Iteration from Game Design Club
Last night at Game Design Club I brought Quoridor and had Jati, Maya, John, and Ignacio play it in 4-player mode. Due to the fact that we only had time for one round, I didn’t get to test my ideas for a mod out but when I asked everyone afterwards what they thought some good mod ideas might be for the game I was happy to see that they wanted a mod I had already thought up!
The first thing that came up in conversation was that it would make the game even more interesting if there were different kinds of gates, like L-shaped gates or U-shaped gates, and that was one of the mod ideas I wanted to use more than most so it was relaxing to know they thought it would be a good idea too. As they played the game they got confused with diagonal jumping and whether it applies in certain situations, and that is one of the few things I don't like about Quoridor is that it doesn't give a detailed description of when diagonal jumps can be made, so I might either nix it all together or come up with concrete rules that can't be misconstrued. They also mentioned how the game currently doesn’t have much of a theme at all, which is another asset I knew I wanted to add when modifying Quoridor. I talked about one idea for a theme I came up with when brainstorming, which was farm animals, and everyone just looked at each other with unimpressed expressions on, wondering if I was joking. I see no shame in making a game about farm animals attempting to escape their pens, I think one of the reasons Chris Lewis’ game mod was so successful was because of his clever story he told with his game. Granted, I know my idea isn’t nearly to that level yet, but that is the level of creativity I want to have when making my mod. I probably won’t stick with the farm animal concept, mainly because I haven’t explored the myriad options of themes yet, but I think it’s a better starting point than zombies, aliens, soldiers, terrorists, or anything else that is having the life squeezed out of it in today’s games and media.
When watching people play my game in 4-player mode there is always this interesting mechanic that just develops on its own as the game progresses, and that is the sacrificing of your chance to win in order to prevent another person from winning. Basically when the game is coming to a close you will usually have 2 players who are neck and neck, a player who is too far away to be able to win but has the most gates left, and then a player who has no gates and has no chance of winning. The 2 players who are neck and neck have to rely on the player who has the gates to determine who will win the game. This is just a generalization but it has happened quite a few times from the games I have watched or taken a part in. So it would seem that in the game of Quoridor it is best to be a gentleman/kind lady when playing, because if you’re talking smack the whole time and you’re neck and neck with someone else, the person who controls your fate will not choose you to win.
All of this teaming up and ganging up sparks the notion of a cooperative mechanic, but I am finding difficulties in how to make it work when in the end players are fighting for themselves.
So as of right now I’m going to keep thinking of ways to make this game NOT be Quoridor. It’s really difficult because Quoridor is such a well balanced, elegant game, that it just makes it hard to stray away from a great thing. After I find those mechanics I need I can then come up with the overarching theme and bring it all together.
