Understand and Discuss Games
- What are the basics: # of players, Game Time?
- What is the Theme?
- What are the Game Mechanics?
- What are the Roles?
- What is the Style?
- What are the Exceptions?
Board Game Styles
Before we get started, let's briefly look at a few genres of board games. This should help acquaint you with a couple of different types of board games, and the concepts behind them, and give you an idea of where to start if you're new to board games. Remember, many board games now have digital counterparts that you can play on an iPad or PC, so even if it's hard for you to play these games on an actual tabletop, you should have no trouble trying the more popular ones out.
Classic Board Games or Family Games
These games require the players to race around the board or follow a designated path to reach their goal. Sometimes there will also be a points system involved. These games have a heavy reliance on luck, and have less strategy than more modern board games. Games like this work best with groups where the game itself is not as important as the experience of playing together. Most of the time, these games have very simple or absurd themes which have little or no impact on the game mechanics.
Examples: Sorry, Snakes and Ladders, and Candyland
Euro-Style Games
Euro-style games are often about gaining victory points, an arbitrary resource that allows you to win. They usually last a certain number of turns, or continue until one player has a certain number of victory points. These games have strong themes which inform much of the design. There is also usually a system of resource management, and some kind of "political" play between the players as they negotiate the sale and trade of resources. Finally, these games have fewer elements of luck or chance, and most issues the player experiences because of "bad luck" can be mitigated with strong strategic play.
Examples: Settlers of Catan, Power Grid, Carcassone, and Lancaster
Deck-Building Games
Deck-Building Games (DBGs) are similar to Trading Card Games (TCGs) where each player has a deck of cards they use during play. The difference is that in DBGs the players all work from the same card collection, and the deck-building occurs as part of the game. These games usually come with 15-20 different card types, but only ten are used in a single game. This gives the games a lot of replay value. In these games players build their deck over time by purchasing available cards from the pool of cards. Games like this usually end when a certain number of card types are depleted, or when a specific situation occurs.
Examples: Dominion, Thunderstone, Nightfall, and Quarriors
Abstract Strategy Games
Abstract strategy games include chess and checkers. The point of these games is for two players to have a complex strategic battle in which they try to out-match and out-think their opponent. These games are harder to describe without specific examples, and the game elements and goals are not quite as common across the genre. Instead of dice rolls or card combinations, the goal is often to position pieces in just the right location.
Examples: Chess, Checkers, Quoridor, and Push Fight
Strategy Games
Strategy games are much grander Euro-style games. These games usually have a very important board and a narrative which drives the game's progress. These games often involve a heavy amount of co-op and competitive play, forcing players to make and break alliances over the course of the game.
Players are usually participating as much in the game itself as they are in higher-level mind-games with each other: trying to get ahead, form alliances, and discern their opponent's motives. These games are generally marked by very long game sessions (six hours or more, for some), and are sometimes affectionately referred to as "friendship-ending games", because of how passionate players become. Risk is perhaps the most well-known game in this genre.
Examples: Risk, Twilight Imperium, Arkham Horror, and Battlestar Galactica
Card-Based Strategy Games
Card-based strategy games are strategy games where cards are the primary game element. Games like this vary heavily, but there is often a drafting mechanic, or an element of character or base building where players use cards to gain abilities or bonuses. These games usually have a heavy element of luck or randomness.
The goal in games like this can be based on victory points, trying to complete a specific set of cards, or eliminating certain target players, among others. Games like Poker, Spit, and Egyptian Rat Screw don't fit into this category because they lack a central theme, and don't require anything other than a standard deck of cards. Deck-Building Games could fit into this category, but have become so popular I consider them their own genre.
Examples: Munchkin, Bang, 7 Wonders, and Chrononauts
Play Games
- Cards Against Humanity
- Dungeons & Dragons
Intro to Photoshop
Free Photoshop
- Fire Alpaca & the Gimp
Photoshop Basics 1
- Starting the Program / Quit
Whats Where?
Hot Keys
- Opening a file
-- Browse in Bridge or Mini Bridge
- Save / Save As a file
- Windows
- File --> New
* Resoultion
72 dpi traditional screen resolution
180 dpi lowest printing resolution
300 dpi + good printing resolution
600 dpi + high resolution printing
* File Types
- File Types
---- Photoshop = .PSD = working file, the one you keep forever
-- End Product Files
---- JPEG = .JPG = web and email (Flickr) file
---- GIFF = .GIF = web file
---- TIFF = .TIF = full quality print file
--- RAW = .RAW = raw camera data uncompressed file
---- Portable Document File = .PDF = compressed print file
Setting Preferences
Photoshop --> Preferences --> General
View
- Rulers, Grids & Guides
- Show
- Snap
Laying out a design in Photoshop
before Photoshop
1) paper size
2) single or multiple designs on the page?
in Photoshop
3) size and resolution
4) define print area
* Offset press - requires cut lines, a bleed and image area to fit within the paper size (print on anything thats flat)
* Laser Printer - 1/4",1/4",1/4", 3/8th"
-- standard sizes 8.5x11",8.5x14", 11x17"
* Inkjet printer - 1/4",1/4",1/4", 3/8th"
-- standard sizes 8.5x11",8.5x14", 11x17", 19" wide, 24" wide, 36" wide, 42" wide
5) Define the Middle
6) save as a template file named appropriately as a .psd
ex LP_cover_Template.psd
Walk Through. Creating 1.5"x2" mini cards on an 8.5"x11" piece of paper.
Assignment:
create a template for the following list:
- 11"x17" Game Board
- 8.5"x11" Pamphlet Page
- 2.5"x3.5" Cards on an 8.5"x11" piece of paper
- 2"x2" Card on an 8.5"x11" piece of paper
* Resolution should be 300 dpi at size
* Use "guides" to designate the print area
Work on Assignment
No comments:
Post a Comment