Botanical Garden Warfare
September 23 2018 - October 21 2018
This was a month-long project where I conceptualized and created a card game. It can be compared to Plants Vs. Zombies being mixed with something like Uno. We used the website Gamestructor to publish our card games for playtesting as well as others who found it on the website to play in general if they wished.
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This was a project where we were tasked with creating our own card game. We had to conceptualize what we wanted for the card game and the rules. We had to have classmates/friends/family playtest the game every week throughout the month to get feedback and improve upon the game. We had to make a Game Design Document for the game as well which later on the playtests were inserted into. We also took our card game and published it onto the Gamestructor website for others to play, as well as an easy way to playtest it.
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This was a fun project for me as it took me quite a bit of time to figure out what I wanted to make for a card game. When I eventually came up with the idea it kind of came off, to me, as a mix of Uno and Plants vs. Zombies. Then coming up with the rules was a little difficult after figuring out what I really wanted players to have freedom in or not. This is also the first project where I was introduced to making a Game Design Document and using the G.R.A.T.I.S format. It was also fun to have people playtest my game and get feedback on it so that I could improve on it.
Botanical Garden Warfare Game Design Document with Playtests
Here you will see the Game Design Document with recorded playtests for Botanical Garden Warfare throughout the time of its creation.
Skills Used
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Game Design Documentation
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Playtesting
Postmortem
Q: What challenges did you overcome?
A: Coming up with the idea for the card game itself was really the biggest challenge aside from trying to figure out how to use the website we published the games on.
Q: What is something related to the project in terms of progress or productivity that you were extremely pleased with?
A: I was very pleased with the progress I made throughout the month on the game. I was pleased with being able to have people playtest the game and give me feedback on it so that I could improve it. It was cool to actually get feedback from other people playing the game and letting me know what they liked, disliked, what they wanted in the game, etc.
Q: What is something related to the project that you feel could have gone better?
A: I wish I had more people to playtest the game as at one point I did have to use some of the people who had previously played and tested it and most of them were family members due to my anxiety about asking classmates to play and the little time I had between everything else I had going on in life to really work on the project and playtests.
Q: What is something related to the project overall that you feel went well?
A: Overall I feel it came together in the end and I was really happy with the final result of the game. I liked the pictures I was able to find and use for the cards and was happy with the concept I came up with as well. Though it was a simple assignment and did not involve any coding or anything, it helped me improve on coming up with my own ideas.