Board Games

One of the main reasons that I have chosen to include a board game style within this project is because of the design of my final piece. I will be creating an city environment which takes inspiration from the ancient Roman times.

Board games have been around for thousands of years and have been played by many cultures and societies.   Senet is One of the oldest board games and can be dated back to around 3000 BC, found at an Egyptian burial site. 

The gameboard for Senet consists of a grid of thirty squares set out in three rows of ten. Each Senet board also contained two sets of pawns but could use more depending on the number of players.

Most board games involve pieces or counters which players must move over a pre-marked surface or gameboard according to the rules of the game. These games can either be based on strategy, chance or a mixture of the two. A good example of a roll and move game is snakes and ladders. Other board games such as Monopoly are considered as simulation games because of their representation of life in general. Other examples of different styles include; Strategy(Chess,Checkers or Risk), Wargames(Axis & Allies, Diplomacy or Warhammer) and Party/Family games(Cranium,Boggle or Labyrinth)

Common board game terminology  -

The Gameboard - The Gameboard or board is usually a quadrilateral shaped surface on which players play on the surface. Some games such as Chess, Drafts or Go use a standardised and unchanging board whereas others use a modular board which can be different shapes and layout, mainly for game props such as cards etc. 

The Game Pieces - Counter, Pawn, Mover, Bit and Meeple are all other names for game pieces which depend on the game. Depending on the complexity of the game, these pieces can be representative of anything from people, animals, symbols or objects. For example, the game Drafts uses simple circular counters, whereas games such as monopoly uses metal moulds which represent different objects(Car, top Hat etc). Other games such as Chess and frustration use multiple pieces which have unique designations and capabilities within the rules of the game.

Move, Jump and Capturing - Moving or jumping your game piece is part of the game which helps you bypass or gain on other players within the game. Jumping over or on top of other player may result in conquering or capturing that player piece. Chess is a good example of this as the rules heavily rely on how you move or jump you pieces, allowing you to capture your opponents pieces. 

Cards - In some cases, board games may contain specific cards or packs of cards which give the players instructions. Games such as Monoplopy use two sets of cards(Chance and Community Chest) which can either give players an advantage or a disadvantage whilst playing the game.