Core mechanism and rules

We learned in the lecture about how often people make mistakes in making game by not deciding what would be the core mechanism and rules for the game. We found out that during the process of making the basics of rules, we did not clarify the core mechanism. Therefore, we put an effort during the second week to make the game more simple and entertaining by defining the core mechanism and structure. First thing we did was redefining the concept and rules of game. Then, we clarified the effects of different types of management card. Finally, we thought about some points that can possibly make the game more entertaining.

1. Lists of points
- There are two types of cards in the game. One is luck card and the other is management card. Luck cards influence only 1 person including the player himself. Management cards are five different types of cards that affect the whole group.
Luck cards-
ex) change hands, lose some money, gain some money, forgive loan, reduce tax
Management cards-
ex). Expense, Invest, Tax, Income, Loan
-Players will get five management cards and 30 coins at the beginning of the game.
- Players decide to get either 1 luck card or 1 management card at the end of turn. However, a player can only use 3 luck cards during a turn. If player decides to use luck card, he can not participate in the game for the turn.
The game ends when either you reach the 60 coins

2. Cards
Expense cards (red) - Pay certain amount of money
Invest cards (Blue) - Pay money and get same money back after two turns. Roll a dice and the number of dice is extra coins that you made be investing
Tax cards (Yellow) - pay certain amount of money plus extra according to the coins players have 1-10=1, 10-20=2, 3-30=3 ....
Income cards (Green) - gain certain amount of money
Loan cards (Purple) - Get certain amount of money. Roll a dice and the number of dice decides how many turns players will lose the money
Certain refers to a number written on the cards

3. Possible points to consider
- changing the points to money ( what can we do with the coins) - I thought may be buying a luck card with money??
- Betting - people pay money to get better cards
-Trade - change the card with the other

The Introduction

Our team had two very distinct ideas for developing a card game. One of our ideas was about the Hunger Game Universe. It involved the tributes from the various districts fighting and surviving the Hunger Games.

Our second game, which we chose to develop as our project, is a game with an investment theme. The game is meant to have the essence of poker.

The reason for our selection is the flaws of Hunger Games which involved disqualification and could become unfair. Plus through the process of majority vote we ended up choosing the investment game. We look forward to the next couple of weeks developing this game.
Our game proposal is below.

Game Proposal:

            "The name of our card game is called The Investment Game. The concept of the game is that an investment company is trying to find out who the best employee is depending on who makes the most profit. The winning employee will have the most amount of money at the end of the game, after the players go through several rounds of plays that require tactic. The game is most suited towards 3 to 5 players per game. Although the card game will rely on some luck as the cards are randomly distributed to players, it requires strategy to actually win the game.  

            The material for this game will require two different sets of cards. One set of cards will be composed of chance cards. These cards are called chance cards because they have the power to change or even overturn the game. The cards will allow players to exchange money or even reduce a player’s money by half. However, there may be some chance cards that act negatively upon the player using the card. Therefore, the players must be careful not to rely on the chance cards, but to be strategic with their regular plays. The other set of cards are called management cards. These cards represent the activities that the investment companies perform, and each activity will have a different color with numbers written from 0 to 7. There are five types of activities under tax, investment, income, expenses, and loans. The tax cards (red) force players to pay a certain amount of their money to the government. The investment cards (blue) require a player to lose some money during the player’s turn. However, the player will gain twice as much after three turns. Income cards (white) are immediate gains of money while expense cards (black) are immediate losses. Loan cards (yellow) make players lose money for two turns, but they will get the same amount back after two turns. Players will consider their options among these five types of management cards and will need to choose the cards carefully in order to win.

            All the players in the game will receive the same amount of the money at the beginning. The goal is to get the most amount of money when the game ends. The game will begin once the players are randomly distributed five management cards. They will decide what cards to use and put the cards faced down on the desk. After all the players choose their cards, they will flip the cards and compare them. The player with the highest number card wins the round and the other players need to perform the same activity of the highest number card, according to the number on their chosen card. For the attack cards such as tax and expenses, even though the winner has the highest number, it is a loss for the winner. In this case, the numbers will be reversed. For example, the highest number will get the lowest number and so on. If there is a tie between the highest numbers, the player who has the lowest amount of money at the turn will win that round. The bank will control the money and distribute it to the players after each turn. All players except the winner are allowed to take an additional management card from the deck before the next turn begins. The chance card is only available to one person each turn, and the turns run as clockwise. Players will either pay a certain fixed amount of money or skip their chance to use the chance card. The game ends when the all the cards from the deck are gone. The most crucial tactic for this game will be counting what other players put and predict what number or color should the player choose in order to win. The player might choose to attack the other players or try to maximize their own profit. Also, players might intentionally use lower number cards in order to minimize losses. In order to win the game, it is crucial to use the cards wisely depending on how much money and cards the players have in their hands."

-Omair Siddiqui