Thousand Year Game Design Challenge - May Update

Recent buzz from the Long Now Blog, MetaFilter, and Jane McGonigal spurred a huge spike in traffic. We had several new entries last month and many more rumored to be coming soon. Here's what we have for May.

Cartography by Benjamin Alan Mohr
Here's an example of a classic genre with a clever visual motif. Each tile has land and water. One player is trying to create self-contained areas of land (islands) while the other is trying to create self-contained areas of water (lakes). I look forward to giving this one a play or two.

The Movie Game by Tonio Loewald
(or the World-Playing Game) This game is sort of a freeform narrative exercise in which each player takes on the role of a character from a movie, using the beginning, middle or end as a breakpoint from the established story. Together, the players take turns being the protagonist and supporting cast.

Rush Run Riot by Kelvin Beriguete
This kinda-sorta chess variant strips down your pieces to kings, pawns and "bouncers." Much like Arimaa, you have the option of moving pawns twice, but can trade in those movements to move a bouncer. Bouncers are neutral and can be moved by either player. Interesting!

Sáto by Kristian Järventaus
In the long tradition of scifi-inspired board games, Kristian presents a hexagonal abstract strategy elimination game. The pieces are all identical, but have some interesting methods of moving around the hexagonal grid. Because pieces can move along concentric circles, I wonder how hard it'll be to anticipate and plan offensive maneuvers.

F*ckin' Do It Then by Ryan Hughes (NSFW Language)
So far, the majority of challenge entrants have been very cerebral affairs, so I'm delighted to see this visceral title enter the mix. Players draw random words and bid on whether they can make another player guess their word with as few clues as possible.

Venn’s Revenge by Louis J. Cassorla
This entry is one of the few to have an explicitly stated social agenda: To improve spatial recognition abilities in all players. Players draw circles on overlapping sheets of translucent paper, trying to overlap previously drawn circles. I must admit, I'm still trying to parse the rules as written, but perhaps it'll be easier when it actually hits the table.

Klon by Antoine Richard
Chess has several nuanced rules of movement to learn before you ever make your first move. Antoine has taken a slightly different direction, imposing those movement rules on specific spaces of the board while leaving the pieces themselves generic. He apparently even made his own wooden board!