Soof is a two player competitive game by yours truly. You can play it here!

Soof was written in ActionScript 3 with the Flixel library in Adobe Flash Builder 4.5.

Thicket is perhaps the world's first competitive flower picking game. In Thicket, two players are tasked with being the first to completely fill their grave with flowers that are found throughout the map and by defeating enemies. I contributed to the game design and produced all the audio.

In Thicket, players can only hold up to 50 flowers at a time, and must frequently return to the graves in the middle of the arena to deposit their bounty. This system perfectly highlighted our goal of exploring the spectrum between competition and cooperation. In Thicket, players are constantly forced to travel with an antagonistic companion who will likely betray them at any available opportunity. To succeed one must learn to navigate the perilous terrain and take out the monsters that lie in wait, all while keeping a close eye on the other player...

Thicket Facebook Page

Thicket Development Blog (Tumblr)

Blog Post About the Music

Thicket was developed in Unity over the course of four months for the Spring 2012 Game Development Studio class at NYU.

By Chris Dugan, Nolan Filter, Nathan Jones, and Barry Kramer

Thicket requires PlayStation 3 controllers to play and has only been extensively tested on OS X. If you have two PlayStation 3 controllers and want to play Thicket, contact me and we'll see what we can figure out!

Created in 48 hours as part of the 2012 Global Game Jam, Ourobot is a game in which you simultaneously control a boy stuck in a maze, and the maze itself. Only by restructuring the maze on the fly can you guide young Joshua to the yellow transporter that will send him to safety.

Created by somewhere between four and ten students in GameSalad. I contributed to the design and provided all the audio.

Ourobot on the Global Game Jam Site

The first level is playable in your browser here, but be forewarned it's a little janky. Arrow keys move your character (UP to jump) and WASD moves the control room.

The name is a portmanteau of Ouroborous (the Global Game Jam 2012 theme) and...well....Robot.

Agency is a spy-themed board game for four players. In Agency, each player represents a different government agency:

• CIA - Washington DC, USA
• MI6 - London, UK
• FSB - Moscow, Russia
• MSS - Beijing, China

Based out of their home city, each agency must spread their influence across the globe and establish a sleeper cell in each of the three world zones. The first one to do so wins. Players obtain the currency necessary to build sleeper cells by completing randomly-assigned objectives in specific cities, such as Wiretap the Ministry of Defense in LAGOS or Terminate the Prime Minister in BANGKOK. To complete an objective a player must gather the required components then send one of their agents to the target city. However, objectives take an entire round to complete and can be stopped by any of the other players as long as they have the right supplies and can get to the target city in time. Players obtain various Assets over the course of the game which can be used to ground all air travel, trap agents in certain cities, or even reveal some of the Assets in another player's hand.

Do you use your Assets to complete your objectives or do you use them to stop the objectives of others? Do you collude with another agency in an attempt to get both of your objectives completed or do you stab them in the back? Agency is a game of deception, manipulation, and perseverance. Do you have what it takes to become the greatest agency in the world?

Full game rules: Agency.pdf

Final project for the Fall 2011 Intro to Game Design class at NYU.

By Rangan Anandan, Jonathan Bove, Barry Kramer, and Sheru Riaz

Designed for play in any urban environment, Sidewalk Stalk is a game that turns everyday pedestrians into crucial game elements. The rules of Sidewalk Stalk are highly adaptable, but the ruleset we found most enjoyable is as follows:

RULES

SET-UP:

• Each player gets a bandana they tuck into the back of their shirt so that most of it is sticking out.
• Assign each player a unique target player (an easy way to do this is to stand in a circle and assign each player the player to their right).
• Each player then starts on separate corners of a busy 4-way intersection. When all players give each other a "thumbs up," the game begins.

GOAL:

• To snatch your target's bandana.

MOVEMENT:

• You move by following any pedestrian that is two-arms'-length away from you or closer.
• You can stop following them at any time.
• When standing still (i.e. not following anyone), you cannot move your feet, but you may move the rest of your body.

SNATCH:

• You must be following someone when trying to snatch another player's bandana.
• If you manage to snatch your target's bandana, they must tell you who their target was. Their target is now your new target.
• Players you snatch bandanas from must follow you for the rest of the game. This can include multiple players, forming a chain. These players cannot snatch bandanas or leave the chain.

WIN:

• Be the last player whose bandana has not been snatched.

That's it! As I said previously, the game is highly adaptable. We played variations of Sidewalk Stalk at different kinds of streets and intersections, and even in the middle of a park. The intersection we used for demonstration purposes was Broadway and 8th Street in lower Manhattan. An ideal location for the game has many pedestrians moving in various directions in a rather dense area. Try different locations for different kinds of games! (Parks are really hard. The additional space makes it less likely that pedestrians will walk near one another. We found intersections work best but remember to stay safe!)

Sidewalk Stalk is by Jonathan Bove, David Chun, Barry Kramer, and Sheru Riaz

Additional information as well as a brief overview of the design process can be found here: Sidewalk Stalk.pdf.

Note: this picture acutally represents improper play of Sidewalk Stalk. You must be following someone to snatch!

Inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the same name, The Louse and the Flea is a card game in which "last player standing" is taken literally. Following the order of the story, players stand up and sit down until only one player is left standing, making them the winner!

The basic premise of the story is as follows:

A louse and a flea are married until the louse drowns while brewing. The flea mourns, inspiring a door to ask why and start creaking, which inspires a broom to ask why and start sweeping -- through a sequence of objects until a spring overflows at the news and drowns them all.

Via Wikipedia

Players each take on the role of one of six characters in the story: the door, the broom, the cart, the ash heap, the tree, and the girl. When a card with the name of your character is played, you have to sit down unless you can successfully move the story along. The Louse and the Flea are special cards that reduce the size of your hand, and the Spring card flushes away all cards in play.

The Louse and the Flea is by Jonathan Bove, Barry Kramer, and Rangan Anandan

More in-depth rules and additional information can be found here: The Louse and the Flea.pdf.

Escape from Yeti Mountain is a card/board game* built upon the emotional pillars of rage and confusion. That is, this game is designed to make you frustrated and confused! Sounds like a great idea, right? Well read on, dear friend!

In Escape from Yeti Mountain, three to six players must fight to be the first to gather the necessary resources hidden in a mysterious maze to appease the dreaded Yeti and escape his mountain lair. The twist is that the maze doesn't exist at the start of the game; the players "discover" it as they go.

Games start with each player's piece on a single 4-way tile which is then expanded by a shuffled deck of 2-way, 3-way, 4-way, and corner tiles. Each player is given a different quest to complete and off they go! As the map grows, players will discover icons printed on some of the tiles which may represent various resources and characters necessary for their specific quest. But beware! Players are also able to rotate any existing tile (as long as it connects to at least one other tile) and can even punch one another through walls! Using all these abilities, players must navigate the treacherous, amorphous maze and win over the Yeti's heart (with some hearty Yeti Soup, naturally).

By Sarah Awad, David Chun, Barry Kramer, Johnny Mkitarian, and Dillon West

More in-depth rules and additional information can be found here: Escape from Yeti Mountain.pdf.

These are some of the icons I made for the game.

*It's a board game that's made out of cards!

Forget Rock Paper Scissors; this is the definitive simultaneous action selection game of the zombie apocalypse!
Instead of boring old rock, paper, and scissors, players use zombies, humans, and documents to settle their trifling matters!

Play unfolds much like in Rock Paper Scissors. However, instead of shaking a fist, players shake an open hand (like a karate chop) three times and shout "Zombies, Humans, Documents!" On "Documents," players make one of three hand gestures:

Zombie Hand

The Zombie hand is meant to look like the classic "outstretched arms" zombie pose, modeled here by Spiderman.

See? Imagine the middle two fingers are the legs and the index and pinky fingers are the arms. BOOM. Zombie hand.

Human Hand

Of course, humans don't walk around with their arms outstretched and prefer to keep them at their sides, as modeled here by Spiderman and Evil Spiderman.

So our Human hand is like the Zombie hand, but with all fingers pointed down.

Documents Hand

Documents (portrayed here by this Spider document) are pieces of paper that are typically read right-side-up. Therefore our Documents hand is an upright hand.

Here's how the hands interact:

• Zombie beats Human (zombies eat humans)
• Human beats Documents (humans file documents)
• Documents beat Zombie (documents explain zombies' origin)
• If both players throw Documents, they are encouraged (though not required) to take the opportunity to high five. They may then start again.

Zombies Humans Documents: Way Better Than Rock Paper Scissors