A New Beginning- Devlog 12

The Board game video I decided to watch that caught my attention was "The Climbers." The thing that caught my attention was the name of the game and the graphics on the front of the box. Since it kind of reminded me of Jenga then I was able to relate to it and made me wonder if it was like that game in any way. In this game when setting up you start with the two tall blocks and use all the other blocks to fully cover the two tall blocks in a way that has specific rules. Then each player gets a player character and a tall and small ladder. Your player then has to climb up the blocks and the player on the highest block wins. The four notions of transparency that Soren Johnson mentioned in his speech were, transparency and consistency, mechanics that increase player comfortability, the abstraction that focuses players on the inner game, and designed pre-luck to present interesting decisions. These four notions relate to the game I watched in different ways. Firstly, the consistency in the game is there and there are no random things that come out of nowhere to change the game, it stays the way it is throughout the game and there are no huge surprises, but only what the other players do. The mechanics that increase the player's comfortability include how players can move the block and use them to block/trap their opponents and use them to go higher on blocks and get closer to winning. Next, since everyone is focused on winning and by doing so it is getting to the tallest point on the blocks, everyone is focused on one task and that relates to having players focus on the inner game. Lastly, the pre-luck to present interesting decisions is used in many ways in this game. It ranges from where you start, to other players moving blocks, and not getting noticed where your players are located. There are many things that are luck-wise in the game, and if there are more players it can get hectic with all the block moving which in turn may help you out at times, as a single player. All in all, Soren's four notions of transparency in board game design seem to be prevalent in "The Climber" which in turn I guess makes it a very transparent and well-made game. This game from watching the video actually seemed pretty fun and made me want to get the game. Who knows, I might actually end up buying the game to play with family on Christmas. I think my brothers will enjoy it, so I will definitely take a look at buying it after this devlog. Thanks, I guess.. lol. Anyways, back on track, this game seemed very transparent and mapped to Soren's notions.