Nien Lam

After playtesting with several different groups, we discovered that having 4 players on the board makes it very difficult for any one player to keep track of the gameplay. We decided to make Gauntlet Chess a 1 player game for the iPhone. The object of the game is to move through the gauntlet and capture the king. This is an early prototype of the game mechanic and a couple of levels.

Gauntlet Chess is a re-imagined version of the age-old classic game. Instead of the standard 8×8 tiled board, this game board can be configured to have any shape and size. By changing the terrain, certain pieces may be more or less powerful during gameplay, thus creating new strategies and tactics. The initial version of the game was developed in Processing and designed for 2-4 players. Gauntlet Chess is a collaboration between myself, Sebastian Buys and Scott Wayne Indiana.

Clicking on a piece reveals all possible moves for that particular piece.

Triangle stack is a 3 player game where the objective is to reach the top before your other opponents. Players take turns placing triangles of alternating colors on the center pyramid. Players may only place triangles on the side facing them. Though the form works well for a 3 player game, an additional mechanic is required to make the gameplay more compelling and fun. One idea would be to add words on the triangles and require players to create phrases similar to refrigerator magnet poetry.

This is a modified version of the classic video game Pong where audience members can influence the outcome. When two people are playing Pong, audience members can use their mobile device to power up a side. If an audience member chooses to power up Player 2 by clicking the right button, Player 2′s paddle will be come larger and Player 1′s paddle will become smaller. The opposite will happen if the left button is clicked.

The concept of this piece is to let audience members feel part of the game. Similar to the TV show American Idol, viewers help determine the outcome of the show. Though based on the feedback from the people actually playing the game, they didn’t really feel like audience members were determining their fate. How well they played did not have a direct influence on which player received the power up. As for the audience members, they felt more like they were fighting each other and playing their own game then influencing the Pong game.