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City building game rulebook. Please look it over and see if I've missed anything.

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Wed, 09/17/2014 - 00:02
Gabe
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So, a while back I saw this game:http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/14039/flix-mix

And I thought, "There's a deeper game in there somewhere." So I started tinkering around with the mechanic it uses to play cards. I decided a city building game would work really well, so I made a prototype out of a deck of cards and some stickers. After a ton of play testing, I feel really good about the game and how it all works. Earlier today, I talked to a good friend about doing the art for the game, and she's on board, so that's good too. It will hopefully make its way to Game Crafter very soon.

I typed up the rules, and I think everything is covered. However, I would love it if some of you read through them to make sure everything looks in order. It could be that I'm too familiar with the game, and I'm overlooking some important detail that needs to be included. It's a short game with simple rules, so it shouldn't take long to read them.

Thanks for your help!

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Wed, 09/17/2014 - 01:14
#1
Tbone
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Seems like a quick fun little

Seems like a quick fun little game. The rules are a little bland, possibly adding pictures or diagrams can help players want to read. An example of what the cards look like would be nice. Next would be get it to PNP standards and have people test it.

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Wed, 09/17/2014 - 02:17
#2
Gabe
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Agreed. The final version

Agreed. The final version will definitely have some graphics and examples. Thanks!

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Wed, 09/17/2014 - 08:14
#3
let-off studios
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Feedback - Prime Real Estate

Hi Gabe! I took a look at your rulebook, and here are some of my thoughts.

  • Include colour cards for the four different colours the players may choose from to represent themselves during scoring. This can help prevent confusion or arguments over who are which colours. Additionally, in a two-player game, players can control two colours each, and this can help keep them sorted.
  • I like that the remaining 24 cards can be evenly divided between 2, 3, or 4 players! That's an excellent mathematical choice for a short game like this.
  • I echo the sentiment of the reviewer who requested some visuals. Showing the following:
  1. different icons and their meaning
  2. what a wild card looks like
  3. the different colours of cards and what they indicate
  4. the dollar amounts for specific icons/types of cards
  5. showing how a card must cover the icons of another - including illegal placements
  • For "Land Grab" mode, I wanted to see some clarity when it came to resolving potential disputes. The wording ought to be more definite. Maybe include something along the lines of, "Fastest card wins! If two players lay down a card at the same time, the card or hand on bottom counts..."

Looks like solid rules so far. I also think it's interesting that you created two short games from the same components, but using different skills. Not everyone wants to play a real-time matching game for example, so the Normal game mode would be more their speed (literally).

I do think some graphics could clarify greatly some of your specific instructions. And yeah, the PnP version is likely a next step for you now that you've composed your first ruleset.

Best of success to you and Prime Real Estate, Gabe! :)

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Thu, 09/18/2014 - 01:17
#4
Gabe
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Very good points! Thanks

Very good points! Thanks

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Sat, 09/27/2014 - 08:37
#5
Gabe
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My friend created some icons

My friend created some icons for the game. See them here: http://www.bgdf.com/node/15110

And please tell me what you think. Thanks

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Sat, 09/27/2014 - 21:19
#6
let-off studios
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Icons Feedback

These are looking very nice! The different categories are distinct images, and the colours are recognizable at a distance/when reproduced smaller. They remind me of SimCity as well, which may be what you're going for in this game.

If I were to be nit-picky, it would be to have a different colour pattern on the background of each of the four different colours of cards. What I mean is that there would be a pattern - squares, triangles, circles, stripes, zigzags, etc - for not each category, but for blue, red, purple, and yellow. These would help even those who are colourblind see the difference in the suits of the cards.

Maybe instead you could write the suit and colour along one edge of the card, like, "Yellow Residential" or "Purple Industrial" on one edge of the card. Something like that to provide assistance to as many players as possible.

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Sat, 09/27/2014 - 22:05
#7
firstcultural
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This is more about flavor

This is more about flavor and atmosphere - nowadays, the whole separation of zones into residential/commercial/industrial/municipal is not really in fashion anymore, and more and more cities are going for mixed-use live/work zoning. I'd change "zones" to "floors" and rewrite the Overview section to something like this:

"In Prime Real Estate, players build a vertical, mixed-use city by adding cards representing different floors on top of existing floors on the block. Each card has different icons representing housing, offices, industrial space, and rooftop public open space."

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Sun, 09/28/2014 - 00:49
#8
Gabe
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let-off studios wrote:These

let-off studios wrote:
These are looking very nice! The different categories are distinct images, and the colours are recognizable at a distance/when reproduced smaller. They remind me of SimCity as well, which may be what you're going for in this game.

Thanks. That's definitely good news.

let-off studios wrote:
If I were to be nit-picky, it would be to have a different colour pattern on the background of each of the four different colours of cards. What I mean is that there would be a pattern - squares, triangles, circles, stripes, zigzags, etc - for not each category, but for blue, red, purple, and yellow. These would help even those who are colourblind see the difference in the suits of the cards.

Maybe instead you could write the suit and colour along one edge of the card, like, "Yellow Residential" or "Purple Industrial" on one edge of the card. Something like that to provide assistance to as many players as possible.

That's a very good point. Each card will have 6 icons on it which could make adding patterns a challenge, but there's probably a way to make this work. Perhaps there could be a letter next to each building (R for red, etc).

I'll post what a card will look like as I can get them created. I think that will give a better idea of what I mean.

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Sun, 09/28/2014 - 13:22
#9
Beggarking
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Just adding that I really

Just adding that I really like the core mechanic presented here. The game seems simple (in that good way) and quick. Card design could be a lot of fun if you can pull off visual elements with stacking the cards on top of each other.

Looking forward to seeing more.

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Sun, 09/28/2014 - 15:19
#10
Gabe
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Yes, I really like how the

Yes, I really like how the game has Uno level complexity but with a lot more depth. The cards will hopefully fit together in a way that when the game is over it looks like a city is sprawled out on the table. More to come this week, hopefully.

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