David Chung

• What is the premise of this game? Summarize its objectives, goals, roles of the players.

– The premise of the game is to not be the one to knock down the tower of blocks. Each player on their turn must pull a block out of a stacked tower. The players want to try their best to make it more difficult for the opponent after them, so they they knock over the tower and not themselves. Everyone wins, there is only one loser.

• What physical objects are used in the game? What are their properties? What are their behaviors?

– Wooden blocks are used in the game stacked in a tower. They are wooden. They are just blocks.

• What are the relationships between those objects?

– They are stacked in a tower 3 horizontally, 3 vertically and so on.

• What type of information structures are present? Are these structures open, hidden, mixed, dynamic?

– The only information is structure is that the objective of the game is to take out a block and put it on top. This is an open structure since everyone is clear of the objective and the one job you have to do.

• What type of cybernetic feedback loop(s) are present?
  • Negative feedback loops maintain balance (i.e. as you do better, it gets harder to win)
  • Positive feedback loops amplify early gains/losses (i.e. doing well in the beginning of the game makes it easier to win)

– There is no positive feedback loop in Jenga because every turn is a new turn where you have to avoid being the one to knock the tower over. The only thing that can be considered a negative feedback loop is that every turn the game technically gets harder as the tower becomes more top-heavy.

Once upon a time in medieval Europe there were two major families who ruled bordering provinces. They lived peacefully together for sometime until an evil tyrant from another realm invaded with an army that neither family could contest but only appease.

The evil tyrant with no contest from either family made both families subject to his rule. During the invasion, the tyrant’s overpopulated subjects began to settle among both provinces. Both families were unsettled and could not support the growing population of the tyrant’s subjects. The tyrant decided to be merciful and hold a tournament pitting both families against each other. The victor would become the family to rule a combined province.

Rules must be adhered in this tournament by the families or else they will lose control of their province and subject to exile. At the start only common fighters of each families are called upon to fight in the name of their house. When a fighter reaches the other end of the battlefield, the family of that fighter may call upon a champion to fight (becoming a king).

• What idea or theme does this serious game express? What is its underlying purpose?

– I think the game encourages you to be the most corrupt oil tycoon entrepreneur possible. I don’t think I was good enough to get to the end but you are given options to be very very greedy and negatively impact stick figures.

• What is the player’s objective in the game?

– The players objective in Oiligarchy is to drill and make a lot of money. Or not drill and get fired.

• What is the core mechanic of the game? How does that reinforce the theme?

– The core mechanic of the game revolves around the player drilling, where they drill and the means they use to drill where they originally could not. I think it reinforces the theme by showing how drastic measures may be to satisfy the hunger for resources.

• What resources are retained? How are they shown to the player?

– The resources retained is your money and it is shown at the bottom right corner of the screen.

• What are the potential outcomes?

– I’m not actually sure, you can lose in multiple ways though. You get fired if you don’t make enough profit, and you also “retire.” It also seems that if you continue to keep drilling the world spirals downhill due to everyone’s hunger for oil.

My name is David, I have no previous experience with designing/creating games yet I’ve been playing them my whole life. I remember playing Sesame Street learning games to Lego PC games on Windows 98 all the way to playing console games throughout High School to strictly PC games presently.

I’ve played all types of genres but now I primarily play shooters, RPG’s and strategy games.