3D - Anatomy knowledge and 3D scanning

I've been doing 3D and 2D for about six years now but it was not until a few years ago that I really started thinking more seriously about it. It started out as a hobby when I got involved in the modding community of Warcraft 3. I was always and still am amazed by the user-created content of Warcraft 3. I started out by doing icons for abilities and later moved on to models, this was without no prior knowledge. I learned by reading tutorials and asking around a forum for help which really got me interested into 3D modeling.

These are some of the icons I made for Warcraft 3

My first character model, fully rigged and animated

In my last year of school before university I, with the guidance of my teacher started looking into anatomy and was introduced to a whole new level of both drawing and modeling. I started learning to draw and bought my first wacom which I still have to this day. My anatomy skills in 2D aren't the best but I'm always practicing it to get better. I actually prefer doing environments over characters. Here below are some pictures of my 2D work, I selected some environments, some characters and thumbnails so you can see different things.

Some of my recent environment drawings

Character thumbnails

Some thumbnail practice

I enjoy doing characters and anatomy in 3D using a sculpting program like Zbrush. You get a lot of control over everything and it's easy to spot mistakes or faults. When I draw in 2D however I like to draw environments more than characters. I do draw traditionally regularly to maintain and improve my skill level and this is mostly where I practice my anatomy when I get the chance to. I am not too confident in drawing characters and I probably need to work on that. I feel that I have the knowledge but I need to learn how to apply it.

I think what I need to do now is just make more characters to get a deeper understanding and build a visual library for anatomy. Practice makes perfect and I especially need to work on the construction of characters. I'll look at disney concept art for construction help since they have a really awesome way of doing things.

Another thing we've been doing recently which I've never done before is 3D scanning. 3D scanning is basically a way to put a real life object into the digital world. You do this by taking multiple pictures from different angles and then letting a software construct a model using the pictures you provided. I haven't really tried it before but it's a really awesome and effective way of getting realistic results.

Here above is a 3D scanned head that we started working on in class. You get really nice results from making low polys from 3D scans since they are imported from reality. Just bake the lighting and the texture and you got a really nice model that can look very close to the original 3D scan. I haven't really experimented that much with photogammetry but I'm considering buying a good camera and some lighting tools for 3D scanning. Thanks for reading!

3D - Finishing up

This is my last blog post for this course I've been taking. I'll talk about the creation of my wolf, how it turned out and some final thoughts. Last post I presented my character background and I will now show you what I've done and how it turned out. This was quite a challenge and a brand new experience seeing as it is my first time making an animal.

My first goal was to get the overall shape of the wolf right. I did this by modeling a low poly directly from the concept turnaround by placing it as a plane. The concept turnaround wasn't perfect since the wolf is in a walk cycle and some parts aren't properly lined up. Nonetheless it still is an awesome concept and there's no need to get picky. My main concern was getting the proportions right. When working with organic recognizable creatures such as humans, dogs or cats it's hard to get things right anatomically. Since everyone knows how these look, anatomical faults stands out more. When designing fantasy looking one often tends to exaggerate on certain parts. I had to make it look believeable and still retain the exaggerations of the concept.

The low poly turned out pretty okay for a rough prototype. I made the decision to make a hipoly model in zbrush to try and capture that feeling of authenticity. This was a very time consuming process because this also required me to retopo the model after I was done. I started by just sculpting around in Zbrush to try and find some nice shapes and just refine things.

After playing around for a while I decided it was time to start checking references. I put in a lot of time into the high poly and I constantly alt tabbed to check my references. I would look up things like: "Wolf muscle anatomy", "Wolf paw" and "Wolf profile". I had originally designed a moodboard but I found that my current moodboard was not enough so I googled search like a madman for the entirety of the high poly. One of the big challenges for this model was the fur which I will talk more about later on but when I modeled the high poly I did so with in mind that fur would come on later in the process. I basically modeled the high poly without fur which helped me in modeling the muscles. Since all the reference pictures I looked up were of wolves with thick fur it was hard to find what was underneath all that fur, I had to fill in a lot of empty spaces with my imagination.

Here's the final high poly with some basic poly paint applied to it.

Here's the moodboard of pictures I collected in the pre-production phase

Great, the high poly is completed and now it's time for retopo in 3Dcoat. This was also a time-consuming phase seeing as I wanted to get a good edge flow. I thought I could save time by relying on Zbrush's Zremesher or 3Dcoat's Autopo making the low poly for me but this was what took up the most time. I spent several hours just configuring and trying different things with both programs and I never got good results. I figured it wasn't working out for me so I started doing it manually in 3Dcoat using strokes which is f*cking awesome. You can really plan your edgeflow with 3Dcoat's strokes. So I did some retopoing and I ended up with a pretty neat edgeflow.

Here's how I worked with the strokes function in 3Dcoat, really liking it.

The finished low poly.

Although I liked the edge flow and the retopo I was shocked to find out that I was way over poly budget. Originally I had intented for roughly 2000 tris for the body and the rest on fur and eyeballs, the target was 3000 tris on the finished model. I was already having about 2600 tris on the main body, before the fur and eyeballs were added but there wasn't time enough to change anything so I decided to work with it. The UV mapping on the body went pretty smoothly and there's not much to say about that. I baked the poly paint, normal and lighting information from the high poly now which makes up for my texture.

Low poly, UV mapped and textured

Now for the thing that I struggled with the most, the fur. This was really, really difficult for me. The plan was to use lots of planes, alpha and a good texture to make the fur. I was already running out polys so I didn't really have much to work with. One thing I noticed was that doing fur is really hard. I experimented so much on the fur. Trying different planes from different angles with different textures. I just couldn't get it right and time just ran out. I had to send in an unfinished product which saddens me. I think I have a solid construction but I'm working towards a deadline and I must deliver on time even if it's not finished. So in the midst of all the fur experimenting I had to wrap up and settle on something. I'm dissatisfied with the end result and I know I have a lot more to offer than this. Not everything was shit though, the high poly and the edge flow of the low poly turned out good. I think I captured the organic feel I was going for, it doesn't look completely shit.

All in all I've learned invaluable lessons from these past two assignments. I need to adjust my scope and prioritize better. In these both assignments I've spent way too much time on the high poly when there's not much time available and that's something I will take into consideration for my next model.

So what about the course? This is probably the last post about this 3D I course and I want to talk a little about it. This course has been amazing, my teacher has been amazing and all my fellow classmates have been amazing. Some of my classmates have never used 3D prior to this course and they've worked really hard and produced amazing stuff. I believe everyone have supported eachother really well and the atmosphere has been great overall. As an aspiring 3D artist I have grown over these past 10 weeks and am now stronger than ever. This was all for this course and I hope you'll be reading my blog in the future.

3D - Wolf character

A little while ago I started working on a character model for school. The assignment was to first choose concept art of a character and give it a backstory. After pre-production you are to make a low poly with a good organic edgeflow, maximum 3k tris. It is then to be UV mapped and textured at a 1024x1024 resolution so you're really limited with both tris and resolution.

I haven't completed my model yet but I believe I'm well on my way. As for what concept I chose I felt that I didn't want to do anything I've done before so I ended up looking up animals instead. After looking for a while I found a really cool concept of a feral wolf.  I really like how this looks and I'm looking forward to making the fur. Here below is some pictures and after that is the backstory I planned for the character.

Here's the concept I decided on. While the turn around isn't perfect (the wolf is in a walk cycle and things aren't lined up) I still have a lot to go on.

A quick draw over to plan my edgeflow

Name: Gnaw

Appearance: A gigantic male dire wolf with rugged ink-black fur, rivaling even a grizzly bear in size. A first impression would only describe Gnaw as ferocious, deadly and yet majestic.
A yellow glowing stare that pierces through the night and razorsharp fangs and claws surely you wouldn't want to have a meeting with this wolf.

Huge dire wolves like Gnaw tend to live long lives, longer  than your average human under the right condititions. Though age unknown Gnaw has been around long enough to have tales told and songs sung about him. Even among dire wolves Gnaw is special, he has been around for atleast 90 years.

Gnaw's body is made for combat and hunting, a predator at heart. Under his thick rugged fur lies countless scars from various battles. As one of the most powerful creature on the top of the food chain, Gnaw dislikes being toyed with and controlled. He has an iron will and a strong mental fortitude.

Gnaw wanders around his den in the forest with his four predatory legs. It is not unusual for him to move out of his territory occasionally, usually to hunt new prey or defeat rivals. When hunting he moves swiftly and stealthily, although his huge body makes it harder. Prefers to hunt alone.

Gnaw prefers to eat prey that can fight back, large animals like moose or bears although they do not put up much of a fight. His absolute favourite food though is the blood and flesh of his enemies or rivals. Gnaw wants tough prey like sabre toothes or mammoths and after his victory he eats them in an almost ritual-like manner. His opinions on humans are that they are weak, fragile creature that only act as irritation for the grander matter of things. They attempt to use weapons and fire to drive Gnaw away but it is futile seeing how dwarfed they are by this ferocious dire wolf. Even in larger numbers they eventually flee for their lives, weapons left behind. Although the weapons do make for nice decorations by his lair.

Although he is talented with tactics and has a high intelligence he prefers to play with his prey. If there is no challenge, make one. He gives his enemies a significant advantage in fights and hunts so he can enjoy himself. He is more for physical challenges than intellectual ones and tries not to think too much.

Not much is known about Gnaw, he just simply appeared one day and changed the hierarchy of the forests. Many have tried to best him in combat, all have lost and few land a wound on him. There are times when enemies would come to ambush Gnaw in packs but his combat prowess and intimidation would end up scaring them away although many of his scars were from those ambushes. His biggest secret is what took place before his appearance. His childhood must have had quite the impression on him seeing as he is now.

His main goal in life is much related to his hobby which is fighting with his life on the line and winning. All he really wants is the title of the strongest although a lonewolf it his to himself he must prove his worth. He is continually expanding his territory to prove his worth and defeat new enemies. 

And that's his background, I left a lot of things untold to preserve his mysterious image and let other people fill in the blanks so they can create their own theories. This character would fit very well into a game like Dark Souls as a boss. He is dangerous and intimidating, if he was a boss in a game I'm sure that the player will be backed up into a corner and fighting for his life. You would play as some kind of warrior or knight and Gnaw would be a major obstacle to overcome.

This would fit best on a console as they tend to immerse the player more than sitting on a PC with distractions, also for the comfortable controls. The target audience for this game would be players who enjoys challenges and like exploring the world and learning more about it. I tried to describe the game world I can see Gnaw fitting in below with some crappy rhymes because why not!

Glowing eyes lurking in a dark misty land.

In the forests deep a spider's web so grand.

Wyverns soaring in the sky roaming around mountains of heaven high, 

forests thicker than the darkest blood and fierce rivers just waiting to flood.

This world has a very chaotic eco system as there are many dangerous creatures lurking about, Gnaw being one of them. So in this world Gnaw would be the baddest of the bad and you would probably end up fighting him sooner or later. Well that's it for me, my next post will be more on the actual production of Gnaw. I'll show you the process I'm using in his creation and my final results. Thanks for reading!

3D - Finishing the mech

Hello, I've been horrible at updating the blog lately so I'll try to catch up. If you've read my previous posts you'll know that I've been working on a mech. The tools I used for this was 3DS MAX for modeling and Photoshop with DDO plugin for texturing. I've actually completed it so I'll show you a little of what I did and how I did it. Here below is the concept art I was following for this model.

Last post I had just started fleshing out the shape and not much was really done. After that I started working on a high poly model since the plan was to use my high poly in the creation of the final low poly. By using the light and shadow information from the high poly you can transfer the details into the texture of the final low poly model. I actually started with the legs for the high poly instead of the main body. I really wanted to capture that mechanical feel of it all so I focused a lot on the details of the leg.

The next step was the main body and it proved to be a much bigger challenge than I originally had anticipated. Trying to translate the concept art to 3D space was a tedious and hard work. The concept art doesn't tell everything about the object so you have to fill in the blanks. Luckily I had gathered good references which helped me in the process. Here below you can see two screenshots of the high poly model, the first one is the high poly nearing its completion and the second and third is the final high poly.

This was about two weeks in or something in the project and I unfortunately got sick. This resulted in me not working on the mech for a week and falling behind schedule. After this pause in production I had to pick up my pace and I was already behind. The next task at hand was to model the low poly and that was not an easy task because I had to have it around 15000 tris. It was a real tough job to reduce my mesh to 15000. The legs especially ended up taking up too much polygons so I worked on reducing them a lot. Below is the finished low poly which I made in haste due to being behind schedule.

The next part was UV mapping, baking and texturing. I hadn't put much time into the low poly which made the UV mapping harder. The wireframe was confusing and rough that gave me a lot more work to be done. After the UV mapping was done I started rendering out lighting maps for texturing from the high poly. There were so many small parts in the mesh which complicated the baking process a lot. I rendered out atleast 200 bad 4096x4096 resolution lighting textures that were scrapped due to me having some technical issues. I also used a color map to help with the texturing, it really helps when you have different materials on your mesh. The first picture below is the lighting map followed by a set of the final textures and a color map.

The textures ended up okay but they would be better if the mesh and UV map was better. The UV map is very inefficient so it doesn't look to good close up. You have to work with what resources and time you have sometimes though. And lastly the thing that you all have been waiting for, the final model. I added in a few neat screenshots I took during the process also, first two are in UDK, middle in max with wireframe and last two are rendered in Marmoset.

My final thoughts on the mech? Oh I don't know... I think the high poly looks great and the low poly is okay but the UV map is what I'm most dissatisfied with. I had to rush a lot of things with this model which ended up biting me in the ass but considering the time I put down I did an okay job. This mech deserves a lot more polish than it got and I might even go back and redo the lowpoly and the UV map but as for now it's complete. When I got back on track after being sick and rushed the process I was a self-loathing piece of shit because I knew every step of the way from the low poly to the UV map that I was doing it wrongly and poorly but I really wanted to have something finished in time.

I believe I captured the concept art pretty well. As it is now it looks good from an RTS perspective but not up close. This was intended to fit in a Battlefield 2142 type game so it needs to look good up close. I hope to revisit this model in the near future and give it the love and care it deserves. It's been a learning experience and great joy to work on. Thanks for reading!

Gears of War: The Board Game analysis

This week me and some of my classmates sat down and played Gears of War: The Board Game. I haven't actually played any Gears of War game but I've seen others do and I've heard quite a lot about it. We had no idea what to expect because how would you translate a 3rd person shooter into a board game? Our first impression was that this game is huge. There were so many components after opening the box. We spent about an hour unpacking everything and reading the rules to make everything was in the right place.

Us trying to figure things out.

Introduction

After setting everything up we were ready to start playing. The game is played by one to four players. You play as one of the characters in Gears of War, a COG member and you fight the evil locusts. The game is played through several missions available that is also in the video game. You start by choosing a mission, then according to what mission you chose you setup up the game according to the instructions. There is a lot of preparation to be done for this game. Each player chooses one out of four characters who have different bonuses. The amount of enemies and how the level looks are specified by the mission you chose. There is some randomization during setup so each mission will never play out the same.

A typical level setup

Neat figures that represents the enemies in the game, locusts

The first mission in the game is emergence, it's kind of like a tutorial level for noobs. The goal is to seal up an emergence hole from which locusts spawn from. The game is played in turns and a player starts by drawing two order cards. Order cards are basically your actions, you can use them to perform certain moves like move three areas or attack an enemy. Some order cards allow you to attack several times in one round or move extra far. 

After you're done with your actions you draw an AI card. These AI cards determine what the enemies do and after the AI turn is done the turn is passed to the next player. The AI cards can be anything from attacking the nearest player or spawning in a swarm of locusts at an emergence hole. The combat is done with two types of dices, attack and defense dices. All players start with three different weapons and ammo for them. The weapons determine how many attack dices you get to roll. In emergence you have to seal the emergence whole and you do that by throwing a bolo grenade at it.

The Good

Gears of War: The Board Game is a very immersive experience once you get the hang of it. You really feel like you're being overrun by a swarm of enemies. You constantly have to make decisions that determine your survival. You can tell that a lot of thought went down into the development of this game. It's very well made, everything ranging from the beautiful figures you get with the game to the amazing level design is gorgeous. Everything about this game is high quality; it's visually appealing and feels polished.

From what I heard from my classmate Simon who is a Gears of War fan, it is very accurate to the original. It is a great abstraction of the video game, the mechanics and the aesthetics all fit the series very well. I've never played a board game that actually manages to capture the feeling of a 3rd person shooter until I played this.

The Bad

After praising it so much there surely couldn't be any faults with it? Well there is but I don't think it's that bad of a flaw. The only thing about this game that was subpar was the fact that it took a painfully long time to learn. The learning curve of this game is very steep and even when you think you know everything something new pops up. 

The only way to fully learn this game is to play it, this means that the first couple of missions you play might not be the full experience because you will constantly be checking the rulebook to find out what's going on. One short mission takes about 30 minutes to prepare and one hour to play so we're talking about a lot of time going down into just learning the game. This means that it's advised to play this with someone who have a played it before so they can explain the rules for you. The instructions can be very overwhelming at first but don't let that scare you away.

The Interesting

The most interesting thing about this game is the order card system. You start the game with six order cards and you draw two each turn, you can have a maximum of six so you'll have to discard if you have too many. They are basically actions that can work in a multitude of ways. Some action cards lets you move the enemies toward you so you can ambush them and some let you draw another order card and gives one of your allies an extra turn. Some are very ordinary and let's you move three areas and perform an attack but they are all important and not a single one of them feels wasted. 

There are three types of order cards; guard, dodge and follow cards. If you have a dodge order card you can discard it during a fight to increase your chances of survival. If you have a guard card you can discard it to fight back when an enemy attacks you. My fauvorite of them is definitely the follow card; the follow card can be discarded to let you travel with a fellow player during their turn. This means that if you all have follow cards on your hand in the first turn you can all four move up the level like a deadly assault team.

Oh did I forgot to mention? The order cards are also your health. If you lose all of them and are attacked by a locust you are knocked out. A fellow player can revive you if you are on the same space by discarding an order card. You have to balance and manage your order cards very carefully.

Two order cards, the left one being a guard type and the right one being a follow type.

Target Audience

While this game is obviously aimed at Gears of War fans, this game is for everyone who has played a multiplayer shooter. I've never played any of the Gears of War games but I enjoyed this just as much as anyone would. It captures the feeling of working in a squad of soldiers very well. The game is made for people ages 18 and up who enjoys working in a squad of elite soldiers exterminating deadly aliens. I believe that because the game is branded with Gears of War it might scare away people who would really enjoy this.

Core System Nr. 1

The most vital system in this board game is the order card system, it enables the player to take action but also works in a multitude of ways. It is what drives the game forward and makes for many interesting situations. You have to carefully balance your order cards to make sure you have enough of them to move forward. If you end up using all your order cards on helping your teammates or guarding you are very vulnerable to locust attacks. We noticed during the game that when you were attacked you always had to make a choice whether you should discard the dodge card to increase defense or if you should hope that they roll low on their attack dices and take the hit. When you discard a card to increase your dodge you still lose one health since the order cards are your health. 

Core System Nr. 2

The other core system was a tough choice for me; it would either be how the enemy worked and the AI cards or how the game was setup with missions. While both of them are important to the game everything revolves around the locusts being the antagonists. The amount of locusts are determined by the mission but what actually determines what happens is the AI cards. When first setting up the mission you take out certain AI cards according to the mission and shuffle them in a pile. Because they are shuffled it means that anything can happen when you draw from it. It is also what makes the locusts attack the players. If a player is lucky they can go several rounds without getting attacked by locusts but that means that sometime later they are going to get all dangerous AI cards at around the same time. This adds a lot of replay value to the game which means that you can play several missions over and over. It is also optional to increase the difficulty of the game in multiple ways, this means that you can always increase the challenge if you feel like there is none.

Conclusion

Gears of War: The Board Game is a very advanced and interesting game. It brings the video game shooter genre to life in a traditional board game. The overall quality of the game is very high and everything feels polished. The instructions can be very heavy and it is quite hard to learn. The game itself makes up for it faults though, as long as you give it a chance I promise you that you won't be disappointed. If you got the time why not try it, it's not that expensive. Thanks for reading.

Roll out the mechs, 3D week 3

Hello again, last week's blogpost I said that I would make a vehicle from one of four concepts. Since it's too badass to resist I chose the mech. I felt like it was the logical thing to do because it seemed like an interesting challenge. When I finally decided I immediately went in to pre-production.

The mech I decided for

Besides the concept we were also to choose a game in which this model we are to make would fit in. At first I started thinking that this mech would fit in the Metal Gear universe or ARMA. Those games were good matches for the mech but it wasn't perfect and then I suddenly started remembering a game I played a lot a couple of years ago, Battlefield 2142. This mech is perfect for Battlefield 2142, if you've played it you would know what I mean. The game is basically battlefield with big mechs like the one in the picture.

The first step was to find good reference pictures that matched what I was going for. I found a lot of good references by searching for tanks and robots. Since I was going for a desert feel I included the M1 Abrams tank in my references, it also looks totally badass. The M1 Abrams also has a very nice deserty plate armor which I'll try to include in the mesh and textures later on. This here below is my gathered references, it's not all of them but it's the ones I found most important.

I also researched a lot about hydraulics, I really wanted to know how this machine works and moves. Understanding how it works is an important step to get good results. I went to Youtube to find moving reference material of quadroped robots. It was really cool but sometimes creepy to see how they work. Here are some of the videos I found useful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQicXbj5Ivs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0KMDNtEpvc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-KF1Prj5ZI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww

After researching a bit I created a prototype in 3DS MAX to see how it moves. I created a fast rig and started animating but I found it incredibly hard to do. The other robots I've been checking material on has mostly been robots with spider legs. The legs of this mech wasn't as flexible and efficient as the spider legs, this one had more of a turtle's legs.

I struggled with the animating part so I can't really show what I did because it didn't turned out very well. I at least have a general idea of how to do it now. All this research will help me when I get into modelling and designing the mech.

Oh yeah almost forgot, last tuesday the entire class went to a museum about almost everything from the stone age to the 19th century. We were to take pictures of some of the objects in the museum for reference. It was really interesting and I got a lot of good reference photos. I'll end the post with a few photos I think turned out well, these are times I wish I had a better camera. Thanks for reading, I will probably post an update during the week of my progress on the mech.

3D Week 2

Hello again, just wanted to do a quick update on what's been going on lately in my 3D progress. This week is the second week since I started taking this course about 3D, for this week we made some crates. I chose to do a Sci-Fi crate with a clean borderlands look. It took about a five hours to make and was made quite hastily but I'm pretty happy with the results. I even did a fancy animation for it because why not. Making stuff like this in haste is a pretty good way to improve your workflow and everytime you repeat a simple process you've done before you get more efficient.

Besides the crate I got a very interesting assignment from my teacher. I am to make a vehicle from some concepts I've received. The challenge is to make it complete and ready for importing to a game. This includes modelling, baking, UV-mapping, texturing, rigging and animating. I'm very thrilled for this since I lose a challenge. Here below is the four concepts I'm to choose from, I haven't decided yet which one but I'll keep you informed. Thanks for reading and sorry if it was a bit short but I'll make up for it in the coming weeks.

Munchkin Analysis

Introduction

So I got this awesome assignment from school to play a board game with some classmates and analyze it, what better game to play than Munchkin. I will now take a look at the card game Munchkin and try to analyze it. For those of you who haven't heard of Munchkin before I'll try to explain what it is. Munchkin is a highly competitive card game with a comical twist. If you've played it before I'm sure you know what I mean and if you haven't you'll see what I mean by the end of this analysis. Before I start analyzing the game and finding out why it's so good/bad I need to explain how it works.

What is Munchkin and how does it work?

Munchkin is based on the typical fantasy roleplaying games we know and love but with a comical twist. Munchkin is a popular game with tons of different versions of it, they are basically the same but with different themes such as Munchkin Cthulhu based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft or Star Munchkin with a Sci-Fi Twist. The version I have been playing is Munchkin Pathfinder based on the roleplaying game Pathfinder and it is that version I will be analyzing.
Munchkin is played with four or more players, preferably with good friends or mortal enemies. A fun thing about this game is that cheating is allowed if no one sees you doing it.

The basics of Munchkin is to kill monsters, betray your friends, gather treasures and level up. All the players start at level one, the goal of the game is to reach level ten first. In Munchkin there are two types of cards, door cards and treasure cards. Door cards include monsters, classes, factions, curses and other various effects. Treasure cards consists of items, effect cards and go up a level cards.

Go up a level cards can be played immediately and adds a level, this can not be the game winning level.

Let's go through the beginning stage of Munchkin. Two decks, one with treasure cards and one with door cards are shuffled and then each player is handed four of each. This game is turn based so one player is selected to go first and after his or her turn the next player clockwise or however you want to do it gets to play their turn. Before anyone starts their turn any player can equip or use items, play class or faction cards and go up a level cards. After your turn you must discard cards so you don't have more than five on your hand. You can also sell treasure cards and buy from other players, when you got 1000 gold pieces you level up and your gold is reset. A level from gaining 1000 gold can not be the game winning level.

Let's say we start our turn first. We equip our armor and use the Eagle Knight faction card. Our faction is now Eagle Knight, this means that we cannot use another faction card unless another card says we can. Our armor of insults gives us a +2 bonus, this +2 bonus plus our level is our combat strength. So we are level 1 and we have +2 from our armor which gives us 3 in combat strength.

Each turn the player must kick the door. This means drawing one card from the door deck face up so everyone can see it and something happens depending on what type of card it is you drew. If I draw a curse I am afflicted by it's effect like this one below which makes me lose by best item, this would be my armor of insults in my case.

A typical curse card. If I start with a curse or draw one face-down I can use it against other players.

Let's say I didn't draw a curse and I drew a monster card, I now have two options and that is to run away or fight it. I've encountered a Level 1 Hobbled Goblin, its combat strength is equal to its level which is 1. This monster is no match for my +3 in combat strength and I defeat it easily. After defeating it I get to loot the room for 1 treasure which I draw facedown from the treasure pile and go up a level making me level 2 and my combat strength +4. Monsters always wins ties unless you have a card that says otherwise.

Let's say the monster was level 6 and I attempted to run away. When running away I roll a dice and I must get 4 or higher to successfully run away. If I fail in running away I am inflicted with the monsters bad stuff which is descriped on the card. Bad stuffs can vary from losing levels, losing items, getting a permanent -3 in combat and even dying. Upon death a player throws away all their cards except class or faction cards that are in use and wait upon their next turn to draw four door cards and four treasure cards. Levels are retained even in death.

If I neither drew a monster or a curse card I can either play a monster from my hand to battle it or take a face-down door card and end my turn. If I battle I cannot draw the face-down door card at the end of the turn. Players are welcome to trade cards with each other and assist each other in combat. When assisting someone in combat you don't get any levels but you can discuss the reward for your assistance, for example two treasure cards. When fighting together your combat strengths are added together. That's how your play Munchkin basically, the rules might seem hard at first but once you get into it and actually start playing you'll learn it in no time.


Munchkin, Round 1, Fight!

Enough of the rules, let's see how it went for me and my classmates when we played our first round of Munchkin. Me and four of my classmates gathered around the table to play Pathfinder Munchkin, all but two of us hadn't played the game before so we started with a test round to figure out the rules. It started out with everyone equipping themselves up with items, factions, classes and so far it was pretty fun and not much conflict. After a while, I was in the lead, level 9 and that's when it went chaotic. Because I was so close to victory everyone started working against me, this included cursing me by removing all my items, reducing my level and messing up my combats with effect cards. If I were up against a monster who had 16 in strength and I had 18 they would strengthen the monster so I ended up dying and losing everything. After being abused by all my friends I was almost out of the game, no cards or items left to use.

An effect card that can add +3 in combat strength to either side.

The game went back and forth a lot after I was weakened. Everyone had been stocking up on cards that could be used against other players, to undermine their progress and secure their own. The outcome in this stage was near impossible to predict but after a while everyone ran out of steam, no cards left to play. One of my classmates, Martin ended up winning because no one could stop him.

This game escalated so quickly when players started getting higher levels, I could barely keep up. The randomness of it all makes it very enjoyable. I was so close to winning and yet it turned around so quickly. We noticed afterwards that everyone had been cheating in one way or another during the game whether it was holding to many cards or slightly bending the rules. Keeping track of everything becomes really hard when the game is nearing its conclusion. Amidst the confusion I had eight cards on my hand while I was only allowed five yet no one noticed. What was supposed to be a test round turned out to be loads of fun. This round took about two hours to play.


Munchkin, Round 2, Fight!

Now we're all familiar with the game, by the beginning I already noticed the evil grins of my fellow classmates. This start involved a lot more trading than the round before, we would sell and trade items to prepare ourselves for the oncoming onslaught. This round I wasn't in the lead which I believed was a good thing, I was saving my items for the end and played quite passively. Unlike the first round, when one player would face up against a strong monster everyone else would offer their help in exchange for a fitting reward.

By helping the weak players progress we get stronger ourselves. Things escalated as before into chaos as my classmate, Simon was closing in on victory. As every round went on we threw everything we had at everyone else, hoping that when our turn came we could secure our own victory. Martin ended up winning again and we could do nothing to stop it. It all felt like a giant lottery, we were just increasing our chances. This round took about one hour to complete, considerably shorter than the first one, perhaps due to the first one being more of a learning experience.

Round 3

This round was very much like round 2 but more diverse. Four players, including me was around level 7 and 9 when one was level 3. We were three level 9s competing for the victory while the two other players who were low level was only sabotaging for us with higher level. I won this round by manipulating others into using all their stuff on the others with high level. I started noticing around now that this was much like poker, you can't reveal your hand too early and bluffs can be very effective. This round was about one and a half hour long.

Round 4

The last round we played together was a close one, everyone had been learning and adapting to each others playstyles. We had been testing different tactics and figuring out what worked effectively. This ended like all the other rounds in total chaos. The first player to go for the victory is almost always guaranteed to be sabotaged. I won this won too but it was extremely close, everyone was level 9 waiting for an opportunity to claim the victory. It was really cool to play such a competitive round without an underdog, goliaths facing each other on fragile ice.

Target group interpretation

Munchkin is fun for any group of people I think, but it is definitely more enjoyable by people who get the references and has a roleplaying game or fantasy background. It is aimed at teenagers and people under 30 who grew up with roleplaying games but I think it's enjoyable for everyone as long as they have the right mindset towards it. The comical aspect of the game appeals to many young people but many children won't get most of the references so I wouldn't recommend it towards anyone under 12. I also believe it gives adults an opportunity to be childish.


Summary

Munchkin is a great card game, a heap of fun. The balance of the game is that there is none, the most important part of Munchkin is the social aspect. The chemistry between the players is the best thing about the game. It creates situtations where we hate and love each other, the group dynamics are amazing. The rules are not set in stone and the game is very flexible in a way, because why not cheat if no one notices anyway. We only have one goal and that is to reach level 10 first. The cards are designed in such a way that it feels like they are there to empower us, they are tools for our victory. We might hit a wall and be in last place but we always have the opportunity to mess with our fellow players. One bad thing about the game is that if you're unlucky it can be very slow and unfair. There are curses that make you lose all your cards in your hand and then you have to wait a lot of turns before you can recover from it. Even though the randomness can sometimes be bad it can also be a blessing in disguise, it allows for a lot of funny situations and much replayability. I love Munchkin and I will definitely play it more in the future, thanks for reading.