Board Game Prototyping

The game my partner and I created was a turn based game played over a hex grid. It could be considered a strategy game, but it wasn't quite at that stage when we ended class on Thursday. The point of the game was to maneuver your piece to have line of sight of your opponents piece and then roll for attack range, and if they were within range, you defeated their piece and earned yourself a win, played first to 3 wins. The game was kind of fun and there were definitely moments that were stressful or just plain funny, but it wasn't anything anyone would spend money on.

Original Game

Mechanics - Before: The mechanics at the end of class would be grid movement, turn based, and dice rolling

Play 1 - In class: After the brainstorm session in class, my partner and I played the game ourselves. We noticed quickly that the game would be fairly short, and decided to make the game be decided by a first-to-three point system. Even with this system in effect, the games went by quickly, each one taking about 2-3 minutes, the longest one being probably 5 minutes. There were some nerve-wracking moments, such as when we were moving back and forth after continuously rolling low moves, or the time where I thought I had taken the game by getting directly next to the other piece only to roll a zero and enter XCOM flashbacks, but the simplicity of the game simply didn't leave much of an impression.

Missing at point blank range, XCOM style

Play 2 - At Home: I decided to start the at home playtest by playing the original game without making any changes. The first time my family and I played, the game went incredibly quickly, we both made a beeline for each others' pieces, and each round finished within a minute, with it basically being a game of chance. From this, we both agreed that there simply wasn't enough strategy to make the game engaging and prevent it from being completely based on RNG. We increased the number of units from one to three (soldier, scout, and sniper, the alliteration wasn't planned) and gave each of them their own movement and range modifiers, and then started our second game. At this point I should mention that, since my family is in the middle of moving and I didn't have any pieces to use at home, we played in tabletop simulator.

The new and improved rules, not sure if they're readable

Play 3 - Class Again: This time, the game was significantly more engaging. Having 3 different units to move around meant we had a lot more options for strategy. Should I send the sniper and try to get a high roll to take this unit out from a distance? Or should I send the scout and try a rush? we only got to play one game, but even that was helpful, as we decided the ranges were all to long, and so reduced the scouts range to 2 and the Knights range to 4

game played after the rule change, knight is the soldier, thief is the scout, and archer is the sniper

Mechanics - After: after the changes I decided I could finally add strategy to the list of mechanics