Playing With Games on Parker Adey

Divide and Conquer Extension

Mon, 08 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

We played the Claude Soucie game Divide and Conquer at the laundromat. It was very good, but we found the hand management to be hard. It was too difficult to imagine what the other player was holding.

An Asynchronous Zendo Variant

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve been trying to think up a large multi-player game that can be played asynchronously, doesn’t involve lying or back-stabbing, and isn’t going to be wrecked by the players communicating with each other. In fact, it’d be great if the game encouraged players to communicate and work collaboratively. Such a game is still in the works; but, while we were working on it, the following occured to us.

Catchup

Sun, 08 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve just finished playing a hundred games of Catchup (BGG). Here are the rules. Below I’ll talk mostly about how Catchup feels and what it makes me think of.

Learning Games at RedFish BlueFish Creative Cafe

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Last Friday, Parker and I began a new project: a six-week-long children’s program that is part homework help, part games workshop. Each class consists of forty five minutes of tutoring and forty five minutes of game play and discussion. Our first game of the workshop is Hex.

A very close game of Catchup.

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A very deep almost-tie in Catchup.

Zendo: The Game of Science

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Zendo is a great game. It’s a really, really, great game. It’s one of those perfect examples of a game mechanism distilled to its finest and packaged into a game that really works. Kory Heath, the game’s designer, really hit on a genius idea. It’s also a very general game. You can play Zendo with Looney Pyramids, designed by Looney Labs, one of my favourite game companies, or almost any other set of things that are plentiful and can be assembled into a large number of configurations. I’ve played Zendo with pictures on a chalkboard, and with words over e-mail. As an illustration I’ve included below a game played with strings of zeros and ones.

Raj

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Raj is my new ’new favourite game’. I learned about it by reading up on what Boardspace.net has available, and after reading the rules I instantly fell in love. Raj has that essentialness which is shared by certain abstracts. It is the simplest possible expression of a fundamental game mechanic and yet it still playable as an interesting game in itself.

My Gaming Goal

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

At a staff Meeting on Tuesday, August 21st, my coworkers and I were asked to come up with a goal to achieve by Tuesday, September 25th. Since I’ve been wanting to play games more often, I decided on this goal: play games twenty times by the deadline.

500

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

The first trick-taking game I ever played with Parker is French Tarot - the most complicated trick-taking game I have ever come across. We both enjoyed French Tarot and still talk about playing it again, but it took a while to get used to the rules. We soon after discovered 500 (a simpler form of French Tarot) and, because of our experience, took to it quickly.

Rummy

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

My mom and step-dad absolutely love the card game Rummy. As a result, my sister and I have also come to love this game. During my high school years, it was our main go-to game on homework-less evenings and slow weekend afternoons.

Tablanette

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Tablanette is a two-player card game. Parker and I discovered it when we were looking through the Pan Book of Card Games by Hubert Phillips. We have not played Tablanette in a while, but I remember enjoying this game and hope to play it again soon.

10 000

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

It is easy to carry around a handful of dice. So, the more dice games you know, the more fun you can have with only a handful of materials.

Cribbage

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Cribbage is my favourite card game. It is a two player game, but can be played with three players. The modifications for a three-player game are listed at the end of the rules.

Oddball

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Oddball is a game that Parker and I created when we were visiting my mother on Gabriola Island, BC. It is inspired by the game Paletto.

Yahtzee

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Yahtzee is a bit like Poker but uses dice. It is a game where Probability is either on your side or not on your side.

Entropy

Thu, 31 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Eric Solomon’s Entropy is a perfect example of the theme of Chaos versus Order. Each player gets to assume each role once. As Chaos, you try to prevent your opponent from organizing patterns. As Order, you try to create as much structure as possible.

Entropy meets the Domino Bead Game

Thu, 31 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Parker and I absolutely love Entropy. We do not, however, love the Domino Bead Game. The moves seem very forced to us, and the scoring is too extreme. So, we have combined a game that we love with a game that we wish to improve.

Homeworlds (Two Player Version)

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Homeworlds is a game by John Cooper that uses Icehouse Pieces. It involves star systems and star ships and the battles and catastrophes that surround them.

Why not Y?

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I was wondering why Y has received so much less attention than Hex. In any discussion I’ve seen about connection games or the elegance of modern abstracts, the name Hex comes up – why doesn’t Y? It seems as though Hex has become a much more widely known classic than Y.

Thinking in a game -- Over the Board vs Online

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Thoughts about playing board games.