Board Game Ideas

  I've been working on coming up with ideas for the board game project in game design class. I started out by listing some "what ifs" for potential ideas, themes, and mechanics. Here's the list that I came up with.

    1. What if the game involved gardening?
    2. What if the game explored the concept of mindfulness?
    3. What if the game involved rolling a wheel different distances to gain points?
    4. What if the game involved growing a bonsai tree?
    5. What if the game incorporated a traffic circle?
    6. What if the game simulated painting?
    7. What if the game was a competitive puzzle?
    8. What if the game simulated the relationships between different tribal groups?
    9. What if the game was based on industrial era coal mining?
  10. What if the game involved animist ideas?
  11. What if the game simulated stock market trading?
  12. What if the game took place inside a clock and involved time as a core mechanic?
  13. What if the game involved a solar eclipse?
  14. What if the game included horseback riding?
  15. What if the game was based on Taoist philosophy?
  16. What if the game included aircraft?
  17. What if the game involved anthropology with a core mechanic involving observation and data collection?
  18. What if the game made use of magnets?
  19. What if the game involved effects of physics in some way?
  20. What if the flow of the game board was based on that of a waterfall?
  21. What if the game was a puzzle involving resource management?
  22. What if the game utilized sound perception as a core mechanic?
  23. What if the game was a political hacking puzzle where the goal is to rig elections to gain the most votes?
  24. What if the game involved solving a maze?
  25. What if the game involved trade caravans and making money with a cooperative twist?

  This preliminary list helped me to start coming up with some more fleshed out ideas. Here's a couple of ideas that I came up with.

Competitive Bonsai Maze Game 

 In this game, the players would start at the bottom of a bonsai tree. Their goal would be to reach the highest point of the tree before the other players. Every turn, the player rolls a die, and the number on this die would correspond to a section of the tree where a new branch would grow out. Over time, these branches may end up interconnecting, causing possible paths of movement to constantly change. This also means that the highest point on the tree will also constantly change, so players will have to adjust their paths based on the growth of the tree. Players would also get the opportunity to reshape the tree by trimming off sections of the branches.

Game board sketch. Players initially move one blue point per turn. New branches are added at the growth points (marked GP). As players reach the new branches, they move along one branch segment each turn. There could be different variations of branch segments that are randomly chosen, as shown on the left.

Competitive Coal Mining Game

 Each player has a mining shaft that would be visually represented as a straight line with a number of tiles. Players start out with the first tile available for mining. Accessing the next tile down requires more mining equipment that is purchased by one coal token. The highest density of coal is in tiles that are slightly more than halfway to the bottom. There is gradually less coal in tiles above and below the high density tiles. The amount of coal gathered in a turn is represented by a die roll. Regardless of the die roll, the player may only harvest as much coal as there is available in the tiles that he or she has purchased. A die roll of an even number triggers a random event for the player, which involves re rolling, with the new number corresponding to an event.

 Here's some possible random events based on the die number rolled:
    1- Flooding: Lose one tile or pay two coal to immediately regain it
    2- Explosion: Lowest tile is unavailable for next two turns
    3- Worker strike: One tile of the player's choice is unavailable for the next turn
    4- Fire: Bottom three tiles are unavailable until one coal is payed to extinguish
    5- Mine collapse: Bottom two tiles unavailable for one turn
    6- More coal discovered: Add 10 coal to a tile of your choice (this coal must still be harvested through rolling the die)

Sketch of the basic space that each player interacts with. Players use coal to gain access to the next level of tile, where they can harvest more coal. The most coal is located in the tiles a bit more than halfway down. There could be more or less tiles depending on what ends up being the most fun.

The goal of the game is to have the highest amount of coal after a determined amount of turns.

  So these are my ideas at the moment. I'll continue to post updates as I keep working working on this project.