Game Studies - Field Research

Name: Liong Xenyi (0383125)
Module: Game Studies (GCD61504)
Date: 20/04/2026 -  (Week 1 - Week 14)
Degree: Bachelor of Design (Honors) in Creative Media 
University: Taylor's University

Instructions

Organize and go out with your group to a game cafe, play at least 3 different games and report them.

GAMES CRITERIA

• The games need to be: Multiplayer (min. 2 players)
• Preferably not a classic (Uno, Monopoly, chess...)
• Out of your comfort zone

FIELD RESEARCH REPORT
Reports should be in your Blogger eBlog, under Game Studies.

• The report is individual, you all need to write one, even when playing a group.
• It should be your own opinion and feedback on the game (not LLM's).
• Bad english is better than chatgpt english! Write in your own language first, and auto translate after if you prefer.

The report should contain, for each game you played: 

• A description of the game (theme, mechanics, goal)
• What made you choose this game? How did you select it, or agreed to played it?
• A photo of your group playing the game
• A playtest review: how was it? Fun? Hard? Did you win or lose, and why? Would you play again?
• Learnability for each game, how easy is it to learn, do you need to refer a lot to the rules, and how easy was that.
• 3 great things you liked about the game. Why?
• 3 meh things you wish could be improved. Why?
• Things you would totally steal/inspire from into your own game (+ photos)

Field Report

My group and I played 3 different games, new games suggested by one of the waiter at the board games cafe we went to. The cafe, Boards and Brews, is located near Sunway University, so it is easy for us to locate. They had many games, and I am especially interest in roleplaying games or anything related to DnD, but due to the short time we could meet up, we had to find something fast to learn and short to play. There were many great art covers for the board games, which attract my attention at first, but after seeing the number of items and hours it takes to play, I knew I needed a whole day or two to complete this field report.

These were the games we played: Coup, Chain Geometry and Muffin Time.

Coup

Description:

The goal of the game is about assassinating your opponents and being the last one standing. The definition of the name says it all: a sudden, often violent, and illegal seizure of government power, known as a coup d'état. It also refers to a brilliant, highly successful, and unexpected action or accomplishment, such as landing a major contract. The term comes from French, meaning "blow" or "strike". 

Fig 1.1 Coup Card Game

In summary, you would have two cards, with each having their own action during your turn. You as a player need to eliminate other player's cards by gaining a certain amount of coins, or using an action from certain cards. The added fun is that you can lie about your cards; however, a player can call bluff whenever they want. The one who is in the right gets to keep their card, while the other discards theirs.

The theme of the game is a futuristic, dystopian game, revolving around politics, as assumed in the art-style. It has diverse people on their cards, so it is likely set in a different world or place. The cards are as below:

Fig 1.2 Coup Cards

I didn't really choose this game, as I've played this game before, but due to time constraints, the waiter suggested we should play this as it is short and easy. My other groupmates have not played it before, and liked the style and theme of the game, so we decided to play this. 

Fig 1.3 My group playing Coup

Review:

It was fun to play, especially with new players. It was easy to learn and play, as there are only a few rules, along with having a key card of the actions for each player. The learning process was very fast, and we managed to play 2-3 rounds, with the first as a testing round. I feel like I cheated, but I'm somehow good with this game, even when I played previously, so I won most of the rounds. It's about balancing truths with lies, while thinking strategically on how to kill your opponent, and I so happened to really like strategic games. It's about how you play, but also the luck on what cards you get, and I like that mixture of both. It's something similar to playing Mahjong for me, guessing the opponents card while taking note of patterns.

Learnability was easy after understanding the basis of the game. We have key cards we can refer to at all times, so we didn't have to memorize the actions. However, it could take some time to re-read each action and role in the beginning before we got familiar with it.

What went Great:

• I liked that this game balances strategy and your poker face, like how you would act in a maybe more serious political situation, where you have to take risks and lie to get your goal, or gain the right cards.
• Because of how little rules there were, it was very fast and easy to learn the game rules and start playing, where we saved time and managed to play more rounds of the game.
• I like the art-style and general theme of the game. It definitely attracts the player's eye with its well drawn cards, with easy to remember persona profiles of the cards. Even though there's not much, there's also the coins that look like some military futuristic coins from a dystopian story.

To be Improved:

• I think the game is rather short, depends on how we play it, it could even be shorter than a round of UNO. Though it is easy to learn and play, it could be a little boring after a few rounds with the same players. On the other hand, I do think the players having to risk lying and saying the truths constantly is what makes it more interesting, but slightly. I do know there are more cards, as I've played that before, which expands the game.
• I think the players could have more cards rather than two to extend the length and difficulty of the game. The more cards the player has, the hard it is to determine what truths they are saying and eliminating them at the same time.
• There could be more rules and penalties, as it could be sometimes too simple. This could make it harder and more challenging for the players to try and decipher the truth while also not winning too easily. There's only coins and cards for this version of the game we played.

Again, I really love the art-style and would take inspiration from. Each card has its own style and colour code, which is easily recognizable and memorable for players. I would also take the dystopian theme, as the future and fantasy themes give more excitement and exploration for ideas rather than something based in modern real life. Additionally, I love the aspect of trying to figure out your opponents' moves with strategy and reading their faces, instead of just plain luck. It is not full on strategy like chess, but it has risks of guessing which makes it fun and less stressful (for some people). 

Chain Geometry

Description:

This game is about connecting the rubber bands, forming triangles and occupying the most territories of triangles. It is a simple theme of triangles, where you have to also use strategy and use more of your brain (for me at least) to see how many triangles could be made from your rubber band. All sides of the triangle must be formed by the rubber band. The more triangles of your colour that's on the board, the closer you are to winning, until there are no rubber bands or no triangles left.

Fig 2.1 Chain Geometry

I didn't choose this game, my other groupmate did. I was pretty hesitant to choose this as I thought it has an ugly design (sorry) and it didn't appeal to me too much. It also looked way too simple at first and it looks like a Mathematics game (no hate on it, just not the feels, vibes of it). However, she said it was pretty fun so, out of my comfort zone I guess. And like previously stated, the design covers that attracted me the most were long games we couldn't afford to play. 

Review:

We played this as the second game, after coup, and it's pretty funny to me how I was good at coup, but bad with this game, even though both are strategy games. I mean, since it was only the 3 of us, and triangles are made of 3 sides, the third person would get more chances. We only played this once, due to time, so we made some mistakes in the beginning and just went through with it. Even though it has very simple and straightforward rules, we couldn't understand the main rule sentence in the rulebook. It took me a very long time to understand - perhaps it was the wording of the sentence, but it is basically that we have to use the rubber bands and form a small triangle on the board, and we can take that territory. 

The game wasn't hard, it was simple, but it was pretty repetitive, and so after a few rounds, we did get a little bored. Even though it is strategy, there wasn't much to strategize except to form triangles. By the time we finished one round, I had had enough of triangles and needed to see some other shape. Now, I'm not a sore loser, but I genuinely did not like this game that much, as there weren't much of a challenge with high stakes. I won't play this game again, but I think it would be good for children to learn to think and strategize.

Fig 2.2 Components of the Game

Learnability was easy too for this game, but as stated, the instructions could be clearer. This game learning time, as well as play time, is pretty fast.

What went Great:

• For some reason, because of how simple it is with only a board, little triangles and rubber bands, it reminds me of my childhood games, where we would play with simple critical thinking games like this, or simply playing with what we had like rubber bands. So, the design and theme of the game is simple and easy to understand.
• It is a strategy game, where we had to think of the best move to get more triangles, so there's the challenge. However, you could absolutely just wing it and simply find the first triangle you spot.
• I like the small triangles, they have a cute design, like tiny people.

To be Improved:

• Like previously stated, the rules are straightforward but somehow hard to understand at first. It could be explained further and elaborated with pictures, as players might have different understandings. 
• The game is too underwhelming, as it is slow and repetitive with minimal rules. There could be more rules and added challenges to make it seem more interesting and fun.
• The design is too simple and a little kiddish to attract older players. I found the design not attractive at all, as it is too blocky and simple. There could be added design, or even a drawn version of people playing that could be better to look at.

I would steal the little triangles and rubber bands (they're good quality) as it seems fun to move around and play with. The strategy of placing things at the right place is something I could also take inspiration from, to obtain the most items or to defeat your opponents.

Muffin Time

Description:

This one is funny. This game was based on the song, The Muffin Song, and it was popular back in 2018-2019. It's a fun song with catchy lyrics, a tune that'll get stuck in your head, and good animation. It has some sort of deprecating Millennial humor that honestly shaped a lot of Gen-Zs' own humor, while it mirrors a lot of the Cartoon Network animation feeling. So, for us, this was a known meme for those who were chronically online when we were teens. After playing the game, I did a search up, and as I thought, this card game, Muffin Time, was made after this song. 

Fig 3.1 The Muffin Song

This game is about getting exactly 10 cards in your hand after one whole round, and shouting "Muffin Time!" to win. The cards can exceed to more than 10 or go down to as little as one. It's like a mixture of Monopoly cards and Cards Against Humanity. The theme is about absurd scenarios drawn in the same style as the song, where the player has to act out or do something in certain situations. There are three main cards in the game: Action (blue), Trap (red) and Counter (green) cards. Action has the player acting out or playing said action, the trap requires something to be done for the player to activate, and the counter can, well, counter the attacks thrown against the player.

Fig 3.2 Muffin Time

When I first saw the game, I laughed and was instantly hooked to play this game, as I remembered how chaotic the song was, and knew the card game would be too. Like, in the way we (Gen-Z) have weird humor, it has absurd actions or drawings that make me feel at home. However, my other group mates said they never saw the original video, and even though I'm sad they don't know of it, it's a good opportunity to see them play.

Review:

At first it took a longer time to read the rules compared to the first two games, but it was pretty simple to understand and play. Compared to the first two, this game does not have much strategy, as you play it for fun and with luck. It is not a serious game, and so we cracked more jokes and laughed more. Because of how unique each card is, we all took a look at it after playing said action, trap or counter. We didn't have much time left, and this game can take long, so we played one round. I won by chance. We would absolutely play the game again, but with more people, as 3 people seem a bit small of a group. It seems pretty fun when hanging out with friends.

Fig 3.3 Muffin Time Cards

Learnability for this game was a bit slower than the first two games, as there were more instructions to read. We had to check the manual a few times to make sure what we could or couldn't do, and there was even a trap card that says something like "discard a few cards if you check the manual" and so we did.

What went Great:

• It is a very fun game to play, because of the humor and the many scenarios we could play out. Each card is unique with its own story and art, that is entertaining to always look at and read. It is great for our age range, and to play with big groups of friends, especially those who grew up with this type of humor.
• It ranges from small actions or mini-games in the game itself that we need to look out for from the other players. So instead of just playing around with luck of drawing a card, we have to take note of the other players' actions too. This adds to the challenge and keeps players on the tip of their toes instead of relaxing fully.
• It has simple rules with pretty much the actions explained on the card, so it is great for a game of many people new to the game who are looking for a fun time without needing to think much. The actions are also expressed with creativity through the art and puns.

To be Improved:

• The game did not have much of a challenge, so if someone wants to play with strategy, they could be completely destroyed by someone who has lucky cards. They could add more rules or another set of cards to add to the challenge.
• It says 2-8 players, but I think the minimum should be at least 3-4 players. One of my groupmates left earlier for work, so we played with two players. It felt a little draggy at the end, as it doesn't feel fun enough to continue with two people. 
• Like how we were baited as kids or pre-teens, this game looks innocent, as if it was made for kids. It is not made for kids. Yes, there are some childish jokes and the art-style is simple, but there are some mature jokes that should be only for teenagers and adults. People usually mistake these kinds of style "for kids only", but it's actually the opposite. This game could include that as a warning, or at least have an adult play with children if they really want to. 

I would totally steal the creativity for humor in this game. I love deadpan, witty jokes that's absurd and weird, which honestly would love to reflect that in a game. The fun style it has and the scenarios that could be read and played out is fun, as I love role-playing games too. 

Conclusion

I wished we could explore more games, as there seems to be very interesting games. However, as for me, I hate learning new systems and rules, and would rather someone explain it to me as I start playing, instead of reading the manual. But contradicting enough, if there's no one to do that, I will be the one reading and understanding the rules, because I hate not knowing what to do, I need it to make sense to me and follow the right rules. These games we played were pretty simple and fun, especially on time constraints, but because of that, these games were pretty short and on repeat could be a little boring without any added challenges.

I do realize I prefer more strategic games, as I can be pretty competitive if I care enough, or crazy humor with creativity. I think mixing that kind of role-playing scenarios with strategy would be pretty neat, as it would be something I'd like mixed together. I mean, that's why I do love DnD, even though I never played the tabletop version and only on video games. But essentially, what is important is how the game allows us humans to interact with one another as well. Coup was good in a way that we could interact and try reading our opponents, instead of just focusing on strategy like Chain Geometry. Muffin Time is a chaotic game where we have fun but still need to be alert about the other players. So a good mixture and balance would be a top-tier game for me.