Well the idea behind this game is rather simple. 4 players start from different corners of the game board. They attempt to move thier pieces through the maze to the goal at the end. The catch is that they can move walls to open a path to the goal, or use them to to block thier opponents along the way.
Pieces
4 pawns (1 each red, blue, yellow, green)
deck of 20 maze cards
100 maze wall pieces
---Each wall piece is 2 grid squares long.
1 game board
---The game board is set up in a 20x20 grid, with the middle 4x4 grid squares representing the goal. Along the grid lines are raised sections to place the walls into.
1 6-sided movement die
1 8-sided maze wall die (labeled 0,1,1,1,2,2,3,4)
Set Up
Draw a maze card from the deck and set the game board up according to the picture on the face. Each player places thier pawn on the colored space in the 4 corners.
Goal
Be the first person to reach the center of the maze and claim the treasure!
Gameplay
Players take turns rolling the movement and Wal dice, moving walls and their pawns.
A turn consists of 2 phases, the wall manipulation phase and the movement phase.
Wall Manipulation Phase
The player picks up and rolls the 8 sided wall die. The player may then move any piece on the board that was not moved in the previous round. (a round consists of one turn for each player) For each point on the die a player may move a wall either by sliding one space (1/2 wall length) or rotating it 90 degrees from one of the ends.
Any combination of pieces may be moved any number of spaces as long as the movement adds up to the number on the die or less.
Two walls may not occupy the same place. A wall may not "push" another wall.
Ex Player one gets a 4, he may move one piece 4 times, or 2 pieces Twice, or 4 pieces once.
Movement phase
After the wall phase a player enters the movement phase. The player rolls the movement die (regular six sided die) and moves the number of spaces on the die.
Two players may occupy the same space, and therefore do not "jump" spaces or players. This should not need to be said, but you cannot move through walls.
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Losing a turn
If a player is in a position where he is walled in on all 4 sides of one square, and is unable to move any of those 4 walls, duing his wall phase he will be unable to move during the movement phase and will thus skip his ENTIRE turn. This includes using that players wall phase to move other walls on the game board.
(end edit)
The first player to reach the center wins the game.
Actually what your looking at is a rough draft, so I needed to clarify some points...
I've edited the original post. Thanks for pointing that out.
I'm not sure where the idea came from for this game...I remember driving to work and the idea hit me...Though what i was thinking at the time I don't remember. The idea was basically to have a race where you could interfere with your opponents.
As for the die, what I was looking for was a system where 4 would be the most walls you could get, and that it would be rare. I wanted 1 and 2 walls to be more common, and 3, 4, and 0 to be rarer. I toyed around with different ideas, and settled upon the 8 sider so as not to have 0,2,3, and 4 all have the same odds of showing up.
I like the holes idea, the only draw back I see is accidentally breaking a peg. I was thinking raised sections for the ease of sliding a cardboard "wall" into it. (similar to cardboard pawns in stands seen in other games)
One of my biggest fears of making this game is that the set up might be too much. Placing 100 pieces in a maze could take a while and turn players off. I think making the peices out of cardboard and having the supports in the game board might be cheaper than having holes in the board and plastic walls...but im not sure.
Other ideas I have for the game, that i would like input on...
Should some walls be immoveable completely?
Do you think adding "bonus" spaces would be a good thing? (+1 move, +1 wall, etc.)
Do you think that players would just cut a B-line through the maze, and ignore the other players?