Project 1: Design a Board Game

Game Manual Mechanics 

Here is my contribution to our board game manual. Robin has all the totem pole and guard tower pieces along with the player markers which she said she is willing to take photographs of for the manual. I said that to help, I would write about all the pieces found in the box so that when the players open it and read the manual, they have a brief description about what they have bought, what is included inside the box and how they use it in the game.

Board Game Manual - The Mechanics

Everything inside the box and what you use it for...

Board: The board is located inside the box and will fold out. 

Turn Tables: These are the separate circular elements to the board which need to be attached to the board in specific places once the board has been set up.  

Dice: The game uses 2 dice, these are included in the box. 

Player Pieces: Players need to choose at the beginning of the game whether they want to play as a Cowboy or an Indian. There are only 2 of each category which are represented by colour and shape; the Cowboys have hats and the Indians have feather headbands. 

Guard Towers: These are included inside the box and are the collectable defence items for the Cowboys. Each Cowboy has 4 pieces to collect in order to build their guard tower. There are 16 guard tower pieces, in total, inside the box. 

Totem Poles: These are included inside the box and are the collectable defence items for the Indians. Each Indian has 4 pieces to collect in order to build their totem pole. There are 16 totem pole pieces, in total, inside the box.

Enemy Squares: These are specific squares located around the board which can cause players to miss a turn.

Chance Squares: These are specific squares located around the board. While playing, if a player lands on a chance square they are required to pick up a chance card. 

Reward Squares: These are specific squares located around the board. While playing, if a player lands on a reward square they are required to pick up a reward card. 

Trap Triangles: These are traps located on the turn tables on the board which may cause players to miss a turn. 

Reward Cards: These are what players are required to pick up if they land on a reward square. Players may choose 1 reward card at the beginning of the game at random and may only hold up to 2 reward cards at any time during play. They are used to control the turn tables. If a player lands on a reward square and already has 2 cards, that player may pick up a 3^rd card and decide which of 2 of the 3 they want to keep.

Chance Cards: These are what players are required to pick up if they land on a chance square. Chance cards give instant actions that may be positive or negative to gameplay.

 

Project 1: Design a Board Game

The Rules

I literally cannot believe I forgot to post these up! I wrote them ages ago and never uploaded them to my blog! For our game we decided that we wanted a main manual and then, in addition, "cheat sheets" for the players to have in case they get stuck while playing. This way they don't need to trawl through the manual to know what to do, they will have the cheat sheet in front of them. 

This is all well and good but we obviously couldn’t have really in-depth rules and aims on the cheat sheet as it needed to be simple and precise. I had already written these rules so Robin took them and edited them to make a set of rules for the cheat sheet (which will be on her blog) and I kept my rules for the manual. Here are the rules that I wrote.

The Rules

      Number of Players & the Age Guide:
2 – 4 players
7+

The Aim of Totems ‘n’ Towers:

The Cowboys have taken the Indians Chief hostage and the Indians have captured the cowboys Sheriff! The aim of Totems ‘n’ Towers is to build your defence tower and rescue your hostage. Cowboys travel around the board collecting pieces to build a guard tower. Indians travel around the board collecting pieces to build a totem pole.

Preparing your Board:

In the box you should find:
- 1 Board
- 4 Player pieces (2 Indians, 2 Cowboys)
- 8 Totem pole pieces
- 8 Guard tower pieces
- 4 Turn tables
- 2 dice
- 1 Pack of Indian chance cards
- 1  Pack of Cowboy chance cards
- 1 Pack of reward cards

The board is large and needs to be in a stable area such as a table or clear floor space. Turn tables are clearly marked and need to be inserted into the board in their specific areas. Chance and reward cards are to be kept at the side of the board within reach of the players. When players pass areas on the board which requires them to collect a guard tower/totem pole piece they can simply pick these straight out of the box and place on the specific area on the board.

The Rules

At the beginning of the game players can chose, at random, 1 reward card to have at the start. Players then roll 2 dice; highest number goes first, following clockwise after that.

The aim: The aim is to make your way around the board using 2 dice, avoiding enemy squares and traps all in order to collect your totem pole and guard tower pieces. Routes are marked by arrows on the board and players must follow them.

Enemy Squares & Trap Triangles: If a player lands on an enemy square or a trap triangle they must miss their next turn.

Chance Cards: If you land on a chance square (these are squares labelled with a ‘C’) then you are required to pick up a chance card associated with your character (Indian or Cowboy). These will be a randomised mixture of positive and negative actions. Shuffle all card packs at beginning of game.

Reward Cards: If you land on a reward square (squares labelled with an ‘R’) you are required to pick up a reward card. Reward cards give you control over the turn tables. Depending on what your card says you can use it to:
- Move turn tables with other players on
- Freeze a turn table someone that someone else is trying to move you on

Players can only hold up to 2 reward cards at a time and can only pick up new cards when they land on an “R” square. If you already have 2 reward cards and you land on an “R” square, you can pick up another reward card and choose which 2 you want to keep.

Players must decide if they want to play a reward card at the start of their turn. If the player decides they want to use the card to move a turn table they must do so at the start of their go and then they are only allowed to roll 1 of the 2 dice to move forwards on the board.

If someone is trying to move a turn table you are on you can stop it if you have a reward card that “freezes” turn tables. This is an instant action that players can use regardless of whether it is their turn or not. Players can only hold 1 “freeze” card at a time.

Turn Tables: Turn tables are the circular moveable pieces on the board. There are 4 in total. They all have separate spaces on them for the players to move on. Players can sometimes choose between moving over a turn table (at the risk of being moved by another player) or go down another route marked on the board.

Totem Poles & Guard Towers: Totem poles and guard towers are separated into 4 collectable pieces per player. The board clearly signifies when a player is to collect their piece of pole or tower. There are also specific areas in which the player must place their tower or pole. These are also clearly marked.

Shortcuts: The board is marked with arrows to guide the players. However, sometimes there are shortcuts which players can choose to use. These are marked with more enemy squares but have fewer squares in general so there is a chance you will bypass all of them and get to your desired goal faster.

    How to Win the Game:
Once players have built/collected all 4 pieces of tower/pole they are required to follow the path into the centre of the board where the captives are being held. Once the player has reached this area it signifies they have saved their hostage. Now all the player has to do is make their way back to the start to win the game.
 

       Strategy Tips/Helpful Reminders:
- Use as many turn table cards as you can to move other players around. This might give you more time and more of an advantage.
- Always consider what number you have rolled with the 2 dice, you might be able to pass through the short cuts without being hit by an enemy.
- Always remember that you can hold 2 reward cards at any time but only 1 freeze card.
- You can “freeze” the turn table you are on instantly, if you have the right card, when another player is trying to move you. It doesn’t even have to be your turn!
- Remember to keep an eye on other players, if 1 player is further ahead, work on moving his or her turn tables so that you can catch up or over take.

Special Rules:
-If another player uses a “move turn table” card on their turn and it affects you, you can use a “freeze” card (as long as you have one). This will counteract the movement and you won’t be moved at all. This is an instant action.
- If on your turn, you decide to move another player on a turn table by using your reward card you are free to do so but you must do this at the start of your go before you roll the dice. If you do decide to use a reward card and move a turn table you are then only allowed to roll 1 dice to move forward

Project 1: Design a Board Game

Project 1 Update
Luckily our group worked well together and when we started our 2nd project we had near enough done most of the fundamental work involved to make our boardgame. Shaun was doing a fantastic job with the board itself (photo's below) and everyone else was getting on great with their assigned pieces. All the remained to do was the box (which was dependant on the board being finished and still needs to be made), manual, player pieces and research document. Myself and Robin made a start on the research file this week and got the hefty part of my psychology based research into it as well as some of the groups research too which is fantastic as that is the bulk of it out the way. I am working on writing an introduction and sorting out anything else that needs to be put into it (contents, videos etc). 

Today we were getting on with making the totem poles and guard towers as well as the player pieces. Robin and Charlie had been busy creating these out of special modelling clay, cooked them over night and brought them in for painting today. Below you will find photographs that I took inbetween painting some of them so you can have a sneaky preview of what thy are going to look like. We all really love them. They have this beautiful home touch feel to them that really just fits the whole theme of the game. 

  

Here is an example of a totem pole for our game. We painted them an overall colour of brown but this totem pole is for the "yellow" player who will be an Native American/Indian character. The yellow is to separate this players totem pole pieces to the other Indians totem pole pieces. The other Indians pieces will be red, as will their movable character. The brown is just a universal colour to keep all the pieces tied in together and not look crazy. 

Here are the 2 Indian player pieces. As you can see (and relate to what I just said about colour co ordination) one is red and the other is yellow. This is so the player knows what piece they are on the board and what colour their totem pole should be. The Cowboys will be colour coded green and blue and the same will go for their guard towers; everything will be universally brown with the desired colour (blue, green, red & yellow) to signify different players.

 Yeah, I think our faces say it all really...

GO TEAM SUPER AWESOME

The Board

I don't think I have shown any photographs of the board on my blog yet, Shaun has been pretty secretive of it, only showing us brief unfinished sections. These are photographs I stole from his blog. All credit goes to him, he did the art work, designed and physically created the board out of cardboard and heavy duty tape. The whole team thinks he has done a fantastic job!

This is the board from behind all folded up as it will most likely appear in the box at retail. It folds out beautifully well.

  

Shaun decided that he wanted to make the board out of card, then do the artwork separately on a different piece of paper, stick the two together and laminate it with the paths over the top. Here you can see the artwork (sort of) and the paths that go over the top. You can also see where the turn tables will go.

 

The Research File

I am still deciding how to upload my research onto my blog, I don't really want it to be a huge text heavy post because it's boring to read and look at. Plus it's 30 odd pages long. I am contemplating using a file sharing service to link you to the document itself but it still might be too big. I also need to talk to the tutors to see if a file sharing site is appropriate/can be opened from uni so that my work is visible. If this is unacceptable then I will obviously just have to either cherry pick the best bits of research and blog about them or link the entire document via file share so that it can be downloaded and read if needs be. While I am on here and writing about the research file and it's on my brain I want to write down a small reminder section on what we still have left to do so that I can come back to it when talking to my group.

• Contents page documenting who has done what in the research file
• Make sure there is a chapter dedicated to our test play and feedback videos (these will be uploaded into the 'miscellaneous' folder for submission, unfortunately I couldn't get them to upload to YouTube and post them on here)
• Write an introduction and personal summary of the project, collect everyones summaries and include them at the end of the project
• Write a contents for the game manual and any other things the manual needs