Well folks- the time has come to actually take what I’ve learned and build something real. I’m genuinely excited about the possibilities and I’m going to need your help here - but knowing how helpful you guys are I sure it’s going to be a fun journey!
Good luck and I was hoping you do this! And from a new game dev who has 2 games in alpha just take your time don't rush things but have a deadline and delay if need to... Also just enjoy the experience and if it fails at least we all can learn from it.
I found this channel while trying to find a Board Game Making Guide and this channel is like a golden mine!. Too great man. I think you can't get the concern you deserve.
Hi Ali, the first thought that came to mind as an alternative to snakes and ladders was a timeline, where you have to get from one point in time to another. You move backwards in time as the board progresses however there are events that trigger you to move in time faster and events that send you back up the timeline. The ultimate goal of the game is to travel back to the right time to change history and send you into a preferred alternate future! 😎 (there could be trigger events along the way that requires you to change certain parts of the past before you can advance, lots of possibilities of skill and luck!)
A cool name would revolve around the ever famous “The Butterfly Effect”, maybe a play on words, I’m not sure! Great idea though Ali, looking forward to how it all pans out!
Loving how you are already thinking outside the box Louis! I think something that needs consideration is how closely we stick to the theme of snakes and ladders itself! Currently, I do want the final design to resemble the original game in some obvious aspect though ...
@@GamingIndoors I’m wayyy outside the box then! 🤣 I need to say inside the realm of K.I.S.S, keep it simple stupid! I think the most obvious way of making it different from the original is to make it 3D somehow, not sure how you’d do it though 🤔 a simple concept could be mountain climbing, with landslides? I’m just thinking out loud! 😁
Wait what... Snakes and Ladders redesigned and made better?! For other episodes in this series see below: "Ali redesigns 'The Wheel' and creates a perpetual motion machine in the process" "DnD for 2021, Ali invents telepathic character control and board movement" :) loving the vids mate!
It is "easy" to improve snakes and ladders just adding choices (everything is easier said than done), but the moment you do, it stop being snakes and ladders; just like if you added dice to chess, it could be a great game, but not chess. Anyway, most games use a simple mechanic to expand from there and achieve a playstyle and theme on their own. Lets put hands on and see what we get. As Neil Gaiman said: "And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art." (In fact i recommend to everyone the whole "Make good art" speech)
This is a true statement and one will bring up in the next video, but really I want us to think of snakes and ladders as the "inspiration" for the new game - in effect the origin of the game idea.
I was about to start watching the next video but decided it would be best to hop back here first, I’ve watched a bunch of your past videos and look forward to seeing your channel grow. Excited to follow along and maybe be a little part of it. Now back to watching.
Just thinking about your first section about what interactions take place during game play? We may want to think about how many of the 5 usual types of interaction we might want to implement. Fighting, Trading, Sharing, Auctioning and Donating.
Hi, nice idea, you just need to decide early on, why and for whom you are making this game. As a challenge to learn about game design it is a great idea. But consider this: Wikipedia quote: The game is a simple race based on sheer luck, and it is popular with young children. You are working on a game popular with 3-5 year olds, do you want to make their experince better? Do you aim at making it more complex and better suited for 5-10 year olds? Do you want a game for adults to play? There are so many great games out there, and I do not think you can capture adults by something based on Snakes and ladders, without changing it to a point, where it is unrecognizable. I just did a short video about fixing old games, which included Snakes and ladders.
Uric (I hope I have your name correct!) This is a very important point and one I will share in the next video. By the way I checked out your channel - great concept there :)
How about each player throws 3 dices and begin with that amount of points. It will also be how many spaces they move but also have random numbers of spiritual significance which will also add to their scores . These will be master numbers example 9,27,33,777,2112. With each of those numbers comes a riddle based on existential philosophy and team mates must cast a vote to advise others on what to do
Just recently found your channel and it looks like it was just in time! I'm also new to the game design adventure, though I am a bit ahead of you(First game is ready for blind playtesting but trying to get over anxiety of putting it out there for strangers to judge!). Looking forward to working on this game with you!
HI DD - So I've broken up making a board game into a number of choices. You've just watched the intro BUT there is a part one which followed this vid and that describes our first choice : What kind of game genre /player interaction we wanted. The voting was held under the community tab. For the upcoming choices I will ensure there is a link in the comments, so you can easily link straight to it!
In the game of Let's Design a Board Game Together, players compete with each other to get their ideas accepted by a secret panel who vet the myriad of ideas that are thrown at them.... just kidding. But there is a serious question: who gets to decide which direction we take? If I propose a theme or or mechanic that gets side-lined, aren't I going to get disparaged and then no longer contribute? I'm sure there's a saying somewhere about a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Right, that's the negative stuff out of the way now for my first pitch. Let's have individual hexes that form the board, so every time we play it's a different set up? And there's also more routes than just a linear track from one square to the next. and what if those hexes were different heights?
So that a very fair question and something will also bring up in the first episode. The whole point of this is to demonstrate the activity set of going through and designing a game and not about competing to put in the actual elements into the game. I mentioned this before - the game could very likely be a dud to actually play and that really is OK. This is about what steps we need to go through to get the job done. As for who decides - well the initial ideas will be coming from me ... and from any audience comments that grab my attention of course :)
Cross-posting from BGG just in case - WARNING: This post is basically me making things up as I go along. If memory serves, Snakes & Ladders began as a game of virtue. That is to say, the basic idea is that virtue is NOT its only reward, but that the good things in life - wealth, health, social advancement, and in this case good dice rolls that let you win the game - were the result of being virtuous. The snakes and ladders on the board were also symbolic of this: if you landed on a square with a virtue or a sin, you were sent forward or backwards depending on the deed. I suggest we keep this idea and add to it. But instead of just a roll & move, players need to be given actual choices. And those choices should be about the game's theme of virtue and sin. So . . . let's say that every time you land on a square, you draw a card with a question about morality. If you answer correctly, you get a Virtue token. Otherwise you get a Sin token and must return one Virtue token if you have any. When you roll your dice (or is it die? I never played S&L or any of its varients), you may move [number of Virtue tokens] fewer squares than the number on the dice. When you land on a square with a ladder, you move up the ladder if you have at least as many Virtue tokens as the number on the ladder (this number will increase further up the track). If your pawn moves to a square that is within [number of Sin tokens] of a snake, you get sent back but return all your Sin tokens. You'd probably need a huge deck of questions or else people will just memorize the correct answers. But, now that I think of it, that might not be a bad thing if one of the game's objectives is to teach kids about right and wrong.
Hi ali I'm abbas and i'm from iran I made a tcg game with cardboard And i REALLY want to publish it I don't think i can do it but any suggestions? Also i'm 13
Hey Abbas! Lots of people publish their own games and companies like The Gamecrafter can help, but it can be an expensive activity even if you want to just make a few copies. If the game is right then you could approach a publisher who may take it up and publish it for you. My best advice is start by making sure you have the best version of your game possible. Test it and test it again. You definitely need to find people to play test your game and make sure they have found any problems with the game. I’m speaking with a play tester in an upcoming vid - stay tuned to see what advice he gives on that too!
In this episode, Ali undertakes the unthinkable mission of giving a sense to snakes and ladders. Will he succeed? You'll find out in the next episodes, and hopefully he'll surprise everyone.
Well folks- the time has come to actually take what I’ve learned and build something real. I’m genuinely excited about the possibilities and I’m going to need your help here - but knowing how helpful you guys are I sure it’s going to be a fun journey!
Good luck and I was hoping you do this! And from a new game dev who has 2 games in alpha just take your time don't rush things but have a deadline and delay if need to...
Also just enjoy the experience and if it fails at least we all can learn from it.
I found this channel while trying to find a Board Game Making Guide and this channel is like a golden mine!. Too great man. I think you can't get the concern you deserve.
I love the energy. This kind of knowledge and passion in gaming makes me happy
Great choice!!! Watching carefully!
Thank you for your videos and inspiration, Ali!
Cheers from Brazil.
Hi Ali, the first thought that came to mind as an alternative to snakes and ladders was a timeline, where you have to get from one point in time to another. You move backwards in time as the board progresses however there are events that trigger you to move in time faster and events that send you back up the timeline. The ultimate goal of the game is to travel back to the right time to change history and send you into a preferred alternate future! 😎 (there could be trigger events along the way that requires you to change certain parts of the past before you can advance, lots of possibilities of skill and luck!)
A cool name would revolve around the ever famous “The Butterfly Effect”, maybe a play on words, I’m not sure! Great idea though Ali, looking forward to how it all pans out!
Loving how you are already thinking outside the box Louis! I think something that needs consideration is how closely we stick to the theme of snakes and ladders itself! Currently, I do want the final design to resemble the original game in some obvious aspect though ...
@@GamingIndoors I’m wayyy outside the box then! 🤣 I need to say inside the realm of K.I.S.S, keep it simple stupid! I think the most obvious way of making it different from the original is to make it 3D somehow, not sure how you’d do it though 🤔 a simple concept could be mountain climbing, with landslides? I’m just thinking out loud! 😁
Supporting my favourite BoardGame Channel with this comment to feed the all-mighty algorithm. NUMBER FOOOOUR
and I really like the energy there haha^^
Thanks for that, Ramy - You're a star!
Wait what... Snakes and Ladders redesigned and made better?!
For other episodes in this series see below:
"Ali redesigns 'The Wheel' and creates a perpetual motion machine in the process"
"DnD for 2021, Ali invents telepathic character control and board movement"
:) loving the vids mate!
LOL Baby steps, Disordely! Let's crack the snakes and ladders thing first :)
It is "easy" to improve snakes and ladders just adding choices (everything is easier said than done), but the moment you do, it stop being snakes and ladders; just like if you added dice to chess, it could be a great game, but not chess. Anyway, most games use a simple mechanic to expand from there and achieve a playstyle and theme on their own. Lets put hands on and see what we get.
As Neil Gaiman said: "And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art." (In fact i recommend to everyone the whole "Make good art" speech)
This is a true statement and one will bring up in the next video, but really I want us to think of snakes and ladders as the "inspiration" for the new game - in effect the origin of the game idea.
I was about to start watching the next video but decided it would be best to hop back here first, I’ve watched a bunch of your past videos and look forward to seeing your channel grow. Excited to follow along and maybe be a little part of it. Now back to watching.
Awesome! Thank you, Neil - hope you enjoy and find them useful!
I do like this idea and game! Excited to see what you'll develop.
Lol me too DND - excited and nervous...
Oh! I love this idea!
Me too, Edvin!
This sounds like it’ll be fun. I’m looking forward to it 🤟🏻
Right now it sounds like fun... ask me again a few weeks in lol!
Just thinking about your first section about what interactions take place during game play? We may want to think about how many of the 5 usual types of interaction we might want to implement. Fighting, Trading, Sharing, Auctioning and Donating.
Hey Ralph! I think those 5 types may sit more in what players can do each turn - but I like the suggestions you've made already!
Snakes and Ladders: Legacy
YES! LOL, Imagine that!
Hi, nice idea, you just need to decide early on, why and for whom you are making this game. As a challenge to learn about game design it is a great idea. But consider this: Wikipedia quote: The game is a simple race based on sheer luck, and it is popular with young children. You are working on a game popular with 3-5 year olds, do you want to make their experince better? Do you aim at making it more complex and better suited for 5-10 year olds? Do you want a game for adults to play? There are so many great games out there, and I do not think you can capture adults by something based on Snakes and ladders, without changing it to a point, where it is unrecognizable. I just did a short video about fixing old games, which included Snakes and ladders.
Uric (I hope I have your name correct!) This is a very important point and one I will share in the next video. By the way I checked out your channel - great concept there :)
I'm looking forward to following the journey.
This sounds like a really fun experiment. Can't wait to see where it goes!
You and me, both Andy. Hehe!
Great idea! I’ll be following closely and try to give input where I can!
Cheers Donald - looking forwards to hearing your ideas :)
Snakes & Ladders: The Worker Placement War Game 😛
haha! I love where direction this could take us!
With giant minis & tiny wooden cubes?
great idea i love it
Glad you like it!
How about each player throws 3 dices and begin with that amount of points. It will also be how many spaces they move but also have random numbers of spiritual significance which will also add to their scores . These will be master numbers example 9,27,33,777,2112. With each of those numbers comes a riddle based on existential philosophy and team mates must cast a vote to advise others on what to do
Sound very interesting!
I think so too, Bradley!
Just recently found your channel and it looks like it was just in time! I'm also new to the game design adventure, though I am a bit ahead of you(First game is ready for blind playtesting but trying to get over anxiety of putting it out there for strangers to judge!). Looking forward to working on this game with you!
Welcome aboard Killington, it should be a blast!
if you add a way to add things to the board as you play that could add another level of strategy.
Definitely a thing to consider when we do cover skill, strategy and luck :)
Loving this idea, looking forward to interacting whenever we can!
Me too! And I can't wait to hear back the ideas :)
Exciting times, indeed!
hehe! I did flounder a little to find a more apt word to use... but i think in the end "exciting" fits well :)
I was directed to this video to learn how to vote before Sunday's deadline.... How do I vote?
Also, what am I voting for?
HI DD - So I've broken up making a board game into a number of choices. You've just watched the intro BUT there is a part one which followed this vid and that describes our first choice : What kind of game genre /player interaction we wanted. The voting was held under the community tab. For the upcoming choices I will ensure there is a link in the comments, so you can easily link straight to it!
In the game of Let's Design a Board Game Together, players compete with each other to get their ideas accepted by a secret panel who vet the myriad of ideas that are thrown at them....
just kidding. But there is a serious question: who gets to decide which direction we take? If I propose a theme or or mechanic that gets side-lined, aren't I going to get disparaged and then no longer contribute? I'm sure there's a saying somewhere about a camel is a horse designed by a committee.
Right, that's the negative stuff out of the way now for my first pitch.
Let's have individual hexes that form the board, so every time we play it's a different set up? And there's also more routes than just a linear track from one square to the next. and what if those hexes were different heights?
So that a very fair question and something will also bring up in the first episode. The whole point of this is to demonstrate the activity set of going through and designing a game and not about competing to put in the actual elements into the game. I mentioned this before - the game could very likely be a dud to actually play and that really is OK. This is about what steps we need to go through to get the job done.
As for who decides - well the initial ideas will be coming from me ... and from any audience comments that grab my attention of course :)
Cross-posting from BGG just in case -
WARNING: This post is basically me making things up as I go along.
If memory serves, Snakes & Ladders began as a game of virtue. That is to say, the basic idea is that virtue is NOT its only reward, but that the good things in life - wealth, health, social advancement, and in this case good dice rolls that let you win the game - were the result of being virtuous. The snakes and ladders on the board were also symbolic of this: if you landed on a square with a virtue or a sin, you were sent forward or backwards depending on the deed.
I suggest we keep this idea and add to it. But instead of just a roll & move, players need to be given actual choices. And those choices should be about the game's theme of virtue and sin. So . . . let's say that every time you land on a square, you draw a card with a question about morality. If you answer correctly, you get a Virtue token. Otherwise you get a Sin token and must return one Virtue token if you have any.
When you roll your dice (or is it die? I never played S&L or any of its varients), you may move [number of Virtue tokens] fewer squares than the number on the dice. When you land on a square with a ladder, you move up the ladder if you have at least as many Virtue tokens as the number on the ladder (this number will increase further up the track). If your pawn moves to a square that is within [number of Sin tokens] of a snake, you get sent back but return all your Sin tokens.
You'd probably need a huge deck of questions or else people will just memorize the correct answers. But, now that I think of it, that might not be a bad thing if one of the game's objectives is to teach kids about right and wrong.
I love the interpretation for game theme we could take here by tracing back the origin story of snakes and ladders ! A game with a moral code?
Hi ali
I'm abbas and i'm from iran
I made a tcg game with cardboard
And i REALLY want to publish it
I don't think i can do it but any suggestions?
Also i'm 13
Hey Abbas! Lots of people publish their own games and companies like The Gamecrafter can help, but it can be an expensive activity even if you want to just make a few copies. If the game is right then you could approach a publisher who may take it up and publish it for you.
My best advice is start by making sure you have the best version of your game possible. Test it and test it again. You definitely need to find people to play test your game and make sure they have found any problems with the game. I’m speaking with a play tester in an upcoming vid - stay tuned to see what advice he gives on that too!
Thanks!
In this episode, Ali undertakes the unthinkable mission of giving a sense to snakes and ladders. Will he succeed? You'll find out in the next episodes, and hopefully he'll surprise everyone.
Lol, Elisa! I am sure there will be surprises in store for us all, but I've got to admit it: I'm excited about what's to come!
Snakes and ladders: Decent into Hell
Loving the moody vibe this title brings with it, Bo!
Don't worry about copyright. The only things that can be copyrighted in games are the art and the writing. There are a few patents, too, but not many.
- and rules apparently! You are right of course but I wanted to be sure ...just in case :)