Cities a Game Design

Overview:

Cities is fundamentally a game of creating squares or city blocks. The player at the end with the most City Blocks wins. This is very much similar to the game most of us played at school called squares, dots or boxes. This version however will have a far superior art style and a few power ups to spice up game play.

How it works:

A game of Cities works on an 8 x 8 grid, with points on which a player can build a road between two points per turn, if a player creates a City Block they get another turn.  To build a Block a player must build the fourth road to complete the City Block to claim it. The player at the end with the most City Blocks wins.

http://trowbridgeplanetearth.com/GMS/Squares/Squares.html

Throughout the grid are placed hidden power ups:

·         Thief

·         Road Blocker

·         Block Multiplier

These are randomly hidden throughout the grid and are found by completing the City Blocks on top of them. Bonus points are also earned by claiming connecting City Blocks.

Game Modes:

Mode	Description
Single Player	Play against AI at varying Difficulties
Local Multiplayer	Play on the one console taking turns.
Wi-Fi Multiplayer	Use Wi-Fi network to play another user of cities
3G Multiplayer	If possible to have servers or whatever we may need to do (probably too much)

 

 Art Style:

The intended art style was a mix of old school Sim City and Carcassonne.

Power Ups:

At its core the game is simple and deep, it would be stupid to change the game too drastically. The power ups are simple and don’t over complicate the game.

There are three types:

Type	Obtained by:	Description
Thief	Discovered under a completed city block	The Thief is a way to steal a completed block of your opponent. The user must use this ‘Power Up’ immediately after completing the block. Once the user has placed the ‘Thief’ on an opponent block it will be added to their score and removed from the opponents. There is only one Thief per game. And a Thief is able to un – Road Blocker a City (This can also be with a Block Multiplier see below)
Road Blocker	Discovered under a completed city block	The Road Blocker is functions much the same as the Thief. It must also be placed immediately after it is unlocked. However it can be placed on any square completed or not. It will seal the block off and will be a ‘dead block’ (as in complete the reaming sides and won’t be included in any users score).  If it is above a completed block the points will be removed from an opponent or user scores. There is only one Thief per game.
Block Multiplier	Always active	The block multiplier is always functioning for the users. If a user completes multiple blocks they will receive that multiplied by the number of completed blocks. Eg 1 completed block X 1 = 1 point 5 completed blocks X 5 = 25 points

Thief only becomes available after one city block is completed.
Examples:

Below are examples and scenarios of how to play Cities. This scenario is Red versus Blue; in this example Blue unlocks a Thief. Below Red completed 15 blocks and Blue 10 and 8 respectively. This would give: Red a score of 15x15 = 225 and Blue a score of (10x10) + (8x8) = 164.

In the next turn Blue unlocks the thief. The ideal place to use it is to:

1. Use it to cut into Red’s Score
2. Link your Blocks together to multiply Blue’s score.

	!!!THIEF!!!
		!!Stolen!!

This leads to a massive points turn around as Blue has now linked their City Blocks and Red has now lost his big multiplier City Block. This would give a score of:

Red (9x9) + (5x5) = 106 against Blues now 20x20 = 400

 Using a Blocker in the same scenario would have netted this result. This could have been a straight move by Blue gaining the Road Blocker to reduce Reds lead.

	!!!BLOCKER!!!
		!!BLOCKED!!

You would have the score line: Red (5x5) + (9x9) = 106 and Blue (11x11) + (8x8) = 185

Or also a potential retaliation move from Red after being ‘Thieved’.

	!!!BLOCKER!!!
		!!BLOCKED!!

This would have netted a score line:

Red (10x10) + (5x5) = 125 and  Blue on (10x10) + (8x8) = 164.

Another great use for a Road Blocker is its ability to make a City Block un-usable. This particularly handy when the user could potentially be forced to unlock a long chain of City Blocks. In the below Red has just given blue a few City Blocks to force blue to start a chain that will seal the game.

Red gives Blue these squares so Blue would be forced to unlock the big chain of City Blocks.

			BLOCK
BLOCKER

Blue now unlocks the Road Blocker and can split up the chain and force Red to have to share the long Chain of City Blocks.

			BLOCK

Blue didn’t win the game but did block the long chain that Red could have had if it wasn’t for the Road Blocker. In the end it turned a 15 block score for Red into only 10 blocks. (Not including the new multiples made by this move)