub Shim

Week 3

This previous class was the first time we tried playing our game at full speed with the printed out cards and current set of rules set. For the most part, we thought the game was too easy and that it involved little strategy with the pace we played at. It was too quick and a little too simple, even with the wild cards we added. We tried coming up with more ideas to extend the game and to add more paths of victory to solve the lack of strategy in our game. After collaborating for a while, Professor Parks helped with some new ideas that sparked more dimensions to the sushi game. Instead of having one single path of finishing the game, we added depth by creating a rare roll that everyone could see and create. When putting ingredients down on the table face up instead of face down, this added the element of manipulation and deception. With this new element to the game, it forces all players to observe their opponents moves.

Another new rule that we decided to add was that we were going to show the first three cards on top of the deck, the reason for this was to see whether or not your opponent would pick the same ingredients you wanted to pick. With these new rules, you had a sense of what the other players wanted to build. We also added a large menu that showed every single sushi roll and every single ingredient to form that roll. We all worked really well together in order to brainstorm and collaborate new ideas and solutions for the flaws in the game that we currently had. Overall, we are excited to test run our updated game again and look forward to see how our advancements in the game design affected the overall play and fun factor. 

--Melvin Mendoza

Week 2

            This week, my group and I discussed how we are going to tweak our Sushi game. We decided that the players of the game must have more direct interaction throughout the game. This way, when a player wins or loses at the end, he or she will feel that it is due to the choices that were made rather than the luck he or she had. We discussed how perhaps only having two cards in your hand at a time may be limiting to these choices, and that we might need to increase the hand size to three or four. For now, we will try playing the game with just the two card hand and see how the game feels. We also decided to add more wildcards into the game to add variety to the game. If all the players could play were ingredients for their rolls, the game would become very redundant after a short while. The wild cards will allow the player who uses the card to break one of the games parameters, such as drawing two cards instead of one or taking another’s player’s ingredients.

            The second thing that the group did was divide up the work for this week. Our goal is to have the game in a playable prototype stage by next class, that way we can playtest it and see how it feels. Some members were assigned to create the cards, others were assigned to print, and others to bring in materials to play the game. Play testing it next class will help us to tweak the game further, since all we have done to this point is talk about how the game will flow. We are all looking forward to playing this game because it is simple, creative, and seemingly.

---Fady Youssef