Nice Games Club - a gamedev podcast! Nice Games Jam: "Blob Ball"
Apr 30, 2019
00:00
This week on the program is another Nice Games Jam, where we are given a prompt from Martha’s boyfriend (and Evil Games Club co-host) Dylan, which we have to use to create a playable game prototype by the end of the episode.
The prompt was to create a paper prototype of a game that combines "hilarious movement" like in games like Gang Beasts or Octodad with a card game.
You can play the prototype of our creation "Blob Ball" at home using the rules below. Maybe we'll actually make the video game version sometime!
Prompt
create a paper prototype of a game that combines "hilarious movement" like in games like Gang Beasts or Octodad with a card game.
Game type
Paper prototype
Player count
3
Materials
3 decks of cards
1 joker to be the blob ball
Setup
2 decks of cards for the two players ( 1 Deck each)
- Separate out the face cards
- Place on the starting line for each player
- Put all other cards aside
1 deck of card for the for AI physics
- Sort into suits
- Pull out Ace-4 and the face cards from the Hearts suit to make the blob movement Heart deck and set all other hearts aside
- Give one suite deck other than hearts to each player and keep one for physics. These suit decks will be used to play war to determine who has control of the ball.
1 Joker to be the blob ball placed in the center of the field
Rules
Goal
- Move blob past opponent’s starting line
Characters
- Jack, moves 3 spaces without the ball, 1 space with the ball
- Queen, moves 2 spaces with or without ball (ball can only move as fast as the slowest character on it)
- King, moves 1 space with or without the ball
Each player has three actions to do things on their turn
- Move a character (only can move an individual character once per turn)
- Lift blob (auto chance to lift blob if the player ends turn with three cards on it)
- Move blob (only once per turn- ball can only move as fast as the slowest character on it)
When picking up blob:
- Need at least 3 cards on blob to pick it up.
- Play “war” with AI physics player using the physics suit decks- higher card (plus any player bonus points) wins
- Numbers worth their number (Ace is worth 1)
- Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13
- Bonus for each card on blob: King +2, Queen +1, Jack +0
- If opponent is also on the blob, they get to play in the war hand as well to defend with their bonuses and prevent blob movement
If blob falls out by Physics winning in “war”:
- Throw ace of hearts to determine direction. The end point of the heart is the direction it moves
- Draw from the Heart deck of Jack (worth 1), Queen (worth 1), King (worth 1), Ace (worth 1), 2, 3, and 4 to determine amount of movement.