An alteration of Hnefatafl

As part of our course we altered our game of choice. I had Hnefatafl as my game of choice and I had decided to only make a few alterations.

It would be a normal 9x9 board of Hnefatafl but with the use of a dice as movement. The dice serves as a means of movement within the game and whatever the number may be denotes how many spaces the players can move. 

If players cannot move the numbers shown then they must move the next highest number of spaces. Game play ends when either the King has been captured or the King manages to reach the one of four corners on the board. 



Rules are as follows:

• Players must decide who rolls first.
• Dice serves as a means of movement.
• Pieces can only move in an orthogonal direction (Horizontally and vertically, not diagonally)
• The number on the dice denotes how many spaces to move. If they are unable to move due to space restriction, they must move to the highest possible number.
• Any piece can move as long as it has a space to move to.
• Players must surround a piece on two sides (adjacent) before they can remove it.
• The opponent must surround the King on four sides before he can be removed.
• The King can move the same as the other pieces on the board.

This later went on to be included in my design document and you can see the full post in my blog. 

Design Document

Hnefatafl design document:

Game scenario:

Two players play against each other on a 9x9 board. The defender must, when able, move his King to one of four corners of the board. The attacker must surround the King to remove him from the board. At any point, players can surround other pieces and remove them from the board. The first to complete their objective is the winner.

Asset List:

Sixteen pieces for Player One

Eight pieces for Player Two

One King for Player Two

One 9x9 Board

One Dice

Game-piece Design:

My game-piece design will be focused on early scandinavian vikings as this is where it first originated from. Defenders of the King will comprised of shields and the attackers will have axes. Given that Hnefatafl is an ancient Scandinavian Viking game, it was an instant decision to make it based off certain weaponry, their longboats or the clothing  and armour they wore. Having done research on other Hnefatafl boards and varying pieces, some had the most simplest designs, all the way to intricately carved pieces, some brandishing full armour and shields. The king will also be larger than all the other pieces placed on the board.

I decided to make shield pieces for the defender as it just seemed appropriate. The player is tasked with the defence of the King. The other team has axes as its playing piece and fits well with the shields. The King’s piece is shaped as a Helmet which can either denote a crown or other piece of equipment reserved for a person of great importance

Each set of pieces are coloured plainly. The attacker has white pieces and the defender will have grey. The King will be coloured in black simply to distinguish its importance and role.

Below are some rough sketches of what the playing pieces may look like:

Board Design:

Whilst researching different board designs, they vary a lot between cloth and wooden boards. Cloth boards are usually difficult to set up and keep flat so I opted for a wooden board within a stiff cardboard box/case. The case has a hollowed out interior and has a small drawer inside that is used to house the game pieces, dice and instructions. On the top of the board is the playing side consisting of a 9x9 board and appropriate markers to signify where all the playing pieces are located and the four locations for the King to escape the board.

The design of this board is similar to the picture here but without the intricate border around the edges and although this picture shows an 11x11 board, mine, as stated above will be on a 9x9 board.

N/A. (N/A). Hnefatafl game board set up. Available: http://www.norseamerica.com/norse_games_hnefatafl_game.html. Last accessed 5th March 2015.

Damian Walker. (N/A). The History of Hnefatafl. Available: http://tafl.cyningstan.com/page/3/the-history-of-hnefatafl. Last accessed 7th March 2015.

N/A. (N/A). N/A. Available: http://ec.l.thumbs.canstockphoto.com/canstock4254472.jpg. Last accessed 5th March 2015.

Rules:

Players must decide who rolls first.

Dice serves as a means of movement.

Pieces can only move in an orthogonal direction (Horizontally and vertically, not diagonally)

The number on the dice denotes how many spaces to move. If they are unable to move due to space restriction, they must move to the highest possible number.

Any piece can move as long as it has a space to move to.

Players must surround a piece on two sides (adjacent) before they can remove it.

The opponent must surround the King on four sides before he can be removed.

The King can move the same as the other pieces on the board.

Games Britannia Part 3

In this final episode of Games Britannia he talks about games consoles that advanced the development of today's games. In the 70's video games became more and more popular and by the 80's houses had a games console in their living room.

He began talking about the early consoles such as the BBC Micro and ZX Spectrum. He mentioned one game in particular which was "Elite" a spaceship combat/trading simulator. You could buy and trade resources which could either make the game harder or easier for the player. It then spawned sequels later on in 1993 with Frontier: Elite II an in 1995 with Frontier: First Encounters. A third sequel was then crowd funded in 2012 and was released in 2014 via beta testing.

Grand Theft Auto was another game he spoke about and it too was an immensely popular game that came along. It was a open world game that had a long and eventful story line but also allowed you to free roam whenever you want and do whatever you wanted. You can steal cars, gain a wanted status from the police and lead them on a wild chase around the city.

He ended the show by talking about MMO's and what they have to offer. People taking control of avatars in a vast open world with hundreds of thousands, or millions, in the case of World of Warcraft which has had a steady population of the years and still continues to do so today.

David Parlett Visits

Who is David Parlett? He is a games scholar who has studied card and board games as well as publishing many popular books:
The Oxford Guide to Card Games and The Oxford History Board Games.
 He is also an inventor of many board games, his most successful being Hare and Tortoise. His German edition won the most prised "Spiel des Jahres" (Game of the Year) in 1979.

David Parlett visited out university where he gave a talk. He asked us a question as he began:
What is a race game? What defines a race?
Idea's were thrown around the group. 2 or more players in a game competing against each other was one point mentioned but the main thing that defines a race game is Start and Finish. With that in mind, can Cribbage or Chess be defined as a race game seeing as players must get to a certain point on the board before their opponent? It's an interesting question and one with multiple answers.
He also spoke about other aspects of board games: How do players move, how many players?


He then challenged us to make our own game. Sam, Matt and I started throwing around idea's about what we could do and ended up with a 3 player board game. Each player had their own start point and four playing pieces. The object of the game was to get all four of their pieces around the board and to the finish. One the trio of triangles on the board were an addition three triangles coloured black. If a player landed on this board they could heavily impact the progress of another player by resetting one of their pieces back to their initial start point.

Pervasive Games

In this lecture we learnt about Pervasive Games. Games such as "Killer" which is a role-playing game sometimes carried out at Universities and College.

Killer starts out with a group of students and a Game Master who decides the rules and gameplay. Each student is given a target and must "kill" them either by assassination via a nerf gun or an alarm clock which sort of acts as a bomb. No one knows who their assassin is and must kill their target before they themselves are killed. If they fail to do so, the assassin then inherits their targets target.

There have been a few incidents when playing this game. In 2009, Fife, Washington, people were evacuated from a Costco and car dealerships when a "bomb" was left behind by someone playing "Assassin". It was found in a flower bed and it contained a magnet and a beeping motion sensor with the words "Bomb, you're dead"

Eddie had found us a film to watch, La Decima Vittima, translated as The Tenth Victim. Subtitles were a must as it was a foreign film. It was difficult to follow but once you got in to it, it made sense.

At UCS Ipswich, our group of students also have a game of Assassin running. I haven't signed up but if the applications are still open, I'd consider giving it a go


IMDb. 1965. The 10th Victim. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059095/. [Accessed 03 March 15].

Games Jam

When the Games Jam was first announced I wasn't that keen on participating. I'm not sure why I didn't want to go but I had changed my mind by the time our lecturer made the final call on who wanted to participate.

It took place over 3 days (kind of), starting on Friday evening and ending in the late afternoon of Sunday. Phil, Aiden and another chap, Phil's friend who had a lot of experience with animation (I'll have to speak to Phil so I can edit in his name)

Before it all began, Diego Richuitti, who currently works at Ubisoft Milan as a Junior Designer, spoke to us. He told us about the differences between AAA and Indie companies. He spoke about his time and what he does, and also what Ubisoft expects from team members. He may have only been a "Junior Designer" but he was treated as a professional in his field regardless of how many years you had accrued at another company. You joined as a professional. No more, no less.

He talked about how he, having only been there a few weeks or months, was asking and giving directions and orders to the people who had worked there for years. They all came together and worked as a team, even though he was the new guy. 

He then spoke about what it's like to be work at a AAA studio:

• Your decisions must be well thought out and fit with what is needed
• Communication is key. You have to be able to give the artists, 3D modellers and Coders clear instruction on what you wanted
• Mistakes can happen and you must take responsibility. If after 30 hours or whatever the time frame, your idea doesn't work and is a failure, you must be able to stand back and claim it as your fault. You are leading them, after all.
• Learn from those mistakes and try not to replicate it.

After a hectic 48 hours we ended up with our game, Unlucky Chucky. It was an experience I'll never forget and one I'll be repeating in the 2nd year of my course.

You can play Unlucky Chucky here http://globalgamejam.org/2015/games/unlucky-chucky

Games Britannia Part 2

In this episode, Woolley starts by tracing the political and social impact that board games had in Britain during the last 200 years. Britain was the country that came up with the idea of a board game and then exported it to the Americas. It was an idea that it could be used as a tool of moral instruction.
America then adapted it and used it to promote the American Dream

Woolley carries on by tracing the development of board games through the post-war era. Cluedo, Scrabble and Monopoly were, to some, a Holy Trinity of British games that are still bought and played to this day.


In the modern day, board games have evolved to include a wide range of fantasy role-playing such as Dungeons and Dragons, an invention from America. Here in the UK we still produce small political games which play on satire.