„Wetten“ is a classical boardgame. You play a visitor of a horse racing track, who is trying to make money by betting on the races. Of course, when much money is involved, no one plays fair.

The Project

The boardgame „Wetten“ was developed in the sixth semester game design course in Digital Media. In a one-week-workshop we had the task to create a boardgame from the first idea to a fully tested and playable game. Game materials had to be downloadable and printable from a normal website. Our development team consisted of Markus Filsinger, Fabian Kees and me.

The First Idea

We wanted to create a game including gambling. So the idea of betting at a horse racing track was found quickly. First drafts included the concept of keeping the racing part completely abstract and concentrating the gameplay on the betting part. This idea was rejected, since having a race track and watching the progress of the horses is a vital part of the experience.

The Concept

The basic game mechanic was developed quite quickly. The horse figures should be moved over a circular racetrack. To move the horses the player had to play randomly distributet movement cards. Bets could be made at the beginning of the race. Since the bets were placed secretly, the players would have to guess which player supported which horse.

Iterations

In first test plays, we could adjust the numbers on the horse movement cards. We also included a second betting round, similair to poker. All players could make a second bet after the horses had moved for the first time. The game was already well playable. But we felt, that an important game element was missing to spice upt the experience. Therefore we added the action cards. Every player would have a set of cards with which he could heavily influence the course of a race. This was the spicy random element, that turned our game from a simple „laying off your cards“ to an exciting experience. We could also confirm this improvement in further test plays with several groups.

Test it!

See the rules and download the game material on the corresponding Wikidot page.