The Final Product

          After all the time and effort we put into creating our best game, it was coming down to perfecting a few of the final touches. Francis and Amanda L. had done an amazing job touching up our game cards, and emailed them to me and Ahmed so that we could bring everything to be laminated. We went on Sunday October 13th, to be sure we allowed enough time for everything to be finished by Thursday. I drove Ahmed and myself to FedEx (Kinkos) and everything we needed was on Ahmed's USB. When we began explaining what we needed to be done, the employees told us that we should put as many cards as possible on one page to save us money, however neither Ahmed or I had photo shop on our computer, so we hit a dilemma. We called Amanda and asked if it would be possible for her to set up each page according to the employee's directions, and she happily did so. The next day when she had finished that she emailed everything to me and Ahmed again and we attempted Kinkos for the second time. Everything went smoothly, for the most part, aside from the shocking price we received. Since we had so many cards that were both fronts and backs, as well as printing and laminating to be done, we had come to a total of $180.00. Unhappily we agreed to the cost, and awaited the call saying everything was complete.
          The next morning I received a call saying there was an issue with our request. The employee had apparently forgot to mention that because our cards needed to be hand cut, it was $1 per card. With a total of 300 cards, I said no way! I argued that the original price of $180.00 was said to have included that request, but the employee claimed that was an error. Later that day I went to pick up the cards, which were still uncut and in full sheets of paper. I brought everything home with me, and after speaking with my group I volunteered to cut out all of the cards myself, and they would handle the game box. In the end, our game came together beautifully, but the work involved was rather tedious. We appreciated all of the feedback and criticism that we received from the professional gamers, and really enjoyed the opportunity to watch others play our final game!!

Finishing Touches

Even though not everyone could make it to the group meeting outside of class this past week, we each came prepared to class with what we had assigned each other. We had a complete rough draft version of Grimoire ready for the class to play test. Because only Francis stayed at our table to as questions to the student play testers, the rest of my group and I did not get to see how our game played. Luckily at the end of class, we got to meet up and discuss what Francis had observed all class. Sadly, we still had a lot of problems to fix. The game was still moving too slowly, so we decided to lower the cost of challenge cards. Also, we had added some lower cost spell cards which we thought would come in handy at the beginning of the game, but as it turned out, no one wanted to waste their time on them. Another huge item on our list of things to do is to perfect the physical appearance of the cards before next class.

We split up the workload as evenly as possible. We put Francis in charge of designing the character pictures and also coming up with quotes for the cards. Once he finished that, he sent me the designs and I created the cards in photoshop. I recently emailed the finished cards to Ahmed and Amanda A. who will be driving to go get them laminated. Also, one of them is going to be in charge of creating the game box. Hopefully everything goes well with laminating and we have a finished game by Thursday's class.

Pushing Through the Snags

     We went home after class last week with a ton to think about. Our game's core mechanics worked well enough, but we found there were a few fundamental issues with the game's cards that hampered enjoyment. They weren't major issues, and for the most part, they only affected the early game. While mid to late, it started to pick up and became more enjoyable, no one was really liking just how slow paced the start was, and so we went home thinking of ways to pick up the pace, such as maybe lowering the cost of Tier Three Time or adding a few more low cost spells so people can buy cheap and attack earlier on. We resolved to think of more issues and possible answers to them during our next meeting, giving ourselves time away from it to recharge and just think about it on our own time.

     Skip ahead a few days to the day we scheduled the team meeting and we get a text from a group mate. Regrettably, a family emergency has rendered her unavailable to join the meeting today. My first thought, however, wasn't on the project, but on her. What's going on? Is she ok? Thoughts like that whirled around my head when another text comes in. One of worry over what has happened. It got me thinking, we only knew each other for about three and a half weeks or so, yet already our first thoughts were more about each other rather than just the project. It helped me see just how close-knit we became in such a short time as we worked tirelessly on the game. Occasionally, we would butt heads or joke around, but we really did care for each other. By the end of the meeting, we accomplished our set goals for the day, handed out our individual assignments, and sent our team meeting notes to our missing friend. In the end, we all had our part to play, but if there were any missteps along the way, we'll pull each other through, as a team should. As friends should.