Monday, February 9, 2009

Magnetoship

By: Cameron Lee

Materials: 40 pushpins (steel) and 20 magnets.

Setup: Players put 20 pins on each side of game board while the board is vertical between the two opponents. After all pushpins are placed, each player takes 10 magnets and places them on the end of the other player's push pins.

1.) Players take turns pulling out pins.

2.) First player to cause all the other player's magnets to fall wins.

**NOTE: If a magnet doesn't fall all the way (sticks to another magnet on its way down), it doesn't count as felled. Players can also pattern their magnets as to stay up the best.

5 comments:

  1. Cameron,

    You've given your game an excellent set of simple rules. This makes it rather bomb-proof, but you might want to consider the ruling regarding how magnets fall and when they stick to other magnets. Watching the dynamic of how the magnets move is a very interesting physics system to consider.

    Additionally, initial setup does not say if pins should be added simultaenously (could be dangerous!) or alternately. Alternate placement could help with strategy (if either one player places all the pins at once or if they take turns placing one pin each).

    A more full version of this might use metal dowels that stick through many holes on a board. If the dowels were narrow enough, the holes could be placed close enough together to allow for almost the level of random placement as allowed by pushpins - without having pointy ends available. However, it might be possible to see too much through holes in the board. Perhaps the holes could have small 'grips' on them that would serve the purpose of holding the dowels in place and blocking vision. Something to consider for the 'ok for children' version. I'm not sure if there's a higher tech way of doing this...

    Devin Monnens

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  2. I really liked your game! It was a lot of fun, despite its minor issues like when the magnets stuck together and needed a 'referee' to manage it.

    I think you were really on to something with the concept, though!

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  3. I agree with what Kate said. While I didn't get to play the game, watching it, it seemed like it was a lot of fun to play!

    The cardboard box I think was just perfect for the game because the magnets could stick to each other. The repelling charges effected how the magnets on the other side of the game looked added a good amount of strategy.

    Very cool!

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  4. It looked pretty fun! I didn't expect it to be as interesting as it was. If only the draws and ties were able to be fixed.

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  5. I thought your game was pretty original in its concept.

    It was fun to play, and even though originally unintentional, the interaction of the magnets with each other through the cardboard box was an interesting addition. I kept trying to figure out how to use it to my advantage (although, I wasn't smart enough to do it successfully).

    Overall I enjoyed the game very much. ^_^

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