Devlog

In class, we played a game I had never played before, that was themed around running a burger truck successfully. We grouped up desks together in a circle to play with the cards, and the deck included cards of patties, buns, tomatoes, and lettuce, one of all needed to make a complete burger and thus “gain” a customer. Other cards included “diet” cards, to get rid of other players’ customers, a “cheat meal” card to counter this move, “fries” to take other customers, and “ketchup” to similarly counter this move.

In playing the Burger Truck game, I noticed that the cards were easy to hold and quick to deal. When a burger was complete, I noticed that myself and my fellow players slapped cards down in a quick and repetitive motion. This brings to mind the discussion of card textures and how they affect the game. In this, he says cards often “are small and thin enough to hold in multiples, sort quickly, rearrange, and manipulate individually” (Altice), which in the case of this game, made it easy to play a completed burger quickly and even with some noticeable game rhythm to it. This even added to the actual fun of the game, by being able to add flourishes to slapping down the cards and making everyone laugh.

On the “Watch It Played” channel, I learned how to play the card game version of Bloodborne. This game includes cards like “final bosses”, “bosses”, “monsters”. This game also includes “hunter boards” for each player that include tokens of trophies, and a health dial for players to track how much damage they take. Each player also receives a starter card that include weapons and magic. Upgrade cards are also available for players to improve their starter cards. Small tokens called “blood echoes” are placed onto the current monster or opponent that the players are facing, tracking their health as they lose blood echoes. The game consists of eight rounds, and players choose their starter cards before the game begins.

In this game, the cards are a great example of how Altice talks about the planar surface of cards “as a support for text, color, pattern, icons” (Altice), because of how much the text and icons on the cards matter. The text on cards in the Bloodborne card game specifically denotes a player’s power or abilities, and on monsters and bosses, icons indicate their blood echoes and their abilities as well.