Week 6

This week was definitely different as we had one class over a zoom call. I honestly do not recall anything that was discussed over the call, but I do remember being in one. The Thursday class was okay, but felt weird as I was not sure what we were doing exactly going in since I did not check discord. I had to try and come up with something in the moment and felt that it could’ve been better had I checked the discord beforehand. With that being said I did decide the game I would reverse engineer would be Tecmo Bowl. I chose this game as it is relatively simple to learn and play. The aspect of the game I went with was the playmaking / play selection part which includes four plays to choose from. On offense the player can choose between two run plays or two pass plays. The defense has similar options but instead of plays they are formations that allow the defense to overwhelm the offense if the correct formation is selected. The way this is decided is if for example Player one on offense selects to run a deep pass play while Player two goes for a deep coverage formation this would lead to the quarterback getting sacked or the ball being intercepted. To reverse engineer this into a paper prototype setting you would simply need a deck of cards. The cards would be designated as black cards being for pass plays and pass defense formations and the red cards would be for run plays or run defense formations. The number associated with the card would determine the minimum roll count for a successful play. If the card selected by offense is an eight of spades, they would need to roll an eight or higher to successfully pass the ball. If it does not hit at least eight in this situation it would be an incomplete pass or an interception if the defense rolls higher than the offense and higher than minimum roll count. This would hopefully maintain the players executive attention and would heighten the suspense associated with the simple act of selecting a play. By adding the cards into the game, it gives the player an additional layer of experience as they are directly interacting with something that they would normally see on the screen. Not only that, but it would add a layer of unpredictability as the player would not know what the minimum roll count would be until the cards are revealed. The ability to choose which play and how difficult the play would potentially be would allow the players to develop their own strategies and would also allow them to take more risks when applicable. I do feel that it is a lot to explain at first and I am not the best at putting thoughts into words, but I do believe that this would work pretty well in a paper prototype playtest setting. Once the first few playtests help iron out the kinks, I’d think it would be much easier for new players to learn.