We have a winner!
10 Days
by andymakespasta
Another tough challenge to close out summer. Thank you to all our participants, I can't wait to hear some of the thinking behind the design choices this month. Let's head over to the critiques forum for complete voting results and discussion.
Entries are posted!
Wide range of themes this month tackled the mechanic of "grouping" and moving between them. Take a good long look at whcih group you want to vote for, and then head on over to the voting form lock in your choices.
Here are the details:
Voting: Through the 17th. Votes will be through a form HERE.
Voting Format: Each person has 3 Medals (Gold, Silver, and Bronze - with values 3, 2, and 1 vote respectively) to distribute any way they choose among the GDS entries with the following restrictions:
Entrants may not assign any Medals to their own entry!
Entrants must assign all 3 Medals.
An entrant who does not assign all 3 Medals will receive a Pyrite Medal (-3 votes) as a penalty.
Please Read: Details on entering the Game Design Showdown.
Gencon is now over. I've held off putting up th August GDS to accomodate those lucky attendees, and it so happens that the contest itself is themed around such gatherings.
Gencon, as a gathering of people with similar interests, is kind of a mega-sized clique. going all the way back to grade school kids have dealt with groupings, from "kids in my neighborhood" to "the cool kids table" to "the band geeks."
And that leads us to this month's challenge. You will make a game that uses a mechanic of forming, dissolving, and moving between groups. Maybe those groups have rules for entry (what secret club doesn't?), maybe they form for specific causes and then dissolve on their own, or maybe they are vying for supremacy of some imaginary schoolyard.
In addition to that pseudo-mechanical/thematic restriction, there is a component restriction. In your game pitch, you should include three of the following component types:
- dice (of any kind)
- pawns
- gameboard(s)
- a timer
- cups (to conceal/roll things)
- play money
- marbles. Yeah, marbles.
The details:
Theme: Whatever you feel like
Mechanic: The game must use, as a major mechanic, the forming, dissolving, and/or moving between groupings.
Component restriction: At least three of the five listed above.
Word Limit: Standard 500 word limit. Remember this is a concept pitch, not a full rules document.
Voting: Award a Gold, Silver, and Bronze (worth 3,2, and 1 points respectively) Medals to your three favorite entries. Any entrant that does not award all three Medals will receive a Pyrite Medal (that's "Fool's Gold") worth -3 votes!
When submitting your entry: PLEASE USE THE FORM LINKED HERE.
Submissions: Monday the 3rd through Monday the 10th
Voting: Through the 17th. Votes will be through a form (link posted after submission period is ended).
Voting Format: Each person has 3 Medals (Gold, Silver, and Bronze - with values 3, 2, and 1 vote respectively) to distribute any way they choose among the GDS entries with the following restrictions:
Entrants may not assign any Medals to their own entry!
Entrants must assign all 3 Medals.
An entrant who does not assign all 3 Medals will receive a Pyrite Medal (-3 votes) as a penalty.
Comments or Questions: Comments and questions about this Challenge are handled on the Comments Thread
CRITIQUES: After voting has closed the entries will be posted for comments and critiques. Post constructive critiques and commentary about the entries to this Challenge in the Critiques Thread.
GDS Details: For more details on how these Game Design Showdown Challenges work, visit the GDS Wiki Page.
Enjoy, and good luck!
-Rich and Mindspike
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Take control of people fleeing the city in the face of impending doom. Form groups, build shelters, and barricade yourselves inside. If you happen to be stuck outside, band together, overrun the shelters and kill everyone inside!
Game Board:
In the center of the game board is the city, with many paths leading into the countryside. There are certain spots marked on the map where you can build a shelter.
Players move pawns of their color from the city to shelter sites, or between sites, trying to get as many people inside before time is up.
Different shelters have differing capacity, once this is exceeded, the shelter is overcrowded. Different shelters also have different defensive capabilities.
Play:
The game takes place in 10 rounds, each with a day phase and a night phase.
During the day phase, each player takes a turn to move their pawns:
At the start of your turn, if you have fewer than three pawns on the board, place more pawns in the city space until you have three. (Pawns inside shelters and camping don’t count towards the total.)
Roll as many dice as you have pawns on the board. For each “1” you roll, a traveling/camping pawn of your choice dies in the wilderness. Every other dice allows you to move a different pawn that number of spaces. Rolling 6 lets you place a new pawn on the city instead of moving.
You can also choose to move pawns that are sheltered or camping, but they don’t contribute to the dice pool.
Once you reach a shelter site, you can choose to stop.
If there is already a shelter at the site, people inside that shelter vote to let you in or not, with each pawn having one vote.
If yes, your pawn is added to the group, and can vote in following rounds.
If no, you can choose to camp outside or move on.
Note: Since nobody like camping outside, you cannot choose to camp outside until you have been rejected by voting
During the night phase, roll a dice for each shelter with campers outside. If (dice + campers > defenders + shelter defense), the campers overrun the shelter, and all people inside are killed. All campers are moved into the shelter.
Scoring:
After the tenth night, the apocalypse arrives, and the game ends.
Everyone not inside a shelter is instantly killed.
Every pawn of your color inside an overcrowded shelter gives 1 VP, while those inside uncrowded shelters give 3 VP.
Player choices:
Even if you have absolute control of a shelter, it is sometimes wise to let a few of your opponents pawns inside to decrease the pressure coming from outside, and make it so that if the campers invade, your opponent also loses pawns.
The base game can easily be reskinned into different themes, like barbarian hordes and strongholds, or zombies and safe houses, or nuclear attacks and bunkers. You can also expand with weird shelters with special abilities.