Dev.Log Entry Green

This week I started playing a game I have not played before. It's called Rocket League, a multiplayer game by Psyonix. The rules of the game are not broadly outlined as it is somewhat of a free-for-all in which the players are using a vehicle to play things such as basketball and soccer. While playing the game, each player has a chance to pick up energy boosts or use their turn/slide/jump commands to make contact with the ball or other player's vehicles in order to try to get the ball into their opponent's goal. It's much like a monster truck rally inside of cages but with pucks, balls, or glowing lights to move around with.

The intensity of the game gives an aesthetic sensation of creating a thrilling atmosphere. You'll see an array of bright and fast-moving colors surrounding you during gameplay. Rocket League also has somewhat of a fellowship to the game, as you are playing on teams and can call out to your teammates to assist you. I would like to include in my games at some point a verbal interaction such as what you'll find in unguided banter that players engage in during a round of Rocket League.

Over the past week, and throughout chapter 4 reading of the Game Design Workshop text, I have decided to focus on player personality and a compelling story to engage my players in upcoming games. I was drawn to the first exercise described as creating a game of checkers by replacing the chips with various characters and giving them something more interesting for the player to take part in discovering.

I'd like to keep this in mind while defining my playable characters in the board game project. I think games that have definable characters for each person to play can bring them into that flow of wanting to continue forward if they're able to add to a playable character's story, or if they're able to identify with them as well. I think this is why games like Warhammer are quite popular to include intricate character design, and a rich story for each character type already set in place. I'd like to construct my board game in a similar way to setting a campaign for a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. I want a basic idea of what the player can connect to with their character (and other characters), and the ability to possibly team up and have vocal choices to intermingle with gameplay rules such as just described in DnD and Rocket League.