Re: [piecepack] many questions

["Mark A. Biggar" <mark.a.biggar@...>]

pete33incinci wrote:
> Hi, all.  I'm relatively new here and thought I'd introduce myself
> before asking a zillion questions. 

Welcome

> My name's Pete, and I like to play games, especially those involving
> wooden bits.  I liked the piecepack concept a lot, and when I found
> that Mesomorph was selling wooden piecepacks, I decided to buy one. 
>
> So now I'm looking for games to play with the piecepack.  I've
> checked out piecepack.org's game list, but it seems a bit sketchy --
> no ratings (I'm told they were deleted because of user infighting),
> and it seems rather cumbersome to read all 70+ games.  So my first
> question is:  Which piecepack games, if any, have you enjoyed playing
> repeatedly? Replay value is something I look for in a game. 

The wiki has a recommended games page.

> Second, I've been looking around for cooperative/collaborative games -
> - games in which the players try to help each other reach a goal
> together.  Are there any cooperative games for the piecepack?

Not yet.

> Next, I'm thinking about trying my hand at designing a game, but I
> don't really know where to start.  What resources can you recommend
> for someone who wants to design a game?

A lot of the piecepack designers got started by entering one of the
periodic contests (the current contest "Solitary Confinement" has
a submission deadline of this coming Monday (12/8) so it's
probably to late for this one, but there should be another one
in the next 6 months).  There is also the adaptation route; take
a favorite game or sport (like I did with Croquet, Bocce, Frisbee Golf,
and the old 3M game Evade) and makeup a way to play it using a
piecepack. And of course, sometimes your muse is helpful and you just
get a good idea.  There is also the Game Design Forum Yahoo mailing
list.

> How can I tell whether a game I come up with is using too many of
> someone else's ideas? The taxonomy page might be a start (in that it
> will help me determine whether I'm picking something that has the
> same mechanics as an existing game), but I can't tell if it includes
> all of the piecepack games.  

I wouldn't worry about that too much, several of the current games are
either adaptations or are similar to other non-piecepack games.

> How does the wiki work? Does everyone
> who wants to just make additions to it whenever they feel like it?

Yep.  Be sure to register first so everyone knows who is making what
changes and besides if you make a change we don't like we'll just
change it back.  About the only informal rule on the wiki is that a
designers personal page is his alone to change, except for comments
appended to the end.  Oh, and there are some consistency issues that it
would be polite to follow: E.g., when adding a game page please add a
link to it to the Games listing page and the Taxonomy page if its not
already there, etc.

I've been kind of informally keeping the wiki Glossary up to date.  Please
add any terms you think are missing. (That's goes for everyone else as
well.)

--
mark@...
mark.a.biggar@...