November 2011 Game Design Showdown - "Oceans Elevens"
Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown. Note that voting rules are slightly changed this month (see below). All other restrictions (800 words, three small images) remain in place.
Results are in!
Congratulations to the winner, Brian Andrew (Argebie) with his entry Pistols and Planks. He received eight total medals, four of them gold, the highest number for both counts, for a total medal score of 32 points. DogBoy's Commutiny on the Bounty took second with four medals, three of them gold, for 19 points. Full results are posted in the Critiques thread. All BGDFers (and particularly the participants) are encouraged to post critiques of the game submissions there.
Special Guest Host: Dave Dobson (dobnarr)
Direct your questions and comments to the Comments Thread.
Submissions: Completed Thursday, November 10
Click here to see the nine entries.
Voting: Thursday, November 10 to Thursday, November 17
VOTING IS NOW OPEN.
Submit your top three picks to dobnarr. Be sure to read about the changes in voting this month below:
Showdown Voting Change:
For this month only, I'm trying out a new voting mechanism for the Showdown. Rules are as follows:
Instead of allocating six votes, each voter instead awards three medals to the three submissions he/she considers the best entries, allocating them as 1st place Gold, 2nd Silver, and 3rd Bronze. When awarding medals, voters should take into account showdown rules and the theme and mechanic limitations in addition to game design.
For purposes of winning the showdown, Gold counts as 6 points, Silver 3 points, Bronze 1 point. Highest total points from all medals received wins the showdown.
Contestants are strongly encouraged to vote. Contestants cannot award medals to their own submitted games. Contestants who enter a game in the showdown but don't vote for other games are awarded an Arsenic medal worth negative ten points to balance out the ten points they failed to grant to competitors.
Main Design Requirements:
Theme or Setting Restriction: Oceans
Your game should include (or be set in) something related to the ocean. This connection can be made in any way you like - ships, exploration, navies, marine life, islands, plate tectonics, whatever you come up with.Mechanics Restriction: Voting
For likely the only time in the life of anybody reading this, the month is a special November, 11/11, and in the U.S., November is election month. So, your game restriction this month is voting. Your game should include at least one meaningful vote, where players jointly decide on some outcome that affects gameplay. Ideally, this is will be a significant component of gameplay (i.e. just having a vote to see who goes first doesn't really cut it), but voting does not have to be a frequent event or the main game mechanic. You may decide how votes are allocated - they don't necessarily have to be one vote per player - and this allocation may change through gameplay.
Showdown Voting Change:
For this month only, I'm trying out a new voting mechanism for the Showdown. Rules are as follows:
Instead of allocating six votes, each voter instead awards three medals to the three submissions he/she considers the best entries, allocating them as 1st place Gold, 2nd Silver, and 3rd Bronze. When awarding medals, voters should take into account showdown rules and the theme and mechanic limitations in addition to game design.
For purposes of winning the showdown, Gold counts as 6 points, Silver 3 points, Bronze 1 point. Highest total points from all medals received wins the showdown.
Contestants are strongly encouraged to vote. Contestants cannot award medals to their own submitted games. Contestants who enter a game in the showdown but don't vote for other games are awarded an Arsenic medal worth negative ten points to balance out the ten points they failed to grant to competitors.
Entry 1: Island Influence
A voting game for 3-5 players.
Components:
Overview:
Players take turns holding elections on islands.
Setup:
Deal each player 3 cards, which they assign to their own color pile. For example, a player could put one card in each color; put all three in the same color, or any such combination. Use cubes to denote which pile is assigned to which color. Each player starts with 6 cubes (2 of each color). Also, put 3 white cubes on Coconut Island, 3 orange cubes on Mandarin Island, and 3 green cubes on Kiwi Island. The remaining cubes form the general supply.
Elections:
The current player selects an empty island on which to hold elections. The following cubes are added to an initially empty bag.
Once all the cubes have been added and each player has made a bet, draw cubes from the bag singly, until the second cube of a color is drawn. This color wins the election. Put all cubes of the winning color onto the island.
The remaining cubes are randomly divided evenly among players who bet on the winning color. If the cubes cannot be divided evenly, supplement the cubes with points. For example, to divide two cubes among three players, give two of the players one cube each, and the remaining player scores 1 point. Players who have the island’s card in the winning color’s pile score points according to the formula (8 - # of winning cubes). For example, if white wins, and there are 3 white cubes in the bag (including those drawn), then each player with the island’s card in their white pile gets 8-3 = 5 points. If there are more than 8 winning cubes, no points are awarded.
Alternatives:
Instead of holding an election, a player may do one of the following for their turn:
(a) Campaign: return N cubes to the general supply to take N+1 cubes of any combination of colors from the general supply. For example, you can turn in 2 orange cubes and 1 green cube to take 4 white cubes.
(b) Research: draw a card, and then re-assign all of your cards to any color.
End Scoring
The game ends when 9 islands are scored (the last two islands will not be scored). Each player adds 1 point per cube they have to their score. Highest score wins.