Fluxx Mod Project Blog - 11/19/17

Picture of Victor Nguyen's FLUXX cards in play.

Summary: Fluxx is a very interesting, unique game. It is different from most other card games, in that the rules and the conditions for winning are altered throughout the game, via cards played by the players. Fluxx has a basic set of cards. There are new rules, goals, keepers, actions, and creepers. A game deck consists of 84 to 100 cards with four different card subtypes printed on them, New Rules, Keepers, Goals, and Actions. Starting with a simple Basic Rule of 'Draw 1 card / Play 1 card', players will draw then play a card to and from their hand. New Rule cards will change the rules mid-game, oftentimes changing the number of cards you draw, the number you play, the number of cards in your hand and so forth. Goals are cards that lay out the victory conditions for the game, consisting of two or more Keeper cards that must be in front of the player on the table while that Goal is active. The Keeper cards are various people and items that go along with the game's theme that the player must play to claim victory. Finally, Action cards are special actions a player can take that will affect the game status of themselves, one of their opponents, or the entire table. My partner's and I's Fluxx mod topic is the human body. We had some common key organs for our keepers such as the brain, heart, lungs, nerves, etc. We use what we know to create relationships between the keepers, for the goals. The heart and veins help to transport blood throughout the body. Creating our own Fluxx game helps us learn how to make things from scratch, the science topic we chose, and to create relationships for Cross-Cutting Concepts.

Backward-Looking: What problems did you encounter while you were working on this piece? How did you solve them? The biggest or most important problem that arose was the alignment of the front and the back of the cards. Since the cards were to be printed double sided, they had to be aligned on the page. Since when we first created the table, there was a space at the top, ruining the first pages alignment with anything. Fortunately, we were able to fix this problem by making the first-page blank, this helped align all the front and backs to print.

Inward-Looking: What were your goals for meeting this piece of work? Did your goals change as you worked on it? Did you meet your goals? My partner and I had two main goals which were needed to be completed in order to successfully complete the task at hand. Since we had two weeks to work on the project, we split it up and made a plan. Our plan was that the first week we would complete all the keepers, creepers, and goals since the rules and actions were already completed for us. The second part of our plan was to print, laminate, and cut the cards during the second week. The first part of our plan was partially completed since we still had some goals to fill out by the end of the week. However, we completed the rest of the goals over the weekend. The second part of the plan was successful. We printed out all the cards at home, and we were able to use our time wisely and laminate and partially cut in class. The rest of the cutting was done by my partner at home since I had printed the cards.

Outward-Looking: In what ways did your work meet the standards for this assignment? In what ways did it not meet those standards? The standards for the assignment were to have 16+ keeper, 24+ goals, 4+ creepers, and 16+ goals and actions. The other major standard of the assignment was crafting of the cards, so good lamination, straight cutting, etc. My partner and I were able to successfully complete the first standard, as we had all the necessary cards. The second part, however, did not go so smoothly. Some of the cards were not cut very well, which resulted in points off for that portion of the project.

Forward-Looking: What would you change if you had a chance to do this piece over again? The only flaw of our project, therefore the only thing I would change if I had to do this piece over again was print the cards a day earlier so we would have had more time to cut. Since we had postponed the printing a day later than we expected, we had less time to cut, resulting in rushed cutting which did not allow the cards to be cut the best they could've been.