Tide Pool Game
Today we'll be making a delightful water-based game where the objective is to collect as many tiles as you can in the goals by blowing air through a straw. Variations also include moving the tile through the maze :D
This game is inspired by my time sitting next to a little pond last week and playing around with the leaves floating in it. It is really soothing to stare at water
Supplies
- two straws
- 3d prints from provided files
- optionally you can make custom tiles
Making the Box
To design the game board we start by using tinkercad or onshape (or any design tool of your choice) and making a box. In onshape you can Sketch a rectangle and use the Shell feature to hollow it.
Adding Goals
Then we add dividers to separate goals and the open playing area. To do so, sketch two rectangles and extrude it to the box height where you'd like to place a goal. The rectangles/dividers should join to form an opening through which tiles can pass through
Make sure that the space between the dividers opening is at least 1.5x the size of your tiles so that you can push the tiles into the goals.
Making the Tiles
The tiles are how the game is scored and what will be pushed around so they should be able to fit in the goals and float. Other than those considerations, we can get creative with this! For a halloween themed game you can print pumpkin and ghost shaped tiles. To lean more into the sea aesthetic you can print little boats. Or to keep it simple you can use circle, triangle, and square tiles.
Playing the Game
The objective of the game is to try and get as many of the tiles into your goal and beat your opponent under 2 minutes.
Fill the box with water, leaving about an inch so the water doesn't spill over the sides during gameplay. Then gently drop in the tiles so they float in the open playing area. Provide both players with straws. The straws should not touch the tiles or water when playing. Start playing!
Variations
As a solo player you can turn the dividers into a maze and try to guide as many tiles to the end in 2 minutes. Mazes can vary in complexity, here are a couple of examples as images and 3d printable files.