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Designing Chess

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Anonymous

Hi All,

I

Dralius
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Designing Chess

Let

Anonymous
Designing Chess

That

FastLearner
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Designing Chess

I suspect another key to the success of those games over the years is that the rules are so simple that you can easily memorize them and easily pass them along orally. Who among us could not, if s/he needed to, make his/her own chess set out of natural materials found in the woods (with a board sketched into the dirt)? Or a Go set?

I agree, too, that the fact that the games cannot be mastered is another essential key, and provides a good reason to pass them down orally.

Anonymous
Designing Chess

I have thought about this a long time and found that games like chess and go have a few things in common:

1. No luck. These games all lack the element of luck.
2. No hidden information. All players know all information. No one can hold any secret from any other player. Other than a tactic the opponent might overlook, of course.
3. All players are nearly equal. This means that the starting positions are the same and that for all players all the rules are the same. In most games however there is one player who makes the first move. But this proves to be insignificant in the end.
4. The rules should be reasonable simple.

These things are quite easy to complete in a game. I personally designed a game that complies with all these criteria. If you are interested I can post the rules here.

For some reason all the classic games I know are for two players only. If you would make a truly good and fair game for more than two players I think there are even more points. Some I took from other places at this forum:
5. All players should have a chance to win until nearly at the end of the game.
6. There should not occur any point in the game when one player, who can no longer win, can chose which of the other players will in the end win the game.
I have not made a game that complies with all these criteria. I actually even doubt whether it is possible at all to make such a game.

FastLearner
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Designing Chess

I, too, suspect that it

Cyberchrist
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Designing Chess

Quote:
15-03-2003 at 12:29, kleimar wrote:
These things are quite easy to complete in a game. I personally designed a game that complies with all these criteria. If you are interested I can post the rules here.

Would be interesting to see the gamerules, please post it!

Anonymous
Designing Chess

The game is played on a board with hexagonan fields. Both players get a set of pieces wich do fit exacly upon the lines of the board, one player gets red pieces the other gets blue pieces. Each piece however is always to small to completely encircle one hex. So it usually has 2 till 5 sides of an hex. It is a bit difficult to explain without pictures, but I hope you understand it.

One player start by placing a piece on the board. So that the in is exacly on the lines of the hexagonal grid. Therafther the other player may place a piece but not on a place where there is already a part of another piece. This continues until neither player can place any pieces.

The goal is to encircle as many hexes as possible. To encircle a hex all of the pieces at the sides must have your colour. The player who encircled the most hexes win.

Brykovian
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Designing Chess

Quote:
15-03-2003 at 12:29, kleimar wrote:
1. No luck. These games all lack the element of luck.
2. No hidden information. All players know all information. No one can hold any secret from any other player. Other than a tactic the opponent might overlook, of course.
3. All players are nearly equal. This means that the starting positions are the same and that for all players all the rules are the same. In most games however there is one player who makes the first move. But this proves to be insignificant in the end.
4. The rules should be reasonable simple.

These things are quite easy to complete in a game. I personally designed a game that complies with all these criteria. If you are interested I can post the rules here.

I agree ... this is a pretty good description of my Castle Danger game.

Quote:
For some reason all the classic games I know are for two players only. If you would make a truly good and fair game for more than two players I think there are even more points. Some I took from other places at this forum:
5. All players should have a chance to win until nearly at the end of the game.
6. There should not occur any point in the game when one player, who can no longer win, can chose which of the other players will in the end win the game.
I have not made a game that complies with all these criteria. I actually even doubt whether it is possible at all to make such a game.
Again, I agree ... these would be very difficult to achieve perfectly as a goal of the design in a more-than-2-player game ... however, certain designs will *allow* these to happen at times when the game is played, even though it can

Anonymous
Designing Chess

I think it would be best if the game system guaranteed these factors. And individually I can design or find a game that complies to each factor. What is difficult, if not impossible, is to design a game that complies with all the factors at the same time.
For example condition 5 applies to most card games if the goal is to get rid of all the cards in your hand. For there is always a chance the other players will have to draw aditional cards. However card games almost always have an element of luck in them.
In most tactical board games with trade such as civilization or settlers there ussually are some players who fall behind and have very little chance of winning. However by chosing with whom to trade they can usually decide whom of their opponents will win.

By the way the Castle Danger game indeed follows the first four criteria. And it seems like an interesting game to play.

Anonymous
Designing Chess

This subject has been on my mind almost constantly since I started to seriously pursue the idea of game design. I think that by far the most impartant factor in helping these games to survive is that they have simple rules and simple equipment. I was once in a bookstore where a child, aged about twelve was sitting in a play area for kids. Bored with the toys there, she had fashioned a chess set out of Duplo blocks and was awaiting a challenger.

As far as king making, I

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