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New crafting material for components at the dollar store

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Thu, 08/22/2024 - 01:52
larienna
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I went at the dollar store recently in Canada, and there are a lot of new components that could be interesting for board game design. I don't have pictures, but here is the new stuff I have seen.

  • Large wooden cubes about 1 inch thick. Could be use as dices, or as a chess unit, or maybe you move it around the board by flipping it. I think it was made of bamboo.
  • Large wooden dices. They have rounded corners, so they are better designed for rolling. They are actually thicker than the cubes above.
  • Colored Cylinder. I could have used this instead of making my own. They come with 4 colors. Useful for worker placement or other mechanics.
  • Large laser cut bamboo tile with rounded corners. You could make a tile laying game, or move them as units.

We talked in another thread to restrain our self to improve our design capabilities. Maybe this could be a kind of restriction we could use. Buy a pack of dollar store material and try to make one or many games with the same pieces.

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Thu, 08/22/2024 - 13:26
#1
questccg
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I personally "dislike" designing by Restriction...

That's why I never make designs for "The Game Crafter" (TGC) contests: I just don't design in that way.

Maybe it could happen that some kind of contest peeks my interest or fancy... But IF I need to restrict myself to some "specific" components (Physical ones), I won't probably participate.

Why?

Because I have a HARD enough time working and completing designs that I have yet to finish. And in some cases it's a specific ASPECT of the game that needs refining (or to be designed).

For those games, I already pretty much have a GAME, I'm just trying to FINISH it up and make it production ready.

So yeah... Not a big fan of component restriction.

Note #1: Take for example "Monster Keep" (MK). With MK the problem is the COMBAT or BATTLE phase of the game. I've gone through MANY iterations and I STILL don't have it "locked-down"! I've tried a bunch of different systems and all were lack luster.

My latest one is not bad... But I have yet to playtest it. We'll have to wait and see by next week what the status is...

Note #2: Take MK current method of play. Player #1 choose a STAT (there are 3 = Power/Skill/Magic) and then chooses another card to be the "Tactic" card and the third (3rd) card/Monster gets discarded. That all sounds cool and fine-and-dandy... But is it BLIND? Meaning all players choose their STAT at the SAME TIME (without revealing). Or is it that once Player #1 makes his choices, play goes around the table allow each player to REACT to the played card (perfect information).

That's a VERY BIG difference: BLIND vs. PERFECT INFORMATION.

But BOTH are possible. Which is better??? IDK.

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Fri, 08/23/2024 - 15:41
#2
FrankM
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Joined: 01/27/2017
Information levels

questccg wrote:
That's a VERY BIG difference: BLIND vs. PERFECT INFORMATION.

But BOTH are possible. Which is better??? IDK.

I know this doesn’t help much, but both have their virtues.

Horseman’s Chess has perfect information, though its wider decision space makes it harder to predict an opponent’s reaction than in orthodox chess.

WIP Suspect Pool has public knowledge of the evidence types (descriptive trait categories used to separate players into two groups), but the Investigator keeps the specific traits private. This is because one strategy has involves guessing the specific traits.

WIP Epic Battle: Each player puts their first card face down, so BLIND turn zero. The cards are flipped, and play order is determined from stats on those cards. I did it that way because knowledge of the first card would be an unfair advantage. Keeping the play order secret to the last minute was a nice bonus (though in one combination of optional rules, the outcome will be obvious).

Quest, so you need to determine if seeing the previous player’s initial play is too big of an advantage.

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Fri, 08/23/2024 - 15:49
#3
FrankM
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larienna, Annoyingly, all of

larienna,

Annoyingly, all of the dollar stores seem to have closed in Southern California, but there are craft stores.

The chunky game bits would make for an interesting aesthetic, or just make the game more accessible to children.

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Sat, 08/31/2024 - 06:13
#4
larienna
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We have so many dollar stores

We have so many dollar stores here, from franchised stores to independent stores, that are really not likely to disappear.

The advantage of dollar store material is also that anybody could try to build your game easily for a print and play game.

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Sat, 08/31/2024 - 23:11
#5
questccg
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Not PNP... Compact Games maybe...

larienna wrote:
...The advantage of dollar store material is also that anybody could try to build your game easily for a print and play game.

The point of PNP Games is to only have cards such that all you need to do is PRINT and PLAY the game. Having extra bits doesn't really help the necessity for a very simple "core" gaming experience.

Now I did not say "good" gaming experience because it's hard to do very little with a handful of cards ... But none-the-less some people manage to make for interesting games with a limited set of cards like 18 Cards for example.

Even with things like Mint Tins ... It's hard to get COMPONENTS to fit within and makes it so much more difficult to design and make Print & Play games. Even with Tall Tins were you can fit a few wooden cubes or some discs ... It's still very hard with limited space to make such games.

If instead you said a COMPACT game... Like a Small Stout Box or a Small Pro Box well then you probably have room for cards, dice and tokens. But this is NOT a PNP... It's a SMALL/COMPACT format of a game and ... well it's very well possible to do something with that.

I recently saw an interesting CHOICE one designer made with his game:

The Game Crafter wrote:
One designer was using a Mint Tin and Mint Tin Cards. He had no room for dice ... So he create a mini-deck of 8 cards with values from 1 to 8. Initially the dice has values 1 to 6 and through rewards could benefit from additional cards likes the 7 or 8.

The real interesting MECHANIC with this Card Pool... Is that there was a card that allowed you to draw TWO (2) Cards from the Pool and PERMANENTLY discard one of them. In the video I watched (Playthru), the reviewer drew a "1" and "3"... Of course he would therefore PERMANENTLY discard the "1" since most BAD actions come from LOW ROLLS in the game. You can watch the video below and see what I am talking about (I'll share the Link/URL of the game further on...)

https://youtu.be/9NY14s39xM8?t=1248

So I did find that NEAT and a way of getting around DICE in Compact and MINI Games like the kind that you can make in a Mint Tin...

Anyhow... The Game was called "Deck 52" and you can find it on "The Game Crafter" Website. It's a SOLO Dungeon Crawler but is Sci-Fi instead. For those who like SOLO games... It's a nice "Gem"!

Here's a Link/URL:

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/deck-52:-space-wrecked

It's got a lot of good reviews and I watched the playthru. Not for me... But the Card Pool is cool and very clever mechanic ... The rest of the game is GOOD but I'm not into SOLO game TBH. It does LOOK AMAZING ... But my interests are Card games with 2+ players.

Quest AC v1.5 - the Reboot is a 2 to 4 player game. And TradeWorlds was a 1 to 4 player game. Usually when I play with Family there are four (4) of us... Well 3 to 4... But in most cases four (4).

So I wouldn't characterize BITS for anything PNP ... Only SMALL or COMPACT games ... Small Stout Box or Small Pro Box (If you don't know these sizes, check-out The Game Crafter at:

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/make/products/SmallProBox

or

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/make/products/SmallStoutBox

Either of those box formats which are compact and fit into a Backpack are GOOD for bits, tokens, meeples and dice.)

The Game Crafter has a ton of options and clearly they are winning options for people looking to LIMIT their Game Footprint.

My game Quest AC v1.5 - the Reboot has 70 Poker Cards and one Tuck Box and it costs me $20 USD to produce PLUS shipping and insurance. So the reality is that even at COST it is expensive to make and nearly impossible to sell... We'll have to wait and see what can be done.

I guess that's why you don't see many SMALL or COMPACT games in FLGS! Most people are impressed with LARGE BOXES. This obviously does NOT reflect on the quality or cleverness of the game inside. Clearly this is some kind of human bias TBH.

Sincerely.

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