How will you know when the game is good enough?
When the outline of a game designed, there is a question, which will come out my mind. How will I know when the game is good enough? Where should we stop it? How far should we go? It is a very difficult problem. Each user has different level. When kids play the over age games, such as 5-years-old kids playing a game with complex mathematic, they will loss the patience quickly. Therefore, we should know the target player and the type of the game before design.
Ages Group
Infants (4-7 yrs old)
Children of all ages can be difficult, but those still in infant school are often the most hard to please, especially when it comes to games. A youth group leader needs to choose fun activities for the children to play, but at the same time, they need to be games that will stimulate the infants' cognitive development and coordination. Thankfully there are many options available to leaders, some of which will be discussed in this article.
Juniors (8-11 yrs old)
Every youth leader knows the importance of choosing games that are relevant and appropriate to the ages of the children present in the youth group. Badly chosen games can either be too complicated and confusing, or too simple and patronising. Juniors (children aged between 8 and 11) are a particularly difficult group to choose games for, as they are among the most vocal critics of games that they dislike or that they do not understand. However, if you are struggling to find games that suit juniors, never fear: here are some games that should work well with this age group.
Early Teens (12-15 yrs old)
Teenagers are usually regarded as the most difficult age group to keep entertained. In a world that offers so much virtual entertainment through computer screens, television and the cinema, a youth group might seem quaint and old-fashioned. However, it is surprising how many teens enjoy real-life interaction with peers through attending such groups, and a large part of that is down to games tailored for their age group. Here are some games and activities that ought to appeal to a youth group of 12-15 year olds.
Type of game
Word Games
Word games are generally engaged as a source of entertainment, but have been found to serve an educational purpose as well. For instance, young children can find enjoyment playing modestly competitive games such as Hangman, while naturally developing important language skills like spelling. Solving crossword puzzles, which requires familiarity with a larger vocabulary, is a pastime that mature adults have long credited with keeping their minds sharp.
Trivia
The trivia are the three lower Artes Liberales, i.e. grammar, rhetoric and logic. These were the topics of basic education, foundational to the quadrivia of higher education, and hence the material of basic education, of interest only to undergraduates.
Roll-and-move
Many board games share some characteristics with these games, but are not categorized as race games. For example, the characteristic roll-and-move mechanism of race games is also found in running-fight games, but here the object of the game is not to finish first, but to capture and remove enemy pieces from the board. Similarly in games as diverse as Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, players roll-and-move to spaces which may help or hinder their progress, but there is no physical "finish line": a win is not attained positional, but rather by the collection of assets.
Race game
- Simple race games involve pure luck. Each player has only 1 piece to move, and the outcome of the game is thus totally dependent upon the fall of lots.
- Complex race games combine luck and skill. Players have more than 1 piece to move (typically 4), and so choices of move can be made that will put a player in advantageous positions.
- Multiplex race games greatly increase the role of strategy, while retaining the element of chance.
- Strategic race games eliminate the element of chance. Examples are Bantu and Hare & Tortoise.
When we know both the element of the game, we can know how far will we go when we design the game. There is another important element we need know is testing. When we finish the game, we should test our game by target players. They will give us the feedback. Then we can solve all the problems. So testing is very important part in the game design. Usually we will spend more time on the game testing than game designing. From the test result, we will know where we should stop, and where is not enough, such as more elements to let it more interesting.
