First Off I'd like to say that this idea started out as a board game, but I think it would also work as a simple computer game. I'm leaving the instructions pretty much as is, but I would like some feed back on the idea. What sort of feedback can you provide? Well the idea behind this game is rather simple. 2-4 players start from different corners of the game board. They attempt to move their pieces through the maze to the goal at the end. The catch is that they can move walls to open a path to the goal, or use them to block their opponents along the way. Pieces 4 pawns (1 each red, blue, yellow, green) 100 maze wall pieces (or less) ---Each wall piece is 2 grid squares long. 1 game board ---The game board is set up in a 20x20 grid, with the middle 4x4 grid squares representing the goal. Along the grid lines are raised sections to place the walls into. 1 6-sided movement die 1 8-sided maze wall die (labeled 0,1,1,1,2,2,3,4) Set Up The computer randomly organizes the pieces in one quarter of the board, and then rotates it accordingly to each of the other three quarters of the game board. Each player places their pawn on the colored space in the 4 corners. Goal Be the first person to reach the center of the maze and claim the treasure! Gameplay Players take turns rolling the movement and Wall dice, moving walls and their pawns. (button press) A turn consists of 2 phases, the Wall phase and the movement phase. Wall Phase The player picks up and rolls the 8 sided wall die. The player may then move any piece on the board that was not moved in the previous round. (a round consists of one turn for each player) For each point on the die a player may move a wall either by sliding one space (1/2 wall length) or rotating it 90 degrees from one of the ends. The wall(s) moved by a player will turn that players color until thier next turn. Any wall that is moved by a player, cannot be moved again until that player’s next turn. Any combination of walls may be moved any number of spaces as long as the movement adds up to the number on the die or less. Two walls may not occupy the same place. A wall may not "push" another wall. Ex Player one gets a 4, he may move one piece 4 times, or 2 pieces Twice, or 4 pieces once. Movement phase After the wall phase a player enters the movement phase. The player rolls the movement die (regular six sided die) and moves the number of spaces on the die. Two players may occupy the same space, and therefore do not "jump" spaces or players. This should not need to be said, but you cannot move through walls. Losing a turn If a player is in a position where he is walled in on all 4 sides of one square, and is unable to move any of those 4 walls, during his wall phase he will be unable to move during the movement phase and will thus skip his ENTIRE turn. This includes using that player’s wall phase to move other walls on the game board. The first player to reach the center wins the game. Optional Rules Trap and Teleportation spaces Should a player land on a trap space he loses the rest of his movement phase, and his next wall phase. Should a player land on a warp space, he may use one movement to travel to any other warp spot on the map.

Sounds like an interesting concept. May also want to include a single player mode against AI players and vary the number of walls and the board size. Of course, the difficulty in designing such a game is probably trying to figure out the proper balance of board size and number of walls. I like the fact that walls are 2 units long, which makes them less manuveurable and also makes it slightly more interesting. For larger boards, you may want to consider walls of varying size.

Now, there are two ways I see of making it more interesting and maybe harder. One is to add items that can be picked up on Chance squares marked with a "?", sort of like in Monopoly. The items may be good or bad and each have limited scope of affect. For example, you ccan have items that prevents a wall from being moved for X number of turns ( where X can be determined by a dice roll as well), items that shrink or expand a wall's length by one unit for X turns, or even an item to put in an extra wall of a fixed length for X turns (this new wall will be able to intersect with other existing walls without penalty). The possibilities can be pretty interesting as the whole game is built around the manipulation of wall positioning and orientation to strategically help you while hindering others.

The other way to make it interesting is to expand on the warp point concept and make the board multi-layered, maybe 1 layer up and 1 layer down. This makes it more interesting in the sense that the players get an added dimension to move around in along with an added dimension to shift the walls. Probably more than 3 layers will become cumbersome.

sounds suspicisouly like this...

http://www.trictrac.net/index.php3?id=jeux&rub=detail&inf=detail&jeu=83

Have you ever considered checking?

I love the idea, i personaly love the simple but elaborate games (even if that is an oxymoron.)

One thing i would consider...

Because it is now a Computer game i would look to find ways to make it faster and flashy, just to make it a little more appeiling.

Dont get me wrong this shouldnt be the selling point but rather an oportunity to give it more of a theme, because you can, so it isnt just black dots on a white grid board.

As for making it faster, have it so that when its your turn you hit Spacbar and the die rolls, once the number pops you use the mouse to click and BAM you onto the next part. Spacbar and then click a squar to move, then its the next persons turn.

I hope this does not sound like im trying to make it like every other game who wants to be BIGGER and BETTER, but rather giving it some character because you can.

All in all, i LOVE the concept and i think it would make for a great Minesweaper like game for past time or even on cell phones.

P.S. Pardon Spelling