Feature Design Exercise, Part 1:
Think of a feature you would like to see added to one of your favourite games. I am sure you have plenty of ideas on this one. It does not matter how far-fetched or technically difficult the idea is at first because you are not going to actually build it. Rather you are going to illustrate how it works using storyboards and words.

We would not be the first group to declare Catan a near-perfect gateway board game. Since its introduction in 1994, Catan (formerly Settlers of Catan) has sold over 30 million copies, not including over 49 expansion sets. What can be learned from Catan's was encapsulated by Fullerton when she argued, "The role of the game designer is, first and foremost, to be an advocate for the player. The game designer must look at the world of games through the player's eyes (Fulleron, 2014)." The makers of Catan have done this masterfully. 

 Determined to make a meaningful suggestion for an improvement feature, our group viewed many of the online reviews of Settlers of Catan and noticed that three critics of the original game often surfaced (StarlitCitadel, 2011).

• The robber element can frustrate players if it gets stuck on a critical resource.

• Resources are generated by random dice rolls, and although the high number of rolls balances good or bad luck once a player is behind, it is difficult to upset the game. Aggressive trading is viewed as a way to mitigate the problem – unless again, you are behind due to poor placement choices. 

• Trading often bogs down the game as losing players get increasingly desperate for resources and those ahead become overly cautious.

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We have a simple recommendation for a feature that might improve the gameplay. Our idea is to adapt a player character feature that already exists in the digital games and in the Helper Character Expansion Set that is no longer published.  

When the managing directors of Settlers of Catan planned the launch of the online game, they develop AI opponents for the human players. The Ai characters are still used in many versions of the digital game, such as Catan Universe but a criticism of the AI characters is that there are only subtle differences in strategy. The AI characters are seen as only slightly more or less aggressive than other character types. They serve the intended purpose of providing opponents to solo games but hardy change gameplay.

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