Snakes and Ladders (abandoned)

[qeee1]

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If anyone else wants to take this up feel free. I discovered I don't have the time/skill for graphics editing.

(There you go Rev )

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Something I came up with on my train ride home-



Explanation of movement: Movement goes in traditional snakes and ladders fashion, except that you can now attack down numbers as well as up. So 4 can attack both 3 and 5. Vertical movement can only be made if the number is either one greater or lesser than the one you're attacking from, so 5 can attack 6, but 6 cannot attack 15. Snakes and ladders are one way movement, up the ladders and down the Snakes.

So what do people think of the concept is what I'm more interested in. The map can be tinkered with lots, and this is obviously not the final image. I provisionally stuck down continents, to get an idea of the map.

Bonuses went something like this (from bottom to top)
Crosses-2
Daimonds-2
Squares (Spans 2 seperated rows) - 6
Circles-3
Moons-4
Stars-2


...thoughts? (Aside from how I can't draw snakes to save my life)

[reverend_kyle]

i like it alot, but it will take alot of work.

[rocksolid]

Do it qeee, it'll be weird, but do it. Nothing like it here.

I'm scared of those snakes.

[jaydog]

f*ck ya! its a stroke of brilliance!

[john123]

like it a lot (not visually of couse), Could be fun to play but i think movement is a little limited, a decent poisitioning at the start will play a very big part, maybe too big

[Marvaddin]

I think the idea is interesting. But the feedback until now is ridiculous! Post guys, if you like the map! I wouldnt like if you do the map and then discover that it will not be played (like the ???dome map).

[Pilate]

This map looks cool.

[Jota]

I'd definitely give it a shot.

[wacicha]

the name of the kids game was chutes and ladders for you can ride a chute down but can't crawl up a ladder can go both ways

[fluffybunnykins]

This snakes & ladders is cool... better than the actual game, anyway!
make it!

[max is gr8]

A def bonus for owning 40

[HighBorn]

qeee dont lie u walked by a couch full of kids playing chutes and ladders and was really bored...lol.. naw really i think its a great concept

[rocksolid]

I just hope the Lucky Charms people don't come after you.

[qeee1]

What's this chutes and ladders... in my day it was snakes and ladders, but then maybe snakes were a bit too scary for kids in more refined parts of the world.

Anyway there's been a lot of positive feedback, so I think I'll go ahead with the map, but I'm pretty busy right about now, so it'll probably be a while before I get another update.

[wacicha]

i googled both names and qeee1 i guess i'll put my spud launcher back on the shelf... both games are legitimate games. it looks like snakes was to teah kids #'s and chutes was just a popular game

[qeee1]

Turns out I had more time than I thought. I experimented with textures and background designs for the squares but they just looked cluttered so I decided to stick to plain colours. Also does anyone know if the little grey circles for numbers are put in automatically or do I have to do it.

There's no legend as of yet, I'll probably put it to the side, like on the crossword map.

Bonuses (from bottom to top)
Purple-2
Red-2
Orange (Spans 2 seperated rows) - 6
Green-3
Cyan-4
Blue-2

Three versions, all comments welcome, particularly regarding bonuses. Also interested in colour schemes and number size. I'm fairly sure I'm going with the smaller numbers.

First version: Colour scheme 1, small numbers



Second version: Colour scheme 2, big numbers:



Third version: Colour scheme 3, big numbers:

[rocksolid]

Little circles don't go in automatically. You don't have to put them in if you don't think they work for your map.

I think the snakes and ladders should be overlaid over the numbers - that's the way I remember all the snakes and ladders boards I played on over the years, that the numbers are sometimes obscured by the snakes etc.

I like the colour variations within continents, but a lot of people get confused by them, so you might want to make them uniform or give another indicator of being in one group - though I am glad to be rid of the pink hearts, orange moons, yellow stars and green clovers.

[qeee1]

What I meant when I asked about the little circles was that if I want them in, do I have to put them in myself?

Version with numbers obscured:


Does that look ok, or will people get confused about which number is which?

[rocksolid]

You do have to put them in yourself.

Only one where I think it could possibly get confusing is 24. Obviously, it's 24 - consecutivity of numbers being what it is - but you never know. But really someone else should weigh in on this...

[Jota]

I think it might be good if the snake leading to 24 were twitched over slightly, so that part of the number showed through. And I prefer the smaller numbers. I guess there's no way to justify using non-numbers for country names in this case.

As for the continent colors, I think that in this map, you really should make them homogenous. The fact that orange is split like that makes it much more important that it be very clear which countries are in which continent, and the fact that some of the red colors are similar to some of the orange colors isn't helping any there.

I also have to agree with what you said in your original post:

I can't draw snakes to save my life

If you weren't already intending to, you're going to want to get some new snakes. Maybe a textured Photoshop paint-line might work. Or there might be photos on the Internet that could be swiped, if you wanted to go for that direction...

[AndyDufresne]

---Well obscuring the numbers really depends on what you are going to use as your end product for images. What snake images are you looking into? And the same goes with the ladders. I'd be nice to see some of the options you have planned, and then you can actually see if and how they obscure the numbers. The ladders could be tapered to the top, like many of the old style ladders. I think it would also help show that you go up them. The snakes scales could also be some show sorted to show that you go down (since some people won't read or realize the directional capabilities of each item).

---Also is there any reason you went with the color order as is on the map? Sometimes the two blues (though notably different) can be confusing, and I think you want to limit confusion as much as you can on this map.

---What other style of numbers have you considered?


--Andy

[rocksolid]

Might make for some cutting & pasting delight.

[wicked]

ICK! NO!

[qeee1]

SNAKES:

What to people think of just the head of the Snake, does that look ok? I looked into swiping some snake head images off the internet, but none looked right for the game, either the expression was wrong, or it was facing the wrong way, or it couldn't easily be joined to many different bodies, etc. Anyway I ended up drawing that one in paint.

I didn't think it looked too bad, the body probably needs some texture/scales, and the fat one looks a bit off, but overall I thought they were ok.

EDIT: I was hoping to go with a cartoony snake feel, so that we won't have responses like "ICK NO"

LADDERS:

What do you mean by tapered at the top? Tapered all the way from bottom to top, resembling a tall trapezium? The directions will be in the legend anyway, so is it necessary. The ladders at the moment are just a thick line with a wood texture copy pasted several times. I hadn't really considered other versions.

COLOURS:

I'll do up a version with the colours homogenous. When I was initally just drawing the board it looked really boring with homogenous colours but now with everything added it might not be as bad, though if anyone wants to give me advice on how to use good textures in Gimp or Adobe Elements, let me know. I could also make the variations more slight...

As for the two blues, I'll do a version with them seperate, I just randomly picked out the order from what appeared best to my eye.

OTHER STUFF:

Any thoughts on the bonuses. Does splitting the orange continent like that work? Bear in mind you can get from the top of the orange continent to the bottom of it, but not from the bottom to the top, without going through green.

Also my graphic editing skills are pretty poor, so I'll do the best I can but don't expect wonders.

[AndyDufresne]

---Well look into reworking the snakes, making them look like real snakes. Maybe even use outlines from other snakes, and perhaps look into not having all snakes seem like they are standing on their tail. They should have curves and bends. Also look into some character and uniqueness to snakes, not simply the same head pasted in various areas.

---In response to the tapered ladder, it could look similar to this, an old style of ladder. But be careful not to be repeated.

---I think orange will be pretty hard to hold, due to limited fortification from bottom to top of it.

---Also to be clear, for figuring out bonuses and such....

Explanation of movement: Movement goes in traditional snakes and ladders fashion, except that you can now attack down numbers as well as up. So 4 can attack both 3 and 5. Vertical movement can only be made if the number is either one greater or lesser than the one you're attacking from, so 5 can attack 6, but 6 cannot attack 15.

That movement is still valid, correct? (since you hadn't posted it since the first page)


--Andy