For the past couple of months now, I’ve been referring vaguely on Twitter about a “super-top-secret dice game”, and even linked to a generic dice game rule set to get some feedback a core mechanic for a new design. Well, here’s that design I was hinting at — SharkBait, a family-style round-the-table dice game.
Theme-wise, you are helping to guide fish away from being eaten by sharks … or, whenever the sharks fight, to get a close look at the sharks. The “sharks” and “fish” are dice, and the core rules determine how you place the rolled dice on a scoring board. At the end of a player’s turn, the fish on the board are scored based on how the sharks are setup and where the fish are located compared to the sharks.
Your score with the dice will let you pick up a scoring token — the higher the score, the further on the scoring track you are able to move your pawn. After seven rounds, the player with the pawn furthest down the track is the winner. (There are a few more interesting twists to the rules, but I’m waiting to post all of the details until I get those honed a bit more with additional testing.)
But, I wanted to share the prototype artwork with you, because I’m very fond of it … (more)
The artwork was done by fellow designer Chevee Dodd. I started pitching the early ideas about the game to him via Twitter and e-mail, and he quickly came up with the background art used on the boards. Once I was able to get the token list a bit more solidified, he sent that art over as well.
My plans for the game (once further developed) are to shop it around to family-oriented game publishers … I think this will make a fun mom/dad & kids (or just “kids, go play something”) type of game.
Here’s the “Ocean Board,” where dice are placed during a players turn:
Here’s the scoring track, where pawns are moved to see who is winning:
Here’s the token board, where most of the game’s pieces are held during play:
And, finally, here are some token examples:
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