Friday, 2 December 2011
Just emailed the first draft of my rules for The CDC to VPG
So just emailed my first draft of my rules for The CDC: BioSafety Level 4 to Nathan at Victory Point Games. Now I just need to sit back, relax...and wait. o_O
Wednesday, 30 November 2011
The CDC: Biosafety Level 4 - VPG - They want the rules.
I got a a reply back from Victory Point Games:
Hello John,
This game does sound very intriguing to me. I'd love to hear more. Do you have rules written up? If so I'd love to see them.
So I let him know that I need a couple of days to polish up the rules and also that I would Photoshop some illustrations to put into the game.
Wish me luck!
Hello John,
This game does sound very intriguing to me. I'd love to hear more. Do you have rules written up? If so I'd love to see them.
So I let him know that I need a couple of days to polish up the rules and also that I would Photoshop some illustrations to put into the game.
Wish me luck!
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
So I pitched my first game...and it's not Where's My Lugagge?
Good day gentle readers,
So last night I pitched my first boardgame design...and it surprisingly enough it was not for my family game Where's My Luggage?
It was for the game I meantioned in my previous post: the Vaccine game...or as it is now called: The CDC: Biosafety Level 4! (at least for now...)
So I had posted about this blog on the Geek (BoardGameGeek for those of you who are not in the know...)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/729595/vaccine-the-boardgame-a-solitaire-boardgame-about
I got alot of postive response, including from Steve Carey who designed We Must Tell the Emperor, and from Alan Emrich, the owner of Victory Point Games.
So they suggested I pitch my idea to them...so I did!
Here is roughly the text of my email:
Hi Nathan,
Alan Emrich told me to shoot you an email regarding a game idea I'd like to pitch to Victory Point Games. After he found out that Steve Carey said I was on to something, then Alan said "heck yes we're interested in it!"
I am a first-time game designer and I would like a chance to "show my stuff." I read the articles that Alan pointed me to, so here is my game idea pitch... :: takes a deep breath ::
1. Contact information
John Gibson
Email: ThatCowboyGuy@gmail.com
2. Games Working Title
The CDC: Biosafety Level 4
3. Game’s High Concept
• Manual Boardgame with cards and cardboard markers
• A Turn Based Reflective game with a structured sequence of play
• A Solitaire game of a CDC Biosafety Level 4 lab vs a virus
• Abstract/Simulation/Strategy
• Contemporary
Scope: 10 weeks in a CDC Biosafety Level 4 lab trying to find a cure for a virus
Scale: Tactical – creating a vaccine protein by protein in order to destroy the virus
Perspective: First person
4. One-Sentence Marketing Description
“With the world on the brink of virulent catastrophe, the scientists of the CDC BIOSAFETY LEVEL 4 Lab have 10 weeks to create a vaccine to combat an ever mutating virus or risk the survival of humanity itself. ”
5. The game’s Hook
Biosafety Level 4 is a solitaire boardgame that pits the player against an ever mutating virus. They must create a vaccine to destroy the virus within 10 weeks, but they have limited resources and funding. The more successful they are at decoding the virus’s genetic structure, the more funding they can secure to combat it.
6. Word’s-eye-view of the game
“In Biosafety Level 4, the player must use their limited resources to find a cure for a deadly virus ravaging the outside world. They must unlock its genetic code, finding proteins that they can use to create antibodies to bind to its antigens, thus destroying it. Each turn the virus mutates unpredictably, while the player buys and uses lab equipment that will aid in unravelling its code. Funding is limited so resource allocation can be challenging, but with each success will come more funding. Will the men and women of the Biosafety Level 4 Lab create a vaccine to save humanity before time runs out? ”
7. Back of the box style listing of the games key features
• 11” x 17” color game board with virus play area, vaccine creation area, funding track and a 10 week turn track
• 25 antigens markers: the building blocks of the virus
• 50 antibody proteins: join these in different combinations to bind to the antigens and thus destroy them
• 20 Viral Mutation Cards that add more antigens to the virus or change existing antigens
• 16 Lab Equipment Cards that can be purchase to aid in combating the virus
• 1 die used to determine the success or failure key research points
So that's my pitch. I hope it has piqued your interest. I look forward to your response.
With great appreciation,
John "That Cowboy Guy" Gibson
So there you have it. My first game idea pitch...I hope it goes over well. I will post about it one way or the other.
Thanks for reading.
So last night I pitched my first boardgame design...and it surprisingly enough it was not for my family game Where's My Luggage?
It was for the game I meantioned in my previous post: the Vaccine game...or as it is now called: The CDC: Biosafety Level 4! (at least for now...)
So I had posted about this blog on the Geek (BoardGameGeek for those of you who are not in the know...)
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/729595/vaccine-the-boardgame-a-solitaire-boardgame-about
I got alot of postive response, including from Steve Carey who designed We Must Tell the Emperor, and from Alan Emrich, the owner of Victory Point Games.
So they suggested I pitch my idea to them...so I did!
Here is roughly the text of my email:
Hi Nathan,
Alan Emrich told me to shoot you an email regarding a game idea I'd like to pitch to Victory Point Games. After he found out that Steve Carey said I was on to something, then Alan said "heck yes we're interested in it!"
I am a first-time game designer and I would like a chance to "show my stuff." I read the articles that Alan pointed me to, so here is my game idea pitch... :: takes a deep breath ::
1. Contact information
John Gibson
Email: ThatCowboyGuy@gmail.com
2. Games Working Title
The CDC: Biosafety Level 4
3. Game’s High Concept
• Manual Boardgame with cards and cardboard markers
• A Turn Based Reflective game with a structured sequence of play
• A Solitaire game of a CDC Biosafety Level 4 lab vs a virus
• Abstract/Simulation/Strategy
• Contemporary
Scope: 10 weeks in a CDC Biosafety Level 4 lab trying to find a cure for a virus
Scale: Tactical – creating a vaccine protein by protein in order to destroy the virus
Perspective: First person
4. One-Sentence Marketing Description
“With the world on the brink of virulent catastrophe, the scientists of the CDC BIOSAFETY LEVEL 4 Lab have 10 weeks to create a vaccine to combat an ever mutating virus or risk the survival of humanity itself. ”
5. The game’s Hook
Biosafety Level 4 is a solitaire boardgame that pits the player against an ever mutating virus. They must create a vaccine to destroy the virus within 10 weeks, but they have limited resources and funding. The more successful they are at decoding the virus’s genetic structure, the more funding they can secure to combat it.
6. Word’s-eye-view of the game
“In Biosafety Level 4, the player must use their limited resources to find a cure for a deadly virus ravaging the outside world. They must unlock its genetic code, finding proteins that they can use to create antibodies to bind to its antigens, thus destroying it. Each turn the virus mutates unpredictably, while the player buys and uses lab equipment that will aid in unravelling its code. Funding is limited so resource allocation can be challenging, but with each success will come more funding. Will the men and women of the Biosafety Level 4 Lab create a vaccine to save humanity before time runs out? ”
7. Back of the box style listing of the games key features
• 11” x 17” color game board with virus play area, vaccine creation area, funding track and a 10 week turn track
• 25 antigens markers: the building blocks of the virus
• 50 antibody proteins: join these in different combinations to bind to the antigens and thus destroy them
• 20 Viral Mutation Cards that add more antigens to the virus or change existing antigens
• 16 Lab Equipment Cards that can be purchase to aid in combating the virus
• 1 die used to determine the success or failure key research points
So that's my pitch. I hope it has piqued your interest. I look forward to your response.
With great appreciation,
John "That Cowboy Guy" Gibson
So there you have it. My first game idea pitch...I hope it goes over well. I will post about it one way or the other.
Thanks for reading.
Saturday, 26 November 2011
A Germ of an idea after listening to Alan Emrich speak on the I’ve Been Diced Podcast
A few days ago I was riding the bus to work (yes, you read that right, I ride a bus to work) and I was listening to an I've Been Diced! Podcast. It was episode 22 with the host Tom Grant interviewing Alan Emrich of Victory Point Games. One of the games that they discussed was “We Must Tell the Emperor,” a solitaire board game that is composed of just 48 event cards and 23 cardboard tokens. In 60 minutes this game will cover the Pacific theater of WWII from 1941 to 1945. Alan said the biggest challenge in boardgame design is making a really good simple game, because the designer needs to pare down the game to its simplest concepts/components.
So as I listened to this podcast, the germ of an idea began to incubate inside my mind: how to create a simple solitaire boardgame with just 40 or so counters and 36 cards...and here is what I came up with:
Vaccine: The Boardgame
The game would have one 11” x 17” color game board, divided roughly in half. One half would have the playing area that hosts the disease we are trying to create a vaccine to combat. This area would be comprised of 19 hexagons in a hexagon shape. See the rough sample below:
Play Area for the Antigens |
Each hex has a number which represents how much funding you will receive if you destroy that part of the disease with a vaccine. The inner hex is worth 5 thousand dollars, the middle ring of hexes is worth 3 thousand each, and the outer ring is worth a thousand dollars each.
The next components are the cardboard markers that represent the proteins that make up the disease, which are called antigens. There would be a number of different types made up of different components. These components would be represented by different shape/colour combinations and there could be 2, 3 or 4 of these elements making up each antigen. The antigens with the 2 elements would be the most common, and the 4 the most rare. For example one antigen could be made up of 3 proteins: a blue square, a red circle and green triangle. There would be 25 of these markers, so 6 more than the number of hexes.
So the game would start with all antigens face down in single pile, and the player would draw seven of them. They would be placed on the play area face up: The first one would go in center hex (the red area) and the other six would go in the middle ring (the blue area). This is the starting disease the player must defeat.
The next set of components is 50 cardboard markers represent the proteins that would be used to defeat the disease. These would be the building blocks of the antibodies that would bind to the disease and lead to its eventual destruction. Each of these markers would have one component on them. So if you wanted to destroy the antigen with the 3 proteins mentioned above, you would need a blue square protein, a red circle protein and green triangle protein. These three antibody markers combined would bind with the antigen and thus destroy it. Some proteins would be more common, whereas others might be rare and have only 1 or 2 of them in the collection.
The second part of the board would contain the following areas:
· The Time/Turn Track: On this track each space represents 1 week of time, which would be 1 game turn. This game would end once the end of the track is reached (unless the player destroys the disease before then). It could be 10 weeks or 20 weeks. I haven’t gotten that far yet in my musings.
· The Funding Track: This track represents the funding you will receive to research the vaccine. You will probably start out near the middle of the track, and you will have to spend spaces in order to purchase equipment to defeat the disease. You will also go up the track for every antigen you destroy. Haven’t thought of how many spaces yet, but there would be a maximum.
· The Antibody Protein Section: Here is where the available proteins will be displayed. There would be 4 spots; the first spot is free, the second spot costs 1, the third spot costs 2 and the fourth spot cost 4. To the right of this section is some stacks of 50 face-down protein counters. From this stack come the markers that will populate the 4 spots. To the left of the section is the discard pile for the proteins that were not selected during play of the previous turn.
· The Vaccine Section: This is the work area where the antibodies are created to defeat the disease. All the antigens in the game are displayed visually here. Using the two previous examples I mentioned earlier, the 3 protein antigen would have three spots where you could place the blue square protein marker, the red circle protein marker and green triangle protein marker. Once all the components are have been populated, you could then destroy that particular antigen on the playing area.
· The Mutation Deck Section: This area would have the 20 cards that make up the mutation deck. These cards would be face down in a pile, and beside it would be a face-up discard pile. At the start of each turn the player would flip over the top card of the draw deck and follow the instructions on the card. More explanation to appear below.
· The Lab Equipment Section: This area holds the Lab Deck, which is made up of 16 equipment cards. These cards can be purchased to help you create the vaccine and defeat the disease. Examples of such equipment would be an electron microscope, incubator, spectrophotometer, centrifuge, etc. Each card would have a cost and an action they allow you to perform if purchased. How these would affect game play appears below. As with the Antibody Protein Section, there would be 4 cards available to purchase, a draw deck area and discard area. There would be no cost listed below the 4 card spots since each card has its own cost.
So far, so good. Keep in mind I dreamt most of this up while listening to the podcast on a bus (yes, a bus, now let’s get over this!). Now that we have the game components taken care of, let’s get into game play.
Setup
So game setup would be like this:
- Draw the 7 antigen markers and place them face up in play area as described above
- Place a pawn on spot 1 of the Turn Track
- Place a pawn on the middle spot of the Funding Track to represent your starting funds
- Take all the antibody protein markers and place them face down in the Antibody section, then draw the top 4 markers and place them face up in the 4 spots. These will be proteins available to you for your first turn.
- Shuffle Lab Deck and place it face down in the Lab Equipment Area. Then draw the top 4 cards and place them face up in the 4 sections. These will be the equipment available to you to purchase in your first turn.
- Shuffle the Mutation Deck and place it face down in the Mutation Deck Section.
Okay, now we are ready to play!
Turn Sequence
Mutation
So at the beginning of each turn, the player turns over the top card of the Mutation deck and follows the directions. For example, the card could say take the top antigen marker and place it on play area, thus increasing the complexity of the disease. A real nasty card could be to add 3 new antigens to the disease.
Player Actions
The player would have a limited number of actions that they could perform in a turn. They could be performed in any order I would think. Here are some examples I thought up:
- Buy 1-2 Antibody Proteins: If they can afford it, the player may purchase 1 or 2 proteins and place them in the Vaccine Section. They can be placed on the same antigen or on different antigens. The player would mark the change in funds on the Funding Tracker. For example, if the player selected the protein on the free spot and the one on the 2 spot, then they would reduce their funding track by 2.
- Buy 1-2 lab equipment items: If they can afford it, the player may purchase 1 or 2 pieces of lab equipment and place them face up in front of them. They would change the Funding Track accordingly.
- Use Lab Equipment: At this point the player could use one or more of the powers that the lab equipment lets them do. For example the electron microscope lets the player look at the next antigen in the face down pile so they will know ahead of time what antigen will be added to the disease next and plan accordingly. Other pieces of equipment could let them look at the top cards of the Mutation Deck, the Equipment Deck or the Antibody markers. Lots of possibilities for strategic play here.
- Destroy Antigens: The player can destroy antigens that are on the board that they had made completed antibodies for. When an antigen is destroyed, it is removed from the board and placed face down in an antigen discard pile. At this time the player can increase their funding by the amount displayed on the hex it was just removed from. This is how the player increases their funding. There is a maximum and they cannot go above it.
Clean Up
At the end of the turn, the remaining antibody proteins that were not selected that turn are placed in the discard area, and 4 new markers are drawn and placed on the 4 sections. If there are not enough markers left in the draw pile, then shuffle the ones in the discard area and put them at the bottom of the draw pile. Do the same with the Lab cards that were not selected.
Game End
The game can end in one of three ways:
- The end of the turn track is reached and disease still exists. If even one antigen is left on the board at the end of the turn track, the player loses and the disease runs rampant destroys all of humanity in hellish pain, etc.
- If at any point in game all 19 hexes in the play area are populated with antigens. The disease has mutated beyond the ability of the scientist to combat it. See above for the repercussions.
- The player destroys the last antigen in the play area before the end of the last turn. Yay! The player has created a vaccine to defeat the disease and saves humanity. Drinks all around.
So there you have it. A game idea that was inspired by a podcast that uses minimal /simplistic components, and the rules would be not much longer than what I have just written in this blog.
I look forward to your thoughts on this potential game. Perhaps I could even convince Alan Emrich of Victory Point Games to publish it....hmmmm...
Update #1
Lab Equipment Cards
The player can only perform 3 Equipment actions per turn. They can only use a piece of equipment once per turn. After an equipment card is used, turn the card sideways so the player remembers that it has been used. As part of clean up all equipment cards are returned to their normal orientation
Destroying Antigens
An antigen can only be destroyed if both of these conditions are met:
- The player has created a complete antibody that can destroy that specific antigen
- That 3 concurrent sides of the antigen's hex are exposed. For example, the antigen in the center hex could only be destroyed if 3 side-by-side hexes were empty in the middle ring.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Where's My Luggage? - a different way to play
Here is a comment I got from someone with experience in game design:
So what happens is that the player can only grab suitcases from the opening in front of them. So they are experiencing panic and drama trying to look for the suitcase that matches as it passes into view. And of course they have to be quick enough to snatch it before it disappears from view.
In this version I could make all the suitcases look different--and double-sided with no contents--and players could look at all the passenger cards in their hand and try to look for any of the suitcases that match them. I would then get rid of the "Lost Suitcase" tiles. So here it is in point form:
Ummm...after further thinking I must scrap this idea since little fingers could be trapped under the edges of the cover trying to reach for a tile that is about to go under...it would be a lawsuit waiting to happen...
If you can get the carousel to move faster, I can see that adding further drama and panic to that version of the game, which is probably a good thing.So after reading that I just had an epiphany: Instead of speeding it up, add a cover with four even sized triangular open spaces, similar to the Umbrella Corporation logo, where the white triangles are covered and the red triangles are open to the players.
So what happens is that the player can only grab suitcases from the opening in front of them. So they are experiencing panic and drama trying to look for the suitcase that matches as it passes into view. And of course they have to be quick enough to snatch it before it disappears from view.
In this version I could make all the suitcases look different--and double-sided with no contents--and players could look at all the passenger cards in their hand and try to look for any of the suitcases that match them. I would then get rid of the "Lost Suitcase" tiles. So here it is in point form:
- 30 unique passenger cards with 30 unique suitcase tiles, double-sided with the same illustration. Example: a pirate passenger with a black suitcase with a skull and crossbones patch.
Still simultaneous play, but now you can look at all your cards in your hand at once.- The panic and drama comes in trying to look at any match to seven cards at the beginning and only have a limited window to do it in. Wadda think?
- Rule: You can only grab one suitcase at a time.
Ummm...after further thinking I must scrap this idea since little fingers could be trapped under the edges of the cover trying to reach for a tile that is about to go under...it would be a lawsuit waiting to happen...
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Where's My Luggage? - The Rules
The Suitcase Matching Game!
The Fantasy Land Airport is the busiest terminal in the Universe! Flights from every point in history and every dimension are arriving all the time, so the baggage claim area can get quite crazy. Since many suitcases can look alike, passengers need to be extra careful the luggage they grab is the right one! Unfortunately the airlines occasionally lose luggage, so some passengers will go home empty handed.
Overview
This game is for 2-4 players, ages 8 and up, and takes about 20 minutes to play.
Each player has a deck of passenger cards that they must help to find their matching luggage. The game is played over 3 rounds, and at the end of the game, whoever has correctly matched the most suitcases is the winner.
Contents
4 player pawns (Red, Blue, Green and Yellow)
1 Score board
1 Battery Powered Rotating Luggage Carousel
30 unique Passenger cards (6 suitcase types x 5 of each type)
30 Luggage tiles matching the passenger cards
6 Lost luggage tiles (1 of each suitcase type)
The six suitcase types:
Everyone chooses a pawn and places it on the 0 spot of the scoreboard track. Take the passenger deck and shuffle it, then deal out 7 cards to each player face down.
Set the remaining cards aside. Each player takes their cards and places them in a single pile in front of them, face down; this will be their Draw Deck.
Luggage!
Take all 36 luggage tiles and place them inside the luggage carousel. Spread them out evenly, pattern side up so you can't see the contents. Then place the carousel in the center of the table and turn it on.
Order of Play
The game is played over three rounds. Each round is played the same.
Draw Deck Action Deck |
Everyone puts a hand on their Draw Deck and yells "WHERE'S MY LUGGAGE?", and the round begins. At the same time, each player takes the top card from their Draw Deck, flips it over and places it face up next to it to make a new pile; this is their Action Deck. Each card has a picture of a passenger plus a picture of the luggage they are looking for.
Each player should now reach into the rotating carousel and try to find a suitcase tile that matches the type on their revealed passenger card (Remember:
there are 6 suitcases of each type). They should bring it close and turn it over to see the reverse side (without showing the other players). There are three possible results:
• The luggage matches their passenger
• The luggage belongs to another passenger
• Their luggage was lost
The luggage matches
If the luggage matches their passenger, then congratulations!
Take the passenger card and the matching luggage tile and place them off to the side near you. Note: You will check them at the end of the round to make sure they are a match.
Now draw your next passenger card off the Draw Deck, place it face up on the Action Deck and continue playing.
The luggage belongs to another passenger
If the luggage belongs to another passenger, then return the tile to the carousel, face down.
Now draw your next passenger card off the Draw Deck, place it face up on the Action Deck and continue playing. NOTE: You cannot grab another tile for the same passenger at this time.
The luggage was lost
If your luggage tile shows a frowny face, then it means the airline lost your luggage!
Take the passenger card and the lost luggage tile and place them off to the side near you.
Now draw your next passenger card off the Draw Deck, place it face up on the Action Deck and continue playing.
When your Draw Deck is exhausted, flip over your Action Deck (making it your new Draw Deck) and continue playing. If you only have one card left, then you don't have to keep flipping it over anymore.
Everyone is playing as fast as they can, trying to find their matching luggage. When the first person runs out of passenger cards, they yell "Done!" All the other players must stop playing; they cannot look for any more matches. Make sure to turn off the carousel to save on the batteries.
Scoring
For every correct match of passenger to their luggage, the player scores 1 point. Everyone should have another player check their matches to see if they are correct. If they have an incorrect match, or lost their luggage (frowny face tile), then they don't score any points for that passenger. Players advance their suitcase marker on the scoring track of the score board the number of points they scored that turn. Example: The Red Player scored 4 points and moves their pawn up to the square marked 4. The Blue Player only scored 2 points, so they move their pawn up 2.
If it is the second or third round, add the new points scored to the track.
New Round
If it’s not the end of the third round, setup the game again for a new round. Return all the passenger cards--including the ones set aside if they were not all dealt out--shuffle them, and then deal out 7 new cards to each player. Return all the luggage tiles to the carousel, pattern side up, and mix them around so you don't know which suitcase is which, then turn it back on.
Game End
The game ends at the end of the third round. Whichever player scored the most points wins the game. If there is a tie, then all tied players win!
Variation
For younger players, you can play with less passengers/luggage tiles. For example, you could play with only 3 passengers of each luggage suit. Remove all the luggage
tiles that don't match these passengers from the game. You would also remove the six Lost Luggage tiles (frowny face) from the game. Set out all the suitcases in 3 rows of 6 suitcases. The players then take turns flipping over one luggage tile at a time. Then they have to remember where it is if it doesn’t match.
Designer
John "That Cowboy Guy" Gibson dreamt up this game during a car ride to his weekly board game night on Tuesday, September 13, 2011.
http://www.thatcowboyguygames.com/
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Where's My Luggage? - YouTube Demo Video
Here is the YouTube Demo Video for my board game prototype: Where's My Luggage?
Please watch it and give me feedback. I am very interested to hear the opinions of people who do not know me personally.
Please watch it and give me feedback. I am very interested to hear the opinions of people who do not know me personally.
Friday, 28 October 2011
More on CombatAnts...Photoshop is my friend
I as I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I went through 6 versions of CombantAnts before I submitted it for the Canadian Game Designer Awards for FallCon 2011. I did a lot of prototyping in Photoshop to design this game. I figured I would show you some examples of graphics I created, version by version, to get to the final product.
Version 1
Here are some ant tokens that I printed onto cardstock, which were pretty tiny. I ended up scrapping them after the first play test.
And here is quarter section of the initial board layout using hexes in a symmetrical design for 3 players.
Version 2
Here I decided to put leaf tiles on the board; each one has a letter which corresponds to the food value of the space. The first time it is harvested it has 2 leaves, and the second time it is 1 leaf, and then it is gone. This would force the ants to go further from their anthills to find food later in the game. I also had wandering spiders that would attack players if they crossed paths.
Version 3
In this version I have scrapped the lettered resource tiles and instead put cube markers on them to indicate the value of the tile. A 1 leaf tile has 9 grey food cubes, which are the least valuable for eating. The 2 Leaf tile has 6 grey and 3 pink, which are worth twice as much as the grey cubes. The 3 Leaf tile has 3 grey, 3 pink and 3 gold cubes, worth a grand total of 18 food resources during the 3rd phase of the game. I also added a special actions section that users could take at the end of the round.
Version 4
After further play testing I decided to make the game board more modular. I made the board shape one big hexagon and then created 2 different shaped large tiles that would be put on the board in a random way. These would make the game play differently each time. I also introduced a terrain type of rock, which could not be moved through, forcing players to move around these obstacles. Oh, and the tiles were double-sided too: one side for 3 or 5 player game and the other for a 4 or 6 player game.
Version 5
Onto version 5! I decided to scrap the odd shaped 5 and 7 hex tiles and replace them with uniform 19 hex hexs (do you follow?). I also created player reference cards to help them with key actions of the game.
Version 6
And finally version 6. At this point I created the finalized rules, complete with example graphics on how to play the game. The anthills are no longer fixed and players get to place them one at time a-la Catan style. I also included shapes with my colours to help my colour blind players.
Version 1
Here are some ant tokens that I printed onto cardstock, which were pretty tiny. I ended up scrapping them after the first play test.
Blue Queen Ant
Blue Solider Ant
Blue Worker Ant
And here is quarter section of the initial board layout using hexes in a symmetrical design for 3 players.
Version 2
Here I decided to put leaf tiles on the board; each one has a letter which corresponds to the food value of the space. The first time it is harvested it has 2 leaves, and the second time it is 1 leaf, and then it is gone. This would force the ants to go further from their anthills to find food later in the game. I also had wandering spiders that would attack players if they crossed paths.
2 leaf resource tile A
1 leaf resource tile A
Dead leaf terrain tile
Purple spider web terrain tile
Here is the Version 2 game board made for 3 players, with each player’s first anthill permanently established.Version 3
In this version I have scrapped the lettered resource tiles and instead put cube markers on them to indicate the value of the tile. A 1 leaf tile has 9 grey food cubes, which are the least valuable for eating. The 2 Leaf tile has 6 grey and 3 pink, which are worth twice as much as the grey cubes. The 3 Leaf tile has 3 grey, 3 pink and 3 gold cubes, worth a grand total of 18 food resources during the 3rd phase of the game. I also added a special actions section that users could take at the end of the round.
1 Leaf tile with cubes
2 Leaf tile with cubes
3 Leaf tile with cubes
Special actions section
Version 4
After further play testing I decided to make the game board more modular. I made the board shape one big hexagon and then created 2 different shaped large tiles that would be put on the board in a random way. These would make the game play differently each time. I also introduced a terrain type of rock, which could not be moved through, forcing players to move around these obstacles. Oh, and the tiles were double-sided too: one side for 3 or 5 player game and the other for a 4 or 6 player game.
A 5 hex tile
A 7 hex tile
Harvest Guide to aid players at harvest time.
Version 5
Onto version 5! I decided to scrap the odd shaped 5 and 7 hex tiles and replace them with uniform 19 hex hexs (do you follow?). I also created player reference cards to help them with key actions of the game.
A 19 hex tile
The version 5 map board
Player reference card
Version 6
And finally version 6. At this point I created the finalized rules, complete with example graphics on how to play the game. The anthills are no longer fixed and players get to place them one at time a-la Catan style. I also included shapes with my colours to help my colour blind players.
Player Blue 1st ant hill
Player Red 1st ant hill
Example 1: Placing anthills
Example 2: Placing links
Example 3: Harvesting food
Score track, harvesting guide, turn and phase tracks.
Thursday, 27 October 2011
Sooo…how long have you been designing board games exactly?
Great question! Glad you asked! I made my first game design back in September of 2010. I was planning to attended FallCon 2010 and they had just started a Canadian Game Designer Award, which is a contest for Canadian game designers (duh). FallCon is a board game and tabletop miniatures convention for the masses held every fall in Calgary. Anyhoo, just reading about the contest got me excited thinking about possible board game designs. It was too late for me to enter the 2010 contest, but I figured I had plenty of time to work on an entry or two for FallCon 2011.
http://www.fallcon.com/
So my very first board game design was a game called CombatAnts. Here are two paragraphs from the Designer Perspective form I filled out when I submitted the game back in December of last year:
Briefly explain what your game is about:
CombatAnts can be played by three or four players. Each player controls a colony of three anthills and their queens. The game covers three turns—or years. Each year is broken down into four rounds—or seasons; each round is in divided into a number of phases. The major issue faced by the ants is gathering resources and increasing their numbers. The ants will find themselves competing with rival colonies for these resources.
What is the goal of your game?
Players score victory points for laying down pheromone trails from their colony’s anthills to new food sources. With plentiful food, the queens can lay eggs and grow the numbers of their soldiers and workers, so players also score victory points for each solider and worker in their colony. At the end of the game the player who has scored the most victory points is the winner.
I had three months to design the game and only a handful of opportunities to play test it before I submitted my rules for the contest. I ended up majorly redesigning the game six times. I went through a lot of cardstock and printer ink making my prototypes for play testing.
Sadly CombatAnts did not make the cut for the 2nd round of the contest. Here is a sampling of the feedback I got from the judges:
****
Combat Ants connects strongly with its theme – has interesting mechanics and fairly clear rules
I would have to play it a couple of times to see if the moves are merely mechanical or whether there are some tough tactical and strategic decisions
Nice tradeoff between VPs and food on the leaf tiles
Mildly interested in testing it out!
****
It's clear that the presentation of the game would improve with proper artwork and components. The photos of the prototype give a good indication of the general look of the game though. With nice artwork on the hex boards and other counters I think the game would look quite nice, although if wooden cubes and other pieces are used it won't necessarily evoke the theme, unless some anteeples are made perhaps. That would be cool!
The theme is definitely pretty unusual, I can only think of one other ant game off the top of my head. The rules do seem to help bring the theme out and it seems like the game will do a decent job of making you feel like you're in a fight for survival against the other colonies. A couple of the mechanics seem to be out of place with the theme though – specifically the fact that players score more points for having longer pheromone trails to the food source (surely shorter trails would be better) and the fact that higher value food sources are worth less victory points (also a point where the reverse should surely be true). I can see that for the game to work things need to be the way they are though.
The mechanics are interesting – kind of a variation on area control, with resource management and network connection thrown in. Trying to balance the size of your anthill with the food requirements and the competition with other players seems very interesting and this is definitely the strong point of the game.
****
Rules are a bit unclear. Harvesting and combat seem rather complex for a seeming straight forward simple game. A definition of what Worker and Soldier ants do and how they can be killed or not would be very useful
The games look nice and the concept is great but I’m not sure without playing it that there is a lot of replay value in it.
****
So there you have it. That was my first stab at designing a board game and it didn’t go very well. In the future I will provide links to the rules PDF. Below are some pictures of CombatAnts in action:
http://www.fallcon.com/
So my very first board game design was a game called CombatAnts. Here are two paragraphs from the Designer Perspective form I filled out when I submitted the game back in December of last year:
Briefly explain what your game is about:
CombatAnts can be played by three or four players. Each player controls a colony of three anthills and their queens. The game covers three turns—or years. Each year is broken down into four rounds—or seasons; each round is in divided into a number of phases. The major issue faced by the ants is gathering resources and increasing their numbers. The ants will find themselves competing with rival colonies for these resources.
What is the goal of your game?
Players score victory points for laying down pheromone trails from their colony’s anthills to new food sources. With plentiful food, the queens can lay eggs and grow the numbers of their soldiers and workers, so players also score victory points for each solider and worker in their colony. At the end of the game the player who has scored the most victory points is the winner.
I had three months to design the game and only a handful of opportunities to play test it before I submitted my rules for the contest. I ended up majorly redesigning the game six times. I went through a lot of cardstock and printer ink making my prototypes for play testing.
Sadly CombatAnts did not make the cut for the 2nd round of the contest. Here is a sampling of the feedback I got from the judges:
****
Combat Ants connects strongly with its theme – has interesting mechanics and fairly clear rules
I would have to play it a couple of times to see if the moves are merely mechanical or whether there are some tough tactical and strategic decisions
Nice tradeoff between VPs and food on the leaf tiles
Mildly interested in testing it out!
****
It's clear that the presentation of the game would improve with proper artwork and components. The photos of the prototype give a good indication of the general look of the game though. With nice artwork on the hex boards and other counters I think the game would look quite nice, although if wooden cubes and other pieces are used it won't necessarily evoke the theme, unless some anteeples are made perhaps. That would be cool!
The theme is definitely pretty unusual, I can only think of one other ant game off the top of my head. The rules do seem to help bring the theme out and it seems like the game will do a decent job of making you feel like you're in a fight for survival against the other colonies. A couple of the mechanics seem to be out of place with the theme though – specifically the fact that players score more points for having longer pheromone trails to the food source (surely shorter trails would be better) and the fact that higher value food sources are worth less victory points (also a point where the reverse should surely be true). I can see that for the game to work things need to be the way they are though.
The mechanics are interesting – kind of a variation on area control, with resource management and network connection thrown in. Trying to balance the size of your anthill with the food requirements and the competition with other players seems very interesting and this is definitely the strong point of the game.
****
Rules are a bit unclear. Harvesting and combat seem rather complex for a seeming straight forward simple game. A definition of what Worker and Soldier ants do and how they can be killed or not would be very useful
The games look nice and the concept is great but I’m not sure without playing it that there is a lot of replay value in it.
****
So there you have it. That was my first stab at designing a board game and it didn’t go very well. In the future I will provide links to the rules PDF. Below are some pictures of CombatAnts in action:
Wednesday, 26 October 2011
What is the purpose of this blog?
I decided to create this blog to use as my game design journal. I want to use it to record my journey of trying to design and publish board games. My plan seems quite ambitious since I am working on a blog, a website, a twitter account and a Youtube account in addition to actually working on creating the games themselves. But I have read that self promotion is important when you are trying to sell something. When I am try to sell my games, I am also trying to sell myself...hence That Cowboy Guy persona.
So hopefully I will update this blog several times a week, detailing what I have been working on, my highs and my lows. I also hope that what I write will be of interest to my readers. I will try to be entertaining and enlightening at the same time.
So there you have it: My first blog post as That Cowboy Guy. Short but sweet.
So hopefully I will update this blog several times a week, detailing what I have been working on, my highs and my lows. I also hope that what I write will be of interest to my readers. I will try to be entertaining and enlightening at the same time.
So there you have it: My first blog post as That Cowboy Guy. Short but sweet.
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