In order to figure out which game I will be choosing for my project I need to test them out and see which one will be the better option.
I started off with my card game as I had a better idea of what it will look like. I decided the best way to make a mock deck would be to buy a deck of cards and add labels with my designs on. I started with the spades suit and drew up labels of each of the main characters. At this point I realised that if I was going to draw up all of the cards it would take too long and wasn't really necessary for a mock deck. I decided that for the remaining suits I would just write the names of the characters on the cards.
Upon trying to label all the cards I realised that if the bulk of the cards are left as soldier cards then the game will be too easy and over really fast. With this in mind I thought through a number of different options. I was originally only going to put in one of the notable character cards, these cards include Queen Medb, Daire Mac Fiachna, Cú Chulainn, Ferdia, and the bull of Cooley. However, I think it would work better if I included each of these per suit. With this new inclusion it might work well to colour code cards instead of categorising by suits.
On Monday evening I went out for a walk with my boyfriend where we did the first test of the card game. After the game I asked if he had any comments on how he felt the game was to play. He expressed that he really enjoyed playing it and enjoyed how tense it gets towards the end, finding out who is left the winning card. The one criticism he had was that he felt that to start it was a bit complicated between the numbers and suits, and that it may be complicated for younger audiences. At this point I pointed out that for the final card design I would be replacing the suits and instead colour coding the cards. I will also be taking off the numbers from the cards as it doesn't relate to the game. With these changes he felt it would be much easier for younger audiences to enjoy the game.
Personally, I really enjoyed playing the game and it was really fun getting to explain the story of the Bull of Cooley, whilst I was explaining the rules of the game.
I also got to test out my game the next day with my boyfriend and 2 other friends on Tuesday. I found that they also had difficulty with matching the right cards with the suits and so in the end the cards that were left over to make a pair didn't match (which meant something went wrong during gameplay). Once I explained to them that the cards would instead be colour coded they agreed that it would have taken away the confusion at the start of the game, which lead to them misplaying cards. However, it still ended up that someone was left with the bull card so there was still a winner. In reflection I found though that playing the game with a bigger group than just 2 made the game a lot more enjoyable to play. I asked my boyfriend and he shared the opinion and said that he liked playing it both ways but it felt more fun playing with more people.
Lastly today I tested out the card game with my roommate Noel. However, as I had previously talked to him a good amount about my project I didn't introduce the game by telling him the story related to the game. In Noel's comments of the game he said he did not understand the point of the matching part at the start of the game. However, once I went on to explain the story and why I had created the game this way, he understood and reflected that having known this information beforehand would have added to the fun of the game. This highlighted to me that importance should be put on explaining the story that the game is based on to new players.
Over the following days, I will be creating and testing out a version of the board game which is the alternate output for this project. I will create a post on that as well and also reflect on which of the two games I think will be best suited for my project.