I recently came up with a game idea that demands the use of interlocking game pieces. Essentially, there's a "shell" or a piece of sturdy game cardboard with several rectangular holes in it. Players get to add rectangular abilities and whatnot into these shells that'd (hopefully) fit in perfectly. Kind of like a puzzle.
Have any other games done this? Also, if I'm considering 25+ shells of about 5" x 4", is that going to cost a lot to manufacture? Thanks.
So...it's a flat board with holes in it you place other pieces as abilities? If this were true, it would be easier to just place a marker on top would it not?
If it's something else, like the pieces are placed in and pop out of the board all 3D like, I still think it would be better to just go the marker solution.
There is one game though that does have something a lot like what my first example was though and that's Seasons with the expansion.
If I am mistaken please ellaborate. I feel like I'm not understanding the idea fully.
You understand correctly, and I own Seasons and tested out that, yes, pieces can fit into each other quite well. I need for the game to work like this because many of these abilities must be private information. You don't know what abilities your opponent has, and vice versa, until they're played. They're like cards in your hand, except well they're not in your hand. Markers would cut out this uncertainty and would kill a lot of what makes my idea fun.
It's a game where you draft monsters and then draft actions and abilities to place into said monsters. Then you battle each other. After each match you can adjust your team depending on the strategies your opponent used. If all this info was public, the choices would be radically simplified and effectively boring.
Most importantly, I like the tactile component of snapping abilities into monsters. It gives players the sense of creation, more so than markers or cards with synergy.
That wasn't entirely clear. Abilities are placed FACE-DOWN into the monsters until activated. That's how they're private to other players.
I was about to ask if they were placed face down! Lol. I hope there's some nice artwork on the backs of them. If this is the case, totally go for it. With this added information I can give you my positive recommendation of, "Go for it!" with a bit more confidence in it! I don't think the cost of it would be too high.
Sounds like a fun game.
Hooray for communication! On to my next worry:
I'm aiming for approx. 25 monsters and 50 abilities. I believe this would require 13 standard-sized sheets of cardboard. That's a lot of cardboard. Is cardboard an expensive production cost compared to dice, customized pieces, etc.? Is this shaping up to be too expensive to consider designing?
This is all relative to the other components in your game. First off, how big is a standard-sized sheet of cardboard? Are these all your components in the game? If so then you're probably good. Some games have so many components that the box feels like you're carrying around gold bricks.
If not then what other components will your game have? Will it have a board or is the cardboard pieces all you need to play?
I would assume though that cardboard would be cheaper than dice or custom pieces although I could be wrong.
It'll need a few d12s and MAYBE little plastic pieces that act as sliders to be used for HP indicators. That's something I'm still trying to figure out - an elegant HP tracker. That's all it needs.
And when I say standard cardboard size, I mean something like the thickness of Seasons. Some other games have super-thick board, but I don't need that.
And when I say standard cardboard size, I mean something like the thickness of Seasons. Some other games have super-thick board, but I don't need that.
That's not too many components then. I've seen games with more. Seeing other games with plastic sliders, I'd say there's better ways to keep track of your HP. I'd take a look at the different ways to do it, then test them out. And I mean, just test out those ways of keeping HP. You don't need to test the whole game. Find out what works best.
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Sorry, but, uhhhhh, BUMP. Anyone seen this done before? If so, in what? Was it effective? Is it cost-intensive?