Airplane Chess Redesign
Turn Chess to a Board Game
An Introduction to Airplane Chess
Aeroplane Chess is a fun, fast-paced and easy to learn classic Chinese board game enjoyed by adults and children alike. It very similar to the game Ludo, in which the object of the game is to have all your pieces reach the center first.
More information about how to play airplane chess:
Keyword of the Airplane Board Game
collaboration/ chance
According to the book Games,Design and Play
Collaboration: Working together toward the same goal. Given the complex nature of game development, many games are
designed and produced collaboratively.
Chance: The introduction of randomness that impacts a player’s ability to predict the outcome of direct and indirect actions.
Playing Guide- Rules/How to Play
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Still using the airplane chess board and the basic rule of jumping also the turn-based rule, but 3 players(farmers) will be cooperate together to defeat one player(king), which turns this game become a collaborate game.
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Instead of using dice to decide how many steps to go, I want to use a set of cards, which include regular cards(eg: Go Forward 1 Step) and functional cards（eg: Other players’ attack is useless to you）. By using different cards, there has more chance to win in this game instead of only by luck, players can have certain skills to make the card take better effect.
Card Design
regular card
Cards that are used immediately in each round.
Card Design
special card
Cards that are used when some conditions happen and are invisible to other players before it take effect.But player need to put the card aside to be used.
Card Design
backside
Regular Card
Special Card
Play Test
I invited several friends to do the play test and I got some useful feedback. Through observing how people interact with my game, I found they all quite understand the function on the cards and the play order, but they have confusion about how and when to use special cards. Some players may forget what their special cards are during the game and may miss the time when special cards took effect.
Besides that, the experience of being the king was not very well since she was targeted by all other players while she did not have any special king skills, and she did not feel powerful and competitive. The whole game lasts about 20 minutes and the king lost the game, which made her really depressed. From the feedback sheet, many people said about the balancing power between the king and farmers.
There are rules that I haven't considered yet. After the plane arrived at their own "safety zone", can it be attacked or not? How to decide who is the king and who are farmers when the game starts? How to calculate fuel usage in a comfortable way?
For future iteration, I should redefined the game rules to make the king more powerful, maybe king can have one extra protective chance in each round. Besides, I would turn paper planes to more delicate material and have some fuel cards to easier calculate. The total type of the card functions should be more various to increase chance and uncertainty.