Hello,
I have a problem with my game that I've been racking my brain over for awhile now. It deals with the end of the game. I've boiled down the situation into this simple game:
"You have 2 players with multiple coins. There is a cup. When a player places the second coin in the cup, he wins the game. On a players turn he can either put a coin in the cup or pass."
My actual game has more issues in it than this, but this is the core problem. This situation will end in a stalemate with each player passing each turn knowing that if a coin is placed the next player will win. This is the essence of my problem. Frequently my game will end in a 2, 3, or 4 way tie for first place with one remaining method of scoring reamining to break the tie. This tie breaker ends up as a deadlock unless somebody makes a stupid mistake.
Does anybody know if there is a name for this dilemma? Do you know of any interesting game endings that may inspire me?
Thanks for your help!
Thanks for your feedback! Zaiga, I went back and looked through your previous posts and found some interesting posts about game endings. It really helped me sort ot my ideas.
I really would like to separate the winning from the ending of the game, but I feel like I am so close to getting the game to where I want it. I feel like if I add a mechanism for the ending trigger, I will change the the game into something else. I am not ruling anything out yet, however.
Zzzzz, I do not want a stalemate in my game at all. I will however allow ties, but hopefully they will happen infrequently. The key to my problem is that I want the game to end. The reason that the stalemate occurs is due to the core mechanic in my game. I know that makes it sound like my game is built upon a bad concept, but it isn't. Eventually, I will post my rules and design here. I just want to address (or rationalize) all of the flaws in my game first.
After thinking about your suggestions and reading other posts here on BGDF, I've decided to add a mechanic that will allow players to gain a small amount of points for a relatively easy action. I hope this will prevent stalemates. A little testing will help me figure that one out.
Thanks again for your help!