Designing a Boardgame: Suggestions?

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Hiccup
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Designing a Boardgame: Suggestions?

Post by Hiccup »

Hi all. First off, I’m hesitant to post this as I’m still early in the process. So far I’m about 2 weeks into fleshing out my overall idea, and have a few details on what I want to accomplish. I think (hope) I’m at the point where I can consult the expert gamers here for advice and suggestions (or a “it’s already been made”). For now my ONLY goal is get this fleshed out and actually playable if only for myself and my friends. If things look good and there is interest outside of my target audience of 4-5 people, well…I’ll cross that road when I come to it.

Concept
I wanted to take my two favorite board games (Monopoly and Life), combine them, and add some strategy and some complexity. Also, take a concept from another childhood favorite (Bonkers. For those who never tried or heard of it, you start with a blank board but set path and you place pieces to dictate movement. Ahead 3, Back 2, Draw 2 tiles, etc), to add player factors to the game board.

What I have so far is roughly an 8x8 city block board (currently laid out in an Excel Spreadsheet just to grid it out) with two lane roads, one way roads, bike paths, and a walking path/skyway system. There is also 6 subway stations scattered on the board, and 6 rail stations along the horizontal center of the board.

Like Life, you will start by choosing your career down one of two paths. The advanced path is a longer start but offers higher salaries and “perks”, however advanced careers have downsides like paying double on certain fines or fees. Basic careers offer no perks (other than collecting money from other players), and no downsides. When you’re done moving on the career paths but before you move out into the world, you have to buy or rent 2 things. First a house to keep your family, as keeping them in the car for the whole game would be silly. You can either buy it upfront or “rent” it for the whole game. An apartment is available but then you are limited in the family size. Second is your vehicle. Unlike Life, where everyone had a station wagon, you can buy your transportation around the map. Each vehicle moves differently, or rather how movement is determined is different for each vehicle. You can even choose to not have a car and utilize the shortcut walking paths.

Where Monopoly comes in is the ability to buy property, or “lots”. There are two main types of lots; Residential and Commercial. Each type has sub-types; Low Income/Medium income /High income residential and Small Business/Large Business/Corporation. Unlike Monopoly, other players don’t necessarily pay other players when they land on those properties. Residential is based off of “renters” and is determined by game events, similar to business. There are no Houses or Hotels, and properties are treated as a somewhat steady source of secondary income aside from the salary. There will also be utility “lots” (electric and water) where players earn income based on owned lots, and public “lots” (roads and parking). Parking “lots” function like the you would expect in Monopoly where the player landing on a Parking Ramp pays the owner of that lot. Also, owners of parking “lots” are given parking meter tiles they can place anywhere on the map. Road “lots” gain the owner road blocks which can close a road to other players for a set amount of turns. (The parking meter and road block idea came from Bonkers.)

Each round of turns will be considered 1 month, and depending on the career, players will collect their salary at the beginning of the turn.

First thought on determining a winner is either last player standing or highest net worth after 72 (6 years) turns.

Details so far…

Careers
Advanced Path
  • Diplomat - Mid Salary - +: Can not be fired, Does not pay Legal,Tax,Speeding,Daycare -: Can not own Residential, Utilities, or Public, Can not use Mass Transit
    Athlete - Very High Salary - +: Can not be fired. Reroll on lowest move combo -:Pays 2x speeding fines, Can not use Mass transit, Not paid during May-Dec
    CEO - Highest Salary - +:Recieves 1 month Salary rest of game if fired. -:If fired can not choose adanced career, can not use Mass Transit
    Doctor - High Salary - +/-:TBD
    Lawyer - High Salary - +/-:TBD
    Superintendant - Mid Salary - +/-:TBD
    Star Entertainer - Very High Salary - +/-:TBD
    Living Diety - Low Salary - +:Can not be fired, Selects other players to pay fines/fees -:No Mass Transit, Walking only
  • Basic Path
    Diplomat Assistant - Mid Salary - +/-:TBD
    Accountant - Mid Salary - +/-:TBD (Collects double salary in April)
    Manager - High Salary - +/-:TBD
    Nurse - Mid Salary - +/-:TBD
    Local Celeb - High Salary - +/-:TBD
    Police Officer - Mid Salary - +/-:TBD (Collects speeding fines)
    Child care provider - Low Salary - +/-:TBD (Collects day care fees)
    Paralegal - Mid Salary - +/-:TBD
    Beggar - Very Low Salary - +/-:TBD
Movement
Vehicles

Code: Select all

• Doubles:  if more than 1 dice is rolled, and two dice match values, player can roll again.  However, the second roll is added to the first and counts towards speeding fines.
• Speeding fines on speeds >20, double fines at >=30
• Movement penalty on one way streets
   o Movement on one way streets is 2d6 with speeding fine at 10,11,12
• Types of vehicles: All "Cars" can not use walking path, “skyway”, or bike path
   o Exotic Car – movement is 1d6 * 1d6 - example 5 * 5= 25 spaces
      Higher cost, greater chance at speeding fines, only chance at double speeding fines. Greatest range
   o Luxury Car – movement is 2d6*2 – example (3+6) * 2 = 18 spaces
      High cost, chance at speeding fines
   o Standard Car – movement is 3d6 - example (2+3+6) = 11 spaces
      Medium cost
   o Hybrid – movement is 2d6 - example (4+5) = 9 spaces
      Medium cost, same movement as bike
   o Bicycle – movement is 2d6 - example (4+5) = 9 spaces
      Low Cost, can use all roads and bike paths
   o Walking – movement is 1d6
      No Cost, can use all roads, bike paths, and walking paths.
More to Come...
Last edited by Hiccup on Thu Feb 07, 2013 4:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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stessier
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Re: Designing a Boardgame: Suggestions?

Post by stessier »

Hiccup wrote:Also, take a concept from another childhood favorite (Bonkers. For those who never tried or heard of it, you start with a blank board but set path and you place pieces to dictate movement. Ahead 3, Back 2, Draw 2 tiles, etc), to add player factors to the game board.
I don't have anything to say to help, but wanted to mention that we had Bonkers and loved that game. :)
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SpaceLord
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Re: Designing a Boardgame: Suggestions?

Post by SpaceLord »

The Board Game Design forum at BGG is very active, lots of games have been developed with help from those guys. I'd take a look there.
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Re: Designing a Boardgame: Suggestions?

Post by coopasonic »

SpaceLord wrote:The Board Game Design forum at BGG is very active, lots of games have been developed with help from those guys. I'd take a look there.
I would just steal some sweet art, start a kickstarter asking for like $10k and then take it from there. It seems that on KS, boobs = $$$, so make sure you have some scantily clad minis, with more as stretch rewards. It's even better if your stretch rewards make it so you end up losing money.

I've considered game design, but all I imagine is games that already exist. If you need someone to playtest the solo rules, let me know. ;)
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Lorini
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Re: Designing a Boardgame: Suggestions?

Post by Lorini »

I don't quite understand what you are doing but combining Life and Monopoly sounds like a roll and move game, and no one will publish a roll and move game anymore. Be sure to figure out some other way to move pieces around the board.
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Re: Designing a Boardgame: Suggestions?

Post by Zarathud »

My problem is trying to figure out how the theme and play mechanic will work and be fun.

My 5 year old is helping me design a counting card game about rescuing princesses. The key mechanic is playing enough love or fight cards to complete the quest, with a take-that element of your opponent laying down a monster/ barrier to make it harder. Adults have to play enough love AND fight. I have to figure out how high 3-5 year olds can count. I think they should be able to get to 5-10 love (hearts on the card) or fight (swords on the card). There's a shared location deck where the princesses are found, a bad guy deck and 1-4 good guy decks.

Right now we have 60-80 3x8 cards with kid drawing on them, waiting on stickers. I'll get some card art and print a few decks at tucows.com, then see where it goes from there.
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Re: Designing a Boardgame: Suggestions?

Post by stessier »

Zarathud wrote: I have to figure out how high 3-5 year olds can count.
That's a huge range. At my kids school, by the end of 3K they are expected to count to 20 (although many can get to 29 and then say twenty-ten). 4K it is something like 50. Kindergarten is 100 including starting to learn to count by 5s and 10s. (First grade is upto 120 by 2s, 5s, and 10s.)
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