Challenge: Make a game in 15 minutes?

Rapid Prototyping Bonus Post – the 15 minute game design.

I challenge you to make a game in 15 minutes.

That’s it.

What you will need –

• A timer,
• paper – blank page, grid paper card stock
• writing materials – pens, markers – pencils
• tokens – minis, dice, chips, skittles

Set the timer to 15 minutes and get to it. Run with the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t worry about theme so much let it develop as you develop the game.

Some questions you should ask yourself.

• How will my players interact?
• How many players will this be for?
• What is the setting of the game.
• What is the goals of the players?
• What is the win condition?
• What challenges do the players face while going after the win condition?

It’s ok to finish early. Be sure to test your game and see how you did.

I’d be interested to hear what you guys came up with.

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Here is an example of the game I came up with in 15 minutes for fun.

15 Minute Game Exercise:

The Game I created I call “Teddy Bear Nightmare” It is a 4 player cooperative game where the players play as teddy bears trying to stop the nightmares from waking up the children.

Pieces –

• Nightmare Deck – The deck from where nightmares come from.
• Dice – D6s. (possibly expand to other sided dice later)
• Game Board
• Stuffing markers – Represents when players are defeated their first time.
• Teddy bear character sheet – Represents the players character
• A D12 to represent the Sleep Cycle.

Goal: No child can be woken up or group is defeated.

Setup:

Set the game board in the middle of the table.

Set the D12 to 9

Place 1 D6 in front of each child’s name on the board set to the number 4.

Now shuffle the nightmare deck, and deal out an even amount of cards in front of each child.

Players select a teddy bear to represent their character.

Players roll off to see who goes first.

First player

Chooses a child, and flips their first nightmare over.

Resolve the nightmare

• – Skill roll
• – Attack Roll
• – Event
• – Quest
• – Quiet Hour – advance time

Upon defeating the next player is able to begin their turn.

After every player has had a turn advance the clock by 1 hour. (unless a card has said otherwise)

Upon the d12 reaching 7 Morning has come, and the children awoke.

Add up the d6s in front of the children s name, and that is the score of this groups adventure.

Analysis.

A lot of the 15 minutes was taken up writing the cards out. Didn’t have much time to have any extra ideas or play test beyond the basics. I think this game could be a lot of fun. I need to figure out a better combat system between the bears and the creatures. Most of the cards are roll a strength check, and compare it to the resulted strength.

Example of some of the Nightmares / cards-

Quiet Time – Advance time 1 hour

Walking Dead – Roll 4 d6 – Defeat the resulting zombies with a strength of 4 – cannot proceed to next nightmare until zombies have been defeated. If the clock advances 1 hour while this card is in play, move the child’s D6 +1

Tornado – Roll 2D6 for difficulty – Pass Remove next nightmare and place it on another pile, Fail, Shuffle this card into the nightmare deck it came from.