Thousand Year Game Design Challenge - May Update

The Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge
Recent buzz from the Long Now Blog, MetaFilter, and Jane McGonigal spurred a huge spike in traffic. We had several new entries last month and many more rumored to be coming soon. Here's what we have for May.

Cartography by Benjamin Alan Mohr
Here's an example of a classic genre with a clever visual motif. Each tile has land and water. One player is trying to create self-contained areas of land (islands) while the other is trying to create self-contained areas of water (lakes). I look forward to giving this one a play or two.

The Movie Game by Tonio Loewald
(or the World-Playing Game) This game is sort of a freeform narrative exercise in which each player takes on the role of a character from a movie, using the beginning, middle or end as a breakpoint from the established story. Together, the players take turns being the protagonist and supporting cast.

Rush Run Riot by Kelvin Beriguete
This kinda-sorta chess variant strips down your pieces to kings, pawns and "bouncers." Much like Arimaa, you have the option of moving pawns twice, but can trade in those movements to move a bouncer. Bouncers are neutral and can be moved by either player. Interesting!

Sáto by Kristian Järventaus
In the long tradition of scifi-inspired board games, Kristian presents a hexagonal abstract strategy elimination game. The pieces are all identical, but have some interesting methods of moving around the hexagonal grid. Because pieces can move along concentric circles, I wonder how hard it'll be to anticipate and plan offensive maneuvers.

F*ckin' Do It Then by Ryan Hughes (NSFW Language)
So far, the majority of challenge entrants have been very cerebral affairs, so I'm delighted to see this visceral title enter the mix. Players draw random words and bid on whether they can make another player guess their word with as few clues as possible.

Venn’s Revenge by Louis J. Cassorla
This entry is one of the few to have an explicitly stated social agenda: To improve spatial recognition abilities in all players. Players draw circles on overlapping sheets of translucent paper, trying to overlap previously drawn circles. I must admit, I'm still trying to parse the rules as written, but perhaps it'll be easier when it actually hits the table.

Klon by Antoine Richard
Chess has several nuanced rules of movement to learn before you ever make your first move. Antoine has taken a slightly different direction, imposing those movement rules on specific spaces of the board while leaving the pieces themselves generic. He apparently even made his own wooden board!

Comments

  1. SanglorianJune 3, 2011 at 3:10 AM

    Disappointing that none of the games are using Creative Commons or other common content licences, but a nice mix of games nonetheless!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Daniel SolisJune 3, 2011 at 6:47 AM

    Indeed, I'd like to see more use explicit of the CC license, but something tells me that if any game actually lasts a thousand years, it'll outlive any license. :P

    ReplyDelete
  3. Louis J CassorlaJune 8, 2011 at 9:02 PM

    Daniel, I apologise if my instructions are not clear. Let me know if you need any clarification on anything. I'll be happy to provide it.

    I looked into the Creative Commons license, and I now know that I definitely will be using it. I just haven't gotten around to the actual doing of it yet. I'll probably have that done this coming Sunday, assuming I remember.

    I'm also in the process of making a 3D computer model of a solitaire Venn's Revenge game I played in super-cooperative mode. I'm slow with the 3D software, but it's shaping up to make quite an interesting illustration, I think.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Antoine RichardJune 10, 2011 at 11:46 AM

    My game Klon is connected to the real human cells. There is 48 squares who are the 48 duplications off cells in a human life (44 before the birth and 4 others until the growing is over). The 4 Delta, sanctuary,marker and base are the 4 cells duplications during the growing process of a human body after the birth. The 8 squares of the pool are the first 8 cells duplications needed before trying to start a cloning. The 2 chests with red stones inside is alchemy: the so-called red stone is the mater who give eternal youth in alchemy. In my own research on the subject, i found that the only way to regenerate a body is by duplication of cells ( new cells replacing older cells in the body). So the red stone must be a cell's duplicator ! I have my own formula to make that stone...but that is another story :) .

    ReplyDelete
  5. Louis J CassorlaJune 12, 2011 at 5:54 PM

    I have now added a Creative Commons license to the original Venn's Revenge page. I have also posted an additional page including some images of a 3D visualization of a game I played:

    http://repealofgravity.blogspot.com/p/venns-revenge-3d-visualizations.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Daniel SolisJune 12, 2011 at 10:02 PM

    Those visualizations are awesome, Louis!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Louis J CassorlaJune 13, 2011 at 9:18 PM

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Louis J CassorlaJune 22, 2011 at 11:59 AM

    I've just uploaded a QTVR object that allows you to rotate the 3D object in space. It takes a while to load and the resolution isn't great, but you might find it to be a fun curiosity to play with. http://home.comcast.net/~lcassorla/Venn/Venn_1.mov

    ReplyDelete

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