Game Design : Internal and External Rules

2008-02-04T20:29:00.000-08:00

Think of the following game rules:

Two players playing in turns.
When on his turn, the player picks a number from 1 to 9. Each number can only be picked once in the game.
The second player choose one of the remaining numbers.
The first player to have 3 numbers that sums 15 wins.

Sample play
P1 choose 2, P2 choose 7, P1 then choose 5, P2 then choose 8 to prevent P1 from winning, P1 choose 4 and practically checkmates, P2 choose 6. P1 choose 9 and wins with combination 2 + 4 + 9 = 15

Now lets use the famous magic square of 3x3, where numbers from 1 to 9 are ordered in a pattern such that the sum of the numbers in each row, column and diagonal is always 15:

2| 7| 6
--+--+--
9| 5| 1
--+--+--
4| 3| 8

If you think of it, this game is actually a different presentation of the all time classic tic tac toe ("la vieja" in spanish), where you have to make a row, a column or a diagonal before your oponent. The sample gameplay that I listed previously will translate on the following tic tac toe diagram

X| O| 6   X| O| 6   X| O| O   X| O| O
--+--+-- --+--+-- --+--+-- --+--+--
9| 5| 1   9| X| 1   9| X| 1   X| X| 1
--+--+-- --+--+-- --+--+-- --+--+--
4| 3| 8   4| 3| O   X| 3| O   X| 3| O

I hope this information will inspire somebody as it has done with me. Think of what can be done applying something similar to Guitar Hero or Rock Band, you may have a completely new game of pressing the right color at the right time, that in the end is what those games are in the inside, press the right button at the right time but with a nice interfase to the players.

Moris Beracha