For our science 10 ecology, we are building a game that is enjoyable and also can teach the players about the science 10 ecology. I am partnered with Leif. The project is due next week, so I will write about how far we have done so far in designing the game, and what we plan to do during the weekend and some of the days after that.

Our game plan

– There can technically be as much player as they want, but player of 3 to 5 is preferable.

– The whole point of the game is to gain as much point as possible to reach a certain amount of points(which will end the game), or to have the most point when the game ends.

– Now, how you get the point is simple.

– There will be basically five islands in the middle where you can build your ecosystems.

– Everyone from the start will draw about 3 animal cards. They will be random animals with random habitats.

– In order to get the point, you need to build a ecosystem that your animals can live in.

– There are 8 main biomes that we look at. : ‘Boreal Forest’, ‘desert’, ‘Grassland’, “Permanent Ice”, ‘Temperate Deciduous Forest’, ‘TemperateRainforest’, ‘Tropical Rainforest’, ‘Tundra’

– Through our research that we are going to do during the weekend, we will find out each biomes’ Vegetation (how much plants or trees there are), Climates (The average temperature, and precipitation), and the soil (how fertile the soil is and how much water there are on the ground).

– We are going to set the approximate amount of cards that we are going to need to make each biomes according the research that we do. For example, we will have : Tree cards(represents how much of trees there are), Grass cards(represents how much grass or small plants there are), Temperature cards(can use to lower or raise the temperature), precipitation cards(represents the weather = how much rain are there or is it sunny),  soil cards(represents the amount of soil there are on the ground), and water card(represents how much water there are on the ground).

– Each islands will be a place where you can build the biome that you want for your animals.

– In each of your turn, you have a choice of using a biome card, or drawing a random animal card.

– Each turn, if you choose one of the Biome cards(basically the cards that I just told you above, that can change the climate and things), you can use them on the island that you want. Just so you know, you are not set on a specific island. You can freely go around the island, but at the beginning you would want to focus on building the biome that you want on one of the islands.

– When you succeed in building the biome that you wanted, you can start placing the animal cards that you had on your hand on the biome that fit in.

– Now of course, you can’t just put down any animals just because it fits into the biome.

– It needs to have a food chain

– For example, you can’t place a tiger, which is at the top of the food chain, before you have a deer on the island.

– When you start, you assume that the plants are already created from the process of building the biome, so you start with primary predators and go up on the food chain

– Naturally due to this rule, placing the animals on the higher part of the food chain, would gain you more points than the animals at the lower part of the food chain.

– Every time the turn passes from a player to another, the animals you have placed will grant you points.

– However, this doesn’t end like this. In order to make it interesting, it opens the possibility for the players to distract others.

– Every time you pick up an animal card, you also have to pick up a chance card. The chance cards are made with disaster cards and real chance cards.

– The chance cards will help you go through the game faster by giving advantages such as duplicating a card, being able to draw two cards per turn, or being able to use a disaster card against others.

– However, the disaster cards will bring natural disasters, such as volcano eruptions, or earthquakes that will affect the biomes that you have built.

– In this game, players are forced to sometimes corporate or compete with each others to win the game.

– Since they can use their biome cards in any of the 5 islands, players could try to destroy other people’s islands’ biomes to prevent from gaining points.

– Due to the fact that the animals on the islands are built from food chains, if the biome is destroyed, or the animals at the bottom of the food chains are ruined, the balance will be destroyed and will kill them all eventually.

so these are the rules that I have made so far. During the weekend, we will research and start making the board and cards from monday next week. I hope it works well, and if you find any problems or new ideas that can be added on this game, you are more than welcomed to comment. Thanks, have a wonderful weekend.