Tweak and Iterate

[flwyd]

When you're developing a new game, it's nice to start with something that finishes quickly so you can play it lots of times while you're trying to get the right balance.

For a month or two I've wanted to come up with a game that uses Set cards. I combined that with my thoughts about games with secret goals into a set of possible rules (no pun intended). I've decided to call it Set-Up, in part because you tend to rely on your opponents to make it possible for you to win.

We played at least 9 variants at game day, attempting to vary at most one rule per trial. The first few were pretty lame, but the end state was a pretty good game, as judged by the amount of anguish people experienced when trying to decide which cards to play.

I don't have time before bed, but this week I'll write up a set of rules and axes of variation so anyone can play around and make it an even better game.

I hope your spring equinox creations are as much fun!

Comments

Bang!

[mackys.livejournal.com]

If you haven't seen it already, you might be interested in a card game called Bang! One player has a known identity and goal (the sheriff), and the others have unknown identities and unknown goals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bang!#Strategy