Blokus Trigon:
Attitude of play: Ludus
Game definition: Agon
This award-winning board game was play tested by us during our day at University.
Information on the board game:
This game is suggested as an abstract strategy board game meant to be played between two to four players. There are four different coloured tiles provided within the box (one colour to each player) - red, yellow, blue and green.
Gameplay:
Each player is assigned a colour and keeps their coloured tiles close to them, these tiles will act as their counters throughout the game. All players start in a corner of the board by placing down one of their tiles, and then take it in turns to place down a tile so it touches the corner of one of their other tiles. Only corner-to-corner contact is allowed when playing the game.
Objective:
The game ends when no player can place down a tile onto the board - therefore, the objective of this game is effectively, to be the last player standing (hold the ability to place down all their tiles.)
My opinion on the board game:
The aesthetics of the packaging e.g. shape, graphics and use of colour:
When first picking up this board game, my thoughts were that the designers had created an interesting board game box shape. The hexagonal shape of the board game does not follow the generic convention of other board games on the market, which are normally a square shape. I believe this was a great choice for the designers because this eye-catching box, coupled with it's use of bright, solid colours on the front works well in standing out from other board games in the shops.
The graphics used on the front of the box instantly suggests to the possible buyer what the game holds in store for them. The picture of the board game on the front of the box works well in allowing the buyer to see the board game, without having to open the box. Therefore the graphics on the front of the box could be effective because they allow the buyer to make a choice on whether the game is right for them just by picking up the box and reading the front.
Playing the game itself:
My team and I played several rounds of this game because quite frankly, it was addicting! As soon as I began to play this game, it was extremely apparent that Blokus fitted into the strategy genre. I found myself racking my brains each turn, planning out my next move in order to be 'the last one standing' - this could be seen as an extremely effective way of pleasing the player because they find themselves losing contact with the outer world by getting absorbed in the game through planning their next position on the board.
However, as I became more familiar with the game, it became obvious that each player was adopting several tactics towards their gameplay.
I took the tactic of spreading my tiles across the board, with hopes that by claiming most of the board, I would be able to use many different open spaces to my advantages when placing down my next tile.
However, I noticed another player was keeping their tiles in a close corner and was being quite 'territorial' in their mannerisms, yet not ganging up on other places by moving across the board like I was, 'invading their corner'.
As the game progressed my mood deflated a little due to the result of the different tactics players were adopting, coupled with the rule that players can only use corner-to-corner contact.
I noticed that once players began to invade other players' corners, it would often lead to the player being invaded unable to make their next move or providing very little effective response in their placement of their tile. At first, this would make the game exciting as it would make the player feel excited that they had a shot in feeling authoritative and had a shot at winning. Yet, as more and more players had their area 'invaded' and were unable to deliver an effective response against this, the game became slightly frustrating when unable to make a tactical move against another player.
What we learnt from play-testing:
Play-testing board games already on the market was invaluable help to us, as it allowed us to draw up conclusions on what we felt worked in certain board games and what did not. The game 'Blokus' helped aid us in a possible design of our board game shape, and we have decided to explore the different shapes available that we could design our board as.
The rules of different board games has allowed us to understand what rules could make the board game fun, difficult or strategic. For example, 'Blokus'' rule of corner-to-corner contact only helped develop the whole board game genre of strategy, as it encouraged tactical thinking and placement of the counters. As explained earlier, this held it's disadvantages and advantages and therefore, has spurred us on into developing our board game dynamics.
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