OUGD503 - Studio Brief 2 - Hasbro Board Game (Large Collaboration) - General Games Research

Games Research

Types of Games and Examples

Board Games

Chess
Draughts
Backgammon
Snakes and Ladders
Chinese Checkers
Go
Mancala and Pachisi (Ludo)
Connect 4
Twister
Jenga
Scrabble

Ancient and Historical Board Games
Nine Mens Morris - the aim of the game is to take opposing pieces by creating lines of three counters. It is a game of skill but has a similar dynamic to tic tac toe and noughts and crosses, which is suitable for adults and children.
The Royal Game of Ur and Ancient Egyptian Senet - The rules for both of these games are not widely known because there isn't a full understanding of how the game is played due to the age of the games.
The Game of Goose - was the first modern commercial board game and was invented in 1500. The game is a race game with the aim of rolling the dice and moving fro the outside of the board to the inside. The design has been rebranded and copied many times. Many of the designs for the boards have been elaborate over time.
Agon - a two player game with the aim of moving the queen to the centre point with all of her guards around the center point, however queens or guards can be captured by two opposite pieces. The game is the oldest example of a board game with a hexagonal board.

Table Games

Pool
Snooker
Billiards
Shove Ha'Penny
Skittles
Table Tennis
Roulette

Pub Games

- Dominoes
- Cribbage
- Shove Ha'penny - the aim of the game is to push pennies up the board so that they land within the horizontal lines. To win a coin must land in each bed three times.
- Billiards
- Snooker
- Skittles
- Ringing the bull
- Toad in the Hole
- Darts

Outdoors Games

- Quoits
- Garden Darts
- Garden Skittles
- Bowls
- Croquet

Table Top Games - Die, Card and Tiles Games

- Mahjong - mahjong can take a number of hours to play so wouldn't be a suitable in its current form
- Dominoes
- Shut the Box - the aim of the game is to shut the box by rolling the dice and either shutting the numbers thrown or their sum.
- Cribbage
- Poker
- Baccarat
- Jenga
- Liars Dice, Perudo & Dudo


The book Board Games from many civilisations was a comprehensive guide to a variety of different types of games.

  

Five chosen to briefly research:

Spellicans 

- any number of people can play 
- the spellicans are thrown onto the ground / table
- players take it in turns to hook out one at a time without moving any of the other pieces
- the youngest person throws the spellicans down 
- rolling the dice decides the player who will start 
- the starting player trys to hook a piece
- if successful they continue trying to hook pieces up 
- when another piece is accidently moved then it gets passed to the next player on the left 
- once a piece is touched then the player can only attempt to hook that piece up 
- when a new player tries they can choose any piece to try and hook 
- at the end of the game the person with the least amount of spellicans is the first player in the next and the person with the most throws the spellicans down 
- the game originated in China and the spellicans are usually made from ivory  
- the spellicans are made into different shapes
- the harder it is to extract the piece because of its shape the more points it is worth 
- each piece is marked with its points 
- there are two of each spellican
- the European cheaper versions use coloured straight sticks of wood, with each colour having a different value
- the shapes of the pieces are a spear, saw, snake on a staff,a bird on a branch,a trefoil, mitre, trident, horses head , fork , a bucket yoke 
- the highest scoring piece is the saw which is worth 50 points, whilst the woman is 5 points

Hearts 

- six dice are used with the letters H E A R T S on the different faces 
- the players each take it in turns to throw the dice 
- H = 5 points, H E =10, H E A = 15, H E A R = 20 , H E A R T = 25, H E A R T S = 35 points 
- if three H's are thrown the players score is lost 
- the first  person to reach 100 points wins 

Fifty 

- simple dice game for 2 or more players 
- 2 dice and a dicing cup are needed 
- players take it in turns to roll the dice
- only doubles count, with any double worth five points 
- double six is worth 25 points 
- double three cancels a players score 
- the first to reach fifty wins the game 

Zohn Ahl

- the board is marked by 40 small stones with the intervals between stones being the points 
- in the middle there Ahl stone. The dicing sticks are thrown onto this stone 
- the wide gap between the north and south represents a flooded river and between the east and west is a dry stream 
- each team has a runner which is moved depending on what thrown on the four dice sticks
- each teams runner goes the opposite way round the board 
- dice sticks are are flat on one side and round on the other (approx 7 inches long), three sticks have a red stripe down the middle of the flat side, the last stick  (Sahe) has a green stripe and the rounded side has a star 
- each team starts with four pebbles, shells or white sticks which are used as counters 
- Scoring 
1 flat side up - 1 and if blue extra turn 
2 flat sides up - 2
3 flat sides up - 3 and if blue extra turn 
4 flat sides up - 6 and another turn 
4 convex sides up - 10 and another turn 
- players put into two teams, one person from each player in a team throws the sticks alternately and moves their runner around the board 
- if the player lands in the torrent in the North then they go back to the start and the team must give the other team a counter 
- if the player lands in te East or West dry river beds the team loses a throw 
- if runners land on the same point the last to land on the point sends the other back to the start and wins a counter
- the first player to to get back to the start is paid a counter from their opponents and the lap is over 
- if the throw extends beyond the start they can move past and start the second lap 
- the runner winning each lap gets a counter
- the game finishes when a team gets all the counters or whoever has the most when the time limit is up

Dominoes - Using the double six set 

- dominoes are shuffled and players draw one
- the player with the highest double is the leader and everyone follows anticlockwise 
- if no double is drawn the player with the highest score starts 
- the dominoes are shuffled and everyone takes seven (if 2 players) or five (if more than 2 players)
- the leader plays a domino and the next player has to match a domino to its end 
- if no player can put something down the game is blocked
- the spots are counted on any remaining tiles that a player has 
- the player with the lowest number of spots scores his total and the total amount of spots within the opponents hand    
- the first to reach 121 wins 

Dominoes - the aim of the game is to get rid of all your tiles by joining corresponding dominoes together in the middle of the table. Turns are taken to add dominoes to the board, if someone cannot go then they take a domino from the pile. If a double tile is played then this is placed perpendicular to the other tiles allowing further room for tiles to go in different directions. There are variations of the game with higher value dominoes and two variations of game play called the block game and the draw game.

Par 

- each player has the same amount of counters 
- five dice are thrown and the highest scorer (with the ace counting as seven) starts the game, the second is next etc, tying players throw again 
- all five dice are thrown by a player and can continue to throw the dice as long as one is left on the table
- a player can throw as many of the other dice as they like, as long as one additional die is left down after each throw. They can also stop throwing at any point.
- the aim of the game is to score twenty four or more
- if after rolling the last die and they have less than twenty four they have to pay the other players the excess
- twenty four breaks even, anything above becomes the players point e.g if the player scores 3 extra, all the dice are thrown and depending on how many 3's are thrown depends on how many counters are taken from the other players 
- counters are paid and the dice are passed on 
- players with no counters are out of the game 

Loto 

- popular old English game
- equipment : 100 counters worth 1 unit, 14 of another colour or shape worth 10 units, 12 of another colour or shape worth 100, a bag of 90 wooden reels or balls number 1 to 90 , pack of 18 or 24 large cards with three rows on five numbers between 1 - 90 
- tens were often fish shaped and hundreds rectangular
- each player draws two cards 
- disks are placed in the middle of the table, enough to cover all of the numbers on everyone's cards  
- each player throws two dice, the highest role becomes the leader, putting all the reels in the bag and draws ten out one at a time, calling the numbers out
- players place a disc over each number that is on their card that has been called out 
- a player with one disc on a horizontal line wins a counter
- two discs on a horizontal line wins two counters and five bonus counters
- three discs on a horizontal line wins three and a bonus of twenty five counters
- four discs on a horizontal line wins four and a bonus of 100 counters
- five discs on a horizontal line wins 5 and a bonus of 250 counters
- the highest scorer is paid first, second is next etc
- when everyone is paid, the disks are put in the bag and the next person draws ten out 
- some players may not be paid what they are owed because all the counters may have already been distributed
- in the Victorian nursery Loto was played with pictures, flowers and letters and were called Botanical Loto, Spelling Loto, Historical Loto etc and were mainly for educational value
- comes from the Italian game Tumbule which became Tombola in France
- The Americans created Keno which uses a 5 x 5 grid and the aim is to have five counters in a row, horizontally, vertically and diagonally 


https://www.mastersofgames.com/
http://www.tradgames.org.uk/