The key mechanic of the game is the wind. At the beginning of each turn, the wind blows each bee one square. On the next turn, the direction changes (moving around the compass rose clockwise). For this reason, you need to not only move your bee towards the nectar you want, but also keep in mind where the wind will blow your bee. For instance, if you see that the wind is going to blow east next, you don't want to move your bee so that there is a spider just east of it.
There are a couple of other rules, but those are the basics. Here's a picture of the board.
I playtested the game tonight. It went OK... it definitey needs some work... but I think there's some good stuff in it.
I like how simple the ideas for these games sound. Then at the same time you can sort of sense how much planning goes into them. Makes me want to play them. I just really want to run into some vines. Or get eaten by a spider. I can understand why it'd be satisfying to make a game. Planning a set of rules that when followed, make people have fun. That's crazy. Uncle Steve told me one of his theories about music is that what makes a good song is the right pattern of anticipation and satisfaction. Obviously, that's not all there is to it, but games work that way too. You have to have the right ratio of success to failure and of confidence in each. But, it'd be 10X better if you had some cool lookin little bee figurines.
ReplyDeleteIt is really fun to make games, especially when other people thing they are good enough to spend time playing.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, it's really hard to make a game fun enough for that. I'm not sure yet how much potential Nectar Collector has, but we'll see.
The local game store here has some awesome little glass bees, but they all look the same. I guess I'll have to find a way to mark them.