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Memory with stratagey

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Mon, 01/28/2019 - 11:12
Juzek
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I am designing a game for my 4 and 7 year old nieces. It is a twist on memory (one of their favorites).

To set up, you select 9 tiles from a stash of 15, and arrange them in a 3x3 grid. Each tile has two different animals on them. Your goal is to get the three tiles in front of you to have a set of 3 of the same animal.

Each turn you either secretly peak at two tiles of your choice, and swap them if you like, or declare victory, and check to see if you were right.

I was worried that it would be too simple, but when testing it, it is quite difficult to learn which 9 tiles were on the board, and mentally keep track of them all.

Somehow it seems a little too simple, and a little too difficult at the same time. Any suggestions?

Extra design notes:
There are 5 of each of the 6 animals distributed on the 15 tiles, with the animals on one tile being different. This way, there is always a solution possible to get 3 tiles with the same animal in the row in front of you, but some animals may not have enough in play.

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Mon, 01/28/2019 - 11:52
#1
Tim Edwards
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The standard memory card

The standard memory card games are for ages 3+, which is pretty much your target audience already. I think your concept is interesting but very demanding.

If you want to deepen the basic memory game with some strategy, you might be able do it without adding much to the basic mechanisms of remember-turn-look-remember

How about:

Some matched pairs score higher than others (so there's an element of risk: "I KNOW where 2 zebras are, but I THINK I know where the second elephant is...and elephants score much more")

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Mon, 01/28/2019 - 11:57
#2
wob
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hi. have you tried playing

hi.
have you tried playing with the actions you can take?
for instance...
on your turn you can a) secretly look 2 tiles (to remember)
b) move 2 tiles (did you remember which was which?)
c) declare victory then check (you could either make it a loss if you are wrong, or that it just gives your opponent a free peek at 3 cards)

finally you can reduce the total cards to 10 cards that will make the whole game easier.

ab, ac, ad, ae, bc, bd, be, cd, ce, de

you can show the spare card to the players so they know which animals only show up 3 times, (the others will appear 4)

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Mon, 01/28/2019 - 14:07
#3
Jay103
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The simplest part about it is

The simplest part about it is that your first turn should look at two of "your" tiles.. you're very very likely to already have a pair in your row, and you may even have a winning configuration dealt to you.

The suggestion to go down to 10 tiles is a good one on one level, but it actually makes this even more likely.. you're better than 50-50 to flip up a matching pair on your first turn like that, and it's literally impossible not to have a pair of something in the three cards in front of you. So "strategy" is to look at those cards on turn 1 (and then 2), and then just find another match, which is a couple of turns of trial and error.

So.. yeah, I think it's probably easy if people think about it enough to strategize, which kids that age may not.

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Mon, 01/28/2019 - 14:22
#4
wob
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overall i prefer tims idea to

overall i prefer tims idea to add to the memory game.

if you want to really complicate things you can also add "extras" to certain cards, that you can use if you get the pair (though i dont know if its worth it to add a couple of years to the recommended age)
things like: steal a card, take another turn, swap some tiles about etc.

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Mon, 01/28/2019 - 15:44
#5
Juzek
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Jay103 wrote:The simplest

Jay103 wrote:
The simplest part about it is that your first turn should look at two of "your" tiles.. you're very very likely to already have a pair in your row, and you may even have a winning configuration dealt to you.

You're right. It was about a 30% chance for someone to have a winning set dealt to their tiles.

I can increase it to 8 different types on 16 tiles (4 tiles with each type)and reduce it to a 9% chance. Where on average you can win with 3 different types, and are guaranteed to have at least 1 type be solvable.

Tiles:
AD, AE, AF, AG, BE, BF, BG, BH, CE, CF, CG, CH, DF, EH, DH, DG

It would take more looking for the best matches, but it would reduce the amount luck plays into the start.

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Thu, 01/31/2019 - 10:17
#6
wob
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you could have just 1 animal

you could have just 1 animal per tile, making the chance of a match even lower, and add the option to discard a tile and add one from the draw stack.
i dont know how this will work in reality though, especially the maths.

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Sat, 02/09/2019 - 14:16
#7
Juzek
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Having the 16 cards with two

Having the 16 cards with two symbols each seems to work well. It is simple, yet thought provoking. Now I just need to come up with a good theme. Why are two things together on a card? Why are you trying to get them in a set of 3 in front of you? Would a 6 yr old kid even care?

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Sun, 02/10/2019 - 21:45
#8
Juzek
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Never mind I got a theme that

Never mind I got a theme that I like: buying food at a grocery store, with different colored fruits and vegetables. There is a sale going on where if you buy 2 you get the third free. And my tiles could be shopping baskets with two items in each.

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Mon, 02/11/2019 - 11:15
#9
wob
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your theme seems good. but i

your theme seems good. but i dont think kids (young ones any way) care about why your doing what your doing. theme for them doesn't need to be much more that colourful pictures of their favorite thing. it could be paw patrol, disney princesses, dinosaurs, animals- literally anything the kid likes that week.
there are of course examples of theme for kids games, but they tend to begin when the kids get a little older (reading age), are there to give adults a rational reason to do an action or as a way for a designer to organise things.

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