Utara - "Play Here Now."


While Tim and the Ludo Dojo guys played Utara, they were deciding which moon variant to use. One of the players proposed using the moon's actual phase. In this case, the moon was almost full, so they used the Full Moon variant. That's when I realized just how much "Play Here Now" is embedded in Utara's design.

To "Play Here Now" means you're playing something that elegantly reminds you of where you are in that place and in that time. The phrase itself is inspired by spiritual teach Ram Dass' 1971 book Be Here Now. Though the Buddha reputedly discouraged games as a distraction from true awareness, I'll humbly submit that a game can be the spoonful of sugar to help the existential medicine go down.

Obviously, the "here-ness" is inherent in using compass directions as a part of gameplay. You could, as I've often done, arbitrarily choose any direction as "North" and begin the game. But there is a very nice element of spatial awareness inherent in actually moving true north, east, south and west. It gives the player a very brief sense of spatial awareness taken for granted in many cultures across the world.

But it's the "Now-ness," that I didn't realize was also inherent in the game. By literally using current phases of the moon, position of the sun and other natural phenomenon, you create a different game based on your place on earth. Indeed, based on your place in the universe.

Elements of "Play Here Now" can be found in other games, too. MMOs with special unlockable content during holidays remind you of the time of year. Golf is well known for its courses of varying difficulty, reminding you of your place in the world. (Nevermind the vagaries of wind, rain and sunshine.)

So, there is a "supermoon" tomorrow night, in which the moon's orbit brings it very close to Earth and there is a full moon at the same time. I don't know what that means for how you play Utara, but I bet it makes the game interesting.

» Photo Credit: CC BY Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Graphic Design and Typography Tips for your Card Game

Image
Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has...
Read more

Low-High Dice Game

Image
A dice game inspired by the stock market (and playing lots of Martian Dice). Roll a bunch of dice and choose which sets to keep. Choose your strategy wisely! Stuff You Need Two-to-Six PLAYERS A PENCIL and PAPER to keep score Thirteen standard six-sided DICE How to Play The shortest player takes the first turn. On your turn, first roll all thirteen dice. Several dice will have matching results. These are called SETS. (A single die result is a set, too.) You must choose a set to keep. For example, your first roll results are 111124445555 . The sets are four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, and four 5 s. After keeping a set of dice, lock them up in a row. This is called the GOOD TRACK. For example,  you could keep the set of four 1 s, one 2 , three 4 s, or four 5 s . You decide to keep the four 1 s and line them up in your good track. After keeping a set, you may end your turn or re-roll the remaining unlocked dice. When you re-roll, immediately set aside any results tha...
Read more

One Thing to Avoid in Game Design

Image
When game designer Paul Peterson was interviewed for the upcoming Titans Series of games from Calliope Games, there was one segment at 1:55 that really caught my attention (emphasis mine): "A couple years ago I was teaching people how to play Guillotine and I hadn't played in a while. The first thing I did was say, 'The first thing you gonna do when you open your game is you look through this deck and you take this card.' I pulled out the Callous Guards card and threw it over my shoulder. Everybody laughed. I said, ' That's the biggest mistake I ever made as a game designer in my life.'" Oof. Those are strong words. What's the big deal? For context, the game Guillotine is all about collecting the heads of French nobles during the revolution. There is only one guillotine, with a line of nobles waiting for their grim fate. On your turn, you play action cards to change the order of the line, then take the Noble card from the front of the ...
Read more