piecepack Workshop: Cell Management v0.6 by Mark Goadrich

["Benedict" <boycat_oh@...>]

Brykovian suggested in early 2004 that willing members of the 
group might participate in a formal or informal piecepack game 
design workshop (similar to the one at Board Game Designers 
Forum) to help authors improve their game designs.  This can 
take all sorts of forms, from comments about gameplay, game 
mechanics, theme, rules writing, rules clarity, and can be 
applied to games in any stage of design, whether at the basic 
idea stage or almost ready for release.

The yahoo group has been very quiet of late (the usual summer 
slow down) so I thought I would kick off Bryk's idea with an 
informal (but critical) look at some of the games in the Rules in 
Progress folder.  Hopefully some analysis and suggestions will 
help motivate authors to polish up their games and submit them 
to piecepack.org, not to mention increase activity in the group.

First up is Mark Goadrich's solitaire game Cell Management 
v0.6.  Hopefully over the next few of weeks more members 
interested in the design workshop idea will also have time to 
comment.

1) General comments

Solo games are always welcome additions to the piecepack 
family.  Quite a few solitaires exist already so new ones need to 
add something more or different in terms of gameplay.  I think 
overall Mark has done a great job with a game that has a few 
neat features.  I liked the fact that the game requires no extra 
equipment (in fact it is one of the few piecepack games that 
doesn't exert itself to use all the bits); I thought the circular layout 
of the cells was attractive when set up; I liked the guard 
mechanic.  This might be a good time to state that, as Mark 
points out in the rules, this solitaire falls squarely into the puzzle 
category.  Like Mark, I get the feeling that all layouts are 
solveable, but there is enough going on that it isn't always 
immediately obvious what the shortest path to victory is.  

The rules themselves are generally well-presented, well-written 
(i.e. sound use of English, attention paid to spelling and 
grammar) and contain very nicely done diagrams.  I always like 
to see where game designs originate, so I enjoyed the 
background info at the end of the rules.

2) Specific comments

I think that gameplay itself is fine and does not need to be 
altered - very solid puzzle abstract.

I did struggle a bit after reading the rules the first time - it wasn't 
immediately obvious to me that the escaping species member 
would escape to a different hideout than the adjacent hideout. 
Mark makes use of the words 'its own hideout' which perhaps 
wasn't specific enough for me.  Maybe something like 'adjacent 
hideout' and 'destination hideout' would have made this clearer.  
I finally understood the mechanics when I realized that Mark's 
examples of play diagrams didn't make sense to me.  I spent 
some time working out how the game went from the start to the 
end of turn 1, and finally it clicked.  It is hard at first to visualize 
the fact that species members escape, but some of them will be 
discovered by the guards and returned to their containment cells 
with just 1 diagram for the end of each turn. Although the 
diagrams are very nicely done, I think there should be a few 
more - perhaps a series of 6 diagrams showing a whole turn 
(the first turn would be best) then keep the diagram of the end of 
the 2nd turn.  

This next point is one of personal preference - it would make it 
much easier for me if the friendly/hostile suits corresponded to 
sun/moon which, for me, are easier to see as opposites, then 
use either arms or crowns for the containment cells.

3) Conclusion

Although this could be sent to piecepack.org as is, a few small 
additions would really make it an excellent ruleset.

I hope you don't mind being the guineapig designer for the 
workshop, Mark!

Looking forward to seeing other designs from you in the future.

Phillip