Square Eggs on Toast
Posted by lexaloffle
No entry from me this time around ): but I couldn’t resist at least designing a game for this theme. You can play it in the comment section! (well, not really). This one is a game about minimalism, rather than being minimalist.
- The game is played in rounds between, say, 32 players.
- At the start of the round, each player is given a list of objects to draw in an in-built pixel pusher. house, pineapple, kite etc..
- For each object, the player must use the lowest number of pixels they think are necessary to communicate what the object is (see scoring).
- Once everyone has submitted their drawings, they are randomly redistributed to other players who have not been asked to draw the same object.
- Each player is then asked to guess what each picture is.
You get 2 points for drawing a correctly guessed image with the smallest number of pixels (each object is drawn by more than one player), and 1 point for guessing someone else’s.
Examples:
April 20th, 2008 at 9:47 am
Sounds like a fun game!
April 20th, 2008 at 9:54 am
I’d totally play that.
Maybe it could work implemented as an online/web game, with players entering and leaving randomly as they visit and leave a page? Sort of drop in, draw a few images, guess on a few others, accumulate a bit of score, then drop out. Could be combined with suggesting new items to draw as well, so you aren’t stuck with the standard boring things which have very distinct symbolic shapes (but still some system of approval to avoid near-impossible words).
Would be hard to arrange large-scale organized sessions with more than 3-4 people if the game was done as a standalone app or something. Play-by-email could also work
…and, the score could maybe be derived directly from the number of pixels used, to make for some more complex/precise scores without the need for a massive number of players. Maybe each item/word could have an accumulated “par” pixel count that the score is based on, so that objects which really can’t be described by less than some 50 pixels don’t get penalized compared to words which are doable with 5.
Another variation (I need to stop now) could be to have a decreasing canvas that loses a 1 pixel border after each round, and you keep going until you hit a point where the other person can’t guess an object (in 3 attempts or something). So in the first round you might have to draw a cucumber in 20×20 pixels and later it’s a monorail in 6×6
Anyway, top-of-the-line out-of-compo scores to you!
April 20th, 2008 at 10:48 am
This is a really cool twist on the idea!