My experience at the best games fest was pretty interesting. When I first arrived at the site, it looked….nothing like I expected. The community space that the event took place on did not really scream “community” at first glance. I was judging everything before I even started playing.
The games themselves, however, made me not want to leave the event. Now, I’m not really sure if that’s due to the games themselves, or the people playing them and the environment created by everyone’s “alternative gaming” presence, but I still did have a lot of fun.
The first game I played was called Turtle…something. I personally think it should have been called Ninja Turtle, due to it’s similarities to the game Ninja and its inclusion of turtle game pieces. In a fashion similar to the hand-slappy-ness of ninja, the players must use only one hand to slap a turtle out of other players’ hands, while simultaneously balancing a small turtle toy in their own other hand. Unlike Ninja, however, the players are allowed to roam around, in a style more like the Joust game we played in class. The game was much more fast paced than joust, which allowed for a gameplay more like swordplay (I even had a standoff where I really felt like I was sword fighting). The only issue I saw with the game was that some players decided to hide and run away while everyone else killed each other so that they could survive until the end. And even if the player wasn’t trying to hide, I found myself avoiding everyone whenever people got into their own little standoffs. The gameplay mostly went very smoothly, however, and I enjoyed it a lot.
The second game that I played, and my favorite out of all of them, was a game called You Win (I believe that was the name…). With a passive style of gameplay, the player is given a card with a goal that they must attempt to achieve without letting any other players know. Once the goal is achieved, they pop several party poppers that correspond to the amount listed on their goal card. I played this game HOURS after I left the event. I really enjoyed the passive gameplay that allowed players to insert this game into their daily routine, or even into the other games they were playing. You can win at any time, and confusing the people around you who aren’t playing is one of my favorite parts of the game. I think a game like this would be really fun to bring to large scale events, like concerts or conventions.
