353 Hay (Reprise)

Back in April, I designed a game loosely based on the structure of Chess, but using farm animals that eat Hay. This morning, Kevin started programming the bare bones mechanics of it. I thought I’d jump back in and start designing some of the specifics of the rules. More update posts will follow, and regularly!

##The Goal Assert your agricultural dominance by protecting your livestock’s Hay from rival farmers while gathering even more.

#The Rules

##The Hay In the farming world, Hay rules supreme. Each farmer starts with 6 bales behind them. There are 8 more bales in the center of the board. [It’s not yet clear in the design how these will play a role in the strategy and gameplay. They may be up for grabs, half already assigned to each player for retrieval, or some other function.]

##The Animals You start every game with 4 of each animal.

The Cow - She is easily startled, and runs only in a straight line, continuing until hitting something. If she is next to a bale of Hay at the start of her owner’s turn, she will eat it.

The Chicken - She is only able to move by jumping over a one space, gracefully landing on the next space. [Yet undetermined how she affects the Hay]

The Pig - She can move one space in any direction, including diagonally. If she is adjacent to a bale of Hay at the start of her owner’s turn, she will roll around in it, turning it to mud.

##The Farmer and his Horse Rounding out the cast of moveable pieces, the Farmer and his Horse and unique and important pieces of the farm. These two are close partners; the Farmer leads the horse, and the horse carries Hay. On the horse’s turn, he may move freely among any of the spaces immediately surrounding the farmer. If the horse shares a space with a bale of Hay at the beginning of his owner’s turn, he carries that along Hay with him. However, the farmer must lead the horse back. The farmer moves one tile at a time, in any direction. The farmer may move without the horse, though won’t be of much use alone!

#Other Future Ideas

• Each level builds on the size of the level before. Essentially, you are a farmer trying to take over an entire area of corrupt neighbors. As you finish each level, the game board expand in the direction you were pursuing. Any of the opposing animals that weren’t angered during the level will stay and join forces with your farmer.
• Real-time moving tractor that bales hay or something
• Fences!
• Water???

[ Today I Was Playing: Victor Vran and Fallout 4 ]

#hay, #strategy-game, #turn-based-game