Blog 2

            My group and I worked on the core mechanics and the goal of our game. To begin, we thought of what the main goal for the players should be. Trisha, the creator of our game, suggested that the goal for each player should be to complete his or her tasks. In other words, each player will randomly select a character. Each character card will have their own tasks that they need to complete. As a group, we believed that no character should be more powerful than another; therefore, we made sure each character has equal tasks. The tasks include finding objects. However, each character has assigned objects. We made sure the objects assigned to the characters matched the original story of the book and movie. For example, Hermione would have to find a wand and a time turner. In the movie she uses a timer turner to save Sirius. Also, she was quick at learning spells with her wand. More specifically, each character has three objects that they need to find through out this game.

            At first, we did not know how to set up the game. We were unsure about whether having the objects in each specific location on the board or to have the objects on the side. Christina suggested that it would make more sense if we put the cards in the rooms on the board. However, Trisha believed this would be too random because plays will never know where to go to find their objects. Then, I came up with the idea that we should start off the game by splitting the cards of each player’s character. For example, if I was Harry Potter, my tasks will say to find a Horcrux, a pensieve and the mirror of Erised. These objects will be picked out of the pile and given out to the other three players of the game. We will do this for each player’s character. After all the objects of the characters are given out, each player will take the objects they collected of other characters and place them in any location on the board. The rest of my group liked this idea.

            Unfortunately, we were still unsure about how a character can win. We did not want to make the goal to only be completing your given task because we believed that would make the game too simple. Therefore, I came up with the idea that we should have three copies of each object that are worth 1, 2 or 3 points. If I complete my task first by finding all three of my objects, I still have the chance of losing because another character could have two of their three objects that are worth 3 points each, whereas, the three objects that I found were only worth 1 point each. Therefore, the goal would be to try to get the object you need of the highest value.

            Throughout the discussion, we realized that we have another error in our game. Not only will people collect cards that they do not need, but there will also be locations where the cards run out. I suggested that since Trisha came up with a Lost Room as one of the locations, that can be assigned as the room that people can discard the cards they do not need. In other words, if I, Harry Potter, visit the Chamber of Secret and draw an object card of a motorbike, I can discard it and place it in the Lost Room because it is not included in my task. Additionally, each time a room runs out of objects, there will be a list that will say in which locations to split the objects in the lost room in. While the rooms are still full, people can visit the Lost Room also to find their objects, however, they must discard a card in order to search in this location.