Previously I mentioned that one of my New Years’ resolutions is to develop one of my own game ideas sufficiently that I’m comfortable submitting it to a publisher. While I have a few different options for ideas I’d like to limit it to one that is relatively simple (to make sure I have enough time to do it right), cheap to produce (since I think a publisher might not want to take a big risk on a new designer), and promising. Based on these criteria, I have culled out one of my more recent ideas and I will be concentrating on it.
The concept involves using both tile-laying and area enclosure, in order to create area majorities. The best analogy I could come up with to explain the gameplay (and therefore my choice for the working theme) is that of cattle ranchers fencing off different parts of a pasture in order to gain possession of the most cows (all the cows within an enclosure are scored by you if you have the most). There will be a limited amount of pasture tiles and fences which either player may place in turn. Different types of cattle will appear on the pasture tiles with each player being trying to create fields that have majorities of that type. The game will likely be two-player only. My working title is “Cattle Baron”, although I also like “Don’t Fence Me In”.
I created a very simple prototype a couple of weeks ago and tried playing against myself to see where it went. While there was some gameplay there, the tactics were more limited than I had hoped. You could both find scoring opportunities and respond to your opponent, but trying to defend against what your opponent might do was quite difficult. Recently, I’ve created a new prototype which I have yet to test. I’ve changed the configuration of the fields in order to make placing fences a little more difficult and I’ve added “neutral cows” that add to scoring, but don’t help make majorities for either player. I’m hoping these changes add to the tactical possibilities.
New Hints: Additional (and more substantial) LudiQuest 2 hints will be posted tomorrow.
Two more games played last night (Evo, Unspeakable Words) brings my game count to 25.
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Just wanted to say that I tested out the cattle game and see lots of potential. It was simple to learn and easy to play with just enough strategy to keep it interesting. Was also pretty quick. It's a great start.
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