Game Report -- Mad Lyrics

Mad Lyrics

Group 19

Cameron Wetzel Hillman and Danielle Tishkun

Mad Lyrics is a simple card game. It is played between two players. The goal is to use cards, which have song lyrics on them, to gradually build a complete song. Each player plays one card for their turn, and most cards have a special function that can affect their opponent, themselves, or both players. Certain cards, with "Sing-It" printed on them, provide a secondary goal, which is to not have the most at the end of the game. Players will accumulate and force their opponent to take these cards, as whoever has the most will be the one to sing the song after the game ends.

The game was designed for young adults between the ages of 15 and 21. Within that particular age group, the game will ideally appeal to those with interests in the process of songwriting and perhaps music in general. It works very well as an icebreaker for gatherings of young people, but realistically it could be enjoyed by anyone.

The game came about within about an hour of discussion. We wanted to ensure a steady flow to the gameplay, so every card contributes to the creation of the song. We also wanted players to experience risk by the potential of drawing or taking from their opponent a Sing-It card, which could happen whenever they play a card. The nature of the game involves player choice and modification, so even with random card draws, players still have a strong sense of personal agency.

Over 60 songs were chosen, and inside of those 60, a small portion was chosen from each song to put on the cards. One deck consists of verses, with one or two lines, and are the main cards for regularly playing the game. The other deck is entirely made up of choruses. Only one chorus card is chosen at the beginning of a game, which is used to complete the song after the game is over. Two more cards have the descriptions of the special ability cards, as a quick reference for players during a game.

The work was divided evenly. One person searched for and chose the songs for verses and choruses, and the other person printed and prepared the cards, as well as performed the playtesting. Communication within the group was done very well. The only glaring issue was a lack of personal involvement by both group members into the project itself. As a result, the relatively simple development process was delayed by a significant amount.

Two days of playtesting took place. In the two days of playtesting, there were 4 different people who played the game (not including the group members who made the game), and the game was played at least 8 separate times. The gameplay was not found to be confusing by people who had just been introduced to it. After the game would start, players very quickly became accustomed to the general flow and rules of play.

A big problem, or at least a problem, was that special cards were too rare. Players easily completed the game without playing many of them, and the game did not have any twists or turns. One other issue was that the 12-turn limit did not allow for players to really get settled. To remedy these issues, more special cards were created in the verse deck, and the game was set to be last longer than 20 turns to allow a more compelling experience.

Future projects would be better suited with better in-person communication between group members, as well as a more interesting premise and a much larger budget.

Table, with Chair

The task was to follow specific a architectural diagram and directions, and create a logically sized table, with an accompanying chair. Specific lengths, widths, and heights for primitive objects was determined using real-scale blueprints, and Maya's in-editor measuring tool to accurately size the distance between the legs and ensure straight lines.

In addition, modification of pivot points and utilization of the snap tool enabled the exact placement of primitives and their vertices. This allowed for elimination of seams between objects and multiple objects overlapping each other.

Upon each unique object's creation, measures were taken to form useful and well-placed UV maps, as most if not all other objects are duplicates. Getting one appropriately mapped UV that is then copied several times is much easier than mapping them all after the fact.

After following the proper construction of the table object, I took the leg and table parts of the table and further manipulated them into the general shape of a chair. This action removed the need for further UV mapping, cutting my production time and budget significantly.

Texturework was not complicated. I took some stock images from the internet, and arranged them underneath the UV maps for each object. I thought of adding a bump map, but my vision for the table and chair was more of a glossy finish than a rough one.

This project was very difficult. More difficult than you might first think. The core issue was that I couldn't get the project off the ground, despite its simplistic nature and eventual execution. In the end, its completion was delayed, which does not give it much value, especially not as an assignment.

Pencil

This pencil is not great. I didn't put the amount of detail into the textures as I wanted. I couldn't get all the specular shading right so it is uneven and ugly. My bump map was lackluster and barely visible. The wood part of the tip is low-res and has several visible seams. These are all issues that remain unsolved, including my submission to Blackboard being the wrong file.

The positives I can determine are how I took the vertices of the crimp object and molded them around the base of the pencil's body. That looks real nice, right? I bet everyone else did that, too, though.

If I were to start the project over, I would make the eraser object more seamless, the crimp object more condensed, the texture with more detail instead of flat colors, and the bump map texture more visible with specular shading.