WW1 Game

In Game Deisgn Concepts: Level 3, we were challeneged to make a game based on WW1. I chose the lowest level of difficulty, mainly because this was a REALLY hard assignment for me. In fact, it was/is so hard I’m officially a week behind the course. This is the game I came up with.

My concept

A large portion of WW1 seems to be trench warfare, and I wanted to make a game based on that. I wasn’t allowed to have death/destruction or owning territory as an objective for the player, so I decided to have a Race to the End type game.

You play as the Allied Powers, though that doesn’t really matter. The Central Powers have come into your trenches, killed off most of your team, and have taken your ammo supply. They have taken a handful of your team mates hostage, and placed you in a central holding cell, within your own trenches, waiting for their commanding officer to decide what to do with you. When the guards backs are turned, you’re able to escape the cell, and have to exit the trenches to return to your home base. (Cheesy, I know.)

Allied Powers Goals

• Reach the outside edge of the game board without getting caught.

Central Powers Goals

• Capture players
• If you can’t capture them, prevent them from leaving the trenches before your commanding officer arrives.

Rules

• For 4-10 players, even numbers work better. Half are Allied, half are Central; if there’s an uneven number of players, the odd man out is Central.
• The Allied players start in the middle area (blue) , the Central players start on the edges (yellow).
• The game goes for a set number of turns, at the end of the game, the Central Powers’ commanding officer arrives, and any Allied Powers players left on the game board are captured.
• Players roll 1d12 to move.
• Color Definitions: Brown: Trenches, Green: High ground, Blue: Jail, Yellow: Freedom
• Players can move from the Trenches to the High ground through the Orange squares. Players can move from the high ground to the trenches without restriction. Allied Powers Players cannot enter the jail, Central Powers players can pass through the jail’s doors.
• Players are given a number of “Sandbag” tiles, which they can place next to their player-marker at any time during their turn.
• Sandbags block the path. A player can spend a turn to remove the sandbags, and they can keep the tile to play during their own turn.

What did I learn from this?

• I need to stop procrastinating. This took me 30 minutes, and I’ve had the idea and rules figured out by the day after the assignment was given.
• Even if the idea sucks, finish it, so I can move on.

(Crossposted from http://www.davematney.com)