[Home]AlexChurchill/GameDesign

ec2-44-211-28-92.compute-1.amazonaws.com | ToothyWiki | AlexChurchill | RecentChanges | Login | Webcomic

AlexChurchill and Pallando got talking at a party about games. Like the last time this happened, a game design grew out of the discussion. A few variations on the rules were tried at GamesEvening, and the game of Sparklies was created. It now has its own wiki page at Sparklies, but a lot of the preliminary discussion remains here.

JavaScript implementation: https://www.toothycat.net/~rachael/sparklies/





Rules


Initial formulation



The game is played on a grid of squares. Each square starts off controlled by nobody, and randomly red, green or blue.

Players alternate taking turns. A turn consists of two parts:

Pinging a square has two effects:
(If you wish you can replace "red" with "scissors", "green" with "paper" and "blue" with "stone".)

When a square is captured, the player gains control of it (if they didn't already control it), and then pings it. Thus, chain reactions may ensue. Since pinging a square can capture two or more of its neighbours, a way to indicate that a square has been captured but not yet pinged is necessary.

The game ends (when every square on the board is controlled, or perhaps later). The player controlling a majority of the board wins.

Abstract formulation


The game is played on a grid of squares, each of which is red, green or blue, and each of which can be controlled by either player or nobody. They all start off uncontrolled. At the end of the game, the player who controls the most squares is the winner.

Each player's turn consists of three parts: take control of an uncontrolled square, ping a square they control, and then deal with any chain reaction.

1. Take control of an uncontrolled square: Just click a square that has no controller (no black or white border).
2. Ping a square you control: You choose a square you control, and "ping" it, which does two things. First, it changes its colour to a colour of your choice (which could be the colour it was already). Then, the squares around it are checked to see if they have been captured. The rules for capturing a square vary between rulesets (see Rules Variations), but in all cases: If the pinged square has turned red, any adjacent green squares may be captured, if there are additional red squares also surrounding that green square. If the square is pinged green then adjacent blue squares may be captured, and if the square has pinged to blue then adjacent reds may be captured. If a square is captured, then it comes under your control (no matter who controlled it before), and itself pings. This can in turn capture and ping more squares, leading to impressive chain reactions and giving you control of several squares in one turn.

Rules Variations:

Two rulesets are particularly interesting, named Speed Sparklies and Subtle Sparklies.

In Speed Sparklies, a pinged square which has turned red will capture any adjacent green square which has at least one other red square around it. In other words, if a green square is surrounded by at least two red squares, one of which has just pinged, then the green square will be captured and ping.

When it pings, it will turn red, and potentially capture further green squares.

In Subtle Sparklies, a pinged square which has turned red will capture any adjacent green square which has at least one other red square owned by the capturer around it. In other words, if you own at least two red squares adjacent to a green square, one of which has just pinged, then the green square will be captured and ping.

When it pings, it will turn to the colour of the capturer's choice, and potentially capture further squares.

Themed Formulation


The Kingdom is electing its first ever Prime Minister! You are the
leaders of rival parties competing to be elected when all the ignorant
townspeople have voted. Each town has one of three groups in power:
the church (red), the farmers (green) or the merchants (blue). When
they decide to support one player's party or the other, they will be
displayed with a border in that player's colour (black or white).

On each turn, first you may send campaign leaflets to a town which
doesn't yet support either party. They will convert to your side,
but the group in power in that town will not change.

Then you may personally visit a town that already supports you. You
only get to freely choose one visit per turn, and that has to be to a
town that already supports you; but if you play things right, the
surrounding towns may also ask for a visit from you, even if those
towns didn't support you until now!

When you pay a visit to a town, two things happen. First, you may
influence the town's council so that a different group is in power.
For example, if the merchants were in power in that town before, you
could choose to put the church in power, the farmers in power, or
leave the merchants in power.

Then the citizens tell the neighbouring towns of your visit. If the
neighbouring towns are influenced enough by the new governors of the
town you're in, they will immediately declare support for you and
invite you to visit them as well. If the town you are in has the
church (red) in power, they have influence over the peasant farmers
(green), so any neighbouring farmers town will decide to support you
and invite you for a visit, as long as another one of their neighbours
is also a church town supporting you. If you are in a merchant town
(blue), their bank accounts are persuasive to the churches (red), so
any adjacent church town which is also neighbours to another merchant
town which supports you will ask you to visit them. And if you are in
a farmer town (green), they supply goods to the merchants (blue), so
you will be asked to visit any adjacent merchant town which is also
neighbours to another farmer town supporting you.

If more than one town asks for a visit from you, they all declare
allegiance to you immediately, but you can chose which order you visit
them. After finishing any visit, you can choose from any remaining
towns which have requested a visit, no matter when this turn they made
the request. But you must make the visits this turn, and you can't





save them until you see what your opponent does.

Once you have no more visits pending, it's your opponent's turn. Turns
continue in this way, first sending campaign leaflets to one undecided
town, and then making one initial visit to a town that supports them,
followed by any requested visits by neighbours.

When every town has declared its allegiance to you or your opponent,
the votes are tallied. At that point, the player with the most towns
supporting him is elected as the first Prime Minister!

I like.  I like!  That works for me.  Maybe with a visual illustration of it to the right for each step? --DR



Game records


Online: ChrisHowlett vs AlexChurchill



Pallando and AlexChurchill played a game at GamesEvening, and found it fascinating. Chain reactions are not generally especially large, because of the requirement to control two neighbours of a target square to capture it, but there seems a surprising depth of strategy. An 8x8 game felt too large for a first game to AlexChurchill (like a 19x19 Go game), and he'd like to try 5x5 with someone.
Certainly, although you'll need to set up the board and it might lose something on the Wiki. C=Colour, O=Owner, P=Ping-pending. Use P simply to help yourself - presumably the saved-page game state would never have P=1? --CH
Indeed... I'm not convinced that this is the best setting for it, simply because DR and I benefitted so much from discussing moves yesterday. Also we may want to change the rules later... But yes, it's such a tempting prospect, here we go :) Random initial state provided by floor(3*rand(5,5)) in MATLAB?. Your move :) --AC

 COP COP COP COP COP
.___.___.___.___.___.
|R  |R  |R  |R  |G  |
| A | A | A | A | A | a
.---.---.---.---.---.
|R  |R  |R  |R  |B  |
| A | A | A | A | C | b
.---.---.---.---.---.
|R  |R  |R  |B  |B  |
| A | A | A | A | A | c
.---.---.---.---.---.
|B  |B  |R  |R  |R  |
| A | C | C | C | C | d
.---.---.---.---.---.
|G  |R  |R  |R  |G  |
| A | C | C | C | C | e
.---.---.---.---.---.
  1   2   3   4   5

 R    G    B   Two reds capture a green, etc
Rg   Gb   Br   mnemonic diagram

Recording moves in a hopefully obvious form.

  1. 1b G->G ; 3e B->G
  2. 2a G->G, pings 1a B->R and 2b B->B ; 5e B->G, pings 4e B->R
  3. 3c G-B, pings 2c B-G ; 4c B->R, pings 4d G->R
  4. 5c R-B, pings 4c R-B ; 2d B->R, pings 3d G->G
  5. Control 1d, ping my 2c G-R, pinging 1c G-R, pinging (my) 1b G-G, pinging (my) 2b B-G; 3b B->G, pings 3c B->R, pings (my) 3d G->R, pings (my) 3e G->R, pings 2e G->R :: :-o Nice play!! --AC Thanks! --CH
  6. Control 1e, ping my 2c R-B, pinging 3c R-B; Control 4b, ping my 3d R-G, pings 3c B-G
  7. Control 3a, ping my 1d R-B, pings both (1c R-R pinging 1b G-R) and then 2d R-G pinging 2c B-R pinging 2b G-R pinging 1b G-R! Pity I already owned all of those except 2d. ; Control 5d, ping my 4b B-G, pings 4c B-G
  8. 4a G-R, pinging my 3a G-R, pinging 3b G-R, pinging both 4b G-R and 3c G-R, pinging 4c G-B ; ouch. Control 5b, ping my 3d G-R, pings 2d G-B
  9. 5a R-G.
That's the final square occupied. Under one version of the rules we stop here; under another we play on until we each agree no further stable gains can be made. As far as I can see, you can't take anything of mine next turn, and on my next go I can take 5b no matter what colour it is by pinging 5a or 4b. It's possible that I could make further gains, by arranging to ping 1d and 2c simultaneously, but it would be a long process. If you agree, I'm happy to end the game here. What did you think? Any ideas for further rules to be adjusted? --AlexChurchill
I agree to end there, meaning you win by 16 points to 9. I can't think of anything that needs to be adjusted at the moment, on the basis of that one game; but I think that it's possibly best to have an even number of spaces on the board. If you want the additional property of an equal number of each colour to start, Douglas' suggestion of 6x6 might prove best. --CH



Offline: DR vs AC, Initial games



Notes from first play test - 2005-05-11

Three rule variants were tried.

Game 1

Attack: R->G->B->R
First flip: free choice
Cascade flips: G->R->B->G

Average go length (time): 2-3 mins
Average go length (pieces): 5
Game time: 45 mins
End state: most of the board in groups of one colour, control split by vertical lines


Game 2

Attack: R->G->B->R
First flip: free choice
Cascade flips: R->G->B->R

Average go length (time): 8 (mostly mechanics not thought)
Average go length (pieces): 20
Game time: gave up part way
End state: random colours, grouped control blocks


Game 3

Attack: R->G->B->R, posession of both attackers required
First flip: free choice
Cascade flips: free choice





Average go length (time): 5-10
Average go length (pieces): 3
Game time: 2 hours
End state: go like

More game reports:  2005-05-22



5x5  - DR believes that not only is this size too small for multi pronged attacks, because there is not time before contact to build two bases (a base being two connected moves, creating a block of 4).  But also it is overly dependant on control of the centre cross.


The three way hexagonal games (edge size 4)

DR thinks the game generalised to three players at least as well as Zatre.  I'd like to see if, on a larger board with the potential for semi stable borders, whether a diplomatic element would emerge.

DR thinks that hexagonal + any two neighbours rule allowed too high a degree of spontaneous chaining, reducing strategy in favour of turn by turn tactics.  I like the potential for such attacks, but I'd like to see it require careful setup.

I still slightly dislike the inability to attack into lines of our current variant, but maybe that's a required limitation.


Question: how well would a 'capture the flag' variant work, where the first piece put down was special, and the opponent could win by capturing it.


Offline: DR vs AC, 10x10 game


On 2005-07-19 DouglasReay and AlexChurchill tried a game on a 10x10 grid, and filled about 2/3 of it in the time between 20:15 and 21:45  approx (does that fit your memory?)

Things DR learn from this:
Indeed. I think this had been discovered previously. --AC
This was indeed interesting, and a bit surprising. --AC
Also we worked out explicitly the starting formation to look for, two diagonal pair.
Certainly. --AC
There do definitely seem graspable skill levels.  How many awaits to be seen.  I think having a 3 minute egg timer, or a chess clock would also be interesting (can a timer be put in JavaScript?)
Timing is certainly possible in the JavaScript version, and may be a good idea (although optional, as the Save/Load? functionality effectively dodges it). --AC
Presumably in a two player on the same terminal they'd notice if save got used.  And timing wouldn't get used at all on a remote game. --DR
Agreed. It's the most interesting, and the electronic version speeds it up significantly and deals with the bookkeeping. I would like to keep the other version (Ruleset 1 / "Speed Sparklies") available though, although not in the version you take to WorldCon? if you think it would confuse. --AC
Sure.  In fact, one could even do a "solitaire" version of speed sparklies - in how few moves can you control the entire board?  With a crunch sound added for each square gained.

2005-08-01 Playtest



AC and DR played several games, aided by J, S and R.

Things learnt:
5x5 game (J,S) - too dependant on central square.

7x7 game (DR,S) - managed to reduce the number of uncontrolled squares at a rate between 1.8 and 1.9 squares per minute, constant between start and end game.

20x20 game (AC,DR) - yes, this did avoid the early positioning problem of 10x10, and looked to provide a far more textured starting block layout.  It remains to be seen what is the smallest board that shares this feature.  Try a 16x16 next?  Perhaps over the wiki using  the save game feature?

9x9 game (AC,DR) - harlequin squares are powerful, not just for starts, but also for internal propagation.  If you hold back, don't rush, and use a lobster quadrille to progress, keeping your harlequins where possible, you can set up pretty much anything you like.

See the following save game, both of an example of near perfect setup achieved by much fiddling and as an example of where a "deactivate everything" would be really useful:
2:9:2:4:1:001221066101001266110220222121020122043540202243534100245350200133531220245350221:3

Using that saved game, a short demo on how to dance:
e3->g,e4->b,d4->g, then quadrile until they are a g/r harlequin which activates c4, then dance the new harlequin (C3,D3,C4,D4) until B4 is activated.  You can now do the same thing with B,C/3,4 to gain B3.

The two books are:
  [The Tao is Silent, by Raymond M. Smullyan]
  [Zhuangzi Speaks, translated by Brian Bruya, illustrated by Chih-chung Ts'ai]

Both of which I forgot to bring!
How are you getting on with them?  If you are finished with the Zhuangzi Speaks, I'd quite like it back.  I'd also be very interested in feedback on them, as detailed as you care to make.  DouglasReay/ZhuangZi? or ZhuangZi? is probably the right place.
Alex, I need the Bruya one back - please remind me Tuesday! --DR

geometric designs
XXX
XOX
XXX

OXO
XXX
OXO


and

XOX
OXO
XOX






Links from my presentation:

http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/experimentalgameplay/forum/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=17530dcdceb1131182fc20ff7177ff03
http://www.merz-verlag.com/spiel/
http://www.gamecabinet.com/
http://www.thegamesjournal.com/
http://spotlightongames.com/list/dleft.html#advice
http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/Games/DesignPrinciples.html
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec670/sessions/04.html
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/BoardGameDesign/
http://boardgames.about.com/od/designerarticles/
http://www.bgdf.com/








Thoughts on other variants to try



no random initial setup - you place pieces when control empty space

shapes and 3D not required, indeed complexity could be reduced with smaller board.

Board that are multiples of three:  3*3  6*6  9*9  12*12
but could have a dead space in the middle of a 5*5 board to give 24
or 4 dead spaces on an 8*8 board to give 60

handicapping is simple (but needs to be standardised)

different neighbour properties.
eg 2R+2B attack a G.  Or 2R+at least one B attack a G.  Or 3R attack a G.  Or 2G attack G.

How about making the board wrap round, so there are no edges?

Could be tried.  Not sure what it would add.


November, 2005 - I've just thought up a variant that might be quite fun to try with a physical board at GamesEvening (I've now got the glass pieces I ordered - Wheeee).

You use the standard rules, except that players take it in turns to deactivate pieces.
IE
1. Black controls a piece
2. White controls a piece
3. Black activates a piece
4. White activates a piece
5. Black deactivates a piece (changing its colour, controlling and activating where relevant)
6. White deactivates a piece
repeat steps 5 and 6 until condition X at which point start again at 1
or condition Y (board is full) in which case the game ends.

I thought of a couple of possibilities for condition X:
mutual agreement
each player has deactivated 10 pieces (or the chance to do so)
neither player has any activated pieces left
stalemate (same pattern reached three times after being warned on second time)

I'm presuming that activated pieces stay activated through steps 1 and 2.

I'm not sure if the order should always stay black then white.  Possibilities include:
Always black first
Alternate: black first then white first
The player with the fewest controlled squares first
I'm also not sure that it is always an advantage to go first, but think it likely on balance.

One could also make it always Black first, but give White 11 deactivations rather than 10.  Or indeed give black first control, but white first deactivation.

Thoughts, Alex?




Physical game pieces



Any thoughts on this?

I do quite like the look of the glass beads, and they are cheap.  Main problem is the
difficulty in picking them up, and indeed replacing them.

Something like othello tiles might do nicely for control pieces for two player games.

The dice with different sides could do well for the colours.  Any one know where we could get hold of lots of dice with different coloured faces?  I'm sure there is a game we regularly play at games evening that has a dice like that.

How about D10s (cheap because used by quite a few games now) with custom faces:
  Unowned Blue
  Unowned Green
  Unowned Red
  Black Blue
  Black Green
  Black Red
  White Blue
  White Green
  White Red
  Undecided

Since the D10 faces are isoceles, you can use the direction of the sharp point to indicate  ping status.  Or, come to think of it, you could also use that to indicate posession, with the 4 sides of the board being "White" "Unowned" "Black" and "Unresolved Ping". --DR

I think a custom board something like an abacus would be good. For an 8x8 board, there are 8 axles, each with 8 squares strung out along them. Each square is represented by two parts: a central triangular prism, with the axle going through its axis of symmetry, and its three square faces coloured red, green and blue; and an outer control indicator, which is also a (slightly larger) triangular prism but with its square faces mostly cut out, leaving just a thin edge which is coloured black, white or natural. Some means of making the prisms not spin freely but click into place at the three valid positions would be desirable. The rest could be carved out of wood, metal or plastic: the axles, inner prisms, and surrounding containers should be easy to make - the most difficult would be the outer control-indicator hollow prisms, each of which is effectively two triangles with a small hole at the centre plus three thin beams. But the D10s could work fairly well too, I feel, although Rachael disagrees. --AC


JavaScript ToDo


I'm not convinced. I think having extra colours in the squares would be rather confusing. I could probably be persuaded to try it. But the concept that a square isn't in danger because it doesn't currently have any neighbouring opponent squares of the colour that capture it may be a concept that ceases to apply at higher levels, and I'm not sure we want to tie the display to it for that reason. But principally, I think it would just look cluttered. --AC
Fair enough.  I agree clutter is bad.  Visually I wonder, if we went with the "Cross", "Circle", "Triangle" symbols for the three square type, whether having the symbol be in the player's colour instead of the border would work?
  1 (W)  A1 B->B
  1 (B)  D4 G->R
  2 (W)  B2 G->B, B1 R->G
  2 (B)  etc.
Excellent idea. Rachael and I'll do that when we get a chance. Would have to give some thought as to whether this should be included in saved games. --AC
go for the simplest implemental thing first.  You can always add that later, if you make the format sufficiently self describing. --DR

  Rb  gB  Gr  bR  Bg  rG  Rb  
  bR  Bg  rG  Rb  gB  Gr  bR
    ->  ->  ->  ->  ->  ->

On further experimentation it looks like being able to handle larger, irregular areas would be useful.  Maybe if you right click on the center of a single quadrille, which it used to determine the pair of colours you are interested in, but then it affects all neighbouring squares that fall in the pattern?
2:9:2:4:1:001221066101001266153550222133550122055350202243534100245350200133531220245350221:9

2:9:2:4:1:001221066101001266454545222545454122454545202545454100454545200545454220454545221:9


Also, DR would like access to source code to get familiar with it, if that's ok
Just select "View Source" from your browser! :) --AC


:-)


WorldCon?


4-8 of August.  This is going to be a VERY good opporunity to show this to game designers and gets lots of feedback and playtesting.  DR is helping run the gamesroom, and can probably set up a tournament.  What we'd need is:

Good clear rule set wording and introduction (and Winning/End? condition)

Working javascript, just one ruleset, maybe just one board size (at least for tournament, maybe one smaller for practice)  Or just get people to record their size of victory over the first 3 days, and on the 4th day have a playoff between the top 4 scorers?

A tournament prize.  Traditional would be a physical version of the board.  Alex, any suggestions as to where we could source a nice chess board and pieces?  I'm willing to fund and shop.
Thoughts on this? Today is a good day for me to go shop. --DR
Not really any thoughts, other than the obvious Lingards. I know that GamesAndPuzzles used to sell little glass beads and translucent plastic pyramids (things which would make a nice board), but I don't know where would now, as I don't recall Lingards doing so. Sorry, don't know. Perhaps find somewhere suitable online to place a quick order with? --AC
Lingards don't.  Nor do Past Times on Green Street, W. H. Smiths and Borders on Market Square, Heffer's Art Shop on Kings Street, Forbidden Planet or Sunshine on Burleigh Street, the bead shop in Cobbles Yard or one or two strange really kitchy art shops I tried.  Sorry.  Can you order some online?  --DR

Days left.  Which can you and Rachael make?  I'm willing to come over for an evening of coding, messing around with this, play testing, whatever.  How did Friday go?
25 Mon
26 Tue
27 Wed

28 Thr
29 Fri
30 Sat
31 Sun
01 Mon
02 Wed
03 Thr

04 START OF CONVENTION



Non-Violent Terminology


The current rule set uses the words "controlled", "take", "ping" and "capture".  Which admittedly is better than "kill" "maim" "enslave" "destroy" etc.

But in a conversation (at WednesdayAnime?) we did raise the possibility of a less physical confrontation backplot.  Instead of scissors, paper, stone we could go along the lines of three powers within society:


Think of electoral districts (villages), each electing a mayor or a representative who will be voting for a king. 
["You don't vote for kings!"] (sorry, couldn't resist)
Didn't the Sendars do it that way in David Eddings' Belgariad? --DR

body/mind/soul  primary/secondary/tertiary industries (agriculture/industry/service)
priest/doctor/lawyer  church/military/merchants/nobility/peasants/king/
See [Nanodot] and [Foresight] for more three way anaologies.
(no really, go read it, or at least my comment in the Nanodot thread :-)
Idealist = philosopher/scientist/artist or service/ideas sector = book, blue ink / lawyer - mind / reputation
Commercial = merchant or industrial sector = gold coin / doctor - body / property
Guardian = land/nobility/church/military/farmers or primary sector = green tree, iron sword, red blood, golden wheat sheaf or crown / priest - soul / authority
C->I I->G G->C  R->G G->B B->R

See "Themed Rules" above. --AC




I definitely agree that colour should be used for player and shape for 'thingyness'  --Vitenka
Hmm. I rather disagree with this idea. I think it's because the board of red/green/blue is so much more visually appealing than a grid of black and white shapes. I find the colours very natural and a visual cue for what can take what, whereas black and white is... flat. It's hard to put into words. I'd happily give it a go - it would actually be quite easy to try with our JS version because of the way we've done the CSS. Anyone want to knock up a set of 18 transparent-background PNG?s or GIFs? Each permutation of black/white/neutral, circle/triangle/cross, bright-highlighted/faded. (See the [current JS implementation] for the current use of these 18.) --AC

ec2-44-211-28-92.compute-1.amazonaws.com | ToothyWiki | AlexChurchill | RecentChanges | Login | Webcomic
This page is read-only | View other revisions | Recently used referrers
Last edited May 17, 2014 10:32 am (viewing revision 57, which is the newest) (diff)
Search: