#simultaneous play

In class we discussed Robot Turtle and X-Wing as examples of games which feature simultaneous play and which we can look at as precedents for our SCOPE project. 

Fairy Tale, Among the Stars, 7 Wonders – card drafting with simultaneous action selection. Common features seem to include a set number of rounds, which may fit with the time-based factor of our conceptualised game.

Space Alert – complex, real-time co-operative team-based survival game with simultaneous action selection. “During play, the central computer will announce the presence of various threats on one the supplied 10 minute soundtracks that also acts as a game timer. The threats vary from space battleships and interceptors to different interstellar monsters and abominations, asteroids or even intruders and malfunctions on the spaceship. Players have to agree who will take care of which task and coordinate their actions (moving around the ship, firing weapons, distributing energy, using battlebots to deal with intruders, launching guided missiles, etc.) in real time to defend the ship. Only a well-working team can survive 10 minutes and make the jump back to safety.” – Board Game Geek

Escape: The Curse of the Temple – real time co-operative game similar to Space Alert.

Robo Rally  – We could potentially look into this as a way of moving players through the game. Robo Rally requires players to fill their robot’s (player pieces) “registers” with facedown movement cards, allowing them to plan a route to whatever win-condition the game features. However, other players are able to intercept that route and force their robot to take other paths.

Race for the Galaxy – “At the beginning of each round, players each select, secretly and simultaneously, one of the seven roles which correspond to the phases in which the round progresses. By selecting a role, players activate that phase for this round, giving each player the opportunity to perform that phase's action.” – Board Game Geek

Dixit – simultaneous action selection – reminds me of The Resistance and Avalon due to simultaneous voting. 

Diplomacy – “In the game, players represent one of the seven "Great Powers of Europe" (Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungry, Germany, Italy, Russia or Turkey) in the years prior to World War I. Play begins in the Spring of 1901, and players make both Spring and Autumn moves each year. There are only two kinds of military units: armies and fleets. On any given turn, each of your military units has limited options: they can move into an adjoining territory, support an allied unit in an attack on an adjoining territory, support an allied unit in defending an adjoining territory, or hold their position. Players instruct each of their units by writing a set of "orders." The outcome of each turn is determined by the rules of the game. There are no dice rolls or other elements of chance.” – Board Game Geek

Pit – Turnless trading game! Looks chaotic.

Boggle – A timed word game where players must find as many connected words as possible from the face up letters resting in a 16 cube grid. When the timer runs out, players compare their lists of words and remove any words found by multiple players. Points are then awarded for remaining words, depending on how many letters are in the word. This is another example of using time restriction to coincide with simultaneous play.

Frozen Synapse and Frozen Cortex – simultaneous turn-based strategic games.

Liege, a tactical RPG that got funded on Kickstarter, was trying to implement simultaneous turns, but in the most recent update, the developer said that he had to drop that plan because "too much was happening at once and players weren't able to keep track of it all," and that it was more important for a tactical game to be easy to follow than for it to be flashy. This is something we will have to be aware of if we implement the use of cards etc., and make the game more tactical – will we still be able to implement simultaneous play without the game becoming too complicated?

Civilization V – “has the option to have simultaneous turns in multiplayer, so you don't have to sit there waiting for the majority of the time. You lose a bit in the short-term tactics front because of everyone doing things at the same time, but maybe that just forces you to focus on long-term strategy all the more?” – Reddit user Intelligensaur

Toribash – “A fighting game that pauses every second or so and lets the players adjust each and every joint to their whim, then plays out what happens. Even further from a typical strategy game, but it's the only way you're going to win so I'm counting it.” – Reddit user Intelligensaur

Our bee crisis project has been “theoretically cancelled”, and we have now started conceptualizing a new project for the ‘Scope’ brief. Our group decided to remain together and work collaboratively for this new project - a multiplayer 3D (tactile) multi-layered plat-former board game with continuous, simultaneous time-based play (?). This addressed the WHY? criteria of the brief: What is the phenomena you are responding to or what is your line of enquiry, questioning? In this case, we’d be looking into particular techniques - such as 3D multi-layering in a tabletop game and/or simultaneous/continuous play.

WHAT? What is your developed concept that you propose addressed this phenomena or question? We are currently looking at a board game which is built like a semi-destroyed office building - players must race each other to a parachute located in-game and launch themselves off the top level (roof) of the building before it collapses completely. Players will play simultaneously - it will not be turn-based! Instead, they will only have seconds to make their move and attempt to sabotage and out-wit each other. We are also looking into strategic items, such as cards and tokens which give the player certain advantages - for example, collecting items to ‘craft’ a makeshift parachute or setting a bear trap to disadvantage the opposing players.

HOW? What is your methodology? How will you know you are making the right design decisions? Our group are about to begin looking quite extensively into precedents to judge whether or not ideas we have theorized would be successful. We would like to lock down the aforementioned strategic items and their uses before creating a paper-prototype to test play, finding the appropriate limit of time to play (before the building collapses), and sorting out what needs to be taken out of or put in the game.