I Make Games!

Make More Games

Global Game Jam 2013 came and went like a bang.  In the aftermath, however, I gained some insight into what I do.  And what do I do?  I don't make enough games!  What is a Game Designer to do if he doesn't make games?  Well, it's time to fix that!

With a new fervor, I now design a game every day, with thoughts to the distilled premise of the idea, ways to implement the game, and considerations or questions to take into account.  I won't bore you with every idea I come up with, but details of which games I pursue I hope to share with you.

Here's the first game that I've started to play-test.  It is a mod on Chess, where 2 8-sided dice are rolled; one is the row of the Chess board, the other is the column.  Originally, the rules were that the 2 dice were rolled at the start of each player's turn.  Whatever piece was on the tile rolled was removed from the game, regardless of who rolled the dice.

Then, there was carnage -

Game 1 saw the Black King get taken by a die roll at the start of Black's turn.  Game 2 had White put Black in checkmate because of a roll.

At this point, a modification was made to state that if an enemy King was put in check by a roll, that King could not immediately be taken that turn.  In addition, there was a suggestion made to include 1-8 and A-H indicators on the side of the Chess board to better assist in determining which tile was rolled.

Game 3 had White Queen put Black into check, next turn to be checkmate, but Black's turn rolled the tile of White's King, thereby ending the game in victory for Black.  This move resulted in another modification: rolling the tile that holds a King doesn't remove the King, but just makes it so that the King cannot be moved on the turn it was rolled.

The final game was the first game to effectively end in checkmate.  However, White was utterly decimated nearly every turn by having rolls remove White's pieces one by one.  But, with that, a like/dislike interview was conducted.

Like: There is a great random-chance potential to really alter the strategy of an opposing player by the die rolls.

Dislike: When luck is against a player completely and utterly, the one-sided nature of the imbalance is quite glaring.

Some final thoughts of mine would have to be to mod the game to make it so that a player cannot remove their own piece if a tile they hold is rolled.  Another mod would be to not allow the rolling to be done until either the first piece of the game is taken, or that a King or Queen wouldn't be able to move for a turn if one chose to roll.  Lastly, it was suggested to not allow the Queen to be taken by rolling, which makes the sense to disallow all forms of random-chance regicide.

Well, tell me what you think!  I will likely play this game of Chess again; afterward, there are going to be plenty of other games to make.  Wish me luck, and take care of yourself.



Who makes games?  Who wants to make more and better games?  This guy!

Let me know if I'm on the right track or anything...