Everyone’s makin’ videogames

Jaroti’s post about making games ties in nicely with todays board game.  Actually it’s not a board game.  It’s a card game.  Difference?  No board.  Though most board games use cards.  Enough of that, let’s moving on to the pink!

Let the cuteness that is the pink overwhelm you!  The game is simple: Create videogames that out do your opponents’ videogames.  Each videogame is made up of at least a title, a character and two required gear before it is allowed to go gold. But games can be enhanced with gear upgrades, easter eggs and more characters.

There are 4 genres of videogame that can be made: RPG, fighting, shooter and music games, each with their own gear. Titles include: Pinky G & Jumpman superstar saga, Pixel Fury, Pinky Gear Solid and Dance Dance Team ninja Suppressors 2.  Got to love the ninjas.

Generally the more cards used in a game, the higher its score (value at top left corner) when it goes gold.  The problem is that after one player has his 4th game go gold, the game ends.  So its a race to build the most exciting game versus making many cheap ones.

Game play is pretty straight forward: there are always 5 cards face up in the middle of the table and a face down deck of cards.  At the beginning of a players turn, the player draws a card from the deck.  The player may now either trade cards of equal (or higher) value for one of the 5 cards OR discard all the lowest numbered cards OR hold an auction.  The player chooses up to three cards from the 5 that goes into the auction.  Each player then bets a number of cards from his/her hand. All cards are revealed at the same time and the one with the highest points wins the auction and discards the cards that were bet.  After obtaining cards, a player may play up to two cards from his hand. These are usually to place the cards into ones video game. Lastly a player may announce if any of his games are going gold and gain points for them.

The game is also filled with special ability cards, some of which allow you to clone a rival (or even your own) game.  Though all this means in game terms is that you draw two cards when the game being cloned goes gold.  The Guardians (good, neutral and evil) and of course Pink Godzilla have special game abilities beyond their character status. For instance, Pink Godzilla can be exchanged (after a player has drawn a card) with any of the 5 face up cards.  But what if two players use Pink Godzilla on the same card at the same time?  The card goes to the one who grabs it first.

One twist that new players should be aware of, is that the top three highest scoring games get loads of bonus points at the end of the game.  Where as each player that has completed all four his own games receives a few bonus points as well.

I make cheap music titles, which is probably why I don’t win. But even when losing hopelessly the game is filled with videogame satirical humour, cute pink godzillas and ninjas. Go Team Ninja!

Until next time:  Have some sushi!

println(“foo”);