Abstract boardgame : " Matchinco"

I'm just gonna offer an opinion here, ichbin...

If 'no one' is 'getting it', then that's pretty valid feedback on your game's design as well.

Part of being a successful game designer is the ability to communicate your game's design effectively, and if you're having trouble getting *this* crowd to 'get you', then imagine the general public...

I think folks understood the original game design as you presented it. You're follow-up design was significantly different from your initial presentation, and while it changes the complexity, I'm not sure it really helps.

I think the original design, with two colors, is a better design myself, because it's simple enough that I *can* recognize when my opponent is trying to stack a pattern and do something about it. By making the board larger, and increasing the colors, you make it so complex that:

1.) It will take longer to set the board up
2.) Scoring will get harder (and longer)
3.) Defensive play is almost impossible

At most, I would go for three colors, and keep it on something 8x8 or less to playtest it (since chess boards are easy to come across). Once you figure out how it's going to be scored, you can play with the sizes/colors.

Fair enough :) Now we know :)

I now see what the game does. And, I was wrong about the memory aspect of the game. It really doesn't matter whether you can see the board or not when you compose your pattern, because you are building the patterns on the board as you go with the anticipation of what you will have remaining in your hand.

However, I am concerned that it all comes down to what you have in your hand in the end. With only two colors to choose from, then it seems like it would be fairly easy to keep your options open until the very last play. And, since both players can do this, I foresee a tie emerging most of the time. On the 6th to last round (where you have 3 red and 3 white left), you will say to yourself, well... should I play red or white and your opponent will say the same thing on his turn. Since both of you get points from the same board, you will choose the exact same pattern and it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Hexinomo will avoid doing the same thing because your range of options will close much more quickly. You will not be able to keep everything until the last 6 rounds with 3 colors and 6 tiles to make. But, the equation will be the same for both players because neither one has to commit to a particular design until he sees how the board is developing. And, it is likely they will both commit to the same design.

Long post alert! :)

Okay, so I gave this some thought... and I'm not sure you're going to need to do anything more than two colors and a 6x6 board to begin with.

Here's why...

There's 21 Red and 21 White pegs (I tend to say pegs instead of pawns, because I mentally see a wooden board with holes to hold them in place), which is 42 pegs total.

The first 36 drawn go onto the board, which leaves 6 for the players to work with.

Since all the pegs are drawn from a common pool, and not replaced, this is essentially a permutation exercise of 21 red pegs and 21 white pegs.

Before I give 'the big math', I'll calculate the permutations for smaller sets to show how this works.

Assuming you had only 1 red and 1 white peg, then the total number of permutations is 2:
RW
WR

If it's 2 red and 2 white, then it goes to 6:
RRWW
RWRW
RWWR
WWRR
WRWR
WRRW

at 3 red and 3 white, it goes to 20... (I did it by hand to be sure... not gonna repost it here... You're free to check it) :)

As it turns out, there's a generalized equation you can use for this... its n!/(r!*w!), where n = total number of pegs, r = total number of red pegs and w = total number of white pegs.

Again, proving this:

1 red, 1 white = 2!/(1!*1!) = 2/(1*1) = 2/1 = 2
2 red, 2 white = 4!(2!*2!) = 24/(2*2) = 24/4 = 6
3 red, 3 white = 6!(3!*3!) = 720/(6*6) = 720/36 = 20

So, using this equation, the draw order of 42 pegs from a series of 21 red and 21 white = 42!/(21!*21!)

I'm nowhere near a serious calculator, so I'm forced into Scientific notation for this by my ancient computer:

42! = 1.40500611775288E51
21! = 5.10909421717094E19

So, 42!/(21!*21!) = 538257874440.002 (the decimal is a byproduct of using Scientific notation on my puny computer :)

So, the total number of ways that your 42 pegs can be drawn/played is over half a trillion ways... 538,257,874,440 ways, actually... unless I've miscalculated somewhere... That's always possible.

And, yeah... I understand that people can play them anywhere on the board, but since you end up with all 42 pegs played (either on the board or in player's triomino), than you can look at the end-product as though it were done sequentially.

That's pretty complex, to be honest... I can't calculate your 'expert' version, because the number of squares/colors/hexominos doesn't work out evenly. a 9x9 board is 81 squares... then 12 more for the players' hands... that's 93 tiles... You have 4 colors, which doesn't work out nicely... That's 12 of each color, plus one extra. 3 colors works better, because that gives you 31 of each, with no extras.

I'd offer that the next size up might be a 7x7 board, a quadomino, and three colors... That 49 board spaces, 8 in the players hands, which is 57 total... 19 each of your three colors.

At 538 Trillion+ endgames though, you might be good enough...

The more I look at this game, the more interesting it appears... At least, as a meta-game :)