GDD - Jake Short
"Freedom" Board Game.
The only way to win. Is to lose. And Drink. And win.
1. Initial Ideas
1.1 Research
2. Design Ideas
2.1 Chosen Idea
2.1.2 Feedback
3. Equipment
3.1 Set up
3.1.2 Rules
3.1.3 Mechanics
4. Summary
4.1 Evaluation
1. (Initial Ideas)
I want to create a fun, easy to understand board game. I was struggling to come up with ideas because I was asking myself what board game would my friends and I like to play. I was thinking of making a game where everyone could be involved on each turn. more of a social game than competitive. So then i thought of creating a drinking game for a group of friends to play. Of course this would mean that there would be an age restriction to the game so that any person under the age of 18 would not be allowed to participate in the game to the full extent of an adult.
1.1 (Research)
My initial research started with looking at the drinking games that i am already familiar with. By looking on the internet and talking to my peers, i found a variety of different games that generally use a pack of cards. I thought why not just turn the cards into a board. Then come up with a simple set of rules to re create a fun, social board game.
Ring of Fire (Also known as "Kings")
Equipment - 1 Deck of cards, 2 or more players, alcoholic beverages, large cup (pint glass)
Set up - Fan the cards around the pint glass and fill the glass with 1 fingers measurement worth of all players drinks.
Card assignments
Ace - Water fall (everyone drinks in a clockwise direction until the person to their left stops drinking.)
2 - Give 2 (give 2 measurement for someone to drink)
3 - Take 3 (drink 3 measuments)
4 - Give 2 Take 2 (give 2 take 2 measurments)
5 - Rule (create a drinking rule that lasts the entire game)
6 - thumbs (Become the thumb master, if you put your thumb on the table, the last person to copy you must drink 2 measures)
7 - Heaven Master (Become the heaven master, if you rasie your arm in the air, the last person to copy you must drink 2 measuremnts)
8 - Choose mate (choose a person who must drink everytime you do)
9 - Rhyme (choose a word, all other players must say a work that rhymes with it else they have to drink.)
10 - Catagories (Choose a catagory. You come up with a category of things, and the person to your right must come up with something that falls within that category. This goes on around the table until someone can't come up with anything. This person must drink. )
Jack - All men Drink
Queen - All girls drink
King - Fill up pint glass with one measure
This game is simple to play and understand. however the more you play it the less the group may seem to pay attention or remember the rules. Also it is important that these are not the set rules for this game. Many different people have their own made up rules to add a bit of variation to it.
2. (Design Ideas)
My initial idea was to create a fast paced drinking game. I was thinking on incorporating a deck of cards with this board game because of the way it was used in the game ring of fire in my research.
The main concept for this game is to get out of the game. That's how I think you could win. However, I think I have a really good set of rules meaning that you cannot get out of the game as easy as you think. I think i will keep it simple and keep it to 4 adults per game. I could go more but i need a controlled number so i can write clearer rules.
Each player would have 3 alcoholic drinks of their choice. With plenty spare. The large white circle in the picture below represents freedom. It is here the player must get to. The beverages you have act as counters, and you must get rid of all your counters to get to freedom. 3 Drinks would be placed in-between the player and freedom. The idea, is you need to drink them before you can get out of the game. This is a drinking game at the end of the day. Other mechanics that you need to understand will be explained in the rules.
This is my general idea and below i have a very quick board I knocked up in Photoshop just to give you a general idea of what it may look like come to completion.
2.1 (Chosen Idea)
I have chosen to carry out my initial idea after discussing it with other students and they seemed to think that this was a good solid idea. I have also chose the name "Freedom" as the main concept of the game is to stop playing the game by playing the game.
2.1.2 (Feedback)
After trying this game out on an early version of the design, i found it worked very well. I played with a few friends and it turns out they really enjoyed it. They liked the simple style of the board game and also found it easy to understand and play. We did find however that it ended a bit too quickly. Mainly because their was a slight bug in the rules. We found we ran out of cards because we became overwhelmed with the consumption of our chosen drink. I therefore decided to put a cap on the maximum amount of drinks that one player could have on a table. Instead of continuously adding drinks between you and freedom we decided that you should take a forfeit of 1 shot if you already have the maximum on the table.
Having taken this feedback on board i think i have found a pretty large bug. So having corrected it I think the rules run smoother now and im confident in producing the board game.
3. (Equipment)
You will need:
- A deck of cards
- The Freedom board game
- Your own supply of alcoholic beverages (short drinks or mixers. Pints if you are brave)
- At least 2 players, Max 4
- The rules
3.1 (Set up)
- Place cards on section indicated on game board
- Place drinks of choice on sections indicated
- Place "Punishment shot" on marked circles
- Have other drink ready to be poured as the changeover will be quick
- Main drinks to be set up on sections 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. With a Shot (of your choice) on the shot section. As well as one single shot on freedom.
3.1.2 (Rules)
A) The main idea of the game is to clear all of your beverages off the board so you can get to freedom. Choose one player to start and take turns in a clockwise direction.
B) Player chooses a card
C) If the player chooses a red card, you are allowed to take one drink away from the middle and start to drink it. However, drinks that are "taken" from the middle must be consumed by the time it is your go again. If you fail to finish any of the drinks that you took from the game board you must immediately replace the missing spaces on the game board, equivalent to the number of drinks that you have in your hand, or have taken and ye to finish.
D) If the player chooses a black card on their turn, they must take a "Punishment Shot" and the immediately refill the shot glass and you have the option to take one drink from the middle, which you must finish before it is your go again. If the fail to finish the drink, they have to stack 2 drinks on the game board.
E) If you choose a face card, this includes an Ace, you get a chance to regroup because face cards and Ace's have different rules.
Face cards:
- Jack - You are now exempt from having to do a "punishment shot" until another player draws a jack. If you draw the last jack. Take 2 shots.
- Queen - As the queen you are now the queen of questions. Any player that answers your questions must add another drink between them and freedom. This lasts until another player draws a queen. If the last queen is drawn. Take 1 shot.
- King - Create a rule that everyone abides by. This rule however may not affect any of the rules already in place in the game. And you cannot give yourself immunity from drinking. (Example of Rule card - Toilet card. Or Making anyone that says the word "drink" take 2 shots. Rules also apply to yourself.
- Ace - If you draw an Ace card, all other players must consume one "punishment shot" and you are allowed to skip a turn if you wish, otherwise you may pick another card. If the last ace is drawn this is called a "Nightmare" As the person to draw the last Ace must take 2 shots and choose one other player to take 2 shots as well.
F) Once all cards are drawn, re shuffle the deck and continue.
G) Freedom is gained when one player has cleared all drinks from the table and has taken the punishment shot form in the middle of the game. Other players can continue until 2nd 3rd and 4th place is decided or you can re shuffle the deck and start again.
Additional Rules:
- No more than 4 drinks per player may be on the table at a time. If you have reached the max number and have to forfeit. Consume a shot. (This does not include "punishment shot")
- Drink responsibly
- If you do not wish to play with alcoholic beverages then any other drink of your choice is fine.
3.1.3 (Mechanics)
The game mechanics are easy to understand because many of them have very clear and distinctive way to recognise them. The simple mechanic of identifying whether a card is black or red makes it easier for people to understand and therefore make them want to get involved This is very much a social and relaxed game that you could play with your friends It needs to be fun and the mechanics have to reflect that by being as easy to grasp as possible.
I included a game mechanic that I found in my research. The rule card. This gives the player a chance to put some of their own input into the game. So depending on who you play with, you may get different rules making the game fun and easy to share with others.
List:
- King = Rule card
- Red card = take drink
- Black card = shot
- Jack = safety
- Queen = question master
4. Summary
Freedom is a fun and relaxed game that's great to play with friends. A game were the only real objective is to try and stop playing. This unique twist makes the game fun and interesting. With some simple game rules and mechanics that are easy to grasp, and will continue to get better the more you play it.
4.1 Evaluation
I like the overall design and layout of my board game. I also think that the idea is good. I have played many games like it but i think i've given the game an interesting twist.
I think my initial research went well. I had to do a bit of fact finding about the rules for "Ring of fire" but i did state that the rules do change depending on who is playing. That's what i really wanted to get out of it. A fun social game for you and your mates. I believe i have done that. The game mechanics that I implemented by combining some of my own ideas and using my research really make it like no board game I have ever played before. One mechanic that i came up with was the rule card. this allows any player old or new to have their own input into the game. Also the question master card is one i have found playing other games. This rule tries to keep you on your toes even though it is getting progressively harder to do so.
I think i would change my initial idea designs. In would have like to do more because i think it would have been better to show more variation in the design. I was just really focused on trying to make sure i had the rules running smoothly because i didn't want any bugs. I thought that rather than have an amazing looking board game with a poor set of rules, I'd produce some clear and easy to understand rules so that you could enjoy the game rather than jut think it was something nice to look at.
Having said that i am very happy with the design of the board game. I am really pleased with its simplicity I chose a strange text for the title of the game. This is my own sort of sarcastic sense of humour I found it funny to put a really pleasant inviting text on the game. It leads you to a false sense of security, because once you start reading the rules, you may find this game is much more difficult to play than you first thought. I even put a little tag line under the title, "the fun filled brutal drinking game". Emphasis on "Brutal".
I decided to go with a simple colour system of red, blue, yellow and green. Again I thought it would be a funny touch on a children game, when clearly this is not a children game. It also adds some clear definition between players. Since there are no counters, the players own drinks are technically the "counters" and the colour system is another way that the board game separates one player from another.
I originally didn't want to add the playing cards to the game. I thought this was too much like my research and i didn't want to copy. But i thought the game needed more to it. It felt light and slightly one way. The card system keeps everyone involved and around the board. I found that this was a good decision to put them in. Mainly because i changed the reason they were in the game. each individual card does not have a rule, only the face cards do. The red and black cards have one instruction, so this adds variety to the game as well as the players themselves to use rules that they make up themselves.
I would have liked to play test the game a few more times with different people. Its difficult to be sure that the test with my friends went ok because they could be being bias or they could have all misinterpreted the rules. However the one thing they did say was that it was a good laugh and they would play again. That to me is a successful play test. Especially because we did end up finding a small bug in which the rules stated no limit to the amount drinks you could have on the table at one time. Some of the people that play tested it with me believed i should leave this out and not change the rules. But if i didn't change them the rules would be to open to interpretation and that can lead to more problems than solutions.
In conclusion I believe that this is a successful board game at achieving its purpose to entertain. its users. Not only that but i have enjoyed creating it. I would proudly show it to more of my friends and colleges and see if they would like to play it. And i think i have made a clear understanding of the design process within this GDD and using practical programmes like Photoshop, as well as providing a good variety of game play mechanics and game dynamics
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