YEAR ONE – ANNIVERSARY CONTEST

December 15th will mark the first year anniversary of this game design blog. As such, I am celebrating by holding a contest through here and through BoardGameGeek. If you are not a member of BGG then to get your name in the draw please comment on one of my posts on this blog. The comment must be relevant to the post (obviously I will be the judge of what is relevant). You will get one entry into the draw if you comment on a post (you can comment on multiple posts but will only get one entry).  If you are on BGG and leaving a comment on here then please add your BGG username to the blog comment.

Go here for more opportunities to win http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/75202/item/1921512#item1921512

The winner will be drawn after midnight on December 15th, 2011.

Here are the games:

Acquire – new in shrink
Priests of Ra – new in shrink
Forbidden Island – new in tin
Infinite City – new but no shrink wrap

(I will pay shipping)

Re-visiting a mechanic

In an early post I had an idea for a worker placement mechanic based on an idea from the novel The Hunger Games.  This worker placement mechanic involves making a decision that will benefit the player but increase the odds of losing the worker placed.

My initial ideas for this involved the theme of an outbreak.  I’ll call the game Contagion for now.

Here are my ideas:

• Everyone has a team of scientists (meeples) trying to control some form of outbreak in a confined area – maybe some kind of building.
• Each of these scientists has a level of achievement.  The higher the status the more complex tasks the worker can be placed to complete.
• Examples of actions that can be used by worker placement include: recruit (get another meeple), upgrade (raise level of scientist/meeple), research (send scientist/meeple to a specific room where each different rooms give different benefits) and so on…
• Each room has a contagion level – the better the action available in the room the higher the level of infection to your team
• There is a bag with an equal number of coloured cubes – representing each players’ team colour.  At the end of each round a cube is drawn and if your colour then one of your meeples is infected and you either lose the meeple immediately or after x turns.
• Coloured cubes equal to the level of contagion in the rooms being researched are placed in the bag at the end of each round.  So, if Team Blue researchers in rooms that have contagion levels 1, 3 and 2 then six blue cubes are added to the bag of cubes.  Therefore, the more research completed the greater the chance of losing a meeple.

So in summary – the better the options the more chance of contagion.

I like the idea but don’t necessarily think the theme of teams working against each other for a cure works…any ideas are welcome.

Gaming Group Results

I have seven really good gaming buddies.  However, two have become so busy lately that our group has eroded to five.  The five or us have been getting together once a week – and if lucky more – for the past few months and Kelly decided we keep track of the win percentages.  So here are the results so far:

The yellow line is the winning percentage for all players based on the number of games played by that player.  The line below is the percentage of games won by each player based on all games played (whether participated in or not).

The green lines are breakdowns of the percentages of games played by the participants categorized into the number of players in each game.  Below each line is the expected number of wins.  In a two player game it is expected that a player would win 50 percent of the games.

I would like to work out a way of weighting the results based on the numbers of games played.

 

Barriers to Game Design and being thankful!

I just read on Jay Cormier’s design blog, From Inspiration to Publication, about a game designers meetup in Toronto.  COOL STUFF!!   When I read this I get excited for Jay and his group of game designers and a little envious.  Why envious?  My community doesn’t have that critical mass of people, or gamers, to support a game design group.  It seems I am a group of one!   This ‘remoteness certainly seems to be a barrier in many ways – lack of immediate support/feedback, lack of resources and many other things…

However, I am thankful for the following:

1. A great group of gaming friends (a group of five including me) that are willing to try my ideas
2. Support from game designers across the world through the G+ GameLab circle
3. Support from David Short and David Gregg who no matter how crazy my game ideas may be are always willing to listen and give feedback
4. For Aldie and Co. for providing a wonderful forum to satisfy my board game needs – http://www.boardgamegeek.com

When you feel you don’t have what you need be thankful for what you have!

HAPPY U.S. THANKSGIVING

Loopin’ Louie re-theme?

I heard that people are trying to re-theme Loopin’ Louie.  Why people would do this, I have no idea.  Loopin’ Louie is a favourite in our house.  It is a kid’s toy that uses dexterity and skill and luck to win.  A re-theme to zombies or steampunk or fantasy would take away from the charm of Loopin’ Louie.

However, if re-theming Loopin’ Louie into a board game or card game then it could work.

My idea – thinking quickly – would be the following:

Players have a deck of cards that allow certain dexterity moves: low, medium, high, bouncer, spinner etc…

Players would have a hand of cards from which they ‘move’ Louie.  The following player would be able to block or continue moving Loopin’ Louie.

This would be a real time card game.

Combinations may work.

Another idea!

Weekend Update

Here is the latest in gaming news from my household:

• Enjoying gaming with my gaming group.  We have started to keep track of results.  Total game winning percentages and by number of players.  There are give regulars and a couple of part timers.  We are keeping track of the regular’s results.  If the expected results are 50 percent wins for 2 player games, 33.3 percent for 3 player and so on…then I rock at 3 player games with a winning percentage of 66.7 percent!!   I am ranking second in total percentage behind my buddy Kelly who is winning around 40 percent of the games.  I would really like to work on a weighting mechanism based on the games played by each player.
• Have come up with two card games.  Skyscraper – a quick filler and Space Pirate’s a role-selection/set collection game.
• Working on the cards for Tower of Doom – just need to get them printed and will hopefully play test this week.  Things have been slow on the Tower front but a quick self-kick in the pants put that in order
• Played Puerto Rico for the first time – need to play it more to see if it is my cup of tea.  I would not turn it down but first plays can be misleading.
• I think we need a game about Tebowing  🙂
• I love that my wife and daughter love to game even if some of the games are not my favourites.
• If you have young kids (5 and up) then you might want to check out Spot It!, Tell Tale, and Trigger from Blue Orange Games.  They are cheap and a lot of fun!
• Wish I were at BGG.con playing games and sitting in prototype alley!

 

A new form of set collection

For my Space Pirates game I thought of having treasure in the form of crystals and maybe more than one type of crystal.  I have come up with the following idea.  Players would collect crystals which contain 3 important elements.  One would be common, one less common and one rare.  These crystals are triangular and can be pieced together to form a larger crystal of greater value.  The larger crystals could be made up of two to six triangles.  The more connection of the same colour the greater the added value of the crystal to be traded in for money – most money wins the game.

Below is the ideal ultimate red crystal.  Each corner would have a value between 0 (no trace of the element and probably indicated by a white corner)  and 3 with 3 being the highest concentration of that element in the given triangle crystal.

The treasure awarded for a crystal would depend on the total concentration (the sum of the values between 0 and 3 on each triangle) with additional points for the number of combined triangles.

One triangle – no additional points

Two triangles – two points

etc…

Space Pirates

In my last post I talked about a space game that would be a like a card version or Pirate’s Cove.  So here is my latest idea…

SPACE PIRATES: The Card Game

2 players

Age 8+

30 – 45 minutes

Overview

Each player takes on the role of a Space Pirate trying to accumulate the most gold and treasure.  Players visit one of six planets in order to gain resources, money, treasure, and/or upgrade their ship.

Game Bits

5 player planet cards (six per set)

5 player boards

resource tokens

combat dice

5 negotiation decks

Game Flow

1. Players simultaneously choose their next destination (or possibly 2 destinations)
2. Players reveal their first planet card
3. If a player is the only player to visit a planet they receive the reward and may pay for the action of that planet
4. If more than one player visits a planet then negotiation/battle takes place and then the planet’s rewards are assigned
5. Players then either reveal the second destination or if only one destination revealed in game then the game flow repeats

Negotiation:

Players who arrive at the same planet must negotiate on who takes the available resources and action at the planet.  This is done by players ordering and playing their negotiation cards.  The cards consist of sensor sweep, shields up, hail, red alert.

• Sensor sweep – opponent reveals one resource token they have acquired
• Shields up – blocks sensor sweep
• Hail – player starts negotiation
• Red Alert – start battle

The first card is revealed and both are acted upon.  One however will be activated before another.  If Hail is used before Red Alert then players may negotiate.  Negotiations stop as soon as one player reveals their next card.  The total negotiation is timed.  If negotiation is now worked out before timer ends then battle ensues.

Sensor Sweep trumps Hail

Shields Up trumps Sensor Sweep

Hail trump Shields Up

Red Alert trumps all

Battle:

Dice are rolled for simple battle mechanic.  Number of dice depends on attributes of ship.  Shields up adds to defence.

A player may leave orbit but lose some value on their board for running.

The winner takes reward the loser takes damage to their ship.

more to follow…

Another idea for a mechanic

This idea came in a discussion with Shaun in an impromptu G+ GameLab hangout.  Shaun is designing a space exploration game that uses planets as role cards a la Citadels or Race for the Galaxy.  Choose a planet and travel there and take the reward but if two people go there then there is some action/event that happens.  A cool integration of a mechanic into his game.

I went off on a different tangent and thought of this mechanic.  Each player is travelling around the universe trying to get the most resources – a pick up and delivery game.  Everyone has a number of planet cards that can be visited during a turn.  Simultaneously, players choose a series of destinations – maybe three of the planets that they select in a certain order.  Players reveal their paths.  For each planet there is one reward – that may be shared or negotiated for…

So, two players arrive at the same planet, what happens?  This is where I fly off in another direction.  Drawing from Dragon’s Gold, the players negotiate for the planet’s reward using a script with keywords.  The start player or player closest to the start player starts:

Player 1:   Hailing unknown ship, what are your intentions?

Player 2:  (Has a number of options)  Yellow Alert – Red Alert – Or respond with a negotiation request

Player 1:  Responds with Yellow Alert – Red Alert – Or continues with negotiation

and so on for a limited time period…if resolution cannot be made the lead ship either leaves or goes into Red Alert and the second player can leave or go into Red Alert and battle.

Also, within the planet cards there could be action cards such as Raise Shields – so before you orbit a planet you can arrive with shields raised giving an advantage in battle.

Another idea – one that I would like to re-theme as I would not want to ‘borrow’ from Shaun, even though I think our games would be totally different.

 

EDITED – on re-reading this post this game seems like a card game re-theme of Pirate’s Cove – now that is a cool idea!!

Kamloops Family Game Day

I have been in BIGCON, a local games convention and am now involved in Kamloops Family Game Day.  This is an event specifically arranged for families.  We will have over 100 family games for families with kids age 6 and up.  It will be a small event and our goal is to make it free to everybody.  There will be no vendors selling games but we will have discount coupons from local vendors and online vendors.  A list of all the games at the event with their cost and availability (location) will be provided along with the discount coupons!

The event is being co-organized by KamloopsParents.com, a local blog that is one of the most popular family sites in the area.  This will truly be a family event.  We want to make it a comfortable environment where families can bring their kids and have fun!

The date is set for Saturday December 10th from 10 to 6pm.  Location is South Sahali Elementary School Gymnasium (to be confirmed shortly).