Board Game Brainstorming

Board Game Brainstorming

For Game Design we are creating our own board game and thinking about some games that I have played, there are a lot of successful features to them. I’ve been playing board games ever since I was little and I have many favorites. 

Battleship

This combat game where you tried to destroy the enemy team was definitely one of my favorites. Some successful features that Battleship has are how simple it is to play, but yet it’s very fun. Also the way they use two separate boards is a very useful technique, and it works perfectly for the game. It also uses a grid system well for it’s layout, it works perfect and makes it easy to say A2 or something and then your opponent knows exactly what you are talking about. It’s inspiring that a game so simple became so addicting to play and is so popular. A few things that could improve Battleship would be maybe the design of the bomb pieces; maybe they could be made more representational of a bomb. A crazy or outrageous thing that Battleship does is the fear of your ship being hit or destroyed. I really like the overall concept of this game, and would like to try and incorporate a few of it’s features into my own game, or even changing some of the features into my own.

Candy Land

This game is a race to the finish, and whoever gets there first is the winner. This is a classic game that is simple and is played in a short amount of time. It took the simple race to the end concept and added some traps and stops it takes you on, on you way to the finish. Candy Land’s simplicity and versatility work well for it, since it’s so simple and quick to play almost anyone can play it. Candy land could improve its overall design of the board, and make some better graphics also. Candy Land has a few crazy or outrageous things, like some of the places you stop at can be a little outrageous. I like the concept of the game and some of the traps and bad cards you can get, I would like to try and incorporate that into my game also.

Monopoly

This strategy-based game is fun board game and one of the most popular. It has very many successful traits. Some of them being how they used the spaces you land on, to be something you can purchase, or something you lose money on. I really like how they integrated real life scenarios into the game, like when you receive money, or how you can go to jail, and buying and selling property. All of which are very successfully used and make the game fun to play. Monopoly could be a better game if it could be played faster; I almost rarely finish a full game of Monopoly. Its game play just seems to drag on after a while. A crazy or outrageous thing that Monopoly does it the trading system it has with cards. Overall Monopoly is a very fun game and has an awesome concept behind it. I would like to try and incorporate the trading feature that Monopoly has into my game possibly.

Game Ideas

1. A war-like game where the player would roll a dice, and there would also be cards and have to obtained different weapons, and the overall goal is to destroy the enemy team.
2. A game mechanic where the player can move their own pieces on their turn, but there is also the option to move the opponents piece too.
3.  A game possibly called island trap where people are stranded on an island and to survive the player needs to go around the board and collect things. The first person to collect all of the needed things and escapes wins.
4. A game mechanic where there are certain spots that can be landed on, on the board, and the player must get a card from landing on those certain spots.
5. A game possibly called galaxy run where everyone is a different spaceship and the goal is to try and get to the Launchpad first, to move the player must roll a dice and pick up cards.
6. A game involving pirates, where there are two teams and the goal is to try and collect treasures.
7. A game that has a spinner and the player would collect pieces and build a castle, and whoever builds theirs first wins.
8. A game possibly called troll hunt, where the player must go through the board and roll a dice to move, and they collect different weapons that they use to try and kill the troll, there could be spots you land on where they could possibly lose weapons.
9. A game where there is an assassin, it starts off with cards being dealt and one person ends up getting the assassin card and no one knows. Need at least 3 players.
10. A game possibly called Trapped, where there is a monster stuck in a box in the middle and there are explorers and protectors and the explorers are trying to release the monster and the protectors are trying to kill the explorers.
11. A game mechanic where there is something in the middle that the players all try and fill with pieces of there own color that everyone gets as they move along the board. When the cup is filled, whoever has the most of their color in the cup wins.
12. A game involving ghosts where it’s a race to the end, there is a maze that is followed, and there are cards that the player picks up and they can possibly send them forward or back to graveyards.
13. A game about robbery, the overall goal is to rob a diamond. Each player rolls and draws a card, they keep the cards and in order to rob the diamond they need a certain amount of cards. Other players can trick other players by making them think you have the certain amount of cards.
14. A game mechanic where there is a spinner in the middle that allows the player to move. It’s colored and depending on the color they get, it determines what card they got.
15. A game possibly called alien invasion where there is a spaceship at the end, and the aliens try to get to the spaceship.
16. A game involving robots, there are 3 different levels of robots and the player wants to get the highest level, and to get that you must collect thing from the board.
17. A game mechanic that is a grid like board and the player must draw cards, some cards say that a certain spot blows up. If the player is on that spot or the enemy is then whoever it is, dies.
18. A game involving the alphabet, the player has to go through the board, which is made up of every letter A-Z. The player must go along and roll a die then whatever letter is landed on, the player must draw a card and it gives them a category. From that they must say a word that is connected to the category and starts with whatever letter they are on.
19. A game mechanic where the player tries to own more land than the opponent, and whoever owns the most land first wins.
20. A wizard game where there are different kinds of wizards and the player must gain powers and needs to destroy things that are blocking their way. Goal is to get the other teams side first.

3 board game broken down

1. My first game is called Trapped, where there is a monster stuck in the middle of the board inside of a box. There are then two opposing players, the explorer and the protector. The explorer is trying to let the monster out of its box, and the protector is trying to protect the monster so he is trying to kill the explorer. This will be a 2-player game, to move around the board you must roll a die. I want my theme to be very futuristic, and I am thinking about making my board out of Plexiglass, and I also want a light to be in the cage with the monster if possible. Then on the board you will have pieces that fill the cut out spots, and those pieces are colored Plexiglass, and they will be flipped over so that when the player lands on them, they have to flip them over themselves and on the back the piece will say either something good or bad. The player could either use the piece right away or save it.

2. My second board game idea would involve pirates. There would be 2 teams and they want to collect treasures. On the board there would bridges and boats, and the player needs a certain amount of points to cross and points are achieved by going to the treasure chests. Once the player crosses the bridges they get more treasure chest points. To finish the game they must cross using the boat, and they need a certain amount of points to cross using the boat. Also the player must cross all of the bridges and get the treasure chest before they can cross using the boat. Once they make it to the island using the boat they win. The players roll dice to move and some spaces on the board are dead spaces or make the player move forward or backwards. There are also certain spots that can be landed on that make the player pick a card. The cards will then have things that say certain things, and one example is that the player can either move their own piece forward 3 spaces or move their enemies piece backwards 3 spaces.

3. My last board game idea involves an assassin. I want to make a game where you have at least 4 players, three of them are civilians, and one of them is an assassin. Everyone first gets dealt a card telling him or her who they are, and one person ends up with the assassin but no one knows who. Then everyone grabs character pieces, which are all similar except for color difference, The assassins goal is to eliminate the other players, and the other players want to get to the other side of the city, before they get killed. The assassin wins once he kills everyone, and the civilians win if they all get to the other side of the city alive. To move around the players will have to roll a dice.