Killer- A board game

In our second unit of Game Changers we finished our game and perfect the  rules, looks, and mechanics for the game. Killer is a board game where players try to survive by not getting killed by another player and finding survival objects. Throughout the unit we looked at other published games and got professional advice to help us make our games the best they can be at the moment. We also reflected on mistakes and ideas that we've created in the past and used those ideas to further our game-play. Killer has evolved many times throughout it's creation and has taken many forms to be great.

As a player in Killer you move around the board playing as a killer or a survivor. The player moving as the killer is focusing on killing all other players in the game before they complete their objective. The killer does this by moving around the board with 2 4 sided die, and landing/crossing over the other player’s characters. 3 other players will play as survivors who roll a single 4 sided die to move their character and find hidden objects around the board that only the player playing the killer will know where it is. Players with survivor pieces will need to work together and use deduction to find pieces placed on the small map that only the player playing the killer can see.




Reflect

Getting Killer to where it is now, has been a long and difficult journey. When I first thought of the idea for Killer I was thinking about the name of the game Werewolf and correlated that to being some sort of killer that hunts players down. The first game layout started with the the board a little too much like battleship and that idea later transformed into the layout it is now. When it came to showing my game idea with the paper game board it was pretty difficult to play and explain because none of the rules had been written down or thoroughly thought of. During this play-testing session each group gathered feedback about how to improve or fix things about the game; I didn’t manage to get the most helpful feedback so most of the game evolution from there to the beginning of prototype 2 was my brainstorming.

Killer’s 2nd prototype was the game’s most important stage, from the feedback to the massive amount of necessary changes to make the game better in every way. In our first quarter of time that our 2nd prototype existed we didn’t have much time to play-test Killer, and only had time to fix up the rules to where we can put the game in prototype 3. Before we moved to prototype 3 we had Killer judged and shown off at a competition, where we gained a small bit of feedback on how to make the game a little more immersive.

After Chitag we took a break from all our games, and came back at them strong by talking to some professional game designers that gave us tons of incredible recommendations. The designer said that sometimes taking a break off of your game could be the most helpful step in making a game. We didn’t have much time to take breaks, but I was 2 steps ahead because I had already been doing that before we met the designer over our 1 week break. We then met with another game designer who recommended having a strong theme in a game was helpful; our game was already pretty themed but now that it’s more implemented into the game-play it works much better than before. This designer also came with other game designers, reviewers, and sellers to look at our games and give us lots of good info on making my game better; they were all such a big help when it came to getting these games closer to prototype 3 whether it was for the looks, player’s thought process, or the game-play.

"Killer first draft" (IF) 2016

Great Games

In our first unit of game changers we experienced different games and their qualities to see what made them so good, while also designing our own games to involve these qualities. We did research on the games that we wold recommend some people that were in some sort of scenario that involved a game. I chose a scenario that included kids in a summer camp that needed a game to play and could last a while, have limited amounts of pieces, and worked for a large group of children/teens. Two games that I felt fit the scenario are Werewolf and Tapple because of their specific strengths and minimal downsides.

WEREWOLF reference sheet

The popular game Werewolf has been around since 1986 and was created by Dimitri Davidoff and Andrew Plotkin. Werewolf is a game of deduction, trust, and betrayal. In Werewolf, players are given cards that assign them roles from either being a villager, detective, or a werewolf. Throughout the game, the werewolf (or werewolves) try to kill off all of the villagers before getting caught. Every role is anonymous to everyone playing, making it both challenging for the villagers to survive, the bodyguard/detective to protect and the werewolf to kill. In every round, all the players go to sleep for the night, but at certain times in the night the werewolf decides to kill someone at random while the detective/bodyguard tries to save somebody at random while also choosing a player at random to know their role during the night. In the morning, the announcer then announces that somebody has either been killed or had almost been killed but was saved by the detective/bodyguard. If somebody was killed during the night, then all players must vote on a player to be sacrificed in front of everyone; the player being sacrificed must show/share their role with everyone and is out of the game. If no players were killed due to the detective/bodyguard, the game continues. The game ends when all werewolves have been sacrificed or all the villagers and detective/bodyguard have been killed.

Measuring progress in Werewolf is pretty simple: if there is a small number of players left in the game and no werewolves have been caught yet, then clearly the werewolves are winning. That can change very quickly if somehow by chance all players just happen to vote the werewolves, they can lose the game. It’s very hard to tell if you’re winning in a game of Werewolf is you’re playing as a villager even getting one werewolf will barely help you because the other villagers can still be killed at the same rate if there were 2 werewolves. Playing as a werewolf is also very dangerous because each time you kill a villager, there’s a chance that you can die or you can survive.

Just like a lot of other games Werewolf’s game mechanics heavily depend on lacking information for players to win the game. Werewolf is also a pretty strategic game that only has the randomness of the decisions coming from the other players; otherwise, it gets all the players thinking about what other players are werewolves, villagers, or the detective. As a villager, it’s pretty necessary to not kill off the detective by voting. To win on either side, you need to conquer challenges like deduction and critical thinking; if you encounter a scenario where you think a player is a detective or a werewolf and they get killed and you’re wrong, good luck.

Werewolf is perfect for children and teens in summer camp because the amount of cooperation, communication, and trust needed for the game is a really enjoyable for younger ages. Werewolf heavily depends on communication among players because of the mandatory sacrifice at the end of each round, this part really gets players acting suspicious about other players and gets them really involved in working together. The real downside to werewolf is the strong theme that is killing of other players to win the game; it’s not the most kid friendly subject matter for a game.( Though I did play this with my group of kids who were in 3rd grade in summer camp while I was a counselor.) Luckily there are many versions of the games that don’t change the game-play but do change the theme, like a mafia version or a hunter vs. animals version.
-also no cards needed

"Werewolf" (IF) 2016 

TAPPLE reference sheet

Tapple is a fast paced, rapidly played game that challenges its players to be creative as possible. Tapple has very simple rules that allow for easy play that is both enjoyable and creative. In a round of Tapple, the 2 or more players race against a timer to come up with words that are in the category that the game displays on the bottom of the device. The challenge is that the words words that will be called out can only start with the letter that is left up on the device. ( If a category was furniture and the letter T is already down I can’t use any furniture that start with the letter T) When the time is up, the player whose turn it was is out of the game. At the end of a player’s turn, the player pushes/taps the center button on the device, making the timer last longer for the next player; the last player in the game wins.

Tapple is a pretty random game due to the random cards that may show up when switching categories. Players decisions are strategic in which they decide would be a good word for the game and putting down a letter. There’s not much room for strategy either in the game because if you are thinking about putting a bookshelf under B but a another player says it before you, then you’re not in a good position for any other answer under any other letter. (Unless you have multiple letters prepared.)

Tapple also involves a lot of player interaction that gets especially younger ages interacting with each other and getting creative. The game allows so much creative input because of the lack of starting letters that a player can choose from.

In Tapple, progress is tracked by the amount of players in the game and how easy it is for you to come up with more words. If you’re winning a lot games of Tapple and you are breezing past every category, there are some rules that can be created to make game-play more difficult like not picking any words that involve a certain letter (like playing a rule that says you can’t use the letter A in the category of fruit) or making the players say to words that match with different categories. The lack of letters in the game only makes it harder when playing the game. Tapple also is usually targeted towards younger ages because of the childish theme and the broad categories and how simple it is to play.

This game is amazingly fun to play because of the creativity and thinking it takes to play. Of the few downsides to Tapple, one is that game is also not too immersive (having an entertaining theme) and their is a short amount of playtime per round. I believe that the enjoyable game-play and the repeat -ability of the game makes up for that. (Not to mention that the game is also very durable and was designed like that because it’s intended for a younger audience.

"Tapple" (IF) 2016

I Am Malala

This final project comes from  the book we read over the summer, I Am Malala. Our final project is a slide presentation to make to explain who Malala is and what she has done for people's lives. The presentation helped us go over this amazing person and helped us grasp how different people want equality. Though it was pretty difficult to recall specific events in the book it was quite fun to see other people's reaction to what Malala has done. I also enjoyed making a list of songs that are about struggle and getting through just as Malala Yousafzai has done so beautifully already.

The Climate of Sydney, Australia

In the third unit of our H2O class we made a slide presentation that shows the climate of different cities in the world and their predicted climate. Throughout the unit we learned about different types of clouds that form and the type of climates that they form in. We also learned what it means to deal with the affects of the climate change, like how certain places deal with long term effects and others are irreversible. I enjoyed doing this unit because it helped me get a good understanding of what major effects climate change can have on certain areas and how it can change the way we live and how much it can crush the ecosystem if we don't solve this problem.

The U.S and Namibia- Gender Equality

On our second unit in our MDGs & You class we focused on grasping a total understanding on gender equality and inequality for women all around the world. Whether the inequality is women getting an education, getting paid the same as men, or having an equal amount of representatives. I really enjoyed this unit because it really helped me see that the United States can be considered one of the most developed countries in the world and yet its gender equality can't compare to lower developed countries that have existed for a shorter amount of time.

"Rosie-the-Riveter" (SBT4NOW) October 2011

50.8% of the the United State’s population are women, and yet women take up only 19.3% of the House of Representatives and 20% of the Senate(catalyst.org). All genders should have equal rights all over the world whether its employment, education, or being in government. Women and girls all over the world are treated unfairly and don’t have the same resources and opportunities as other people because of their gender. The United States is one of the most “developed” countries in the world but doesn’t have nearly the same ratio of women to men in government compared to a country like Namibia. Namibia also focuses on completely equal opportunities for both genders that aren’t divided in anyway like education and equal pay. I plan to teach you about how different and alike Namibia and the U.S takes on the idea of gender equality in the ways of Employment pays, and Government positions.

Being a woman in a government position can really help people see the difference in the way the two genders live and help make a lot of decisions like fixing the gender pay gap really affect women and girl’s lives. As of 2015 the 535 members of Congress consists of 104 women and 431 men (Catalyst.org), which seems pretty little to make life changing decisions to be fair and strong compared to one side. Women need better positions and more room to make decisions that will change the country. There is a very clear pay gap between genders in the U.S, for every dollar that a man makes a woman makes 20 cents less (Kevin Miller). The pay gap happens for a lot of reasons, but they all mostly rely on the idea of a woman's work is less useful than a man’s, especially when it comes to age. The gender pay gap grows with age. Women earn about 90 percent of what men are paid until they are 35, after the age of 35 women are paid 76–81% of what men are paid (Kevin Miller). Most people can agree that the pay gap is a completely unfair way to pay different genders and a man and woman doing the same job should be paid the same amount.

Namibia is a very different country than the United States, from the non existing pay gap and the completely non gender related constitution. The large South African country is home to over 2.4 million people and 51.47% of the population is women (tradingeconomics.com). When Namibia became a country in 1990 a constitution was written and had no words related to any specific gender to sustain national equality. This constitution seems to be working so far considering In August 2001 there were 94 males for every 100 females in the government system (Brigitte Weidlich). That is a pretty close number, especially when it comes to comparing it with the United States. The equal amount of women to men in the Namibian government is quite equal, and is the perfect amount to get and effect decisions of both genders if one is experiencing more inequality than the other. Like the lack of education, which is one of the biggest issues facing the world today, Education is a right for all people in Namibia and isn’t separated in anyway.

The U.S and Namibia are two very alike countries, they both have complete equal opportunities for both genders, but still have major differences in many ways. The U.S and Namibia share the idea of equality between both genders but express it in very different ways. The U.S has a huge pay gap for women compared to men because apparently a woman’s work isn’t valued the same as a man for doing the same job. Namibia pays both genders the same amount without any extra pay for one job over another for doing the same job. The United States also needs to even out the amount of women to men in the government just like Namibia. The U.S’s congress has 535 members any yet only 104 of them are women. While Namibia has an amazing 94 males for every 100 males in the government (Brigitte Weidlich) . Women in the government can help be the voice and make sure there is more equality if there is more equality in the their own government.

The U.S is one of the most “developed” countries in the world and has been a country for 240 years and yet has less gender equality in the government than A 20 year old country in southern country of Namibia. The U.S has a lot to learn from Namibia, from the equal education to the equal better gender positions in the government and how important it is to maintain equality. Namibia doesn’t have much to learn the other way around in the terms of gender equality.

Works Cited
Aauw.org Accesed 10/17/16
http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/

Catalyst.org Accesed 10/17/16
http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-government

flickr.com Accesed 10/21/2016 https://www.flickr.com/photos/midgro22/6299926854

Genderindex.org Accesed 10/18/16
http://www.genderindex.org/country/namibia

Ipsnews.net Accesed 10/18/16 http://www.ipsnews.net/2010/12/politics-namibia-numbers-of-women-in-government-declining/

Iwpr.org Accesed 10/17/16
http://www.iwpr.org/initiatives/pay-equity-and-discrimination

Theguardian.com Accesed 10/18/16
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/05/america-growing-educational-gender-gap

Tradingeconomics.com Accesed 10/18/16 http://www.tradingeconomics.com/namibia/population-female-percent-of-total-wb-data.html

Wikigender.com Accesed 10/18/16
http://www.wikigender.org/countries/sub-saharan-africa/gender-equality-in-namibia/

Creating Clean water

In unit 2 of my Water class I had to make a water filter that would clean water in any way. My water filter is the one below, and I used a few materials to make the filter. Using only small pieces of activated carbon, large gravel rocks, small gravel rocks, and cloth I was able to change the original water’s pH from 3.8 to 4.6 which are both very acidic. I originally thought that the water filter was going to go worse than it did, because the first time I tried to make the filter all the materials mixed together which is not what you want when making a filter.

I built my water filter using the materials I listed earlier, bottle, and scissors. First I cut a hole in the top of the bottle and cut the bottom off, then screwed the top of the bottle back on. Then I filled it with the needed layers with the charcoal first, small gravel rocks second and large gravel rocks third. Next I put the cloth on the top of the bottle covering up the hole and one at the top covering up the cut. A water filter that simple had the highest pH difference in my class. I was really pleased by how the filter turned out. I had the perfect amount of materials and the wrong and right plan to get the job done. It’s pretty rewarding to fail and later get such a big success from a mistake.

To test how well my water filter would function I tested dirty river water from the Chicago river, and to really test how well the filter worked I added even more dirt to the water than there already was. The top layer caught all the large pieces and chunks of dirt that were in the river water, while the gravel and carbon caught the rest of the small pollutants. Once again, to my surprise there was a lot of clean looking water left over in the flask. The water that had gone through the filter was at a 4.6 level on the pH scale and was still pretty acidic and personally was not worth drinking nor would it be worth tasting. The water was still really murky and turbid which is another hint towards not drinking the water. Though the water did end up smelling much more close to tap water than dirt. 

A lot of water filters work like groundwater filtration, were the water travels through a lot of materials through the ground. First the filter collected large pieces of contaminants and the smaller pieces of gravel collect small contaminants throughout the water. Acidic water tastes like metal most of the time so I imagine the filtered water tastes like metal.

Before pH test: 3.8 pH           -log x =.8           10^.8 = x           x= 6.31
After pH test  : 4.6 pH
pH change      : 0.8 pH

IF (2016) Before filtration

IF (2016) After filtration

IF (2016) Water filter

IF (2016) Sketch of filter 

IF (2016) Sketch of pH scale

Education is a Right for All People

South Sudan suffers from the lowest literacy rate in the world with a 27.0% due to the high poverty rate in Southern Sudan lots of children can’t afford to go to school and are suffering disease and Hunger. But education can help people get out this situation, Everyday people are stuck in the the same routine and don’t have education on the list. All people should have the right to a good education, no matter what health, poverty, gender,or mental situation. Education is right to all people and shouldn’t be denied under any circumstances.

If people go a life without an education then they suffer the lack of security from having a job and having a home. A good Education for children would be on the second level which is the safety level on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Because a good education is securing these children a good safe life so they aren’t doomed for life. If people don’t have a good education they won't have a good life, because so much opportunities rely on education to living. People who don’t fulfill the need of living in a life without education don’t secure themselves with any type of security and cant get a good job to support themselves, without education you can’t secure anything in life. You won’t be able to secure a family, property, nor will you be able to secure resources and employment. Women with a primary school education are 13% more likely to know that condoms can reduce their risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, meaning less disease will spread which will save even more people who just get a primary education.

Everyday people live without an education fight everyday to survive. When a person has an education they can secure a position of not living in poverty and living with disease. In low income countries, for every year that a person attends school their future income will be increased by 10%. If people in South Sudan they will be able to attend school they can live life without much struggle, have more knowledge on how to keep safe from disease, and can start supporting themselves and their community.

Most people who live in poverty cannot support themselves and need outside effective and sustainable ways to support themselves. People living without education can receive grants of money from charity groups like oxfam so they can start supporting themselves. Like Oxfam we need to create sustainable ways people can support themselves so they have more time to go to school and have enough money for classes. On average parents in South Sudan earn about 2$ per day to support their families, which is not a lot when you’re a single parent in a poor country who needs to support 4 children. Poverty is the biggest factor affecting if children go to school or not, because it’s pretty clear that going to school is going to be a really big trouble when it comes to 2$ per day or less. Donating to outside sources that will help the inside communities flourish can help the most unfortunate people get an education, and give people a chance to support themselves, while also bettering their lives.

Education is a right for all people no matter what financial, health, and mental situation people are in. People who don’t have an education get stuck in an endless hole where people can’t get out without help.Poverty is the the biggest factor in why people can’t get an education. If a person gets an education they can then survive and have an overall better life away from poverty, helping them support their families. People all over the world who don’t have an education suffer from poverty, sickness, and are illiterate. Think to yourself, where would you be in your life if you were illiterate?

 Edwards, Ali. (2007) books.  Web:Flickr

Works Cited

World Atlas.com Accesed 10/1/2016 “25 Most Illiterate Countries”http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-lowest-literacy-rates-in-the-world.html

Humainium.org Accesed 10/1/16 “Right to Education”http://www.humanium.org/en/world/right-to-education/

Dosomething.org Accesed 10/1/16 “11 Facts About Education Around the World” https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-education-around-world

Savethechildren.org Accesed 10/1/16 “ South Sudan”
http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6150459/k.96D1/South_Sudan.html

The Drain on water

The first Action project of the year is in my water class, and our job was to create a poster to display our water use and compare it with other countries. Our Action Project this Unit is to take information about our daily water use compared to an average American’s daily water usage and another country. It was also meant to spread awareness about how much water people waste every day, and encourage people to save water.

IF(2016)The Drain on Water

First I, found the total amount of water that I use every day which turns out to be 32 gallons per day. 32 gallons is a lot of water to carry home, especially when your house is 1.6 miles from the nearest water source. My total gallons is much less than than your average American use, which is held up at 151 gallons per day. I find myself pretty conservative when it comes to water considering I use less than a third of an average American. I made categories like Cleaning, Hygiene, Utilities and Other. No category goes over the average person in Norway’s daily water use.

For this Action project we also had a field experience that focused on carrying water long distances. We carried 25 gallons of water for a ½ hour and walked 1752 ft. Sure it doesn’t like much, but when you try it it feels as if your leg and back are being hit with rocks. We traveled to our closest freshwater source( the Chicago River) so we could experience the difficulty of carrying your total daily water use for not even nearly as far as the distance people need to actually deal with to survive. When water isn’t accessible as we Americans have it they need to walk long distances like 16 miles everyday just to have a human right to survive. This is a real struggle especially when it comes to people who are not in a good situation financially. So I ask you, how much water would you need to carry if you had to walk to water everyday? How much water do you think you could save everyday only using the necessary amount you need to use everyday?



Works Cited:

Wikimedia commons (2016)
File:Flag of Norway.svg