Boardgame Assignment So Far

I've spent WAY too much time on this so far, Friday was spent trying to force out a game for a theme that I wanted to use. I tried it as a boardgame, a card game, a tile game and any mix of those elements but I realised that I just couldn't do it, not within the guidelines for the assignment. So when Saturday rolled round and I was trying to force a game that wouldn't work I decided to scrap it, put it in a folder for half thought out ideas and try something different.

This time I focused on the mechanics, I thought about how I wanted players to interact, what I wanted to encourage and what I could do differently. The first prototype was a circular game board as shown below, pieces moved inwards and attached each other, cards could be played to provide advantages pieces could be stacked and divided as required, something about it felt good. There were still a lot of issues after the first playtest so I quickly changed some rules based on the feedback, used the same board and played again. It was more fun this time, the refinement of the rules had allowed more strategy to be used, more creativity in execution, moves I hadn't expected.


The game worked, but it was missing its theme, eventually something fit, it allowed the mechanics of the game to add to the fiction of the world. Another prototype followed this, I used the pieces from settlers of catan, the new shape of the hex was more natural for movement, I refined the rules some more and here I am now, working on a final prototype for class tomorrow, hopefully it all goes well!