Meaning of Life
Introduction
In my Studio class, we are asked to create a game with the umbrella theme of ‘Meaning of Life,’ so I decided to take this opportunity and enhance the game for my final project in Games 101. When I first received the theme, I thought to myself, what is the meaning of life? And I came down to this conclusion that the meaning of life is to create value through achieving things, and in order to do so one must make meaningful choices and decisions.
Summary of game
In the game, decision making will take up most of the part – which cards to keep, which to discard, which to exchange… each choice the player makes will lead them to a unique life they create. To simplify my game, players basically collect experience as they play through the game (their life), and exchange the experience for achievements. Achievements produces value in ones life, and the player with the highest value point in the end of the game wins.
Cards
There are two types of cards in my game, the experience cards and the achievement cards. Players mainly play with the experience cards, collecting various combinations to exchange for achievement cards.
Experience cards
The experience cards contain 5 varying type, love, friendship, family, relaxation, and work.
Achievement cards
The achievement cards come in many different form depending on which experience cards you used to exchange for them, and what pre-existing achievement cards you own. (Will be explained later on)
Instruction
A detailed instruction and rule list can be found at the bottom of this section. But long story short, the game is suitable for 3-5 players, age 15+. At the beginning of the game, players are given 5 random experience cards, they then discard a card first then take turns to draw one experience card from the remaining deck (faced down). The player will then decide what experience cards they’re aiming for, and also what kind of combination they have in hand. Below is a table that shows the various combinations of experience cards needed for an achievement card.
As shown, there are three stages to the game. Each stage has their own unique set of achievement cards that can be exchanged, and achievement cards from the previous stage can help with the upcoming stages. This is because people’s value changes as they progress through life. Also, as the game progress, it becomes harder to catch up as the combinations of experience cards needed to exchange for the same achievement card is harder to obtain in stage 3 compared to stage 1. For example, in stage 1, to exchange for a ‘Friendly’ achievement card, only 2 ‘friendship’ experience cards are needed; but in stage 2&3, 3 ‘friendship’ experience cards are needed.
Instructions:
- Face the experience card deck down.
- Draw 5 cards each randomly from the experience card deck.
- Experience cards are used to exchange for achievement cards. Check table for detailed combination.
- Starting from the first player, draw out 1 experience card from the remaining deck.
- A maximum of 5 experience cards can be in your possession.
- Players must discard a card if they’ve reached the maximum capacity of cards in their hands before they draw a new card.
- Other players are allowed to take the card discarded card when its their turn.
- Allow the next person in the game to perform the same thing.
- Players can exchange their experience cards for achievement cards at any point of the game.
- Once exchanged, players can draw the number of cards needed to fill up their 5 card slots, after discarding a card.
- Each stage ends when a player has obtain 3 different kinds of achievement cards.
- When players move on to the next stage, they are to take all their experience and achievement cards.
- Achievement cards are kept throughout all 3 stages.
- At the end of stage 3, the players calculate the number of value points they earned.
- The player with the highest value points wins the game of life.
Rules:
- You are only allowed to take cards from other players if you haven’t gotten a new card.
- If you took an abandoned card before you draw a card, continue to draw a card but that would immediately become an abandoned card.
- Abandoned cards are to be placed as a deck form, players are only allowed to take the top card.
- When you exchange for an achievement card, the experience cards used are to be placed under the deck of experience cards that you draw from.
- You don’t have to hand in achievement cards when exchanging for a higher levelled experience card.
Gameplay test
I asked my friends to play test the game for me to spot out mistakes. The game lasted about 30 minutes and was filled with confusion and flaws. Aside from rules and instructions, below are some of the major issues we noticed:
- Reading the table is annoying – it takes away the fun from the game. Exchanging is fun, but to keep track on what to exchange is boring and annoying.
- Too complicated – starting from stage 2, the game gets complicated, it takes way too long for players to play the game as they have to read through the table to check if they have the set number of cards needed to exchange.
- The lack of desire for achievement cards – players exchange for achievement cards because thats the goal of the game, but it wasn’t engaging enough.
I also asked them which part of the game they find most interesting and fun, and their reply was ‘exchanging and collecting.’ They also stated that the game would be much more engaging if physical items were to be distributed, like the houses in monopoly (which can be upgraded).
Corrections & changes
Upon testing the game, I decided to do some changes to it. I’ve simplified the table so that players don’t have to look at them while playing the game. I’ve also changed the achievement system into something less complicated and (hopefully) more rewarding.
In the new game, players still collect experience cards in the same manner (with clearer rules), but instead of having different combinations of experience cards to exchange for an achievement card, players use a set number of experience card to exchange for a physical playing piece. For example, players can only exchange for 3 ‘friend’ pieces if they have 3 ‘friend’ cards; and 3 ‘family members’ if they have 3 ‘family’ experience cards. Collecting a certain amount of achievement pieces allows players to exchange for their corresponding upgraded version, for example, 12 pieces of friends allows player to exchange for a club house piece, and that will be the end of the ‘friend’ section of the player’s ‘life,’ so they can now focus on the 4 other parts: family, love, work, and relaxation. The winner of the game will be the first person to reach a perfect life – the one who upgraded every achievement piece to the maximum level.
As shown, players only need to look at the table once they’ve collected 3 of the same cards, meaning that they can focus on playing the game instead of calculating what combinations they need. The game ends when a player reaches the perfect life, which is to obtain all 5 upgraded achievement pieces.
To make the game more diverse in terms of the meaning of a ‘perfect/successful’ life, allowing the players to choose in advance which achievements they’re aiming to upgrade and collect may develop a more personal playing style.