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!

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.

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.

http://ivebeendiced.blogspot.com/2011/08/ive-been-diced-episode-22-alan-emrich.html#comment-form

http://victorypointgames.com/

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.

Where's My Luggage? - a different way to play

Here is a comment I got from someone with experience in game design:

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.

UPDATE

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...

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:

Setup


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

 Revealing a Passenger


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/

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.