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Tabletop Games

Ninja Strike

Ninja Strike is a unit-based open field strategy game for two players. You command either the Red or Orange Ninja squad, your goal is simple get the enemies' ancient scrolls by any means necessary.

 

The game is similar to Stratego with elements of Chess as well as Risk. There are multiple win conditions; you can eliminate all enemy ninja or steal their ancient scrolls and bring them back to your base.

 

This game was my first attempt at an open field game; it was also remade as my most recent table top project. I was pretty happy with the results in my first attempt and I was lucky enough to remake the game a year later; all the design experience I gained since the original run really helped me refine this game.

Plunder and Perils

Plunder and Perils is a race game where players rush to collect treasures while avoiding the many traps inside of a temple. Up to 4 players may via to become the best treasure hunter.

 

Plunder and Perils was the first board game that I constructed while at DigiPen. I had a great time trying to add interesting elements to the theme of "race game." What I decided to do was to add traps and treasures so that the players could really feel both rewarded and in trouble.

 

In Plunder and Perils players collect treasures along their path through the temple; at the end of the game the players sell their treasures in town and the player with the most money wins. However I added a special twist to the game, many treasures such as the Holy Grail will have an activated ability. Players can use the treasures that they find to change affect the game (at the outcome of a few dollars of course).

 

One of the most challenging things about this game was balancing the activated abilities on the items. At first I wanted them all to be fairly in the bounds of the rest of the game, but the more I playtested the more I realized that they are legendary items, why not make their powers feel legendary.

 

My solution was to make some of the items overpowered. Since it is random what items are picked up and there are multiple items it didn't hurt the overall goal of the game; it actually made it much more engaging and dynamic.

Team Fortress 2: The Board Game

Team Fortress 2: The Board Game is my take on a table top version of the digital game. It applies all of the key features from Team Fortress 2 (classes, objective based gameplay, setup phase, teamwork, etc.) and copies them for play on the kitchen table.

 

Team Fortress 2: The Board Game was a really interesting project for me. In this assignment we had to take an already existing IP and simply just change it into a table top game; above all restrictions we had to keep the true essence of Team Fortress 2 alive. In TF2:TBG I chose replicate the game mode King of the Hill.

 

This board game is designed for 2 players. Each player will take control of their respective team and manage all player movement as well as strategy while trying to capture and maintain the hill. Each player may have 3 characters out at a time, each character will be a different class from the digital game. Just like in the digital game players may switch their classes when they respawn.

 

The most challenging thing about this project was trying to stay 100% true to the digital game while replicating everything I could in the tabletop version. Trying to create abilities and attack patterns that matched the characters in game was a real challenge.

 

A few benefits that I had going in was that I am familiar with the game and it was really easy to get information on the systems side of things. Using my knowledge of TF2 I tried to create a King of the Hill map that would be similar to what players would play in the digital version of the game. On the systems side, using the wiki for stats as well as using Excel to help create a spreadsheet for balancing purposes really helped going into initial playtesting sessions.

 

Overall I feel like I did a very good job at creating a table top version of Team Fortress 2. From the Grenade Launcher splash damage to Ubercharge I really feel that I captured all that Team Fortress 2 has to offer in Team Fortress 2: The Board Game.

Morale

Morale is a  two player table top strategy game that focuses on classes, ranged combat, and the destruction of bases.

 

When I made Ninja Strike I was not allowed to include ranged combat so when I got to make another open field game using ranged combat I created Morale.

 

Making this game felt very natural to me, I already had a few attempts at making an open field game as well as implementing classes in a table top game. I feel like I did a very good job of making a ranged combat board game with interesting objectives and gameplay.

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© 2017 Kris Timchuck, All Rights Reserved

k.timchuck@digipen.edu

 

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