This is a continuation of an idea I had earlier, because I think the core mechanic is very strong (but my initial ideas made it too complicated or focused on other things).
Namely, the blooming flowers mechanic.
- Stacks of tiles are on the table.
- They’re arranged diagonally (like all the black squares on a chess board; only touching at corners).
- On your turn, you flip the top tile of a stack onto one of the four spaces around it. (Left, right, top, bottom.) => Like a flower blooming!
This is a very simple and interesting mechanic. But how does it become a game?
- You take certain actions based on what you cover up. (Because e.g. the left petal of one flower will bloom into the same space as the right petal of the flower on the other side.)
- You take certain actions based on what you revealed.
- You take certain actions based on what is now the top card of that flower. (Would require stacks to be faceup though. And then that gets really confusing with the other faceup cards.)
- You must create patterns (such as three in a row) across the garden, and score those at the end of your turn?
How to get information and not just have total randomness?
- Maybe the flowers are placed by the players. Each player gets 10 tiles and must place 2 or 3 stacks in the garden. This way, they know what’s inside each of them at least.
- Take turns placing these stacks, and all they must do is touch one existing stack with its corner.
- Otherwise, a very common action must be to look at one stack, or the top 3 cards of two stacks, etcetera.
- If we’re all in the same garden anyway, you might make this cooperative.
We can take this even further if we want.
- Each turn means flipping the top tile of any stack onto an orthogonal neighbor.
- So yes, faceup/facedown matters a lot, memory matters a lot, and any space in the garden can be “bloomable” :p
- Maybe …
- If you flipped the tile faceup, it’s about what’s on the tile.
- If you flipped it facedown, it’s about what’s on the tile from whence it came ( = the original stack).
- And if this means no faceup tile at all, fine, nothing happens.
I feel like GROWING should be key here.
- Don’t just start with the full garden and manipulate/take things away.
- Instead, start extremely small, and many actions allow players to place more tiles as they go.
- This should create a nice economy of “add tiles > modify > score tiles (which means they leave the game and are fixed for final scoring)”
- Creating a faceup group of WATER + SUN allows you to add 1 tile.
- Creating a STACK of X tiles or more allows you to harvest ( = score) that.
- All other actions modify and help here.
- RULE: A tile may never be unconnected. It must always touch at least one neighbor.
- This keeps the garden clean. No floating/traveling tiles between gaps.
- It also naturally forces tiles to congregate into a few bigger stacks, allowing harvesting and nearing the end of the game.
This is a continuation of an idea I had earlier, because I think the core mechanic is very strong (but my initial ideas made it too complicated or focused on other things).
Namely, the **blooming flowers mechanic**.
* Stacks of tiles are on the table.
* They're arranged diagonally (like all the black squares on a chess board; only touching at corners).
* **On your turn, you flip the top tile of a stack onto one of the four spaces around it.** (Left, right, top, bottom.) => Like a flower blooming!
This is a very simple and interesting mechanic. But how does it become a _game_?
* You take certain actions based on what you cover up. (Because e.g. the left petal of one flower will bloom into the same space as the right petal of the flower on the other side.)
* You take certain actions based on what you revealed.
* You take certain actions based on what is _now_ the top card of that flower. (Would require stacks to be faceup though. And then that gets really confusing with the other faceup cards.)
* You must create _patterns_ (such as three in a row) across the garden, and score those at the end of your turn?
How to get information and not just have total randomness?
* Maybe the flowers are placed **by the players**. Each player gets 10 tiles and must place 2 or 3 stacks in the garden. This way, they _know_ what's inside each of them at least.
* Take turns placing these stacks, and all they must do is touch one existing stack with its corner.
* Otherwise, a very common action must be to look at one stack, or the top 3 cards of two stacks, etcetera.
* If we're all in the same garden anyway, you _might_ make this cooperative.
**We _can_ take this even further if we want.**
* Each turn means flipping the top tile of any stack onto an orthogonal neighbor.
* So yes, faceup/facedown matters a lot, memory matters a lot, and any space in the garden can be "bloomable" :p
* Maybe ...
* If you flipped the tile faceup, it's about what's on the tile.
* If you flipped it facedown, it's about what's on the tile _from whence it came_ ( = the original stack).
* And if this means no faceup tile at all, fine, nothing happens.
**I feel like GROWING should be key here.**
* Don't just start with the full garden and manipulate/take things away.
* Instead, start extremely small, and many actions allow players to _place_ more tiles as they go.
* This should create a nice economy of "add tiles > modify > score tiles (which means they leave the game and are fixed for final scoring)"
* Creating a faceup group of WATER + SUN allows you to add 1 tile.
* Creating a STACK of X tiles or more allows you to harvest ( = score) that.
* All other actions modify and help here.
* **RULE: A tile may never be unconnected.** It must always touch at least one neighbor.
* This keeps the garden clean. No floating/traveling tiles between gaps.
* It also naturally forces tiles to congregate into a few bigger stacks, allowing harvesting and nearing the end of the game.