Hovering Bird by LDJam user 236416
Hovering Bird
Hovering Bird is a table game. The game is played by one player (solo). As the game rules are pretty simple, the game may be suitable even for children. This game was inspired by Flappy Bird mobile game, where the player is tasked to pass through pairs of pipes which appear in equal time intervals (about every 10 seconds).
What is required
- A game field with numbers from 1 to 15 in order (can be easily drawn by hand)
- Some token to represent a bird
- A standard 52-card deck (with out jokers)
That's all!
Gameplay
The main character (as you already probably guess) is a bird. Player can control the bird, changing the height, where it is flying. A game field is served to track the current height. Next movement actions are possible: 1. FLAP: bird flies up, moves up by 3 2. GLIDE: bird spreads its wings and hovers, moves down by 1 3. DO NOTHING: bird falls down due to gravity, moves down by 2
Game start
- Put game field on the table
- Put Bird token on game field into any desired cell
- Shuffle the deck
Checkpoints
Each card which will be dealt from the deck represents a checkpoint. Value of the card means height, which bird should reach. For cards from 2 to 10 value corresponds to the rank, Jack means 11, Queen means 12, King means 13, Ace means 1 or 14 (player can reach either 1 or 14 to hit this checkpoint). If bird reaches required height, then corresponding card should be taken away from the table. If player hits checkpoint, he moves again. Checkpoints may be hit in any order. Player can hit only one checkpoint at a time (in case if several cards of the same rank were dealt).
Move order
- One card is dealt from the deck
- Player moves the bird (according to the movement rules)
- If player hit any checkpoint, he takes corresponding card away and should move again
Game over
Only 3 cards (checkpoints) can be active at any moment. If the 4th card should be dealt, then game is over. In this case, count the number of cards which were taken away before, this is your number of points!
Here is short video example of game play:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzLar5MmU08
Good luck!
| Original URL | https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/51/hovering-bird |
Ratings
| Given | 0🗳️ | 0🗨️ |
Bird starts at 7.
Draw J. Flap to 10. (J)
Draw 10. Hover to 8. (J,10)
Draw 3. Flap to 11 (J), Hover to 10 (10), Fall to 8. (3)
Draw 10. Flap to 11. (3,10)
Draw 3. Hover to 10 (10). Fall to 8 (3,3)
Draw queen. I'm dead on the next move.
I don't think I could have played this any differently, but I only got 3 points. Getting those two threes killed me, and getting from queen to 3 would have been impossible anyway. Am I doing something wrong?
If I'm at 7,
When I Flap(move up 3) I can move to 5 or 10 or 15?
and, When Hover(down 1) I can move to 1 or 6 or 11?
And then similarly, If I'm at 2,
When I Flap(move up 3) I can move to 5 or 10 but not 15?
That's how I was playing, and how I thought it looked like you was playing in the video, but I wasn't 100% sure because I nearly got through half the deck so I felt I might have been doing something wrong haha ^^ great concept!
Well done! want to play more of your games.
I took the liberty to backtrack/branch out my moves, but it turns out the player's choice usually doesn't matter or saves no more than 1 turn. My highscore was 5 cards. I think the game is too RNG right now. Being able to pick from a hand of several cards could make it more strategic. Jokers could be wild cards (place them wherever you want)
I couldn't find the information in the rules, but I played assuming that if a card drops on top of me, I collect it immediately
Jokes aside, the rules are simple and intuitive enough to turn this into small kickstarter project!
When I originally read the rules I thought I knew what the optimal strategy was. After a few rounds, I'm not so sure. Surprising amount of strategic depth.
Hope to see more tabletop games in LD, this was really neat
I must have gotten very lucky. I kept drawing straights of cards. I ended up taking eleven cards. (6, 8, 7, Q, 9, 6, Q, 9, 8, 7, A). My mistake was diving all the way down for that Ace. I should have just left it alone and stayed in the middle.
On my second game, I got screwed by shuffle luck right out of the gate. My first card dealt was the card I started on. And then after I collected it, two more cards were dealt that were exactly five above me, plus an Ace. Ouch.
It has a lot of luck to it, but it makes it kind of feel like it could be a casino game like Blackjack. (Never flap on a 6-King split!) In Blackjack, you play odds but can ultimately get screwed by randomness at any time. But that's okay. And it's surprisingly deep for a game where you just move up and down collecting cards.
The idea is very original :)