David Donnelly Rapid Paper-based Game Design Week 1: Spectrum Week 2: Coattails Week 3: Wall Builders Week 4: The Slumber of the Kraken Week 5: The Slumber of the Kraken 2.0 Week 6: The Golden Rule Week 7: Fold Week 8: Gateways

David Donnelly

 

Rapid Paper-based Game Design

 

Week 1: Spectrum

Prompt: 

make a game for 2 players, using an 8" x 8" playing surface (paper or other), 3 geometric solids, and a color spinner or a 30 second timer. The game rules should be written or typed onto a separate piece of paper. The game should be completable in 10 minutes max.

 

Rules:

 

Spectrum Rules

Setup:

•           At the beginning of the game, place the three colored tiles at the bottom of the board on top of their respective outlines.

•           The goal of the game is to move the tiles off the top of the board into the ‘finish zone’ and to gain points.

•           During the turns of the game, players will move specific tiles vertically up the board on the steps, keeping in line with the shape of the tile’s outlines.

Moving:

•           At the beginning of each player’s turn, the player must spin the color spinner.

•           If the spinner lands on a primary color (red, yellow, or blue), the player must move that colored tile up one space on the board.

•           If the spinner lands on a secondary color (green, purple, or orange), the player has 3 options:

1.         Move both tiles with the colors that combine to make the spun color up ONE space EACH.                                                                                                    (e.g. a purple spin could move the red and blue tiles up one spaces)

 

2.         Move one of the two tiles that combine to make the spun color TWO spaces up.                                                                                                                          (e.g. a purple spin could move either the red or blue tile up two spaces)

 

3.         Move the tile that doesn’t combine to make the spun color one space BACKWARDS.*                                                                                             (e.g. a purple spin could move the yellow tile back one space)

 

•           Tiles cannot be moved up any further when they have reached the finish, but they can be moved backwards if allowed.

•           After the player has moved the appropriate tiles and any point gains have been noted, it becomes the next player’s turn.

*You cannot move a tile back into the starting position or below using this method. It can however be used to exit the finish zone to the topmost step.

 

Points:

•           “Capping a tile”

o          Whenever on a player’s turn, they move a tile into the finish zone, they gain         2 points.

•           “Jumping a complementary”

o          If a player ‘jumps’ over a step who’s outline is the complimentary color of the tile’s (e.g. red’s complimentary is green) by moving two steps forward and landing on the step in front of the complementary step, the player gets 2 points.

•           “Blending primaries”

o          If a player lands on a step with an outline color the tile blends to make AND the only other tile on a step with the same color outline also blends to make the outline color, the player gets 2 points.                                                                              (e.g. if blue is moved onto a step with a purple outline and red is also on a purple outline, but not yellow)

•           “Completely complementary”

o          If a player moves their respective tiles and the result is that all 3 tiles are on steps with borders of their respective complimentary colors, the player gets 2 points.

(Blue on orange, Yellow on purple, and Red on green)

 

Winning

•           The game ends when all three tiles are in the finish zone. The player who then has the most points wins the game.

 

 

Board:

 

Week 2: Coattails

Prompt: 

make a game for 3 players, using an 8.5" x 14" playing surface (paper or other), any (non-zero) number of figurative (looking like people or animals) tokens, with no spinners nor dice, where victory is achieved by (at least) two of the players collaborating. The game rules should be written or typed onto a separate sheet of paper. The game must be completable in 10 minutes max, and learnable in 5 minutes max (a total time envelope of 15 minutes). 

 

Rules:

Coattails Rules

Setup:

•           Before the game begins, designate who is player 1, who is player 2, and who is player 3.

o          The simplest way of doing this is to choose a player 1 and designate the other two going clockwise around the board.

•           All three players start with their chosen zombie-businessmen tokens at the ‘Fresh Meat’ space.

•           The player number will be the order of turns (first is player 1, second is player 2, etc) AS WELL and designating each player’s ‘representative’.

 

Representatives:

•           Each player has a representative that can win the game for them. Your representative is the number player below your player number. (Player 3’s representative is Player 2, Player 2’s representative is Player 1, and Player 1’s representative is Player 3)

Winning:

•           There are two ways to win this game:

1.         If you are the first to reach ‘Top Dog’

2.         If your representative is the first to reach ‘Top Dog’

Moving:

•           For each turn, you have three options:

1.         Move yourself 2 spaces forward

2.         Move any other player 3 spaces forward

3.         Move any other player 1 space backward

Encounters:

•           There are two types of encounters on various spaces of the board: Triangles and Circles

    Triangles take into effect if you land on that space after going forward

              ೦     Circles take into effect if you land on that space going backward

If you are moved onto a space with an encounter as a result of another encounter, disregard the encounter you are on.

 

 

Board:

 

Week 3: Wall Builders

Prompt: 

1. Formal Constraints:
1. Materials:
1. One sheet of blank paper to record rules
2. One gridded surface to use for gameplay, you may choose the size of the grid units and the size of the surface
3. Two figure (i.e. human shaped) tokens
4. You may use abstract shapes to indicate setting or barriers 
2. Using one, and only one, mechanic
1. create a non-violent game that places two players in opposition
2. each player will be represented by one of the figurative tokens
3. the gameplay will occur on the gridded surface
4. movement rules cannot be dictated by a dice roll

 

Rules:

Wall Builders Rules

Setup:

•             Before the game starts players must choose their figures as well as who will be the blue and who will be red.

•             The board is made up of two grids. A blue grid with squares and a red grid with circles.

o             Each player has their own respective grid that they must stay on during the entirety of the game and an edge of the board that will start as their starting places.

•             At the start of the game, the player’s must choose which of their starting positions along the edge of board they will start at. This starts with red and then blue can decide. Red then starts the game off and turns alternate.

Movement:

•             On a player’s turn, they must move one spot along the grid in any of the four directions assuming there are no wall obstructions. As they do so, they place a cardboard wall tile on the path between their previous position and their current one.

o             A player can never cross over a wall even if it is their own, they can however move into their own wall as long as they do not build ‘through’ the wall.           (e.g. A player can build into a corner of their previously established wall because they can build out from there without crossing over their wall)

o             Movement is not restricted by the top and bottom of the page, moving above the top of the page lands you at the bottom of the page (packman style).

             The topmost red circles are the same circles as the bottommost circles.

o             The same wrapping rules apply for the sides of the board, but only one way. (You can go from their zone to yours, but not your zone to theirs)

Winning:

•             If a player cannot move during their turn, they lose and the remaining player wins.

 

Board:

 

Week 4: The Slumber of the Kraken

Prompt: 

Conceptual Constraint: make a game about nervousness.

 

Rules:

The Slumber of the Kraken (2-4 players)

The goal of this game is to be as quiet as possible in order to not wake the kracken from his slumber.

In order to win the game, you must successfully cross the ocean without being devoured by the Kracken's rage.

Before the game begins, the players must determine their order of play and their start positions along the bottom of the board by any means necessary.

On a player's turn, you roll a base of 3 d6 dice. you then move the average (rounded down) of your roll in any one direction. Diagonal moves cost 1.5 times as much as horizontal and vertical.

If at any time your roll goes over 15, you awaken the Kracken, incur it's wrath and are obliterated. Any ships directly around you on the grid share the same fate.

If you land on an obstruction (denoted as _ or _) draw one card of the respective type and follow the instructions on the card. Any dice added on to your roll this turn does not affect your movement.

(landing on an enemy ship qualifies as a _)

You must reach the other side to win, not just be the last one standing.

 

Board:

 

Week 5: The Slumber of the Kraken 2.0

Prompt: 

Revisit and Refine one of the previous games. 

 

Rules:

The Slumber of the Kraken

(2-4 players)

The goal of this game is to be as quiet as possible in order to not wake the Kraken from its slumber.

Setup:

Before the game begins and anyone takes a turn, all players must determine their order of play and their starting positions along the bottom for the board by any means necessary.

On a player’s turn, you must roll a base of three d6 dice. You then take note of the average of the roll rounded up to the nearest whole number. This average will be your ‘sail points’ for your turn.

Moving:

At the beginning of each turn you have a number of ‘sail points’ that resulted from your roll. By the end of your turn you MUST NOT have any usable sail points remaining.

Sail points can be used in the following ways:

•           1 point is spent moving one space horizontally or vertically

•           1.5 points are spent moving one space diagonally

•           1 point is used by changing your direction of travel in the middle of your move

The Kraken:

If at any time your roll goes over 15, you awaken the Kraken. Here you have two options:

1.         Incur it’s wrath and be obliterated

2.         Fight back and maybe not be obliterated

Should you choose to fight, you must roll four d6 dice and get a 24 or higher to avoid a watery grave. Any others around you can each come to your aid by rolling an additional d8 to add to your roll if they so choose.

Any ships directly around you on the grid when you encounter the Kraken will share your fate.

The Kraken will not be summoned if you are currently on land in the starting position but you are unable to move for that turn.

Obstructions:

If you end your move on an obstruction (denoted as          or            ) you must draw one card of the respective type and follow the instructions on the card.

Landing on the same space as another player’s ship qualifies as a              .

Adding dice to your roll this turn means that you immediately roll the dice and add the value to the value you rolled at the beginning of your current turn. Check to see if this awakens the kraken but do not move.

Dice added to future turns do affect your movement.

Winning:

In order to win the game, you much successfully cross the ocean without being devoured by the Kraken’s rage.

You MUST reach the other side to win, not just be last one standing.

 

Board:

 

Week 6: The Golden Rule

Prompt: 

Conceptual Constraint: make a game about rules. 

 

Rules:

The Golden Rule

 

Before the game begins. Decide who will be orange and who will be yellow.

Place the card of your respective color in front of you.

 

Place both workers on the start space to begin.

 

On a player’s turn, roll a d8 to decide the movement. If a 1-6 is rolled, you decide how to split that up between the two characters.

For example, if a 6 is rolled you could move orange 6 and yellow 0, yellow 6 and orange 0, yellow 2 and orange 4, or any possible combination.

 

If an 8 or 7 is rolled, you must trade color cards with the other player.

 

The person with the color of the worker that reaches the finish first wins.

 

Board:

 

Week 7: Fold

Prompt: 

Conceptual Constraint: make a game that consumes itself 

 

Rules:

Fold

Materials: any sheet of paper, one d4

Each turn, a player must roll a four sided die. The result of that roll determines how the player must fold the piece of paper.

2 - fold in half

3 - fold a third

4- fold a fourth

If a one is rolled, the player skips the turn.

Any method or type of folding is allowed but the paper's surface area must be reduced by 1/result.

The fold does not necessarily have to remain flat, but there must be a definite fold.

The first player that cannot complete their fold loses.

 

Board:

 

Week 8: Gateways

Prompt: 

Formal Constraint and Conceptual Constraint, at the same time: Unfolds, that is to say... the mechanic should be "unfolding", and the idea should be about unfolding. 

 

Rules:

Gateways

2 players

The goal of the game is to reach the finish.

On each player's turn, you are allowed 3 moves. These moves can be divided between:

1: Moving your marker 1 space on an established path (line)

2: Folder/unfolding one of the two board segments

If the side you are currently on is unfolded, your marker will remain on the black tile on the bottom sheet of paper. The reverse is also true.

If you are on a negative space (the cutout spaces when the paper is unfolded) you follow that cutout to it's representative space when folded.

There are four "kill-tiles" on the unfolded row of the finish. If your marker is on one of these tiles when the bottom is re-folded your tile must be sent back to the start.

Optional play: You MUST make 3 moves on your turn.

 

Board: