[Icehouse] IGDC Summer 2007 Rankings

[Avri Klemer]

This was a result of incomplete playtesting.

I playtested the 2-player game vigourously myself, and am confident that it 
is sound.  I know there has been some discussion about 1st player advantage, 
but I just haven't seen it.  After 13 games completed at SDG, the 1st player 
win percentage is 53.85 (not exactly a large test pool, but an encouraging 
statistic.)  We'll know more after the other 20-odd games that are ongoing 
conclude.

The 4-player came about as a result of the nature of the Treehouse stash (4 
Families and a ball), seemed to work in theory, and I had heard of some 
playtesting by parents with kids.  They seemed to like it, and did not 
mention failing to score, (even suggested a variant for 3-player!).

The only 4-player game I ever completed was ended after one of the players 
misunderstanding which was her goal (gifting an opponent the win). 
Otherwise, with players who understand the game and can plan a move or two 
ahead, I cannot see any way for the 4-player to end.  I am currently playing 
in a number of these 4-player mauls at SDG - I will let you know if anyone 
ever pulls off a legit win!

Again, I will remove 4-player as a viable game on the wiki as soon as the 
page is unlocked.

a

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marc Hartstein" <marc.hartstein at alum.vassar.edu>
To: <icehouse at lists.looneylabs.com>
Sent: Friday, September 21, 2007 3:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Icehouse] IGDC Summer 2007 Rankings


On Fri, Sep 21, 2007 at 11:34:05AM -0400, Avri Klemer wrote:
>
> [This is actually a problem I ran into myself with the 4-player version of
> Penguin Soccer, and as a result I will remove that version from the
> "official" rules once the wiki is unlocked (*hint* *hint*, Mike . . .)]

We found the same thing when we played Penguin Soccer 4-player.  It was
fun for a while, but became increasingly frustrating until we concluded
that too much happens between turns for any player to achieve an actual
victory.

The ball would get piled on, and there would be this
interesting jockeying for position, and it would squirt out and give
someone an advantage, but there would be a new pile a few squares away
before they could convert that to a goal.

I really wanted to try the game with two players, as I suspect I'd like
it.  I never got a chance, so I didn't feel I could evaluate the game
fairly.

(The latter is probably a large part of why I didn't submit rankings for
the competition, but that's my own fault.)