I am designing games to learn a particular subject. The first one I would like to tackle is the periodic table. For most of us, we have played Monopoly so many times we know where all the properties are located on the board and could probably tell you what dice rolls one needs to get from A to B without any thought. We did not set out trying to memorized this aspect of the game but in playing it so many times we did. That is the approach I want to take. Play this Periodic table game, have some fun and learn the table as a secondary effect. I am targeting a robust single player to start off and perhaps add multiplayer later.
Board Idea: construct a city with districts representing the table, noble gases are located NE, alkali metals on west side, etc. The elements in these districts would be businesses of some kind with the address being the atomic number and the group of elements would reside on Alkali Lane or Noble Gas Court, for example.
Game Idea: You are a food delivery driver and take orders from your cell phone, using a deck of order cards. You would then move your pawn to pickup point, then deliver it, acquiring money for each delivery. This in itself isn't much of a game. I'm having trouble coming up with more mechanics to add some angst to the game play.
1. How to win or lose the game. Make x amount of money before x turns?
Race against an NPC to see if you can beat its money total?
2. Movement. Do I use set of movement cards? Do I use action points per turn?
3. During each turn, can you accept multiple orders? Can they be delivered using an optimum route before the turn is over?
I came up with an event deck idea that puts obstacles on streets for the driver to avoid. Eg. car wreck, road closed. Anyone have some thoughts? Does this resemble a game at all?
Thanks for your response. The Monopoly example was used to show how one came to memorize locations and colors of properties, even though that was not the reason behind the game. I did not say my game would be a Monopoly clone, or use dice to move. Not a fan of movement dice either. I'm sorry, not sure how you came to this conclusion. It is a pickup and delivery game. I wanted some help in coming up with mechanics to aid the pickup and delivery style game. There are several of this type in the market. Some pure pickup and delivery (Mint Delivery), and some as a side mechanic (Akrotiri). I was going for the former.