FAQ : About Go and Sandbox games

[sourisdudesert]

To everyone,

Recently, you saw a new mysterious game on BGA : "Go", with a strange banner on it : Sandbox.

This game is the first visible part of an upcoming revolution on BGA : Sandbox games.

This FAQ is here to clarify what is BGA Sandbox and what is it for.

What is a BGA Sandbox game?

A BGA Sandbox game is exactly like any classic BGA games, with a huge difference : everything is "manual" :

• The rules are not reinforced : you can do whatever you want with the game material.
• There is no "automatism" : like for a real board game, you must take care of triggering the right actions when something happens (ex : add victory points, trigger a card draw, and so on ...).

But WHY having games like this on BGA?

Short answer : To have WAY MORE games available on BGA.

Long answer :

For years, BGA is receiving many requests, from many publishers, to have their games on BGA.

Even if we design BGA so that this is easy to develop a board game adaptation on this website, developing a game on BGA is still a quite long and complex process that requires from 20 to 500 programming hours depending on the game. This explains why we have only one new game every month on this website.

Developing a Sandbox game requires only a few hours, and this is possible to add a Sandbox game on BGA even if you are not a software developer.

Consequently, once the BGA Sandbox editor will be made available, you are going to have hundreds of new games on BGA.


Does this mean that all new games will be Sandbox games?

No.

Sandbox games are in addition to the "classic" BGA games, and we'll continue to release at least one BGA games every month.


Will game prototypes will be allowed as Sandbox games?

Absolutely. We will encourage game designers to create a Sandbox adaptation of their games, so they can test their games with the whole world!


How does it work to play a Sandbox game?

It works exactly like a normal BGA game except that :

• You have to move every piece/card/token yourself (no automatism).
• You have to check the rules and play carefully. In particular you must check that your opponents played according to the rules.
• You have to tell BGA when the game is over, and then every player has to confirm that the game result is correct to end the game.

Is there ELO / rankings / trophies for Sandbox games?

Yes.

Note : prestige awarded for Sandbox games is divided by 10 compared to other games.

What if someone is cheating or doing stupid things?

Sandbox games require a good spirit and fair play from all players. There is no way for us to resolve disputes on Sandbox games because rules are not reinforced. If your opponents are not fair play, disagree with the rules or with the results, there is nothing we can do for you. This is why we ask you to be particularly careful to the reputation of your opponents when playing a Sandbox game.


Will Sandbox editor be free?

Of course : yes!.

We don't want to discourage any game designer/publisher that want to make this game available here on BGA, so Sandbox editor will be free for everyone.



Note : more answers will be added later - remember that for now we are at the very beginning of the beta phase of Sandbox.

[KaosBombix]

Note : prestige awarded for Sandbox games is divided by 10 compared to other games.

Elo classment should be cancelled when someone is playing a sandbox game. A player can go up too easily !

[Faignantix]

I tried and there seems to be a problem: it seems it is not possible to remove a stone from the board. At least I didn't succeed to do it.
This is problematic in a game where you should remove stones that are captured.

[sourisdudesert]

it seems it is not possible to remove a stone from the board

In fact you can : there is a zone below the board when you can place captured pieces. We are going to make this more clear.

[Faignantix]

OK thanks, I'll try to find this area

[sourisdudesert]

Elo classment should be cancelled when someone is playing a sandbox game. A player can go up too easily !

We will apply the same policy than for the rest of the website : if someone is doing absurd games against the same set of players using multiple accounts, all accounts will be reseted & removed sooner or later.

[Oso]

One question, what about a dice?

Would be nice if you can add a button "roll a dice"...

[sourisdudesert]

One question, what about a dice?

The Sandbox editor of course allows you to add dice, among all existing materials needed for board games.

[Oso]

One question, what about a dice?

The Sandbox editor of course allows you to add dice, among all existing materials needed for board games.

Also, I can't put "sandbox" in my games.

[Faignantix]

Ok I was able to finish a true go game.
Two thing that should be improved though:
- Put the black and white prisonners on two different spots. It's a little messy when you want to count with all the prisonners mixed. Plus irl, you keep the opponent's stones you captured next to you.
- There is a "server error" each time you play a move.