Advanced Game Design – Board game progress w43

This week we have continued testing our game and tried implementing new features. We changed the theme of the game from mice running on the board to penguins skidding on ice, to relate better to the nature of the movement system we have (where you can only move in strait lines).

We have also tested different shapes of the board and concluded that a more stretched out playfield creates a bigger need for strategically choices when placing your movement-cards because of the narrow passages that are created. A narrowed down layout also promoted more intense competition between players. We have also tested different areas to place the “cheese piles” in on the board. We are still debating whether or not we should have one pre decided board or if we are going to give the players guidelines for placing the base-tiles out themselves, and therefore creating more variation in the gameplay. It have also been discussed whether or not the number of tiles placed should be tied to the number of players to balance the game (so that fewer players can play the game in the same fashion as more players). We have not yet determined if the obstacle-tiles should be placed in the beginning of the game or if they should be tied to the tiles that are used to build the board (or to the solid board if we go with that option).

Since we noticed that players had a tendency to camp out in the middle of the board, (with the intention of an easy pick) whiles other players went for the “cheese”, we tried adding other positive effects to the “cheese tiles” that did not have the cheese. Such as a plus one movement token or a tile that could be used to block the path of other players, in order to create motivate the players to take part in the hunt for tiles.