Horror Vacui: “A Board Game of Sorts”
January 14th, 2009
Posted by nedthehead
You can’t get a much better explanation than that!
Sinman has decided to create an original board game for the Wii. Actually, for an original board game and a first attempt at programming games, I’d have to give Sinman the thumbs up here. The gameplay is pretty well thought out, and what’s better is that it runs well, and plays good!
Each player is assigned an element, Water or Earth. Players takes turns placing cards representing their element until the board (called the Vacuum) is full.
Each card can have one of three temperatures chosen at random: Normal (green border) or one of two extremes, Hot (orange border) or Cold (blue border). When placed on the board a card’s temperature is transferred to any adjacent cards.
- A normal card has no effect on adjacent cards
- Opposite extremes cancel each other out and normalize the temperature of both cards
- Identical extremes result in the removal of the adjacent card and normalization of the incoming card
- Adjacent normal cards assume the temperature of the incoming card, normalizing the incoming card
- If there are no adjacent cards then there is no change to the incoming card’s temperature (eg. a Hot card stays hot)
A player may sacrifice an extreme card to normalize an opposing extreme already on the board.
Players may also randomly draw an Ice Age or Inferno Event Card. The player drawing an Event Card loses their turn and the entire board is affected by the extreme temperature change as if they were adjacent to an incoming card of the event’s temperature.
The game is over when the board is full. The player with the most Normal cards on the filled board wins. In the event of a tie, the player with the most cards overall wins.
Changelog:
V0.02 2009-01-13
- Added improved start-up chime
- Added a game over loop
- Fixed bug that allowed a player to normalize an extreme card with a normal card
V0.01 2009-01-13
Initial Release
As a closing note, Sinman says not to expect a change from the 8-Bit graphics anytime soon; he rather likes them!
