If you found my blog through an internet search on Game Design, and you haven’t yet heard of gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com, I suggest checking it out. This blog, and the series of blogs to follow it, are exercises from that link.
An exercise in game design
In the first lesson from Game Design Concepts, we were instructed to build a simple 15-minute game (an exercise developed by Brenda Brathwaite). The above game was my product.
The goal is simple: reach the top of the mountain. The rules are equally as simple: roll a dice, move that many squares forward. At that, the game is supurbly boring. In lesson two, we were asked to playtest it (which I didn’t do, but given the simplicity, I am fairly certain I can play it in my head), and then change or add a rule. I added “If you land on the same square as someone else, you can forfeit your next turn to ‘throw them down the mountain.’ Roll 1d6, and move the opponent’s piece an equal amount down the mountain.” I’ll playtest it tonight, hopefully, though I think my three-year-old won’t much like the new rule.
