Gameplay Mechanic a Month: Co-op Field Game
Month 9 - September 2013
Mechanic Description:
Physical games you can play in a field or in any sufficiently large space are fairly popular. Some examples are JS Joust, Lemon Joust Club, the Danish Clapping game and Ninja. Most of these games are solo players competing against each other.
This month's mechanic is a mod of the game Ninja to turn it into a co-op/paired/team game. Players must hold hands with a partner and work as a team to eliminate all the other players. If players release hands, they lose.
Playable in the following game:
Team Ninja
Platform:
Real World
Genre:
Physical Game
Game Description:
Get together 6 or more friends together on a field or large open space. Find a partner. Hold hands with your partner. Each team takes turns to move. If your hands are hit, you are out. Try to get other teams out and be the last person standing.
Team Ninja is a great game to play with a mix of children and adults. Children that are too nervous to play against adults can pair up with an adult. It gives children a great sense that they're in it together and helps build their own confidence.
Gameplay Instructions:
This month to play the game all you need are 6 simple rules, at least 6 people and a playing area. The last team standing wins.
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Downloads:
Download and print the PDF version of the rules.
Acknowledgements:
Thank you to the Come Out and Play Fesitval Sandbox events for letting me playtest the game.
The game was part of the 2013 San Francisco Come Out and Play Festival. Here are some action shots from the day of playing.
Analysis:
An analysis of the gameplay mechanic written by me in March 2015.
Context: I wanted to create a game for Come Out & Play. So I knew it had to be something that people could pick up and understand the rules easily. I wanted it to be co-op multiplayer. I had played Ninja before and really enjoyed it.
What Went Right:
- The game was easy for people to understand and play, even for people who’d never heard of Ninja (which was most of the people at Come Out & Play).
- I had played Ninja with kids before and realised how much fun they have and get into it. So I knew that it would be easy for kids to access and start playing.
What Went Wrong:
- The name sounds very generic and doesn’t get at the core of the game. Also, ninjas aren’t known for working in teams.
- I wanted to get strangers holding hands, but in the end most people only played with people they knew.
- Some of the rules about whether only one person on the team moved at once versus both moving at once were decided based on what was most intuitive without people really looking at what was allowed according to the rules.
Hug Rating:4 hugs
Verdict: A fun little game, but lacks interest and longevity. The team component didn’t add enough to the original game it was modding.