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Gamestorm

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devilindesign
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Joined: 02/22/2009

I want to generate a bunch of game ideas quickly. So my plan is to set a time for an hour and then use a D8 and 2 D20 to generate a game type, one mechanic that needs to be used in the game and a thems.
Here are the charts that i rolled against:

1. Card Games
2. Beer and Pretzels
3. Party Games
4. German games
5. Wargames
6. Mass Market Games
7. Miniatures|Tabletop Miniatures
8. Abstracts|Abstract Strategy.

1. Hand Management
2. Secret Unit Deployment
3. Action Point Allowance System
4. Hex-and-Counter
5. Set Collection
6. Area Movement
7. Memory
8. Area-Impulse
9. Auction or Bidding
10. Pattern Building
11. Tile Placement
12. Card Drafting
13. Trick-taking
14. Point to Point Movement
15. Rock-Paper-Scissors
16. Variable Player Powers
17. Dice Rolling
18. Area Majority/Majority Scoring
19. Pencil and Paper
20. Card Trading

1. War
2. Wild West
3. Animals
4. City Scape
5. Fantasy
6. Farming
7. Horror
8. Humor
9. Manufaturing/ Building
10. Gangster
11. Midevil
12. Mystery/Spy/Secret Agent
13. Pirates
14. Politics
15. Pirates
16. Perhistoric
17. Racing
18. Sci-Fi
19. Transporatio/ Travel
20. Sports

if my roll didn't inspire me in a few minutes then i rolled again. at the end of an hour these were my results keep in mind that these are very rough ideas and some my be very bad ideas the goal is to generate a bunch of ideas and work on the ones that i and others like. After finishing the hour I want back and cleaned up my thoughts.
if you like one of the ideas please let me know which one as it my be something to think about in the future. If you like this method of generating game ideas let me know. Thanks in advance to all who participate.

I will tray and do this every day for 3 days whenever I get an hour and see how many I come up with.

First Hour
3 Party Game
15 Rock Paper Scissor Mechanic
3 Animal Theme
Each round a player gets a animal card and 3 attack cards each animal card has a bonus (ie +1 to movement if you win the fight). There are 5 different types of cards each one beats 2 different types of other cards. Each round can have multiple winners. Players will then choose which attack card they want to play with their animal and place it on the table all players turn their card at the same time. If their animal wins then they choose to move their player piece along the board, by choosing a chance card rolling a D4 or answering a trivia question made up by the other players. The player that chooses this option can choose a value between 1 and 6 the question must be in accordance with that value. The person who makes it to the center of the board first is the winner.

7 Miniatures Game
13 Trick Taking Mechanic
16 Prehistoric Theme
Risk style game board with a go fish card game type mecanic. Each player is delt 5 cards they then can ask other players if they have that type of card if the player does then they must pass them all the cards of that type. You can play a set if you have at least 3 of that type but there are a max of 5 of each type. When a player plays a set they can choose to attack or add that many reinforcements to one of their areas. If you choose to attack then the attacker and the defender are each given 1 card from a standard deck of playing cards the players can choose the order that they play the cards in and place them face down in front of them. The attack goes until one player runs out of cards then players count up that wins they have and each player reduces their total in that area by that number. If the player looses all of their pieces in an area then the attacker moves in with half of the pieces in the attacking area. Play continues until one player controls 1/2 all the areas on the board.

2 Beer and Pretzels
19 Pencil and Paper
10 Gangster
Everyone has 2 dice they are a gangster. Each person starts with 20 health. The last alive wins. On your turn you can attack, store money or buy weapons. Each time you roll doubles then you get an extra mafia member which gives you a plus one on your attack you can also buy a weapon for each in you mafia for plus one on the weapon each time you buy something the cost goes up. When you attack another person you each roll the 2 d6 the higher roll matches the higher roll and the lower the lower you then figure the difference between the higher and the looser subtracts that amount from their life points the third thing to figure is total the number of mafia members and find the difference the one with the lease subtracts the difference. Then the loser of the lower roll does the same. Keep record on a sheet of paper your life points you mafia and the plus and minuses. If you roll doubles then you can add plus one to your mafia. The cost doubles each time you buy a weapon but can’t buy a weapon until you have an extra mafia if you are the only one in the mafia you can buy one for yourself.

sedjtroll
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Joined: 07/21/2008
Like a solitaire GDS!

This is an interesting exercise, and it's similar to the monthly Game Design Showdown held here on the site.

I enjoyed looking at your rolls and briefly thinking of what I might explore as a game on the topic - just off the top of my head:

1) Party Game / Rock Paper Scissor Mechanic / Animal Theme
nothing really came to me right away for this one...

2) Miniatures Game / Trick Taking Mechanic / Prehistoric Theme
Dinosaurs! maybe trick taking for combat / fight over dominance of an area... move mini dinos around the board...

3) Beer and Pretzels / Pencil and Paper / Gangster
Players are Gangsters, hustling businesses for protection money. You write down and keep track of what's owed to you, but when it comes time to collect you ave to 'control' the street (or be the only guy there, or the strongest)...

And/or maybe you write down actions on the paper (in Diplomacy style) and then when someone tries to collect from a particular shop, you can reveal your Gangster presence on that street and foil them... there would have to be more to it than that perhaps, but again, this is just off the top of my head!

Now I'll go read yours. :)

devilindesign
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Joined: 02/22/2009
i like the dino concept and i

i like the dino concept and i never thought about resorce managment for the gangster theme. i am glad it got you thinking. i was also thinging that you could add another roll for adding random objects or components to the game (ie like ina recent GDC 35mm canisters).

Arvin
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Joined: 05/29/2009
Of Course...

Why didn't I think of that?

I think I'll use your method, Thanks for sharing your Idea...
(starting to roll dices)... :)

ccube78
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Joined: 08/12/2009
This is an interesting method

This is an interesting method to generate ideas. How about rolling 2 mechanics? Combining 2 different game mechanics can generate really unique games.

devilindesign
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Joined: 02/22/2009
the whole point is to

the whole point is to generate ideas so if you and to roll two mecanics great idea...

devilindesign
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Joined: 02/22/2009
i had 5 minute so here is

i had 5 minute so here is another one

3 Party Game
1 Hand Management
9 Auction and Bidding

All players are given card to make a poker style hand and place bids on a event card that is placed in front of everyone the event cards are of the sort where you get to pick a player and they must do or act out what is on the card. Players then award points based on how well they accomplished the task 1-10 majority rules. The person who also won the bidding gets the same amount of points could also use something like liars dice for the bidding mechanic

Aquinas
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Joined: 10/27/2008
Hehe...

Am I right in thinking that deduction games are the hardest type of game to design, and therefore it is not on your list? ;)

Nice idea. Sounds cool. I'll try it. I'll tell you what I think. Maybe I'll share.

Actually, this is really good, especially if you want to have a "community brainstorm/design" thread, where you roll the dice, and have anyone who wants to to just brainstorm to their hearts' delight. Awesome!

devilindesign
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Joined: 02/22/2009
Aquinas wrote:Am I right in

Aquinas wrote:
Am I right in thinking that deduction games are the hardest type of game to design, and therefore it is not on your list? ;)

Nice idea. Sounds cool. I'll try it. I'll tell you what I think. Maybe I'll share.

Actually, this is really good, especially if you want to have a "community brainstorm/design" thread, where you roll the dice, and have anyone who wants to to just brainstorm to their hearts' delight. Awesome!

the only reason deduction is not on there was it wasn't on the bgdf archives of types of games mechanics or theme but feel free to modify the rolls. I am glad that people like this idea. I just finished a class and am a stay at home dad so I hope to have time to generate some idea and maybe develop a game it would be nice to have a working ge designed up and printed for personal use or publication who knows.

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