How are thematic and mathematical elements used in game design was the driving question for this post. In this project, we used probability and tectonic plates to make a board game. Our game represented probability very well, because it included cards, and a dice. For this project, my group member was Silas.

This is my project start/end MindNode. At the start of this project, we put down our game ideas, examples of tectonic plates, our thoughts on tectonic plates, and some questions  that we have about tectonic plates. In game ideas, my group thought that it would be cool if the person playing was the disaster, because we thought that everyone was going to do something about escaping the natural disaster (we were right).

My questions and answers were:

1. How many tectonic plates are there? 17. Pacific Plate, North American Plate, Eurasian Plate, African Plate, Antarctic Plate, Indo-Australian Plate, South American Plate, Somali Plate, Nazca Plate, Philippine Sea Plate, Arabian Plate, Caribbean Plate, Cocos Plate, Caroline Plate, Scotia Plate, Burma Plate, and the New Hebrides Plate.
2. Where do volcanoes form? Volcanoes form at convergent plate boundary’s. The crust in the ocean sinks below the crust on land, and in the mantle, the water in the oceanic crust seeps out and forms magma. Then when the pressure from the magma builds up, the magma (now lava) spurts out of a mountain.
3. Which natural disasters to tectonic plates cause? They cause mostly volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis.
4. Are there tectonic plates on other planets? No. It is one of the many things that sets earth apart from other planets.
5. Do tectonic plates cause floods? Tectonic plates cause tsunamis, which can cause floods, but they don’t effect rainfall directly.

In the examples category, I put a tectonic plate could be the North American plate. The North American plate, the one that Vancouver in on, is the second biggest tectonic plate, the biggest being the Pacific plate. For thoughts, I put that I think that tectonic plates are always moving (they are moving around 7 centimetres a year!), I think that tectonic plates cause most disasters, and I don’t think that they cause floods.

Our game was easier to understand once we got going, and it was very fun. These are the rules:

Humans vs. Aliens Rules:

Aliens from the planet ƒåüç†ø∂é¡ have come to earth and forged themselves into tectonic plates with the goal of killing all humans. The UNSOC (United Nations Space Operating Committee) is tasked with protecting earth. Who will win in the ultimate battle between Humans and Aliens?

Two or four players only.

Set up: 

1. Choose roles (alien or human) Aliens are attackers and humans are defenders.
2. Shuffle both decks of cards.
3. Deal each player three of their own team’s cards
4. Place one population token onto each of the capture points.
5. Place ten of each disaster tokens as well as the twenty four mountain tokens on the

How to play:

1. The attacker(s) go(es) first. They can spawn whatever card they want that is in their hand.
2. They roll the die based on what it says on the card that they decide to play.
3. If they succeed in creating the disaster then they place a token of the thing they created on the point and wait until the next turn. 
4. Repeat for the rest of the cards they wish to play.
5. They then collect their cards biased on the number they roll.
6. The defender(s) goes next. They play any cards in the same manor of the attacker to try to defend the people.
7. After that turn the defender(s) collect(s) their card(s).
8. At the end of both turns the attacker(s) collect all of the kill points they achieved. The defender(s) collects all of the disaster tokens they diverted.
9. This is repeated until one of the teams wins.

Winning the Game:

The attacker(s) must collect all 24 of the people tokens.

The defenders(s) must collect all 20 disaster tokens for them to win.

Important Notes:

• You may choose to not play any cards during your turn 
• You may not show anybody your cards, even your teammate
• You may not tell anybody what you are planning to play, even your teammate
• Cards  are added to a discard pile after they are played.
• When there are no more cards in the deck you may shuffle the discard pile and continue playing.

Disaster Cards:

• Consists of earthquakes and volcanoes.
• Do not take effect until the round after the round in which they are played.
• The power of the disaster is represented by power points. 1 power point destroys 1 population point
• The disaster can stay on the board for 2 rounds and the same amount of power points can be reused on the second turn if there are still people there.

Mountain: 

• Mountains are placed on the capture point connection lines.
• They block any population point from evacuating along that line until destroyed.
• Multiple mountains can be placed on one line.

Evacuation

• You may evacuate anywhere that is not blocked by a mountain.
• You may pass through a capture point that has a disaster but if you end on  one you will die.
• You may split your number of evacuations between two population points.

Stopping a Disaster:

• When a disaster has remained on the board for over 2 rounds without destroying population points it is given to the defender(s).
• If a disaster remains on the board for over 2 rounds even after it destroys people points it is given back to the attacker(s).

Probability:

Probability to pick up a volcano, a mountain, and an earthquake.

1/3 x 1/3 x 1/3 = 1/9 x 1/4 = 1/36 2.8%

Get a full powered disaster.

1/4 = 25%

Get three full powered attacks or defences in a row.

1/4 x 1/4 x 1/4 = 1.6%

We were supposed to do 3 probability events, and those are the things that you see above. This next thing is a slideshow that I made to show our game board.

In this project I learned how to communicate better. We had to communicate with our team to think up ideas. Communicating is important because in the real world, you have to communicate to your boss if you want a raise, or many more things. Thinking is another core competency. Thinking is important in the real world because without thinking, you couldn’t do any job!

How are thematic and mathematical elements used in game design? Thematic elements are very important in game design, because if you didn’t have a theme, your game would be very boring. For example, the theme of all of our games were tectonic plates. What I found interesting was how many different ways different people interpreted it. Mathematical elements are also very important because without probability, a game would have no way to take chances, so it wouldn’t be fun.