Pirate Board Game for kids(WIP)

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Creating a Board game for a 3 year old

I decided to create a board game to be played with my 3 year old daughter.


The game needed to be...

• Fun
• Engaging.
• Turn based to help teach the concept of taking and waiting for your turn.
• Dice based to help with learning counting.
• Have consequences and an element of chance.
• Have a simple collection mechanic to develop memory and the concept of requirements.
• Find a balance of time taken to play.
• Themed with her interests.

Brake down

The Client

The client on this project is a 3 year old female.  Some experience with board games 'My Little Pony' 'Snakes and Ladders ' and dice games 'Zombie Dice' and 'Cthulhu Dice' both by Steve Jackson and some simple made up one by her father. Loves 'Hulk', dinosaurs, pirates, 'Care Bears' and 'Hay Duggie'

During development the idea was pitched that one be created for a more clients, a set of male twins who are 6 years old as a Christmas present. 

Fun and Engaging

We had tried to play Snakes and Ladders but the game board’s layout seemed quite confusing. Visually it is colourful and vibrant but the layout was far from clear  The movement back and forth across the board with no clear path for a child who cannot yet read numbers was not ideal. To keep the game simple in concept I wanted to keep to the classic ‘turns around the board’ concept found in the likes of Monopoly. A clear progression and path to follow.

               

Turn Based

The concept of turns, patience can be difficult for a very young child. I think engaging games can help children develop these skills in a fun way, someone else’s turn could be just as fun as theirs. 

Dice

Counting dots and recognizing numbers on the dice correlating that with the numbers of spaces moved on the board would help with early numeracy.

          

Consequence

Consequences in game adds to the excitement and 'buy-in'. Consequences cannot be too harsh and must still have an element of fun and excitement. 'Miss a turn', 'move back x number of spaces' and also positive outcomes like 'another turn'.

Collection

Having an element of collection could help with development of recall, association and task management.

Theme

Theme is important as it is the first impression. The game must immediately interest to gain initial 'buy-in'. For this project the theme will be pirates and treasure hunting. The client loves the BBC series 'Swashbuckle'  and anything pirate related

Game board

Using the pirate/treasure theme the idea is that players follow the path around an island digging for treasure.

First page of thoughts

Second Page

Island Concept

First Prototype board

 Board Prototype 2

Cards

For this project 2 sets of cards are required. The 'collectible' deck called the 'X Deck' and the 'random' deck that is called 'There's something in the water'.

The 'collectible' deck will be made up of items that the player needs in order to progress in the game. 

These will be pirate themed items that may be handy on a treasure hunt. A spade, a compass, a key and a telescope.  each island is 5 spaces long and the center space is marked with an 'X'  when the player passes this space the can select the top card from the 'X' Deck'.  Along with the 4 required items are some useless items that are to be failed digs, broken peg leg, old life buoy, fish bones etc..  

Using the layout in the prototypes there is an opportunity to use the places in the water between islands to add a 'random' effect card. these cards have been called that to add excitement and anticipation for the players, encouraged to shout 'There's something in the water!' when drawing a card. these have various effects a fish will have no effect, a 'Shark' will allow the player to move to the next space on dry land and a 'jobbie' (or poo) will make the player panic and swim back to the last dry land space.

While ideally a 4 player game i decided to include 5 of each required item in the 'X Deck' to account for any loss or extra player. Along with those there are 10 useless items.

In the 'There's Something in the Water !' deck there are also 5 of each an 1 message in a bottle. The message in a bottle card would allow the player to draw an 'X Deck'  card that turn.

Player pieces

Rule Book

How to play

Pirates must collect the 4 required items to move to the central island to claim the treasure.

Movement

All players begin on the ship. Highest dice roll decides who begins. Number on dice roll is the number of spaces moved.
If a Black Spot is rolled, no action is taken and the next player rolls.

If a player lands in the water, they must take a “There’s Something in the Water” card (see below).

On passing an X space on the board player takes an X card.

The player keeps any cards they require. Any not required are returned to the bottom of the pile.

Players continue around islands till the 4 items are acquired, the player must continue as normal round the board then stop at the next Jolly Boat. On the players next turn they can move to any jetty on the central island. Movement continues as normal.
First Player to land on the treasure chest on the central island wins.

Special Cards

X Cards

Collectable Items: Spade, Eyeglass, Compass and Key.

Special: The Black Spot: Can be used at any time to take a random card from another player.

Everything else: Rubbish.

“There’s something in the water” Cards

Fin: Take another card

Shark: Player gets scared and moves instantly to next space on land.

Fish: Nothing, it’s just a fish

Jobbie: Disgusting, Player moves back to previous space on land.

Final