Prototyping "The Pharaoh's Orders"

The prototyping for our game tentatively titled "The Pharaoh's Orders" is relatively simple in that it does not take a long time to catch on to what the game is about, and an individual of any age can see what is required to come out victorious fairly quickly. To make it easiest to explain, we'll break the game down into the three elements used to prototype a game, as explained in our textbook.

• Core Mechanics: This game is a 2-4 player game that will involve taking turns in a clockwise order. Each turn, a player will play a card and then pick up a card from the deck once their turn is over. If a brick card is played, a brick is laid down in front of the player.

• Structure: The pyramid must be built with four bricks laid out on the bottom layer, three on the layer above it, two above that, and one brick at the top to complete the pyramid. Each turn, a player must play only one card (whether it is an action card or a brick card) unless a played action card says otherwise. All players start with seven cards (two brick cards, the other five random) and can never hold more than seven cards. Action cards are where strategic planning comes in, as a pharaoh must plot to help his/her own pyramid grow while preventing the other pharaohs from winning the race to completion.

• Features: Each time a pharaoh lays down a full layer of their pyramid, the row of bricks becomes stable and opponent's action cards can not bring damage to it. Action cards are offensive to damage other pyramids, and defensive to protect their own pyramid. The action cards maintain relevance to the ancient Egyptian time period. For example, "Locust Storm" will cause any chosen enemy pharaoh to skip their next turn, as the slaves would not be able to work in these conditions.

While there are still details to iron out such as the number of brick cards and action cards that the game will incorporate, we are excited with the direction that our card game is heading and look forward to building upon the foundation we have laid out so far.