Race Game Prototype

Here's the first prototype I playtested for a race game I'm making.

The Board

A Track Card

The pieces:

• Four players
• One board
• A small stack of cards identical to the one pictured above
• Four game pieces (one for each player) to keep track of player positions on the board

Players start the game on the shaded spaces at the two ends (lengthwise) of the game board.  So, both shaded spaces on the upper edge of the game board as well as both shaded spaces on the lower edge of the game board will be occupied by players at the start of the game.  At any point during play, players can only occupy the shaded spaces - a player should never come to rest on an unshaded space.  Play starts with a player determined by some arbitrary method, and then proceeds clockwise based on the players' starting positions.

On a player's turn:

• He/she draws and places a track card onto one of the unshaded spaces of the game board.
• Track cards may be placed on top of existing track cards.
• The orientation of the track card is determined by the player at the time it is laid.
• After the track card card has been laid, the player moves his/her game piece.
• A player can move from his/her current shaded space to an adjacent shaded space only if a track card has been laid that connects the two spaces.
• A player can only move once per turn.
• If a move can be made, a player is not allowed to finish his/her turn without making a move.

Special considerations:

• The left and right edges of the game board "wrap".  This means that a player who exits the game board on the right side will re-enter the game board on the left side, and vice versa.  If you find this concept confusing, think of how Pacman levels operate.  It is important to note that this wrapping occurs only on the left and right sides of the game board, not on the top and bottom.
• Multiple game pieces cannot occupy the same space on the game board.  Game pieces can also not travel through other game pieces.  With these constraints in mind, it is possible to position your game piece to block an opposing player's movement.

The goal: The first player to successfully navigate his/her game piece to the opposite side of the game board (either of the two possible shaded spaces) from which he/she started is the victor.

Going into the playtest, I knew the game board was small.  My biggest worry was that players would complete the game in three of four moves.  What transpired was a surprisingly lengthy gameplay experience.  When a player was on the verge of winning, the other three players would coordinate their moves to stop the win and keep the game going.  Communication, coordination, teamwork.  None of these were things I considered when designing this prototype.

Coming out of the first playtest, I decided that I wanted to design the rest of the game to foster more of the communication I had just witnessed.  My first change: put the players on teams.  Rather than a free for all between four players, I wanted to pit two teams of two against each other.  This way, a single mind (teammates talking through possible moves) would have control over two game pieces.  This was the first of many changes to come.  Iteration is a beautiful thing.

Cheers,

Danny