Board Game Testing with another group

Pirate Game

This board game came across as  a very aesthetically pleasing piece. The board itself was very colourful and not overly complex in detail which automatically indicated to me that this game was ideally aimed for the younger generations. Another factor that aided me in that thought was the actual playing pieces or 'counters' were cartoon shaped skulls, that varied in all sorts of bright and colourful tones. I believe they did this in order to stay true to their target audience, as younger generations often like to be able to chose from either a favourite design or colour, for example a boy may want to use the blue piece etc. It adds further involvement within the game play, which i believe is a small yet excellent way to keep the target immersed.


Aim of the game:


You each have a ship which has to travel around the board with the rolling of a die,whilst obtaining resources to increase the strength and dexterity of it. Within doing this process you can combat other ships to gain more resources to aid you to fight an NPC at the end of the game, which after defeated leads to the hidden treasure in the centre of the board. Once the treasure is captured you win and it's game over. However, you need to strategically use your resources in order to increase the power of your ship in order to survive the battles between you and your opponents.


The battle mechanic works when you land on the same section on the board. From here you must both roll a die and the person with the highest number wins the fight, and the person with the lowest loses. From this battle you can either steal your opponents resources if you win, or lose your own if you fail. However, you DO NOT have to battle the opponent if you cross them, it is simply optional. But if you decide not to battle you could technically lose out on gaining easy resources at not cost, so this gaming element really adds a sense of risk which i think is a very good factor to have in this sort of game. You are left with options in how you can obtain your resources, you can stock up and battle but at the expense that you may fail and lose everything. It also adds a sense of luck as well, as in hope that you will always roll a higher number.


Also within the game you can stop at resource points where you can acquire items such as Cabin crew, rum, wood, iron and gold. At one point on the board there is a docking section in which you can store your resources and upgrade your ships defences, cannons and crew capacities. It has a very well thought out mechanic within it, as in order to obtain more resources as you go along, you will NEED to upgrade your ship to get more Crew, more crew means more capacity for resources. So you need to use your moves and time wisely in order to get the most out of your upgrades, and to also increased the likely hood of you winning against other opponents including the NPC. Once your ship has increased greatly in all sectors, you can opt to fight the NPC and battle it out in hope to get to the hidden treasure in the centre. However, you NEED to make sure you have upgraded your ship sufficiently, as if you fail you could lose so much more than what you initially began with.


Play Test:


I really liked the concept of thinking strategically with how you obtained your resources to your advantage. I also liked how it was entirely your decision how you played a part within the game. I think this was an excellent way to make the player feel more individual and unique within the game, as it was based around what you wanted to do and the sacrifices you could make. It had more involvement with me as a person and i became immersed within battles to gain the resources. However, i got foolish and thought i could combat anyone with the luck from my dice rolls, but i soon found myself losing all my resources at the expense of greed. It's a very good learning process as well, to try and control how the game is playing out by thinking ahead of your opponents, and upgrading your ship wisely.


The only issue i found with the game is that it took a very long time to upgrade your ship and battle for the treasure. I found myself 40 minutes within the game and not even travelled around the board once! i think there needs to be a way in which resources can be stocked quicker or more efficiently, so that building up your ship is faster: As it seems that is the only issue is it takes too long. However, it cannot be made too simple as it could become very easy and not feel like you a fighting for the treasure, more like just playing by the rules.


Overall i think this board game has a lot of potential and i did find it pleasing to play with. I hope that the group would be able to speed up the game play process as i found it dragged on for too long. Judging by the enthusiasm of the team i have no doubt they could alter this, and push forward to make their board game a success. I think it greatly appeals to the target audience and also uses game play wisely to keep the player immersed and engaged.