Be Fit! Final Game

This is a 2-player board game. The goal is to going from Start Box to End Box. Players should balance their weight on the way to beat the obstacles!

You can find my play testing and iterating data here.

Game Box Contents

• Box Contents sheet.
• The board: 6 x 8 unit2 with 7 yellow and 6 green ‘?’ boxes, 5 S and 4 XS arch places, 3 L holes, 1 XL hole.
• 2 Nested dolls: Penguin and Owl nested dolls with 6 sizes. (XS, S, M, L, XL, Obese). The sizes are written on dolls’ backs.
• 2 Energy bars
• 21 Yellow cards & 12 Green cards
• Customized D-10 food die & Customized D-6 exercise die
• 5 S-sized Arch (Blue) & 4 XS-sized Arch (Red)

Preparation

• The board is put on a smooth surface.
• The arches are folded on the lines such that they look like the pictures above. They are put into proper places (blues to S, reds to XS holds) as shown in the pictures below.
• Each player chooses a nested doll and the Medium sized player dolls are put to the start box.
• The players both have energy bars. The energy bars show ¡§no energy¡¨ initially.
• Yellow and green cards are shuffled and put on the table upside down.
• 2 dice is put on the board; one for food (D-10) and one for exercise (D-6).
  • Food dice: customized with 1 energy-1 size, 2 energy-1 size and 3 energy-2 size.
  • Exercise dice: customized with 1 energy-1 size, 2 energy-1 size and 3 energy-2 size.

  

Rules

• The players can only move in up/down/right/left directions. No diagonal movement allowed.
• In order to move, the players need energy (energy = number of steps).
• Energy can be had two ways: In each turn, the player choses eating food or exercising.
  • If the player chooses eating, the player immediately gains energy and size according to the dice (i.e. one of the 1 energy-1 size, 2 energy-1 size and 3 energy-2 size pairs). The player puts the layers on to his/her nested doll.
  • If the player chooses exercising, he immediately gains energy and loses size according to the dice (i.e. one of the 1 energy-1 size, 2 energy-1 size and 3 energy-2 size pairs). The player takes the layers off from his/her nested doll.
  • The player can use as many energy units as he wants to use in that turn and store the rest in his/her energy bar. In order to be able to move, the player has to have energy in his/her energy bar.
• If the player is already XL, he cannot eat, he has to exercise.
• If the player is already XS, he cannot exercise, he has to eat.
• If the player ends up being an obese or anorectic, he/she still gets energies but cannot move in that turn. (Unfortunately, here is no layer for anorectic case, so while playing, just put the head portion of S.)
• There are arches on the board that only people small enough can pass under and there are holes that only large people can pass over without falling into. Push your doll under the arches in order to pass to the other box.
• If your path includes the arches and holes, you should obey their rules.
• There are special boxes on the board: Green ?s are more likely to affect XS, S and M people badly whereas yellow ?s are more likely to affect L and XL people badly. But greens might hurt L and XL people, too. So do the yellow ones; they can hurt XS, S or M people.
  • If your path from one point to another passes through a special box (? Box), you should obey that box’s rule. (The rules are not for landing over but also for passing through.) After passing, the player picks a special event from the pile (yellow and green cards according to the color of the box). The rule of that box in that turn is written on the picked card. After the player completes his/her turn, the cards are shuffled again.
• The last transition requires being Medium sized. The first player who reaches the end point with Medium size wins.

Brainstorming Process

After we have been given the assignment, I started thinking about the existing dice games that I’ve played so far. I tried to remember what I liked about them and what got me frustrated. I realized that whatever the gameplay is, a game depending on fully luck is not something that I did not like while playing those games. In my game, I should be playing with the parameters such a way that the strategy and luck is balanced.
Moreover, the game has to be running around the dice; the dice should not be just the tool like in Monopoly.
Next, I started writing down the things that I like randomly. I came up with such a list:

• Roll Playing
• Jumping
• Cute things
• Competition
• Cooperation
• Magic & Wisdom
• Sports
• Cookies
• Stories

Playing with the things that I like, I started to throw out ideas on my sheets. Here is a short list of them:

• Storytelling with dice
• Designing monsters/creatures and have a fight
• Physical activities with rolling dice
• Dancing with dice
• Cranium on dice
• Eating/Drinking competition with dice
• Highest number rolling competition
• Drawing competition with rolling dice and earning strokes & colors

I almost decided to elaborate the monster & creature idea, when another idea came to my mind during fitness class. I thought about a game where your main goal is to be fit; not fatter or skinnier. You roll the dice to eat or exercise and try to balance your weight.
I loved this idea and decided to go for this. I began to fill our project room’s white board with things on my mind. In the rest of this document, I will be talking about the iterations of this idea and the final game. The goal is the same over all iterations: The player has to reach from Start point to End point being Medium size. My target audience is 7+ board & dice game lovers.

Remarks about the Final Game

After researches on the board game developers forums and game crafter websites, I learned that the cost of my game will depend on these:

o Game Board: Size – Shape – Thickness
o Nested Dolls: Size – How many
o Cards: Size – Shape – How many
o Dice: Size
o Rulebook: How many languages
o The box: Size – Shape – How many components to fit
o Print: How many games
o Shipping

I am estimating that if this game to be published for large amounts, the total selling would be around 5000-15000 units. With these numbers, I can get the components printed in Game Craft:

• Game board – 16” x 10” x1: 1.56 dollars/box
• Nested dolls x2: 12 dollars/box
• Mini cards – 1.75” x 2.5” x 43: 2.89 dollars/box
• Rulebook – 1 sheet: 0.02 dollars/box
• Energy bars x2: 0.1 dollars/box
• Game Box x1: 1.25 dollars/box
• D-10 dice x1: 0.40 dollars/box
• D-6 dice x1: 0.40 dollars/box

According to my estimations, this game can be sold for $20.00/unit to be profitable. This 1 prototype cost me:

o 2 nested dolls: $19
o 2 dice: $0.80
o Board: $2
o Cards & energy bar: $1

Probability Analysis

There are 21 yellow cards. Yellow cards are mostly bad for L and XL people. (14 of them are bad for larger people whereas 7 of them are bad for smaller people). ( 2/3 vs 1/3)
There are 12 green cards. Green cards are mostly bad for XS, S and M people. (8 of them are bad for smaller people whereas 4 of them are bad for larger people). ( 2/3 vs 1/3)
There are 7 yellow boxes and 6 green boxes on the board.

• The probability that the player lands on a yellow box and it is bad for large = 7/48 * 2/3 = 14/144
• The probability that the player lands on a yellow box and it is bad for small = 7/48 * 1/3 = 7/144
• The probability that the player lands on a green box and it is bad for large = 6/48 * 1/3 = 6/144
• The probability that the player lands on a green box and it is bad for small = 6/48 * 2/3 = 12/144

Therefore, card-wise, the game has 20/144 bad for large people and 19/144 bad for small people balancing.
Exercise die:

• Probability of getting 1 energy – 1 size: 1/3
• Probability of getting 2 energy – 1 size: 1/3
• Probability of getting 3 energy – 2 size: 1/3

Food die:

• Probability of getting 1 energy – 1 size: 2/5
• Probability of getting 2 energy – 1 size: 2/5
• Probability of getting 3 energy – 2 size: 1/5

References:

1. Made for Play: Board Games & Modern Industry – http://vimeo.com/45796947
2. Board Game Designers Forum – http://www.bgdf.com
3. The Forge – http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php
4. http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson20.html
5. http://www.amherstlodge.com/games/reference/gameinvented.htm
6. https://www.thegamecrafter.com/publish/pricing
7. http://boardgames.lovetoknow.com/Create_Your_Own_Printable_Board_Game