Igloos
Game Information
Igloos is a chutes-and-ladders-like board game where two players compete to reach the last igloo before the other. There are tunnels that transport you closer (or farther) from your goal, and blockades, which you place to prevent the other player from progressing.
Igloos is designed to be played by everybody. Players should be of the competitive type, and should also be okay with random chance. If players like games like Mario Party, chutes-and-ladders, Sorry!, and 100% Orange Juice, they would enjoy Igloos.
An example game: The blue-player is trapped by red-player's blockades, and the red-player has landed on an avalanche space.
Problems and Solutions
The initial prototype of Igloos had a tiny board. Each game took about only two minutes, and so Conner and I had to redesign the board. The finished product can be seen in the above photo. We considered expanding the size of the board further, and including a 4-sided die instead of a quarter for movement. This would have been great if Igloos were for four players, but due to the game being limited to two-players, we decided against it.
The initial design. The asterisks (*) were teleport spaces, and the (?) were for the Ice Blocks. Originally, if you landed on a (?) space, you had a chance to place a Blockade where-ever you wanted, or to have one block the space in front of you.
Another problem was figuring out when players should be able to use the blockades. Initially, placing a block took an entire turn. This made games stiff, and weakened the power of blockades. The solution to this was to allow players to place a blockade before they move. This made the game flow better, and also forced players to make more interesting decisions. For example, a player may choose to block their enemy, but may also be blocking themselves in the process.
Our rule sheet used to be too brief. Through playtesting, we learned there were many special cases that could occur in a game that had to be addressed. One example of a special case is when a block lands on top of a player via avalanche. Another example was when you break an ice block. One play-tester thought they would move one space if the block was broken, but in fact you are supposed to not move. The solution to this was adding the special cases we found into our rule-sheet, while also clarifying confusing sentences.
Play-testers were not always good at flipping coins, and did not like how much luck influenced games. Coins were often tossed across the room, and one of us would have to pick it up. There was no set rule on of a coin-flip counts if it lands on the floor, etc. Since college students (the majority of our play-testers) were not skilled coin-flippers, we should not assume younger kids are any different. At the time of writing this, we have no solution or clarification on coins, and simply hope house-rules will be developed fairly. With the problem of luck, I would say there is enough of a balance between strategy and luck in Igloos.
Conner and I worked well together. There were no tasks that were not completed on time. Early on, we met frequently to discuss big changes to make, and whenever any changes were made we told each other.
Last time, I said I would playtest more. For Igloos, I definitely did do a lot more playtesting. I had friends, family, and roommates play our game, and all of them gave good feedback, which I incorporated into the final version.
Later in the development process, Conner and I met less and less as we became content with our version of the game. While it was nice to have a complete and somewhat-polished game early on, I think we could have done further refinement to Igloos.
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