How Can You Improve Battleships?

Last Friday, Rob gave us our task, which was to do with the game Battleships, a game everyone has probably played at least once in their lives; it's pretty well known! In the game, played by two people, you both get a ten by ten grid and get to place certain allowed ships into it, and then you take it in turns to bomb each others grid, trying to hit each others ships. The aim of the game is to be the first one to destroy all of the other players' ships. Pretty simple, right?

Rob got us into the pairs in which we'd be working and then got us to play the game as it is usually played. Embarrassingly, we ran into a few problems in our game, mostly due to mishearing when we were telling each other what square we wanted to hit! But after a while we got there (and I lost.)

Rob then gave us the job of changing the game and adding different mechanics to it. He wanted us to try and change it three times, but unfortunately we were too slow and were only able to iterate it once, so I thought I might as well post what we did.

One annoyance we had when we were playing it the first time was how the game seemed to be a bit slowly paced for us; a lot of the time just hitting nothing. Of course in other situations one player could be hitting nothing, while the other player has hit a few ships and has figured out where they are. Our improvement could aid both a slow game where both players are hitting nothing or a game where one of the players is behind. We decided to add a mechanic that I have a problem describing, but I'll have a go! If you end up missing five times in a row, you get to use a "power up" if you will, in which you not only bomb the square you choose, but the four diagonally next to it. Here's a diagram to help you...

X |   | X
  | X |  
X |   | X

The middle one is the square you chose.

We then tested this by actually playing the game again with this mechanic added, and although it was only used once in play, by me, it definitely aided me in helping to find the other players' ship as two of the five squares I bombed on that shot hit something. One thing about this mechanic is that it could be used to help someone who is ahead get even further ahead, but they would have to fail on purpose to do this, but if they had found the location of some of the other players' ships, failing purposefully may be an easy task. Still, the main reason for this mechanic was to help the player who is behind get ahead of their opponent, as the "power up" relies on them doing badly rather than them doing well.

It would've been nice to get a chance to add some more mechanics to the game but we just didn't get the chance that lesson!

Week 2 Reading: "I Have No Words & I Must Design" by Greg Costikyan

(Actual full title is "I Have No Words & I Must Design: Toward a Critical Vocabulary for Games" if you want to be specific!)

During this article, Costikyan writes "A game is an interactive structure of endogenous meaning that requires players to struggle towards goals." Below I have taken the words/phrases in italics and explained what I think they mean from what Costikyan has said.

Interactive Structure: This doesn't have to mean a digital game, it can also mean any form of game, such as a board game like Monopoly. The word interactive literally means just that; the player can interact with it in some way. If it isn't interactive, it isn't a game, although it should be noted that some things may have an interactive element to them but not be games.

Endogenous: This is basically a form of currency or something of value in the game, but it only has a use in the game it's in. A good example used was Monopoly money; a form of currency used in that game that has value while you're playing it, but is useless in the real world (unfortunately!) 

Struggle: For a game to be fun, there must be a challenge to complete/a complication to overcome. For example, if there was a choice between two options, one made you win, one made you lose, you would complete the game instantly and it wouldn't be satisfying. The struggle to complete the game is what makes it satisfying. Costikyan's example was of Britain during World War Two, with the two choices being "go against Hitler and win" and "give up." 

Goals: Goals are an important aspect of games, as without them the player has nothing to work towards and there is no reward for the player for playing the game. If there were no goals, the player's interest would probably tire out pretty quickly. Many games, such as RPGs, set multiple goals that the player can choose between instead of having only one goal to choose from, giving the player the choice so they don't have to complete a goal they may not find interesting first, making them still play the game instead of getting bored and leaving it.

Q&A (aka My Interview Answers)

As part of starting up our blogs, we were asked to get into pairs and ask each other a set of questions given to us already. We noted down each others answers then swapped with each other, so we had our own answers. These are the questions and my answers to them, although I go into more detail here than what my partner wrote down!


What is the title of the book (fiction) you are currently reading (or the last fiction book you read)?
I don't read books too often now (which doesn't sound so good) so if memory serves correctly, the last fiction one was "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, which I had to read for GCSE English.

What is the title/topic of the book (non-fiction) you are currently reading (or the last non-fiction book you read)?
I have been reading through "Charlie Brooker's Screen Burn" if that counts, although it is just a collection of his articles he has written for the Guardian.

What is the last live performance (music, drama or dance) you attended?
I went to see a performance of the musical "Avenue Q" earlier this year in spring when they were on their tour; I went to the performance in the Theatre Royal in Norwich. I (unfortunately) haven't been to many live performances in my life time! It was pretty good; good to see it actually being performed after hearing about it online all those years ago and thinking I'd never get a chance to see it.

What is the title of the last film you saw at the cinema/online or watched on DVD?
I went to see "The Inbetweeners Movie" at the cinema just before I left to come to university, although never having seen the show before. Once I got around to watching all the series of the show (and also because I liked the film the first time I saw it) I went to see it again when I got to university!

How often do you read a newspaper? (which one?)
I don't really read physical newspapers much. I tend to read my news online, and then not as much as I should really.

Which art gallery/museum/exhibition did you last visit?
I don't visit galleries and museums much, although the last one I visited was The National Gallery in London about a year ago now. If it counts as an exhibition, I also went to Eurogamer Expo a few weeks back; that was an experience!

How many hours a week do you spend playing video games?
I am going to say about 5 hours average but it does vary. If I get a new game I might spend a lot of time on it when I get it and then other weeks I may not play on anything at all.

How many hours a week do you spend playing games other than video games?
Probably about 1 hour average but again it varies. I don't play games other than video games much these days (although it doesn't mean I never do!)


Well there you go. Interesting, eh?