Game iterations: Battleships

In this weeks lesson on game design iteration we had to play the game called Battleships and after a game we had to iterate a new rule in order to change the game mechanics to improve the gaming experience. For those of you who do not know what Battleships is (I doubt there are many of you who don't) I will explain the rules of play before I explain the iteration we changed to the game rules.

Each player has two 10x10 square grids each. One to document their own moves/shots and another to track the progress of the opponent.

Each player has a series of 'boats' to place on their grid without over lapping or in a diagonal direction. Throughout all of the game, the player never reveals their grid to the opponent.

Each player has five ships to place on their grid. these are shown below:













Then each player takes turns as they nominate a grid reference to fire too. The opponent then has to say either miss or hit if the player has nominated a square in which one of the opponents ships are on. If the all the squares of a ship is sunk then the opponent has to acknowledge this to the player so they can continue to find the other ships.

Whoever sinks the opponents ships first wins.



Rule iteration change:

After playing the game once keeping to the traditional rules we then was asked to make up another rule to go on top of the existing rules. We were able to add and remove any of the rules currently implemented and so we chose our rule. Our rule was that you were able to lie twice during the game. Once when an opponent hit your ship, and a second time when your opponent missed. However every goes you are allowed to ask the opponent whether they had lied, or not lied. They then have to ask truthfully. Lets say for example my opponent hits my ship and I say that he missed when he really did hit it. He marks on his sheet that he missed whereas I mark he hit. After recklessly firing around the grid they ask if I lied, and i reply with yes. Now, the opponent has to remember their last 3 goes and to which one was a lie? This could be confusing at first but once you're the person who lied and now the opponent is clueless as to where your small 2 square PT boat is. Oh what fun!