The Shibumi Challenge geeklist: Winners announced!
Néstor Romeral Andrés
Spain
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Hi, all.
Here is the Shibumi Challenge geeklist. Please add your games here according to the following guidelines (Cameron Browne, November 2011).
1. Introduction
The Shibumi Challenge is a competition to design the best game for the Shibumi set ( http://www.mogal.ai/shibumi/). There are no restrictions on entry. Entries will be listed in the BoardGameGeek (BGG) database, and scored by a panel of judges.
2. Aim
The research aim of the Shibumi Challenge is to produce the best set of games that human designers can invent for the Shibumi set ( http://www.mogal.ai/shibumi/). These games will then be used in an AI experiment to see whether even better games can be found by automated means.
The commercial aim of the Shibumi Challenge is to raise awareness of Shibumi and to produce a number of attractive new games for the official Shibumi rule book from nestorgames.
The aim for entrants is to produce the best and most shibumi game for the set.
3. Organisers
The competition organisers are:
- Cameron Browne (camb@doc.ic.ac.uk)
- Néstor Romeral Andrés (info@nestorgames.com)
- Stephen Tavener (sct110@doc.ic.ac.uk)
Cameron and Stephen are researchers in the Computational Creativity Group at Imperial College London, investigating Monte Carlo methods for the analysis and design of games. Néstor is the current Spanish Board Game Designer of the Year and runs the independent games publisher nestorgames ( http://nestorgames.com/).
4. Entries
For each new Shibumi game to be entered in the Challenge, a BoardGameGeek (BGG) entry should be created for that game. Each entry should have a unique name, should include Shibumi in its Family list, and should contain a link to the Shibumi page:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/13434/shibumi
For example, here is the BGG entry for Spline:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/93164/spline
Shibumi game names start with "Sp" (e.g. Spline, Spargo, Splice, Splade, etc) to denote them as "square pyramidal" games, and for consistency with existing games.
Entrants are encouraged to reuse the images from the BGG Shibumi page, the Nestorgames Shibumi page ( http://www.nestorgames.com/shibumi_detal.html), http://www.mogal.ai/shibumi/ and Cameron’s Shibumi pages as images for their own games, to maintain a consistent look and feel to the entries.
Source images for the board and balls are provided at http://www.mogal.ai/shibumi/sp4-images.zip for convenience, so that entrants can create custom images in the same style.
Games must be added to this Shibumi Challenge geeklist to become official entries in the Challenge. This will be the official list of entries.
Games publicly released before November 2011, such as Spline and the other games in the original Shibumi rule book, cannot be entered in the Challenge.
Designers may submit more than one entry, but the submission of multiple variants on a single idea is discouraged. Originality is one of the judging criteria.
Once an entry is submitted to the Challenge, then its rules cannot be changed unless permission is granted from the organisers. One or two minor tweaks to fix serious flaws might be allowed, but anything more will require that the game be removed from the list and re-entered under a different name.
The organisers can submit entries but cannot win prizes. The aim is to produce the best set of games, from any source.
5. Format
Games must use the Shibumi equipment as described here:
http://www.mogal.ai/shibumi/
Games do not have to involve stacking, but this is strongly recommended, otherwise they won’t make full use of the equipment and are unlikely to score well. Games that involve stacking must obey the stacking, pinning and drop rules as specified in the above page.
The rules for each entry must be described completely and clearly. For example, it would not be sufficient to describe an entry as "the same as Spline but with lines 1 piece shorter"; the full rule set must be restated.
Each rule set should specify at least:
1. Number of players.
2. Starting position.
3. Movement rules.
4. End conditions.
6. Testing
The playability of each game is crucial. Designers can play test their ideas online using the igGameCenter’s Shibumi Sandbox:
http://www.iggamecenter.com/
Sets are also available from Nestorgames:
http://nestorgames.com/#shibumi_detail
7. Judging
Entries close on January 31, 2012. The competition organisers will then score entries according to the following categories:
1. Simplicity.
2. Depth.
3. Originality.
4. Popularity.
5. Fun.
Simplicity and depth are central to the aesthetic ideal of shibui, and are what we are primarily looking for. Simplicity will be measured by the elegance of the rules and the clarity of the game. Depth will be measured by the degree of challenge that the game presents to players. Originality will be measured by similarity to previously existing games
(including those from the same designer). Popularity will be measured by the number of thumbs (votes) in that game’s geek list entry, so it will pay to enter games as soon as possible. Fun will be measured subjectively based on our overall experience of the game.
Entries will be ranked according to their overall score, and prizes awarded to the top three.
Winners will be announced on or before February 28, 2012. The organisers will evaluate entries in order of popularity, and will score as many as possible but cannot guarantee that all entries will be evaluated. So having more votes means that your game is more likely to
be evaluated, but not necessarily more likely to win a prize.
8. Prizes
First prize will be a Samurai Shibumi set (1" phenolic balls with acrylic board).
Second and third prizes will be a Ninja Shibumi set each (plastic balls with foam board).
Prizes will be shipped to winners free of charge. Winners may elect to choose other nestorgames products of similar value instead, but cannot combine their prize with other orders.
Entries by the competition organisers, if any, will be excluded from winning a prize.
Machine-generated entries, if any, will be excluded from winning a prize. The three prizes will therefore go to the three best games by human designers who are not the competition organisers. Maximum of one prize per designer.
9. Intellectual Property
Designers retain the full rights to their entries.
Selected games may be published in the official Shibumi rule book from Nestorgames, unless their designers object. The rule book is free and no royalties will be paid.
Submitting entries to the Challenge grants the organisers permission to describe them in resulting research publications, with due acknowledgement to their designers.
Now go and design a cool Shibumi game!
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26.
Board Game: Sploink
[Average Rating:0.00 Unranked]
Erik D
United States
Elmhurst
New York
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Not sure if this qualifies since it requires some additional components, but I thought the idea of a Shibumi dexterity game would be fun. (Yup, this is the one nycavri mentioned in the comments.)
I'll update this entry with the actual game entry once approved by the admins.
SPLOINK
A Shibumi dexterity game for 2-3 players.
COMPONENTS:
1 Ninja Shibumi Set (unverified whether it's wise to play this with a Samurai set)
1 Post-It
1 Backstop (e.g. box of tissues)
SET UP:
Place the foam board on the table and attach the Post-It so that it creates a ramp from the table to the board. Place the backstop flush against the back of the board. (Variation: for a more difficult game, place the backstop 1 inch behind the board.
Players choose end game condition: first to X points, or top score after X rounds.
GAMEPLAY:
Players take turns shooting their marbles toward the board. Any method is allowed, though the marble should be released at least 6 inches from the ramp.
Marbles that fall off the board are out of play, as are any base-level marbles that are not settled into a hole.
In rare cases, a marble may be knocked out of position. These shots are perfectly legal and the displaced marble remains in its new spot (including out of play).
Continue play until all players have fired all of their marbles.
SCORING:
A thread is a section of connecting marbles. For marbles on the same level, they may only be connected orthagonally in 2-player games, or orthagonally AND diagonally in 3 player games. For marbles on different levels, they are connected if they're physically touching each other.
For each thread of connecting marbles, players score the square of the number of points the marbles are worth. Marbles on the base layer are worth 1, 2nd layer are worth 2, 3rd layer are worth 3. Therefore, the formula for calculating scores are [1st level marbles + 2(2nd level marbles) + 3(3rd level marbles)]^2.
Scoring example:
The red player has 2 threads. The first has 3 first level marbles and 2 second level marbles. It scores [1(3) + 2(2)]^2 =
(3 + 4)^2 = 49 points.
The second thread has 1 2nd level marble and 2 3rd level marbles: [2(1) + 3(2)]^2 = (2 + 6)^2 = 64 points.
ZINGING THE PYRAMID:
If a player manages to get a marble on the lone spot 4th level, they have ZINGed the pyramid. The marble is worth 10 points (so 100 after squaring!) and that guy just generally wins at life. Seriously, tell me if this ever happens.
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Shibumi game pending for approval
Splastwo
Equipment: the 4×4 Shibumi board, 15 white balls and 15 black ones.
Rules
The players draw lots to their colour. White colour starts.
The board starts empty. Two players, white and black, take turns placing a single ball, or two balls in a line or three balls in a line – orthogonal, contiguous and at the same level - of their colour, either on empty board holes or stacking on 2x2 platforms of existing balls.
The game ends when the board is full with the 30 balls.
A player scores one point when he completes the first (4x4), the second (3x3) or the third (2x2) level, and two points when he puts the last ball of the pyramid, thus completing the fourth level.
Players are not allowed to pass and if a player has not legal moves the other player ends the game by placing his remaining balls to complete the pyramid.
The winner is the player with the highest score at the end of the game.
Note: the game can’t end in a draw.
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28.
Board Game: Spack
[Average Rating:0.00 Unranked]
Markus Hagenauer
Germany
Surheim
Germany
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# of players: 2
playing time: 10 min.
material: 1 Shibumi set = a board with 4x4 holes, 48 balls in three different colors (16 balls per color)
preparation:
Initially the board is empty. Divide the balls equally, each player gets 8 balls of each color.
game play:
By turn players place one of their balls on the board.
placement rules:
On the lowest level (directly on the board), players can place balls of any color.
When placing a ball on a higher level, the ball must have the same color as at least one of the 4 balls it is placed on top of.
its not allowed to place a red ball on just white
and black balls
returning balls:
Whenever a player places a ball on top of exactly 2 balls of the same color,his opponent takes this ball from the board and adds it to his supply. Than the player who placed the ball must return 2 balls from the board to his supply. He may choose any balls that do not support (are underneath) other balls.
end of the game / winner:
The game ends, as soon as a player can make no more legal placement (either because the pyramid
is completed or because he has no more ball of a color fitting the places still vacant).
Players compare the number of balls they have left in the color they have the fewest of. The player
with more balls left is the winner. If there is a tie, they compare the number of balls in the color they
have the second fewest of, and finally of the third color.
The rules with some explanatory pictures can be found here.
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dim fish
United States
California
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Spectacular Tumble
(I posted this in the comments above before the game was approved, this is the official entry post)
First build the initial configuration:
The two players are Red and White. Players alternate turns, Red first.
On a turn, the player must remove one ball from the board such that the ball
1. is not pinned (normal removal rules for Shibumi)
2. is not a black scoring ball
3. will not leave an empty position in the 4x4 bottom level (if you remove a ball from the bottom level, another ball must drop to replace it).
The player may remove two balls on one turn, provided at least of them is the player’s own color.
When no more moves are possible, score the 4x4 ball arrangement that remains. Every ball adjacent, including diagonally, to the black scoring balls is worth one point for the corresponding player. High score wins.
Scoring Example
The balls marked in the image below are adjacent to a black scoring ball, so they are worth one point each to the corresponding player. Here White scored 3 points and Red won with 6. A ball does not score twice by being adjacent to both scoring balls.
[edit: the images stopped loading? Changing them to geek images]
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Special cake is a two player game playable with the Shibumi game system. It uses the 4×4 holes board and 30 balls of the set.
In the “mint and liquorice candies” variant the balls are 15 white (mint candies) and 15 black (liquorice candies).
Rules
Set up: a player places a mint candy and the other a liquorice candy until the pyramid (the cake) is complete. The candies can be placed either on empty board holes or stacking on 2x2 platforms of existing candies.
Game: Game: the game starts when the cake is complete. Players take turns eating (removing) a candy, either mint or liquorice, or a line of mint and liquorice candies. The candies forming the line can be removed, one-by-one, in any desired order.
A line is a straight group (in 3D) of at least two tastes touching candies, either orthogonally if they are in the same level or one on top of the other if they are in different levels. The lines don't wrap around corners or edges (since in this case they are not really straight when you consider the 3D space).
The players are not forced to remove full lines, i.e. the longest lines in that direction.
The player who eats the last candy loses the game.
Notes
According to the Shibumi drop mechanism, when a ball is removed, then any others that it supports will drop. Any ball that directly supports two or more on the level above is pinned and cannot be removed.
Due to the drop mechanism and to the possibility to remove a straight group of balls, one-by-one, a ball of the line that you want to remove, pinned at the beginning of the move, can become unpinned during the move after the removal of another ball of the group, thus allowing its removing.
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Cameron Browne
Australia
Brisbane
Queensland
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Unpublished prototype awaiting approval
Spinimax
Players: Two or three players.
Equipment: Balls of all three colours are used.
Start: The board is initially empty.
Play: Players take turns adding a ball of any colour to any empty board hole. When any 2x2 platform is created, then the minority ball* is placed on the platform. If there is no clear minority, then the majority ball is placed on the platform instead. Completing a platform may trigger the completion of other platforms.
End: The owner of the piece placed on the pyramid's apex wins the game.
* The minority ball is a ball of the colour least represented in the platform (e.g. WBBW -> R or WRRR-> B). A majority ball is the opposite (e.g. WWRB -> W or BBBB -> B).
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Cameron Browne
Australia
Brisbane
Queensland
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Unpublished prototype awaiting approval
Speq
Players: Two or three players.
Equipment: Balls of all three colours are used.
Start: The board is initially empty.
Play: Players take turns adding a ball of any colour to any empty board hole, or on any 2x2 platform provided that the tricolour triangle rule is obeyed. Only one ball is added per move. The mover must add a ball if possible.
Tricolour Triangle Rule: A ball can only be placed on a 2x2 platform if at least one side of the pyramid thus created forms an equilateral triangle with a ball of each colour at its tips. That is, at least one side of the pyramid must have a white, a black and a red ball at its corners. This must be true for every level down to the board level.
If a ball is buried and cannot be seen, then it cannot be used to count towards the triangle rule.
End: The game ends when the pyramid is full or no player can make any more moves, and is won by the player with the greatest number of balls of their colour in play (buried balls are counted).
Example: The white ball marked '+' in the image shown is a valid move, as it creates a tricolour triangle to the level below (green triangle) and a tricolour triangle to the level below that (blue triangle).
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game pending for approval
Sphered
Equipment: the 4×4 holes board and balls of all three colors.
Rules
The board starts empty.
Two players, white and black, take turns placing a ball of their own color, or a red ball, on an empty board hole.
When any 2x2 platform is created, the ball that has to be placed on the platform must be of the predominant color, or, if there is not a predominant color, the ball must be of the absent color. Established the color to place on the top, if it is red or the color of the current player, he has to place the ball on the platform in the same turn, instead if it is the color of the other player, next turn the other player has a forced move and must place that ball.
Completing a platform forces the completion of other platforms.
The player who places a ball of his color on the top of the pyramid wins the game, but if he must place at the apex a red ball he loses.
Note
As for the forced move in the next turn, there are more than 16 moves, but all the levels above the first one are decided by the 16 balls on the board. The placing of the red ball on the apex is a losing condition and a player can use the sequence of forced moves to force the other to be the player who places the red ball on the top of the pyramid.
31/01/2012
Sphered accepted by the Geek
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Néstor Romeral Andrés
Spain
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Another way to add pending games to this contest is to use the 'Shibumi' family.
This game is pending aproval, and I add it to this list 'out of contest'.
Spirit (of Shibumi)
Spirit (of Shibumi) is a 3-player game for Shibumi.
Each player has an allocated colour, and they take turns during the game (white -> black -> red).
On your turn, place one of your balls on an empty hole or platform so that no other FREE ball (no balls on top) of the SAME colour is on the same row or column of the same level^. If you can't, then you must pass.
If all players pass in a single round the game ends. The player with most balls on the board wins.
Ties are possible, but rare.
Notes from the designer
^- Note that there are 4 levels.
This is an attempt to capture the spirit of Shibumi, by creating a very simple 3-player-only game.
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Spindizzy
Rules
Spindizzy is a mind-boggling game for 3 players.
Preparation
The board is initially empty.
Players choose a colour and start with 10 balls each. Then each player passes 3 balls of their supply to the left neighbour, and 2 balls to the right neighbour. From now on, at all times during the game the players keep their balls hidden.
A player is selected to be the “master” of the first turn.
Play
In each turn – at the same time – players secretly pick one of their balls from their supply and hold it – hidden in the closed hand – towards the other players. When all players made their selection, the balls are revealed simultaneously.
Now the colour of the master player’s ball determines which player (remember, each player is assigned a colour) must play the ball in their hand first. A ball may be placed on any empty hole of the board or on any 2×2 platform. Then in clockwise direction the other two players also place their balls.
Whenever a small 5-ball pyramid is formed, the player whose colour represent the majority (or, if there is no clear majority, the player who owns the top ball) scores 1 point.
The last player of the current turn will then be the master player of the next turn.
End of the Game
When the last ball is played and the point is scored, the game ends. The player with the highest score wins the game. In the case where 2 players are tied, the third player wins.
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This is my attempt to create a very simple game which uses two Shibumi game Systems. Spair is pending approval.
Spair
Spair uses two 4×4 boards, and two whole set of balls.
Rules
The board starts empty. Two players take turns placing a ball of one color on the first board (called A), and then a ball of another color on the second board (called B), according to the following rules:
1) a ball may be placed on a board if its color is different from the color of the ball that has been placed on the same board in the previous turn;
2) a player must place a ball of the color not placed in the previous turn.
Balls may be placed either on empty board holes or stacking on 2x2 platforms of existing balls.
A player wins when a full line of any single color is made, orthogonally or diagonally, on any level on his board: board B for the first player and board A for the second player.
When a full line is made, the players stop placing the balls on the boards, even if a player has placed only one ball in his turn
Lines on the 4x4 (board) level must be of length 4, lines on the 3x3 level must be of length 3, and lines on the 2x2 level must be of length 2.
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Cameron Browne
Australia
Brisbane
Queensland
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Unpublished entry pending approval
Spava
Players: White and Black.
Start: Empty board.
Play: Players take turns adding either a ball of their colour or a neutral red ball.
End: A player wins by completing a line of length L of their colour on any LxL level. A player loses by completing a line of length L-1 of their colour on any LxL level. Lines can be orthogonal or diagonal but must contain at least two balls.
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Martin Grider
United States
Minneapolis
Minnesota
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This is the first of a couple of ideas that I keep meaning to refine into full-fledged games. (No time!)
Spolyominos
Setup: The game board starts empty, with all shibumi pieces in "the supply" nearby and available to every player. A starting player is chosen, and players take turns sequentially around the board.
Rules: On their turn, each player must play two pieces (of different colors) onto the gameboard. At any point in their turn they may remove a single piece from the gameboard of any color. At the end of their turn, they may optionally collect a single group of four pieces of the same color that form a "tetris shape".
Tetris shapes can appear in any rotation or configuration, but must appear on the same level of the gameboard, and cannot include any pieces that are "pinned".
Aim: Play continues until the last piece of one color is placed on the gameboard, or until a piece is played onto the fourth (final) level of the pyramid.
A player's score is the total number of pieces they have collected, plus 3 bonus points for each set of 12 pieces consisting of exactly four of each color. So if a player has 4 black, 8 white and 4 red, their total score is 19 (16 total + 3 for one "set" = 19). Whoever has the highest score at the end of the game wins.
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Martin Grider
United States
Minneapolis
Minnesota
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This is less a game, and more a few different game mechanics that I never managed to turn into a game.
Mechanic 1: Move the stones like chess pieces. I was imagining all red pieces move like knights, all white like bishops, and all black move like rooks. I even made some images to show how the pieces could move:
Mechanic 2 had the same inspiration as Mechanic 1, which is the really fantastic and fast-playing chess variant called Tic Tac Chec. Essentially, I just wanted the game to play as fast and have a similar feeling. I didn't really figure out a way to have the three colors correspond to the three types of chess pieces, and also have pieces that are either one player's or the other's. So I never really got past the "inspiration". But if you haven't played Tic Tac Chec, it's well worth checking out.
Mechanic 3: The stipulation that a piece can only be removed if it supports exactly one stone above, and has an empty space on the same level as it. The piece must then "spill over" into the empty space. If there is more than one empty space, you may choose it. Again, I just never flushed this out into a game of any kind, just thought it was cool. I was going to call the game Spolcano (mostly because Spew was already taken).
And no, I have no truly original ideas.
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Cameron Browne
Australia
Brisbane
Queensland
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Unpublished entry pending approval
Spogi
Players: Two players (but three might work).
Pieces:
1. White = knight.
2. Black = rook.
3. Red = bishop.
Start:
W R B W
B . . R
R . . B
W B R W
Play: Players take turns moving one ball of any colour, except for any ball moved last turn. It is not allowed to drop balls.
1. Whites (knights) move as per Chess knights on the same level, or can jump up or down a level by rolling around an adjacent piece to touch it both before and after the move (as per Spight).
2. Blacks (rooks) move to any cell in any orthogonal line.
3. Reds (bishops) move to any cell in any diagonal line.
Capture: Capture is by replacement and can only occur when moving up or down, i.e. balls cannot capture on the same level. The captured ball is re-entered on the board at any available point. The opponent cannot move the captured ball or the capturing ball next turn (both are deemed to have moved), but they can capture either.
Score: Players keep count of the balls they have captured (use the spare balls for this).
End: The first player to capture a ball of each colour wins.
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Néstor Romeral Andrés
Spain
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IMO, there are many different mechanics out there and many different games using the same mechanics (which is not a bad thing). But what makes a game good is not only how these mechanics are chosen and combined, but which victory condition is stablished. Two equal games with a different victory condition turn out to be totally different games, as the victory condition determines the strategy.
Shibumi mechanics seem to be exhaused, but there are a lot of victory conditions to explore. So here is a game with a new victory condition. Due to the lack of time, it hasn't been fully tested. As I say, my goal was to introduce new victory conditions.
SPYRAMID
The board starts empty.
Two players (white and black) alternate turns either:
- Placing a ball of their colour on an empty hole or platform.
- Removing a ball of their colour that supports at most 1 ball on the level above and placing it in another valid location, except above balls dropped. Balls may drop as a result of ball removing.
Victory condition:
First player creating all 5 vertices of a pyramid wins (all of the player's colour). The pyramid can be facing up or down (apex above or below the base). In case of two or more pyramids of different colours being created, the player that did the last move wins.
Ties seem to be possible.
Note: The pyramid can be of any size (2x2,3x3,4x4). There are 14 pyramids facing up and 5 small (2x2) pyramids facing down.
Variant: A pyramid rotated 45 degrees when viewed from above is also valid.
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a game with random elements for the Shibumi game system
SPOKER
Equipment: the 4x4 board and 10 balls of each color (white, black and red). Two players.
Rules
The board starts empty. Players take turns taking a ball at random, for example from a non-transparent bag, and placing it either on empty board holes or stacking on 2x2 platforms of existing balls.
When a player, with the ball just placed, has formed a visible winning group of balls (see below) he shows it and challenges the opponent, so also the other player takes at random a ball and places it trying to do a group of higher ranking.
The player with the higher ranking group wins the challenge and scores one point. If the two groups have the same ranking, each player scores one point. Obviously if the other player is not able to form a winning group he loses the challenge.
Winning groups can be in any level and also composed by balls placed in different levels. Between two groups of the same ranking, the winner (if exists) is the group with at least a ball at a higher level than the other group.
The game ends when the 30 balls pyramid is complete and the winner is the player with the highest score at the end of the game.
Apex ball can be used only to respond to a challenge, or to form a “straight flush”.
If the placement of a ball creates two or more winning groups, you must always consider the highest ranking group.
When a player has formed a “straight flush”, he wins immediately the game, regardless of the score.
WINNING GROUPS in ASCENDING RANKING ORDER
Three of three kinds:
a straight line of three touching balls of different colors, in any order, orthogonal or one on top of the other (when they are in different levels)
Flush three:
a straight line of three touching balls of the same color, orthogonal or one on top of the other (when they are in different levels)
Full house:
a five balls pyramid formed by two touching balls of the same color and two touching balls of another color in the platform, and a ball of one of that two colors on the top
Flush four:
a straight line of four touching balls of the same color, orthogonal or one on top of the other (when they are in different levels)
Straight flush:
a five balls pyramid of the same color
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John "Omega" Williams
United States
Michigan
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Space Shibumi Invaders!
Aliens are attacking! Invading Sector V!
Man your Defender craft and shoot down the invaders before they can land.
Another weird idea for a solo play game.
First lay out 12 black spheres as the playfield, leaving the bottom row empty.
Next place 2 white spheres in 2 empty center bottom positions. This will represent your Defenders starting position.
Next place 10 red and 10 white spheres in the container and mix them up.
The 4 remaining black spheres will be your repair units. When your defender has no more units left then the game is over and you have lost.
The 4 remaining white spheres represent your initial ammo stock as is explained later.
The objective is to eliminate all 10 invaders before they damage your vehicle beyond repair.
Each turn you may do the following in the prescribed order.
1: Move and Repair the Defender: You may move your craft left or right across the bottom of the playfield by shifting one part leap-frog style to an empty space. Shuffling it side to side this way.
If damage was taken in the previous turn then you may repair it now before moving.
You may of course opt to stay where you are for a turn.
2: Fire the Laser: If you have any ammunition left, then you may expend one ore more units to eliminate any invaders directly above the Defenders centerline. Thus if 2 are directly above then you could opt to fire twice and take out both.
This is skipped on the first turn.
3: Invaders Advance: The Invaders are represented by the red pieces.
On the starting turn draw three random spheres from the container and place them in order in the upper second tier row. Return any white pieces back to the container.
On subsequent turns start off by advancing any surviving Invaders down one space. If the aliens make it to the bottom row then the aliens have achieved a foothold planetside and the game is a draw.
Next draw and place 3 as normal.
Now draw 1 additional sphere.
* If it is red then the aliens have fired on the Defender. If the centerline is directly below an Invader then it takes a hit and you must discard one black sphere to represent this. If you have no more repair points left then the Defender is eliminated and you have lost.
Return the red "attack" piece to the container.
* If a white piece is drawn then you gain one ammo unit.
Destroyed Invaders and spent Ammo are not returned to the cup.
Play continues until one side or the other is eliminated.
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44.
Board Game: Spaniel
[Average Rating:9.00 Unranked]
Joseph Symons-Smyth
United Kingdom
Newcastle
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This is a 3-player game, using 3 colours (Black, White & Red), but with no colour representing any one player. It is played using a standard Shibumi set.
In essence, it is a simple connect-3 game. The winner is the player that connects 3 of any colour in a visible straight line (“visible” meaning that, for instance, a 3-in-a-row going through the middle of the pyramid, with stones all round, blocking one or more stones from sight, is not a win).
The board starts empty. Each player places 2 stones each turn, in this order:
P.1: Black, White
P.2: Red, Black
P.3: White, Red
Passing is not allowed, and the stones must be played in this specific order. There is no removal of stones in this game. A win occurs if and when 3 visible stones of the same colour are touching each other in a straight line. In the image on the left, Red has won (or rather, player 3 has won with Red), in fact he has won in two ways simultaneously.
That is the full extent of the rules. A draw can indeed occur, but is unlikely to.
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Cameron Browne
Australia
Brisbane
Queensland
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SPALVO!
Entry by John Williams.
This my Shibumi take on Salvo. AKA: Battleship.
Number of players: 2
Each player needs a Shibumi set and a pen and paper. Mark off on the paper a 4x4 grid. This is where you will be noting your hits and misses.
Each player has three structures formed of black spheres. One 5 point "pyramid", one 2 point "line" and one 1 point "dot".
Arrange these on the board in whatever manner you desire as long as all structures are fully on the board. They may be touching eachother. Though this may not be an advised stratagem.
Place your containers between players to act as a shield from view.
Players then take turns calling out attacks with the top corner being A1.
Mark opponent salvo misses with red spheres and hits with white ones. When a hit is scored the opponent must call out "hit". Mark off your own attacks on the grid paper.
The diffrence from regular Salvo though here is that the Pyramid has an extra elevation. When two sections of the Pyramid have been hit the opponent must declare "Pyramid Damaged".
Gameplay continues back and fourth until all structures on one side have been eliminated.
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Cameron Browne
Australia
Brisbane
Queensland
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Unpublished prototype for Shibumi game
Splide
Based on Clark D. Rodeffer's Slides of Action.
Players: White and Black.
Pieces: 8 x white and 8 x black marbles.
Start: Alternating placement as shown.
Play: Each turn, the mover must either:
a) Promote one of their marbles to level 2 by stacking on any 2x2 platform, or
b) Slide one or more marbles of any colour in a straight orthogonal line to fill an empty space (as per Slides of Action).
The first move must be a promotion. There can only be one marble of each colour promoted to level 2 at any time. Promoted marbles may slide on level 2 as per rule b), but may not be slid off or pushed off level 2.
A level 1 move may cause a marble to drop if the source piece supports exactly one level 2 marble. However, a line may not be slid if there are any level 2 marbles resting on any of the pieces being slid, unless there is exactly one marble that drops as a result of the move.
The move must change the board state (i.e. you cannot drop and stack to replace a same-coloured piece).
It is not permitted to undo the opponent's last move (ko rule).
End: A player wins by forming all of their pieces into a single connected group. Connectivity is through touch, i.e. marbles must be orthogonally adjacent or resting on each other to connect.
Forming the opponent's pieces into a single group loses. Doing both simultaneously wins.
Notes: Promoted marbles can be used as blockers that stop lines being slid, and as connectors for connecting diagonal groups.
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Spodd
Equipment: the 4x4 Shibumi board, balls in two colors. The board is rotated 45 degrees to have clearly seven columns with varying number of balls (1-3-5-7-5-3-1 on the surface of the pyramid).
Rules: the board starts with two red balls placed in the left and right corner holes. Two players, White and Black, take turns placing one ball of each color adjacent to each other. The balls can be placed on board holes or on top of 2x2 platforms of existing balls. You can place a ball on a hole and the other on a platform, as long as they touch each other.
Aim: without the left and right corner holes there are five columns with an odd number of balls on the pyramid surface (3-5-7-5-3). When the pyramid is complete, the player with the most visible balls in a column wins that column. The winner is the player who has won at least 3 columns.
Variant for expert players: players score one point when they have conquered a column composed by three balls, two points for a five balls column and three points for the seven balls column. The winner is the player with the highest score.
Note: the game has an odd number of columns composed by an odd number of balls. Ties are not possible.
Pictures
Initial position
The five columns
Spodd now accepted by the Geek.
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48.
Board Game: Splink
[Average Rating:9.00 Unranked]
Néstor Romeral Andrés
Spain
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- Out of contest -
Splink (SP + link) is a ball-stacking game by Néstor Romeral Andrés and Cameron Browne that can be played with a Shibumi set, as it uses a 4x4 holes board and balls in two colours (white and red).
RULES
2 players ('attractor' and 'repulsor') share a supply of 16 red and 16 white balls.
Splink has two types of game play:
Duel: The players play two complete games, switching roles after the first game. Whoever gets the maximum score as the 'attractor' wins.
Bid: Before the game starts, players take turns increasing bids as to how many ponts they think they can make playing the 'attractor' role. The player who passes first plays the 'repulsor'; the other player plays the 'attractor' and must get as many points as he bid to win.
The board starts empty. Starting with 'attractor', players take turns either:
a) placing TWO balls, one of each colour, on ANY TWO valid locations (empty spaces or 2x2 platforms) or...
b) removing a ball from the board that supports exactly ONE ball on the level above and placing a new one of the other colour from the supply onto the board on any valid location; even on top of the dropped balls. Notice that you can only do this action if there is at least one ball on the supply of a different colour of the ball that you want to remove.
GAME END
The game ends when the pyramid has been completed.
SCORING
To get the attractor's score, count the number of all different red-white visible connections on the pyramid (the 5 inner balls don't count for connections). A red ball and a white ball must be touching to consider it a connection.
TIP
To count the red-white connections more easily, follow this procedure:
1. Rotate the pyramid if needed so each player has one of the faces of the pyramid before him.
2. Count the number of connections on the face before you, except those on the right edge. Count the horizontal ones first, then the NW-SE and then the NE-SW ones. Your opponent does the same, for double checking.
3. Rotate the pyramid 90 degrees for each of the other 3 sides and do the same counting.
These are all posible connections for one side (except for the right edge):
/
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/\ /
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/\ /\ /
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(that's 15 maximum per side, or 60 in total for the whole pyramid).
VARIANT
Consider an unlimited supply for both colours.
NOTES
This game was created trying to merge Spaiji with the connection mechanics of Sheep, Dogs and Wolves. The Spaiji dipole was finaly split in two (as in OMEGA), and each ball was considered as a pole of a magnet. The possibility of entering a ball on top of dropped balls and a new type of winning condition (connections count) were also introduced.
Although loops are possible, each movement changes the total score. So players will stop the loop as soon as the score is on their side (lowest for the 'repulsor' and highest for the 'attractor'). This way the winning condition itself prevents loops from happening, instead of explicitly forbidding them in the rules.
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Game pending for approval.
I entered this game to keep fit with the creation of Shibumi games! 
Spone
Start:
0000
0RR0
0RR0
0000
(four red balls in the inner 2x2 square on the board level)
Play: two players take turns either placing a ball of their color to any playable point or entering a ball of their color from the side pushing other balls. The entry may cause a drop but may not push any balls off the board.
End: when the pyramid is complete, White wins if the greatest group (white or black) on the surface is even, Black wins if it is odd.
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Posted Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:50 pm
