I keep forgetting to do this blog! Well not “forget” but just not update because of school. Get off my back (not that anyone is or even reads this). Here is todays game idea: There will be a boards with with different spaces. All of the spaces say something like “Go Back 2 spaces” and “Roll again”. You move by rolling a dice. The first person to make it to the end is the winner. Cool game,huh. That’s right, its 4am and I can’t come up with a good idea.

In this game you are a Mayan ruler and must build pyramids in order to appease the gods. There is a stack of different shaped bricks (which are represented by cards) and 5 are placed in the center of the table.  Every brick is assigned a value of a certain number of colors. For example: a brick shaped like a T is worth 3 reds. When a brick is bought, a new one takes its place, so there are always 5 bricks to chose from. Players can use their turns to collect color cards. On a turn you can collect 2 of these cards.These cards contain the different colors (red,green,blue,white,black,and orange) you need to purchase bricks. Or, on their turn, a player can buy and place a brick on his board (the board is the outline of a pyramid). You can also buy and place bricks in your opponents board to mess up his pyramid. The winner is the first one to make a full, perfect pyramid. The bricks are all different shapes, kind of like Tetris pieces. The strategy is: do you want to spend your cards to build your pyramid, or mess up your opponents? You must also buy the right bricks and place them so they fit together and form a pyramid.

I messed up yesterday and forgot to update. I was playing Dominion with two friends and my girlfriend, and to make a long story short that game is like crack. So I will make a different kind of post while I thinking of a game idea.  Here is a list of games that are my favorites, and then a list of games that I am currently paying.

All Time Favs:

5.Gloom

4.Pente

3. Lost Cities

2. Hive

1. Sea Farers of Catan

Currently Playing:

5. Ballon Cup

4.Settlers of Catan Card Game

3. Kahuna

2. Space Hulk

1. Domonion

As mentioned before, I am fascinated by islands. I just finished a book about people who were stranded on islands. So the theme of today’s game is getting off a deserted island.

The players would start out on the same side of the board and move out to different spots according to how they want to escape. One of the strategies of this game is team work. If you work as team you will get more done. But they will be using your resources and eating your food. You must balance between the right amount of solo and team work. You have to get enough lumber and vines to build a raft. Or a lot of lumber to build a giant help sign. When you are not working on one of these things, the players must fish or gather coconuts. The first one to build a huge help sign, or sail off the island on a raft, is the winner.

Today I was thinking about how much I like islands, and island culture. There is an island south of the Korean peninsula called Jeju. On Jeju, they build huge statues from basalt, called “dol harubang”, which means The Stone Grandfather. Today’s game design, I believe, is very unique. I love abstract games and games where you have to build things using resources. So here is the concept:

The game board is an island with different resources like stone and wood and rope. You have to use workers to get the resources in order to build statues. Once you build statues you have to place them and move them in certain ways in order to concur the opponent (maybe like hive, or pente?). This would be a hybrid of a resource and abstract game. It may already exist, but I think this would be fun. The theme of my game would be that you are the chief of a tribe of Jeju people trying to control the whole island.
Go here to see Dol Harubang:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_FPPMA6Vvo7g/SKVwwwahVAI/AAAAAAAAAao/e41bZ1Vq_a4/IMG_5815.JPG

Read Game Design Challenge Day 2 first to understand this card.

September 3, 2009

The game I came up with today is a tile laying game. The tiles would be square and with a line drawn down the middle dividing it in two. The tiles would have a color on each side on the line. The way to score points would be by making tiles match a card. The cards, however, are a little different then most. There is a cut in the center of each card about half way through its width. That way you can stick two cards together. The cards would look like the tiles, in that they have a color on each half, but also on the front on back. During your turn you can “flip” your card to a new color combo. That way the color combinations you have to make with the tiles will always change and be harder to achieve since you always have to attach separate cards. Your turn would consist of different actions. 1. place a tile 2. draw cards 3. connect or flip cards. 4. score for tile that match card. Its hard to describe in words, See the video.

Today is the first day of the challenge and I came with an idea for a game that simulates a break dance battle. Break dancing is another hobby of mine. My thinking was to create a game about something that I know well, and perhaps that would make the design process a little easier.

BBOY the Card Game

This game is played only with cards. There are two types of cards: move cards and song cards. The song cards will not be in a players hand, but will hold the stipulations of the battle. Every song will be a famous bboy song and be either a “style” song, or a “power” song. A style song will represent the moves in break dance that revolve around foot work and actual dancing, while power songs will be more of the dynamic moves, i.e. headspins and freezes.

The other card type contains different moves under 5 categories. Taunt/UpRock, Footwork, TopRock, Power and Freezes. Every card will have a number from 1 to 10, representing difficulty and how much style it has.

Players are dealt 10 cards form the moves deck. The song deck is separate. A song card is drawn and it is placed in the center of the table. The song card will have how many of each type of move needs to be preformed during each of the three rounds. The song card might say “Song’s Name” then TopRock:2 Footwork:2 Power: 1 and Freeze:1 If the the song is a style song the players have to use their cards to try to get the lowest number possible. If it is a Power song then they have to get the highest number possible. Players take turns laying down one card at a time. The player can play a card on his opponents side if it is a taunt card. There are three rounds and after each round new cards are drawn up to the hand limit of 10. Example of play

Text on Card:

Song: Just Begun by the Jimmy Castor Bunch ~ Style

Top Rock: 3, Foot work:2, Power 2, and freeze:1

The numbers indicate how many of that type needs to be played.

Player one plays the first card: TopRock -Indian Step Value of 1

Player two plays a card: TopRock- Foot Slid value of 3

so far player one is winning because he has the lowest score of 1. They will continue until they have played all the moves indicated on the song.  Players get a bonus if the numbers are ascending for a style song and descending for a power song. They will also get a bonus of they play 2 or more of the same card in a row.

I came up with a challenge to create a board game everyday for 30 days. I have to come up with at least some mechanics, theme, and a few components. Not an actual fully function game, but the basis for one. The reason I am doing this is to get a better understanding of game creation, and how my own creative mind works. At the end of the 30 days I will take my best ideas and try to create working games. Let the Games Begin!