Game Design Showdown - March 2012
Dragon Dice
"Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth... Tame the dragon and the gift is yours." - Noela Evans
This month, Seth Jaffee's Game Design Showdown has been taken over by me - Sam Mercer. As some of you might know, I hang around on BGDF quite a bit and Seth has kindly let me be the guest poster this month.
What is this all about Sam?
Well, we are all here as game designers. We enjoy creating awesome games. BUT as we know, a lot of our ideas could be better. So how do we become better designers who are more able to help others out and build better games? We refine our craft and we practice. Designing within constraints is a fantastic way to practice the art of games design. At the end of it, we give eachother amazingly useful feedback to help eachother become better designers.
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WE HAVE A WINNER! - Its a Tie!!
First of all, I’d like to say - Wow! I’m so happy with the amount of positive responses! The submission, the votings, and the lovely messages that you guys sent me expressing your good will and appreciation in regards to this run of GDS.
Everybody did well, some did better, some did worse, but you ALL rock.As there were so many entries here are the votes for the top 5 games:
1. 4. Avianfoo's "Ryu Rally: First Race" - 13 Votes
1. 7. TeaisforTim's "Have Dragon, Will Slay" - 13 Votes
3. 2. Pastor_Mora's "Cursed Lands" - 10 Votes
4. 8. ryanwanger's "My Dragon is Trapped!" - 9 Votes
5. 10. Orangebeard's "Dragon-fire Tunnel" - 8 Votes
5. 12. richdurham's "King Dragon" - 8 Votes
Onto the critique thread! Now as they are so many entries - you do not need to extoll a story book on each one, but a note on a few entries would make the designers very happy (wouldn't it you?!). Remember the purpose of this is to become a better designer and as such the best you could do is to tell the entries you voted for why you voted for them AND to tell the entries you didn’t vote for why how they could have won your vote.
If you are not up on the top 5, why not?! Ask people! Find out what positive ideas others’ think would go well in your game, perhaps a minor change here or a theme change there, remember this is not a “win or lose” thing, everybody has won already - just form taking the time to enter, you have exercised your thinkin’ muscles and are better off for it - now we learn more about the science and magic of game design!
Thank you everybody for your support of this GDS - you are all very very awesome people.
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Ok I'll give it a go, what should the game be about?
1. This year (Jan '12 to Feb '13) is the Zodiac year of the Dragon. The Water Dragon to be precise. Coloured Red and Violet, the attributed motto or these dragons is simply "I Conquer". It is the only legendary creature in the Chinese Zodiac and so is considered to be the luckiest year in the calendar.
Your game theme needs to pertain to Dragons somehow.
2. More and more people are left uninspired by the current rehashing trend of blockbuster video games and are looking elsewhere for their entertainment. With the recent coolification of "the nerd", (see: big bang theory, mac-ophiles, net culture, chip-tunes etc) we are seeing an increase in acceptance of boardgames within popular culture. But we must remember that it can be very easy to scare away new-comers with complicated rules and heavy games. We must combat this by building all of the right stepping stones. Starting simple before working our way to the deep end will help unexperienced players on their journey to realise that boardgames ARE cool.
Your game needs to be a light game.
3. To add an inexpensive, tactile thrill to this new-comer friendly set up, we are going to use dice. Too many dice is scary. Not enough dice can be too reminiscent of older roll-and-move games (which we are keen to move away from in our quest for coolification)
Your game must use between 2 and 4 dice.
TO RECAP
1. Dragons.
2. Light.
3. 2-4 Dice.
Explanation: The game must be described in no more than 300 words. Pictures are totally allowed, but by no means necessary.
Submissions: The 1st of the month through the 8th.
Voting: Through the 15th. PM your votes to me, cogentesque.
Voting Format: Each person has 6 votes to distribute any way they choose among the GDS entries with the following restrictions:
You may not assign any votes to your own entry!
You may not assign more than 3 votes to any single entry.
You need not assign all 6 votes.
Comments or Questions: Comments and questions about this Challenge can be handled on the Comments Thread.
CRITIQUES: After voting has closed the entries will be posted for comments and critiques. Post constructive critiques and commentary about the entries to this Challenge in the Critiques Thread
GDS Details: For more details on how these Game Design Showdown Challenges work, especially the details around the word count and graphics limits, visit the GDS Wiki Page.
Thank you all, I am really excited to see what your brilliant minds come up with :)
Sam
p.s. The attached Dragon Dice picture is under a "Copyleft" ShareAlike license. Yes you can use it! :)
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Comments, Questions and Discussion for Dragon Dice
http://www.bgdf.com/node/6122
Hey, lets discuss your idea! :D
Story: You’re a dragon breeder at a market, selecting eggs that are ready to hatch to add to your next batch of hatchlings. Dragons are finicky about who they’re raised with; brood mates strongly influence a dragon's final quality. It takes luck and nerve to be the best...
Object: Earn fame by hatching identical or completely diverse sets of dragon eggs.
Components:
* Four six-sided "eggs" (see picture)
* A fame tracker with markers for each player.
On your turn: Roll the eggs.
Collect one or more hatchlings of identical or different colors.
Continue hatching or stop.
- If you stop, examine your hatchlings.
* If they're all different and do not form a linked chain (match colors of tails and claws on die faces), score one per hatchling.
* If they're all different and form a linked chain, score the number of hatchlings, times two (2=4; 3=6, 4=8)
* If they're all identical, score the number of hatchlings, squared (2=4; 3=9, 4=16)
- If you continue hatching, roll the uncollected eggs.
* If you're gathering identical hatchlings and do not roll a match, your turn ends and you score nothing.
* If you're gathering different hatchlings and one or more are duplicates of ones you already have, your turn ends and you score nothing.
* Otherwise, collect one or more hatchlings that fit your set.
Continue hatching or stop.
When you’re done, pass all eggs to your left. When all players have had a turn, that's the end of a round.
Play four complete rounds. The player with the highest score at the end of round four wins. If tied, all players play another round.