Post by MarkSteere »
see the designer comment
RG at Board Game Arena discovered a tactic in Silo which gave a large advantage (among top players) to Player 1.
Michael Amundsen, esteemed fellow designer, suggested a different object of the game. Get all your checkers into a contiguous stack, possibly with enemy checkers above and/or below it, anywhere on the board (which could only be one of the two rightmost squares).
RG's initial impression: "I think his suggestion might work. Not sure. The game is a lot more complicated now." Based on that appraisal, I changed Silo to incorporate the new goal. And I changed the Board Game Arena program.
Normally I'm not one to tweak a broken game, opting instead to simply withdraw it. But I really like Silo - even more so now with what seems to me a more elegant goal. I put a lot of work into the graphics and programming... and the game design itself. I discovered the mechanism in a matter of minutes, but this was preceded by many unsuccessful attempts over a span of many years to design where you form a contiguous stack (or sub-stack) of only your own checkers. I finally got lucky with Silo, stumbling onto something that works (or rather will work, with any luck).
So why not? Keep your fingers crossed that the new version holds up. Ultra simple games don't come with a warranty.
Post by MarkSteere »
Post by MarkSteere »
