j.a.k's story

J . A . K ’ S S T O R Y D e s i g n D o c u m e n t P a g e | 1

J.A.K’S STORY

A pass through the life of J.A.K. via a card system.

Pick a Jack and start collecting suits of cards to fulfill an aspect of

“J.A.K’s” life-Love, family, education, and career, but beware the

Queen and Joker could bring J.A.K’s life to a halt.

A card game by Andrea M. Hudgins

Chosen Theme: Health

Game Design I

February 2015


GOAL

Be the player to collect two total suits of cards 2-10, Jack, Ace, and King.

Players will draw a card, make a decision to “build” part of J.A.K’s life,

or play a “Queen”, “Joker”, or “Trade” a card with the opposing player. They

make their choices based on what current “Jack” they picked at the setup of

the game. Once a player makes a decision on either to build or what type of

card to play or trade, their turn is now over. The first player to collect and

build 2 total suits of cards 2-10, Jack, Ace, and King will win the game.

Items

This card game is played with 2 players.

A deck of standard playing cards with the jokers still in the deck, this will be

a total of 54 playing cards.

The suit of Spades in this card game is a metaphor for J.A.K’s friends in life.

The suit of Clubs in this card game is a metaphor for J.A.K’s family.

The suit of Diamonds in this card game is a metaphor for J.A.K’s career.

The suit of Hearts in this card game is a metaphor for J.A.K’s love life.

Any Queen in this card game is played by a player and then used to ask for

any card the player wants from the opposing player.

Any Joker card in this game is played by a player and then that player can

search the draw pile for any card they wish to take.

A trade takes place when a player asks chooses a card in their hand then asks

the opposing player for a card they want.

Setup


1. The Jacks are removed from the playing deck.

2. The deck is shuffled

3. Each player is dealt 12 cards each.

4. The rest of the cards left in the deck are placed in the

middle of the play area face down. This is the draw pile.

5. Each player examines their hand of cards and based off

their hands they choose what 2 parts of life they will try to

build with the cards in their hand.

6. Each player picks up 2 Jacks and places the Jacks face up in

front of them.

7. Each player looks at their hand if they can build on part of

J.A.K’s life they put down the cards, an example: Player 1

chose the Jack of Hearts and the Jack of Diamonds, so this

player is building on J.AK’s love life and J.A.K’s career. In

their hand of cards they have a 2, 3, and 4 of hearts; player

1 can build on J.A.K’s love life. Player 1 places the 2, 3, and

4, down face up on the Jack of Hearts. Player 2 cannot

build on any of their chosen parts of J.A.K’s life.

8. The player that placed the most cards on J.A.K’s life

doesn’t get to go first the other player does. If for some

reason both players cannot place cards, the player to go

first is determined by whomever is the oldest out of the

two players.

9. End of setup.

Play

1. The player that goes first draws 1 card. This is the begnning of a

turn.

2. Player examines their hand; they have to make an educated

decision on what they want to do during their turn based off what


cards they hold in their hand. During a player’s turn they may do

one of the following actions:

Build on their chosen aspects of J.A.K’s life-If a player

chooses to do this during their turn they place the

cards face up in the correct order on top of the part

of life they are building. For Example: The player

chose the Jack of Diamonds and Jack of Hearts

during the setup of the card game, so this player will

be building onto J.A.K’s career and love life. So let us

say this player had the 2, 3, and 4 of Diamonds plus

had the 2, 3, and 4 of Hearts in their hand, they

would place the 2, 3, and 4 of Hearts face up on the

Jack of Hearts, then they would place the 2, 3, and 4

of Diamonds down face up on the Jack of Diamonds.

The turn is now over.

Play a Queen-If the player chooses to play the

Queen, they place the Queen face up next to the

draw pile and announce to the opposing player they

are playing the Queen and they have to ask the

opposing player for a specific card. If the opposing

player does not have the card that was asked for the

player that played the Queen gets to draw 2 cards

from the top of the draw pile. The opposing player

puts the Queen back into the draw pile and shuffles

the draw pile placing it face down where it was

before. The turn is now over. For Example: The

player needs to get a 5 of Clubs to finish building on

J.A.K’s family aspect of life. They had previously had

the 2-4 of Clubs laid down on the Jack of Clubs from

a previous turn and they hold the rest of the Clubs

needed in their hand. So they lay the Queen down

next to the draw pile face up then announce they are

playing the Queen and ask the opposing player for


the 5 of Clubs, in this case the opposing player does

have the 5 of Clubs in their hand so they hand the 5

of Clubs to the player that played the Queen.

Play a Joker-If the player chooses to play a Joker,

they place the Joker face up next to the draw pile and

announce they are playing the Joker and they begin

to search the draw pile for a card of their choice.

After they find the card they want, they remove it

from the draw pile and place it into their hand of

cards. The opposing player picks up the Joker and

places it back into the draw pile, then shuffles the

draw pile placing it face down where it was before.

The turn is now over.

Trade-If a player wants to trade a card for another

card they announce to the other player they would

like to trade and place the card they are trading for

face up next to the draw pile and they ask the

opposing player if they have a specific card. If the

opposing player has the card that was asked for in

their hand they must hand the card over to the

player that initiated the trade. Both players would

have gained a card. The opposing player picks up

the trade card next to the draw pile. This would have

been an even trade. In some cases though the

opposing player wouldn’t have had the card that was

asked for, so then the player that initiated the trade

has lost the card they were trading. The opposing

player would have gained a card here and the player

who initiated the trade would have lost the trade

card. The turn is now over.

3. Players continue taking their turns.


End Phase

Players take their turns until a player is able to successfully build 2 suits of

cards in order 2-10, Jack, Ace, King. The first player to complete the 2 parts

of J.A.K’s life correctly wins the game.

GRATIS OUTLINE FOR J.A.K’S STORY

Goals-

Obtain a card from opposing player via a trade in order to build a suit

correctly.

Obtain desired card from opposing player when a “Queen” is played in

order to build a suit correctly.

Obtain a desired card from the draw pile when a “Joker” is played, in

order to build a suit correctly.

Successfully build a suit of cards (representation of J.A.K’s part of life)

in the correct suit order.

Complete 2 parts of J.A.K’s life by building the two suits in correct

order. This means the player wins if they complete this first.

Rules-

2 Players are required to play this card game at all times.

The first player to go first is determined after the players examine their

opening hand, the player that places the most cards down and builds

on “J.A.K’s” life will not go first; the player with the least amount of

placed cards would get to go first. If for some reason both players

cannot place cards, the player that gets to go first is determined by

whomever is the oldest out of the two players.

The “Queen” is played and used to ask your opponent for a specific

card, but only one card can be asked for. If your opponent doesn’t


have the card you asked for you may draw 2 cards from the top of the

draw pile.

The “Joker” is played in order to look through the draw pile and choose

one card of your choice.

A “trade” is performed by a player when they bargain one card for

another card, the player performing the trade must ask their opponent

for a specific card during the trade, if the opponent doesn’t have that

particular card, the player hands over the card they wanted to perform

the trade with to their opponent.

A suit is completed by placing cards in order. The correct suit order is

2-10, Jack, Ace, and King; these cards have to all be from the same suit

so all clubs, all hearts, all diamonds, or all spades. Players cannot mix

suits.

Cards can only be placed on the corresponding pile representing

J.A.K’s life if they are in the correct suit order. For example: A player

can place a 2, 3, 4 of hearts only on the Jack of hearts, they cannot

place a 2 of spades, 2 of clubs and then a 4 of hearts onto a Jack of

diamonds.

Players have to choose what to do on each turn. They can choose to

build, choose to play a Queen, make a trade, or play a Joker card. Only

one of these actions can be performed per turn. So, if a player wants to

build, they build then their turn ends.

Each player gets to draw 1 card from the draw pile at the beginning of

their turn.

The player that completely builds 2 parts of their chosen paths of

J.A.K’s life wins the game. This has to be a correctly ordered suit.

Any card that is asked for via trade or by playing the Queen has to be

handed over to the asking player if the opponent has the card in their

hand. There is no bluffing. If you have the card you must hand it over.

Actions-

Shuffle cards


Draw card

Choose Jacks to begin with

Build a suit

Play a Queen card

Play a Joker card

Players trade a card with one another

Transitions-

Players choose their 2 starting “Jacks”

Build suit of cards(“J.A.K’s life)

Draw card

Plays a Queen

Plays a Joker

Performs a trade

Player wins when 2 parts of J.A.K’s life are successfully built

Game ends

Items-

54 playing cards-this is a standard deck of playing cards but has the

Joker cards included

2 players

The “Queen”-This card is used to ask for any card the player chooses

from the opposing player

The “Joker”-this card is played and used to look through the draw pile

and the player chooses 1 card of their choice.

A “Trade”-The player can request to trade 1 card for another from the

other player.

A “Suit”- this is a sequence of cards either all diamonds, hearts, clubs,

or spades but in this order-2-10, Jack, Ace, King.


“J.A.K”-this is a metaphor for the Jacks in the card game being played.

The Jack represents the young man “J.A.K” in his early years of life; this

is why the players start with this card at the beginning of the game.

The Clubs in this game are a metaphor for J.A.K’s family

The Spades in this game are a metaphor for J.A.K’s friends

The Diamonds in this game are a metaphor for J.A.K’s career

The Hearts in this game are a metaphor for J.A.K’s love life.

Setup-

All the Jacks are removed from the deck and placed faced up in the

player area.

The deck is shuffled

All players are dealt 12 cards face down

All players examine cards and make an educated choice based off their

cards in their hands on what 2 Jacks they want to choose to start the

game with.

Each player takes their two chosen Jack cards and places them face up

in front of themselves in the play area.

Which player placed the most cards? The cards are counted; the

player that placed the most cards does not get to go first. The player

that placed the least amount of cards would get to go first.

Meaningful Actions Analysis

The first meaningful action in this card game takes place in the setup

phase. Each player has to examine their 12 cards they were dealt and then

make an educated choice based off what cards they have to choose their

starting 2 Jacks. For instance, a player that has a hand that has 9 cards that

are in the Clubs suit would surely want to choose the Jack of Clubs.

The second meaningful choice in this card game takes place when the

player has to decide what to do on their turn. Will they build a suit on their


chosen Jacks, make a trade, play a Queen, or will they play a Joker? Let’s say

the player had all cards needed to finish the suit on their chosen Jack of

Hearts, the better choice here would be to build then their turn would end.

Let us say though that the player needs a 5 of Clubs in order to finish the suit

on their Jack of Clubs, and they have a 6 of hearts in their hand and they see

the opposing player has started a suit on their own Jack but only has up to

the 5 of Hearts laid down on their Jack of Hearts, they might want to trade

that 6 of Hearts for a 5 of Clubs. The catch though is the player that is in

need of the 5 of Clubs may not know that the opposing player has the 5 of

Clubs and if he offers the 6 of Hearts as the trade card and the opposing

player does not have the 5 of Clubs the player just gave that opposing player

a free card and a chance to finish up their suit.

The third meaningful choice involved in this card game is when a

player is going to perform a trade with the opposing player. It makes most

sense to only perform a trade when you played a Joker before in another turn

and you saw what was in the draw pile, because if you offer to trade a card

with the opposing player and the opposing player did not have the card you

were trying to bargain for, you can easily give them an edge in the game

because they get to take the card you offered in the trade while you don’t get

one back.

The fourth meaningful choice in this card game is deciding what card

to ask for when you play a Queen. A player might want to use the Queen in

order to get 1 needed card from the opponent, again here is where knowing

what was in the draw pie would be beneficial. If a player plays the Queen

though they may not want to ask for a needed card they need for one of their

own suits. They may want to impede the progress of the opposing player by

asking for a specific card that they needed to finish up one of their own suits.

This way the player that played the Queen takes the card form the opposing

player and then at some point the opposing player will have to make a trade

or play a Queen in order to get back their needed card.


The fifth meaningful choice in this card game is choosing what cards

the player will place during the build phase. A player may have the 4, 5, and

6 of Diamonds in their hand, and have the 2 and 3 of Diamonds already

placed face up on the Jack of Diamonds. If they don’t place these cards

during a build phase there is a chance the opposing player could get one of

those cards during a trade or by playing a Queen.

The first un-meaningful action in this game that takes place is

removing the 4 Jacks from the deck of cards. This action doesn’t require an

educated choice; a player simply removes the Jacks from the deck.

The second un-meaningful choice in this card game takes place when a

player draws a card. This isn’t a voluntary choice.

The third un-meaningful choice in this card game takes place when a

player places cards in the correct suit order. The cards have to be in correct

suit order. The correct order is 2-10, Jack, Ace, and then King. They all have

to be of the same suit so all Spades, all Diamonds, all Clubs, and all Spades.

Players cannot choose to mix cards so the placing of the cards is not

voluntary therefor the action of placing cards is involuntary.

J.A.K’s STORY-Flowcharts