MacGyval: Use What You've Got, Survive or Not! by CataclysmicKnight
Note: this game is marked as a Windows game, but as long as you can open an .xls file you can play the spreadsheet version of the game, and as long as you can print PDFs you can play the print and play version! All of this is in the same .zip file
Players: 1+
About the Game
Have you ever watched MacGyver and wondered if you'd be clever enough to solve any of life's problems with seemingly random items? Now's your chance!
MacGyval: Use What You've Got, Survive or Not! puts you into a wild location with only the items currently at your disposal in real life (plus a few extras) and forces you to overcome life-threatening obstacles. If you can clear them all, you'll total up your score and see who the most creative survivalist is!
MacGyval: Use What You've Got, Survive or Not! is actually a tabletop card game, but I've also created a spreadsheet that allows you to play the game without printing or cutting anything. Technically, this really IS a video game, entirely playable in a spreadsheet! It's much more fun with another player or a group of people, but there's also a great challenge for solo players as well, whether you're just trying to survive or you're trying to get as high of a score as possible.
How to Play - Simplified
The game is simple: you gather items (from your own home in real life!) and then use them (along with some extra items from the cards) to overcome crazy MacGyver-esque challenges. The more items you use to overcome each challenge, the more points you'll get. Be careful, though, as your items may break, get lost, or become altered as you play.
The download file is a .zip that's hosted on itch.io. The README-FIRST file explains everything you'll need to know, and once it's downloaded you won't need to come back to this page aside from voting (all of the information, rules, etc. are within the zip file). I've also included links to this page in the README-FIRST and the Spreadsheet Game files, so you can download the game, play it (it works great as a remote game over the phone or even text chat!), and then come back later! :smile:
How the Game Was Made
My goal this jam was to make a tabletop game that's still super accessible: minimal printing, maybe even none; minimal tabletop lingo knowledge; playable solo or with as large of a group as possible. I feel like, as far as this goal is concerned, I did pretty darn well :smile: I also learned a LOT about tabletop game creating from this Ludum Dare, and it's been a great weekend!
As for specifics, I created the prototype on blank index cards that were cut in half, and my gal and I playtested using notepad files on our phones. From there I expanded on it a bit, cut out a lot of the weaker Item and Obstacle cards, and created all of the files! I used OpenOffice Calc for the spreadsheets (although I also tested the spreadsheet game in Excel and LibreOffice), and nanDECK to create the print and play files.
Have a great day and I hope you enjoy the game!
| Youtube | https://cataclysmicknight.itch.io/macgyval |
| Youtube | https://cataclysmicknight.itch.io/macgyval |
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/46/macgyval-use-what-youve-got-survive-or-not |
Ratings
| Overall | 650th | 3.738⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Fun | 998th | 3.429⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Innovation | 152th | 3.976⭐ | 23🧑⚖️ |
| Theme | 1784th | 3.375⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Humor | 432th | 3.575⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Mood | 1163th | 3.425⭐ | 22🧑⚖️ |
| Given | 13🗳️ | 20🗨️ |
I really liked how the scramble to find 10 items around you at the beginning led to MacGyver-style "oh gosh what can I do with a hammer and a knife". This was really goofy and fun to play! It was a blast coming up with ridiculous justifications for how I could possibly stop a swinging pendulum with my arrangement of garbage.
I don't know if I'd want to play it competitively, because taking it seriously kind of breaks it IMO. But very fun and creative as a group!
And yep, that was the end goal (although I think I bloated it a bit with the scoring mechanics): to be as goofy and crazy as possible, having to explain and argue whether you could pull the things off with what you have.
Here were my items and how I used them:
paper plate
water bottle (with water!)
headphones
pillow - Used the pillow to stop up the water, lost the pillow.
metal fork - Used the metal fork to short the security camera
pencil - Throw the pencil at the orb, knocking it off the tree in one shot. Lost the pencil.
sunglasses - Take apart sunglasses, use the plastic to pick the lock. Lost sunglasses.
scissors - Used scissors to cut the bomb wires.
tape measure - Used the tape measure as a makeshift rope, lost it because I couldn’t untie it from the top.
hair dryer - Heaviest item is lost forever in round 1
--Anna
My kids and I will have to try this later.
Edit: and using a tape measure as a rope? Brilliant! I thought that said roll of tape at first, but tape measure is even better!
@debbie-berlin LOL thank you for saying so about Excel! I never used a spreadsheet for more than random numbers before and figured Ludum Dare was a perfect excuse to try something new!
@minibobbo Thank you for the comment about excel as well! Like I said to Debbie I'd never tried using Excel for more than random numbers but it was a fun challenge and perfect excuse to try it. Really hope that your kids enjoy it with you too! Hopefully it isn't too difficult for them, or hopefully they can come up with some extra silly, funny stuff!
Well done.