GLBasic Competition: Board games

Previous topic - Next topic

kamakazieturtle

Does it have to be a clone of the game, or can we do a modified version of it?

Hatonastick

#16
Edit:  Removed waffle about possible copyright and trademark issues.

Edit: I'd have loved to see some of the games on XBox Live make it to Wiiware eg. Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan especially...  Anyway, I'm the only board game fanatic here (where I live, not on this forum -- collector and long-time frequenter of BoardGameGeek), so my collection tends to sit on the shelves and gather dust.  So despite what I said earlier, I'd love to see how this competition goes and which games get made.  Especially any that have AI players. :)

FutureCow

I'm heading for a "similar" idea rather than giving it the same name and images as the original. As per Retro Remakes where I also frequent, the question of copyright can be a difficult one, so I'm going to use the same game mechanic as the board game combined with my own variations. Similar, but different - just like iSnack 2.0   :whistle:
Hold onto your hats folks, I think this game's gonna be a good one!

Hey Hatonastick, if you have a box of Cluedo floating around gathering dust, you don't want to let it gather dust at my house do you? :D

Hatonastick

#18
Actually I don't have that one.  Odd, considering I loved it as a kid.  It's still around you know -- try places like Angus and Robertson (or that American chain of book stores that currently escapes me), or places like Big W/K-Mart.  That, a zillion variants of Monopoly (which erm I do have, but don't tell anyone on BoardGameGeek!) and other similar American board games are still around. :)

FutureCow

I can get it brand new, I've been watching ebay trying to pick it up at a good price second hand. I'll stop hijacking this thread now!  :whistle:

Hatonastick

Turns out I have it and I didn't even realise it. :)  I used to collect board games so I have a few, but nowhere near as many as a lot of the people on BoardGameGeek.  Mostly because they are so incredibly expensive out this side of the pond as opposed to the US or Europe which is where most of them come from ie. so-called Eurogames and Ameritrash.  =D

Erm ditto on thread-jacking.  Hope you get it cheap mate.  Pity the newer versions have really sub-standard components compared to the older versions of Cluedo.

Kitty Hello

I loved "Scottland Yard" as a kid, but I don't own one now. A shame. Never played Cluedo :(

Sebastian

Do card based games also count?

Hatonastick

Quote from: Kitty Hello on 2009-Oct-08
I loved "Scottland Yard" as a kid, but I don't own one now. A shame. Never played Cluedo :(
Can still get Scotland Yard mate.  Well...  Over here you can at least.  In the usual American stores like Big W, K-Mart, Toys R Us etc.  Not sure how many of their stores you have in Germany, here it's pretty much all you get.

Cluedo was fun, but ultimately flawed in some regards -- you can spend a lot of time just rolling a dice, moving on the board but nothing happens (unlike Monopoly where potentially something can happen every square).  The fun part is collecting clues and working out (especially if you can guess before the answer becomes obvious) who did it.  I'd have liked to have seen a revised version with a board redesign and a couple of rules changes, and even some expansions with other scenarios.  Once upon a time I looked at expanding the premise behind Cluedo a little further without making it overly complex.  If some parts of the original game play were tightened up, Cluedo really has potential to be more fun than it is (not that it isn't fun now, you just need the right sort of group ie. not board game snobs :D).

Anyway I think from memory Scotland Yard is considered to be a slightly better game.

Kitty Hello

Yes, I think card games are perfectly OK.

Scotland Yard is sold here, yes. I just could not get my wife to buy it ;). My oldest kid is about in the right age for the game now. I might present her for xmas, maybe. There was a version for the NDS that featured mutiplayer. Not sure if it was good, though.

FutureCow

Scotland Yard was going to be my game entry funnily enough, but I couldn't work out a middle ground for the AI for any computer players. It would've either been totally random, or would've gone straight for the player. I went for a different one where I could cope with the AI instead :D
Scotland Yard seems to be either too easy (assuming most of the detectives were placed somewhere near Mr X to begin with) or too hard (if they're not close together). And what's with having 2 moves before showing where Mr X is? The idea of getting to somewhere like the waterway where you can move a long way is a good idea, but it's a bit stupid when you may be headed totally the wrong direction.

While looking at Cluedo on the net (also one I was going to do, I had a really cool idea for mixing 2D and 3D - well, I thought it was going to be cool, whether or not it would've been is open to interpretation! *laugh*) I found that one of the official computer versions seems to have a different design map. Maybe they've tackled some of the design flaws?

Sebastian

One of the best board games I used to play when I was 9 was Hero Quest from MB. It really is a shame that they don't re-release this piece of instant roleplaying board game classic. I wouldn't try to do that for the competition though. It'd be too much work for 3 months.

Go would be interesting but either too easy (without AI) or too hard (with AI).

Kitty Hello

Quote from: FutureCow on 2009-Oct-08
Scotland Yard seems to be either too easy (assuming most of the detectives were placed somewhere near Mr X to begin with) or too hard (if they're not close together).
IIRC, the original game had only a short list of starting points for anyone. Thus, you can't start 2 places next to X.
Also, there was a certain amount of steps to move before X showed up in the first place.

For computer AI, you would have to consider, that you are either sure you're close to X (chase mode) or (if you have no idea where X is or are very far away) make sure you are at a quick station when X will have to show.
If you're close, you will have to determine where X might have travelled with the ticket he used and then just take the shortest trip to any of the possible places. That's what I'd try, it's not an easy game to do.

Hatonastick

Quote from: Sebastian on 2009-Oct-08
One of the best board games I used to play when I was 9 was Hero Quest from MB. It really is a shame that they don't re-release this piece of instant roleplaying board game classic. I wouldn't try to do that for the competition though. It'd be too much work for 3 months.

Go would be interesting but either too easy (without AI) or too hard (with AI).
The guy that developed Hero Quest made a sister game (I think it was him) set in the Warhammer 40k world called Space Quest.  That's the one I owned and wish I'd never gotten rid of.  Another similar game from around that time was Space Hulk, considered by sci-fi fans to be one of the best 'Ameritrash' sci-fi board games ever made.  Hero Quest was a lot of fun though.  Didn't own it but got to play it a few times when I was younger.

If you are into that sort of thing you might want to try tracking down a copy of Warhammer Quest which is a more modern release and very much along the same lines.  I was still seeing it in game stores here a few years ago, although maybe they finally pulled it (was originally released in the mid-90's I think).  That's published by Games Workshop though.  Might want to check their website.  There really aren't many decent dungeon crawler style board games around anymore.  Mind you I've been away from BoardGameGeek for a while, so I may be wrong.

Good grief...  I just had a look at BoardGameGeek and apparently Games Workshop has re-released Space Hulk, 3rd edition.  They must have finally caved into years of pressure.  Wonder if that's affected the eBay sales of the original -- some of the most overpriced boardgames you could ever see on there.

Anyway, be interested to see some of the games people choose to make in this competition.  Hopefully not all going to be chess, Go variants or draughts/checkers. :)

FutureCow

Bah! Who needs draughts/checkers when you can do tic-tac-toe!  :nana: