Due 30 August 2016
Game Design 1
Analysis: Micropul
Micropul is a Print and Play game featured on many sites and has become an actual produced game. It is a strategy game with the purpose of extracting micropul matter (combinations of symbols) from an energy core(the stack of cards used by players) to create new forms of matter (nominations of like symbols). This "matter" is created by combining cards with similar symbols until they form groups of elements. The game itself features no board to play on, it is a simple card game. Each card has a printed combination of elements on it, featuring filled in circles, non-filled in circles, smaller circles in clusters of two, and pluses. The smaller circles and pluses are considered These different shapes have specific meanings and they can match accordingly. With this said, cards with different patterned elements cannot match, such as a non filled in circle cannot match up next to a filled in circle.
The game has an easy to follow direction, as the game progresses, the field of play increases as more cards are added. The gameplay mechanics play similar to a traditional domino game. It is more complicated with more rules and symbols, but it uses the principle of matching with identical symbols. This game comes in two separate forms: single player, and two player. Single player plays similar to a classic game of solitaire, while the multiplayer version is more competitive. To place pieces on the board, the tiles must have similar shapes adjacent to the sides being placed. For instance, cards that have mid-size circles can only make connections with those circles. The cards themselves are tiles, small square pieces that have individual circle patterns on it. As the game progresses, repetitive patterns soon appear in the game. These patterns are large groups of the same symbol and they can be claimed by a player. The goal for these groups is to expand them to the largest size possible. The size will affect the final game score and the larger the groups and if the groups are closed, the final score will increase. Once one understands how the game logically progresses, it is a quick and easy play.
The game design is incredibly simplistic, the standard game is in black and white. The symbols themselves are simple, it features a lot of repetition of circles. The one unique symbol would be a simple cross that appears on certain pieces. It is not a visually stunning game unless a "mod pack" is downloaded, which redesigns the symbols and tiles themselves.
