Difference between revisions of "Space Alert"

Revision as of 10:13, 14 January 2010

Brief

The players are astronauts on a ship beset by both internal and external dangers. Initially, all players plan their orders, which are carried out after everyone if done. If the ship is not destroyed, the characters survive. If not - tough luck.

Space Alert is a boardgame from Czech game designer Vlaada Chvátil, and was published in 2008 under several publishers in different countries. An expansion to the popular game is planned for early 2010.

Space Alert is carried out in two distinct phases; one real time phase, in which all players plan their actions for the entire game, and one where these actions are resolved. A cd soundtrack acts as the ship's computer, providing information on the different dangers threatening the ship. This soundtrack also serves as a time-limit; when it has played, the first phase of the game is complete and the players can no longer influence the outcome. The actions are planned in collaboration with the other players, using cards, and the gameplay is usually a frantic affair as the players try to make sure they have all their bases covered. During the resolution phase, the players get to see if their actions where worthwhile, as they are acted out and what, if any, damage to the ship is evaluated.

Main Gameplay Design Patterns

Time Pressure, Cooperation, Team Play, Tension, Real-Time Games

Platforms

Board Game

Gameplay

Each game consists of trying to fulfill a mission, which can be compared to a Level since there is a tendency towards higher difficulty on later missions. The missions are also structured to provide a Smooth Learning Curve but players can also influence the Difficulty Settings of a mission through selecting which Cards describing Enemies and Challenges should be in the Drawing Stacks.

Real Time Action Planning Phase

The Narrative Structure of the game dictates that the players are the crew onboard a space ship, their main goal being to Survive for ten minutes despite all the Enemies and Obstacles that try to destroy the ship. This phase is played out by listening to a sound track describing what happens, i.e. where and when Enemies and or obstacles will appear, although the exact nature of the enemy or obstacle is random Since they are being drawn from a Drawing Stack. Each player has twelve slots -- corresponding to rounds during the resolution phase of the game -- where Cards can be placed to show if the player does something that round. The players can Move around the ship -- leading to Spatial Immersion -- using Cards that may also be used to carry out one of the following actions: use the computers, fire a weapon, distribute energy to shields or storages, or a "special action" depending on the players location. The ship's energy is a Non-Renewable Resource, and so is its missiles. The placement of Cards is not Turn-Based, but occurs in Real-Time. Players place their cards upside down, but may tell the others what they plan to do, thus stimulating Social Interaction and Team Play. Being unable to destroy an Enemy results in a Penalty in the form of Ability Losses as the shields and eventually the ship is damaged.

Since this phase is Time-limited, it generates Time Pressure which in turn results in Tension. Very much information is known, e.g. how much damage an Enemy can take, the firepower of the ship's weapon's etc. This Stimulates Planning but to balance things out the game also requires a lot of Timing; Enemies can only be attacked once they have appeared, and it is Rewarding to shoot at an Enemy Simultaneously. Thus, lots of Social Interaction is required to succeed, but due to Time Pressure this does not always work out. The result is that players often feel that they have much more Imperfect Information than they actually do; for instance they may well communicate exactly what everyone does when but in practice this is not done.

Resolution Phase

Here, players enact the orders from the previous phase. This part of the game contains no actual gameplay/player input (except for the "oops" rule, which is very minor); it is only an enactment of the decisions previously taken. Now, all information is Perfect Information. In this phase players often realise that their actions are unccordinated (e.g. A fires the cannons in round 5, but B did not load them with energy until round 6) or made impossible by unanticipated events (e.g A tries to use the lift, but an enemy attack has destroyed it).

Other Noteworthy Aspects

Developer

Main Designer: Vlaada (Vladimír) Chvátil

Publisher

Czech Games Edition

Heidelberger Spieleverlag

Quined White Goblin Games (QWG)

Rio Grande Games

References

BoardGameGeek entry for Space Alert