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dammit
18-06-2009, 06:35 PM
So, sometime today when I should have been doing other things, I logged onto IRC and happened to mention that my mind had been abuzz with ideas for this comp (regardless of the fact that I haven't finished my entry). I mentioned the idea of Portal as a Boardgame and after some persuading (by Nandrew) Goraan decided he would enter the comp using this idea along with his programming skills.

Since he cannot start a thread, I did for him.

Portal as a Boardgame
[13:14] <Goraan> So my prototype is going to be in windows forms
[13:14] <dammit> okay, so what does it look like?
[13:15] <Goraan> Without the art
[13:15] <Goraan> Like a chess game
[13:15] <dammit> hahaha
[13:15] <dammit> I can perhaps draw a little
[13:15] <dammit> to help us out
[13:15] <Goraan> No stress
[13:15] <Goraan> I have the art covered
[13:15] <Goraan> Just need photoshop
[13:15] <Goraan> It has a number of forms open at one time
[13:16] <Goraan> The top bar has the dice and the cards
[13:16] <Goraan> The bottom form has the board and the sprites
[13:16] <Goraan> The dice is an array of 1-6 and it selects a number randomly
[13:16] <Goraan> After a spiffy animation of course
[13:17] <Goraan> And then on the board the player moves that number of blocks
[13:17] <dammit> high freaking five
[13:17] <dammit> so
[13:17] <dammit> will it be a snakes n ladders type board
[13:17] <Goraan> The blocks are jagged
[13:17] <dammit> or perhaps a monopoly type?
[13:17] <dammit> with chance cards?
[13:17] <dammit> to make the game interesting
[13:17] <Goraan> Its snakes and ladders
[13:17] <Goraan> With chance cards
[13:17] <Goraan> Some rewards
[13:17] <Goraan> and some snags
[13:17] <dammit> ^5
[13:18] <dammit> ^5
[13:18] <Goraan> I have some of the cards planned out already
[13:18] <Goraan> Also
[13:18] <Goraan> I want to add in the energy balls
[13:18] <dammit> yeah
[13:19] <dammit> and the killer robots
[13:19] <Goraan> Like you need to create a path between 2 blocks to carry on
[13:19] <Goraan> Yeah and the turrets
[13:19] <Goraan> The portal system works as such:
[13:19] <Goraan> There are only 2 portals on the board at any one time
[13:19] <Goraan> One Blue and one Orange
[13:19] <Goraan> But
[13:20] <Goraan> I've used a timer so that at certain intervals the portals change location
[13:20] <Goraan> So you can't plan out which portalk you land on like you can plan your ladders and snakes in Snakes and Ladders
[13:20] <Goraan> portal*
[13:21] <Goraan> At the moment the timer works in 1 minute intervals but I'm planning on making it random
[13:21] <Goraan> So that you never know when it happens
[13:21] <Goraan> I want to make it level based as well
[13:21] <Goraan> So that you complete one boared and move on to the next
[13:22] <Goraan> I'll make it single and multi player. All turn based obviously
[13:22] <Goraan> Up to 4 players
[13:22] <Goraan> So that the game doesn;t slow down too much with everyone takign their turns
[13:22] <Goraan> taking*
[13:22] * Goraan breathes
[13:22] <Goraan> You happy with that?
[13:25] <Goraan> Oh right. Like create a thread when you get a chance if you like the idea so I can get the entry in. The prototype should be done by tomorrow
[13:25] * Goraan prods dammit

Goraan
18-06-2009, 07:01 PM
Wow now that i read it, it sounds awesome. I decided to go with windows forms to give thae game a standard windows game feel to it. That and I -suck- at GM. Not enough coding I suppose. Had a bit of a horrible evening but i'll work through the night to get the prototype out by the morning. Also if time permits I'm going to migrate the game from windows forms over to WPF. Its just a prettier version of Windows Forms and lets me do some awesome visual things.

dammit
18-06-2009, 07:10 PM
One thing I think needs a little adjusting is the fact that you're making a board game means you can't have portals that randomly move. A boardgame is, after all, on a board.

Goraan
18-06-2009, 07:12 PM
Digital Board. But okay I'll make the first version with static portals and see how that works out.

dammit
18-06-2009, 07:16 PM
Digital Board. But okay I'll make the first version with static portals and see how that works out.

I was thinking, the thing about portal is you get to choose where your portals go. Perhaps you can do that in the game? Everyone gets two disks, one orange, one blue, and then they roll the dice (perhaps two dice?) and can put the portals down based on the rolls, and go through them. Of course, I think then perhaps some of the boxes on the board need to be good positions, and some bad. If your portal exit is on a bad spot then essentially you miss a turn.

Goraan
18-06-2009, 07:18 PM
I like that dynamic alot because that gives me a way to incoporate the turrets and energy ball thingies. It also helps out with the reward card system. Awesome

dammit
18-06-2009, 07:31 PM
I like that dynamic alot because that gives me a way to incoporate the turrets and energy ball thingies. It also helps out with the reward card system. Awesome

^___^ I try, I really do.

edg3
19-06-2009, 08:25 AM
First of all, this idea is pretty epic.


I was thinking, the thing about portal is you get to choose where your portals go. Perhaps you can do that in the game? Everyone gets two disks, one orange, one blue, and then they roll the dice (perhaps two dice?) and can put the portals down based on the rolls, and go through them. Of course, I think then perhaps some of the boxes on the board need to be good positions, and some bad. If your portal exit is on a bad spot then essentially you miss a turn.
Maybe it is still an idea to have a handfull of static portals too? (If you look at peggle they have fixed portals too) Then the player's portal placement adds a new strategy to the game. Maybe instead of making it at the start of the game, you can create a block for "create a portal" block, which essentially is the "move forward X paces" block, but instead the player rolls the dice to see how far he can move. Or better yet, it moves to a fixed position, OR a roll of the dice's distance, but if you roll the dice you have to move the dice move, so the player chooses beforehand.

I can just see itL "You look at where you need to be, there is already a portal though, do you take the portal or try your luck at making a better one?"

Goraan
19-06-2009, 09:43 AM
I'm not sure about a handful. The level boards won't be that big. But I will see what I can do with your idea. i like the thought of giving the player a choice to see if they can do it better. Much like the game itself where the obvious solutions isn't always the right one.

dammit
19-06-2009, 10:52 AM
Goraan, if you're making chance cards, please make one "You have to euthanise your companion cube. You're so heartbroken you miss your next two turns."

Goraan
19-06-2009, 01:14 PM
Already been coded ;)

liquid.silver
19-06-2009, 04:43 PM
I have an idea. Firstly you can make it as a real life board game, don't worry about the randomly changing portals. There are a number of colours of portals, so a red portal links to a red portal etc. At the start you place a number of portals across the map. Now you play like snakes and ladders, but when you roll a 6 you can choose to move a portal already placed to somewhere on the map, or move 6 spaces, or possibly both. Also, you spend 1 turn within the portal, which allows for interesting play.

Strategy now comes in with trying to move portals to align with what you hope will be your next move, but hopefully not your opponents. And, due to the turn in portal, you can make your opponents end up at a worse place then they entered the portal.

Feel free to use my idea or ignore it.

dammit
21-06-2009, 08:12 PM
Goraan, when are we going to get the chance to test out the game??

Goraan
22-06-2009, 09:57 AM
On its way. Just give me about 2 hours or so and I'll have level one up.

dammit
22-06-2009, 10:03 AM
\o/

Goraan
22-06-2009, 10:26 AM
The tiles for the board of the game if anyone is interested.

http://yfrog.com/0qtilesetcp

dammit
22-06-2009, 10:39 AM
I like it, I really do :D

Goraan
22-06-2009, 12:37 PM
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/7250/titleula.png

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5689/card1.png

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/5689/card1.png

Example one for the reward cards

An example of a level on the game board.

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/6205/level1.jpg

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/6205/level1.jpg

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/8244/mainmenuf.jpg
(Just a gimick but the buttons change to orange portals when you roll your mouse over them)



So far: When the player takes their turn the dice system generate one number from 1 to 6. and 2 ponts on the grid. Portals will spawn on the 2 generated grid points. The number on the dice determines the maximum number of blocks the player can move in any ONE direction. The player can use move less blocks but not more. On every second turn the player may choose to ask for a reward card. It has a 50% chance of being helpful. The turrets work in the direction they are facing. if the player lands on a block infront of the turret they miss a turn. The cake is the objective. This level has no real puzzle to it. It only serves as an example of how the board will work. I'm trying to make a point generating system that works on paper as well as in code so that this game can be played with or without a computer. Let me know what you think.


---------------------------------------------------

Heya all, an update on this game. I'm having tremendous trouble getting a digital version working well enough to feel comfortable with releasing it. I will make the deadline with a print-and-play version of the game along with a set of rules and some starter levels. My ideas were all there but my current skill limits me, if anything I have learned that being a professional developer doesn't mean I can make a game as easily as I can make a business application.

Nandrew
22-06-2009, 05:13 PM
I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes along with multiplayer! Looks like it could be quite a dynamic board game.

dammit
02-07-2009, 03:19 PM
Erm, little bit of a late update: Goraan will be uploading what he's done so far later tonight. I'll add them to the first post.

dislekcia
03-07-2009, 11:51 AM
Link to download entry plox?

Goraan
06-07-2009, 12:57 PM
http://ifile.it/yz3xqpc