"Almost Solitaire" Postmortem

Group 11

Game Summary: My groups game modification is titled "Almost Solitaire" because it's very similar to the normal game of Solitaire, but with some subtle added changes. The majority of the rules remain unaltered, but we did add some small things, such as a time system, points system, and different difficulty rankings. These additions provide the player with goals to strive for and provide more tension during the actual gameplay of each round, whereas Solitaire itself doesn't offer much formal tension.

Figure 1: Example of player board for Almost Solitaire

Target Audience: As for the types of players that our game would appeal to, that would be mainly the players that fall somewhere within the Achiever and Killer archetypes. Achievers are those who strive to collect every possible thing they can within a game. In Almost Solitaire these types of players would strive to get all different levels of scores, find all of the possible strategies, and try to play the game in every way they can find. For Killers, they're the competitive type, so they would be appealed by the score and time limit system. They would try to get higher scores than everyone else, as well as finish in the fastest time out of everyone in an attempt to best every other player. Though these are the main two types of players that the game appeals to, there is still some draw for player that fall somewhere under the Explorer and Socializer archetypes as well. Explorers would have a good time going through all the different strategies and ways of playing the game, while Socializers would have fun comparing scores and discussing the game and tactics with other players. Overall, in terms of appeal to various types of players, Almost Solitaire has almost every type covered in one way or another.

Figure 2: Example of the game played by a Socializer

In terms of Player Interaction Patterns, that's probably the biggest weakness of Almost Solitaire and any other Solitaire-like game in a certain way. Because of the nature of the game, it can really only be played by a single person going against the game system itself. There is technically a way of playing it with multiple people cooperating together to find the solution, but at the end of the day the game isn't intended to be played that way, and really limits the effects of the game on the player. Unfortunately, that means there's not really any way to directly compete against another player or multiple players. However, the player is still able to indirectly compete against others by way of comparing and sharing scores and time limits. Similar to arcade games of the 1980's, a single player can achieve a score, and compare it to various other players scores in an attempt to get to the top of the score list. This allows for a way for the game to remain socially competitive, while still adhering to the single player nature of Solitaire.

Figure 3: Example of the game played by a Killer

Issues Encountered: As this project isn't overly complex, there weren't many hurdles when it came to designing it. The most difficult part of it was probably coming up with the ideas in the first place for what we thought would make the game more enjoyable and interesting. Once we were able to find some ideas that made sense, it was pretty easy to gain insight from external unbiased sources and use that to further polish the rule set we created.

Task completion: Luckily for us, there were no tasks that remained unfinished during our time designing this game modification. Everything was able to be completed in a timely manner, and if changes needed to be made then they were. Everything went very smoothly from what I understand.

What I would change: The only thing I would really change about my own development process is how I approach the changing of rules within a pre-established rule set. I want to try to think more outside of the box and really try to figure out what makes the game work. I would also simply play test as much as I possibly could, the more testing the better your game will be, even though at times it may seem monotonous.

Postmortem video:

With that, Unit 1 has been completed. I learned quite a bit from this project, and I hope to continue learning and pushing my skills to become a better game designer in the future.