A gravity based board game about navigating inside dungeon caves.

Sinpin is a game for 2-4 players I developed together with my son. I is a word in Toki Pona that means 'wall'.

The goal is to reach the exit, grabbing as many gems as possible on the way out. The player with the most gems by the end wins.

The game can be played on a single sheet of squared DIN A4 paper. The page is split into 3x3 squares grid, each representing a single field.

Setup

Each player choses an avatar and receives 6 movement point cards, valueing from 1 to 6.

A level contains up to 16 gems, 8 webs and 4 question marks that are placed individually by each player in turns, starting with the webs. They may only be placed on vaccant fields. Chests and hearts are placed on the corresponding fields of the level map.

All remaining hearts, gems, webs and 2 small ghost cards are placed inside the larger box.

Movement

• Players start at the door marked with an alpha α. The exit is marked with an omega Ω.
• The starting player uses one of their six movement cards. The full amount of points have to be moved. The card cannot be reused until all other movement cards have been used.
• Choose a direction to move to: left or right.
• During a move, the direction can only be switched when bouncing off a wall or moving onto a ladder.
• When moving onto a field without a ground below, gravity pulls the player down one field after each movement. Falling costs no movement points.
• While falling, players keep moving in their starting direction after every field they fall down until no movement points are left.
• On the ground, players can jump up one field with a cost of 1 movement point during any point of their movement, except when already in air or falling.
• After a jump, players can move one field to the side in their start direction before falling down again. If a jump is the first move, the direction can be chosen in mid air.

Health

• Each player starts with 3 health points.
• If all healthpoints are lost, players either return to the start or pay 3 gems to recover a single health point.
• Picking up a heart recovers one health point.

Items

• Gems
  Are picked up and removed from the board immediately.
• Hearts
  Are picked up and removed from the board immediately.
• Chests
  All remaining movement points are paid out as gems on entering the field.
• Mystery Items
  When players enter a field with a question mark, they may draw a card from the box. They receive either a gem, a heart, a web, a chest or a ghost. Gems and hearts are kept. The web and chest may be placed anywhere on the map. The ghost triggers the ghost immediately.

Special Fields

Whenever players pass a special field, an action is triggered immediately.

• Ladders
  Allows players to Climb up or down. Lets players change direction on entering. Moving on a ladder costs 1 movement point per field.
• Spikes
  Players loose 1 health point and stop.
• Blades
  Need at least 3 remaining movement points to pass without taking 1 health damage.
• Web
  Reduces movement points by 1 and is removed after first player passes.
• Spring Board
  Bounces players up 1 field up at no movement cost. An upward jump can be added for one movement point. Is also triggered when starting on the field.
• Teleporters
  Teleports to a destination of the players choosing. Movement continues at destination.
• Exit
  The first player that reaches the exit receives the amount of players as gems, second one less, third one less, fourth one less. Additionally, each player reveices the amount of health points in gems. Furthermore, reaching the exit triggers the ghost.

Ghost

The ghost starts at the entry door and is moved by each player after they moved their avatar by the same amount of points as the movement card they played. The ghost can move across all fields, but can only go left, right and down, never up and now lower than the exit door. If the ghost catches a player, they loose all their hearts and are thrown out of the game. Players removed from the game are still allowed to control the ghost at their turn. The ghost is 4 squares in size, but 1 movement point means moving only 1 square.

Löve2d Implementation

The game has been implemented using Love2d.

Links

• source code
• love2d

incoming(2) | review 2021 | review 2021