Zen Albatross writes:

My colleague and former classmate Graham shared with me this customizable Lego board game as a means to familiarize oneself with the basics of game mechanics:

The game is 2-4 players. Each player has to navigate 3 pieces from the outside of the board to the center. A custom die decides a player’s action. Each turn a player either moves their pieces, a wall on the board or the “minotaur”. If the minotaur touches a player’s piece the piece is returned to the beginning. The board is shaped like a maze. When a player moves a wall it can dramatically change the layout of the board.

Within the first round of playing I started to imagine all the different rules that could make the game more engaging and fun. There were already some weak points in the game’s mechanics so obviously those need to be addressed first. One problem showed me that the designers didn’t play the game themselves as much as they should have. For example there were too many walls that could be movable that resulted in a bit of chaos in the level design as the game progressed. Limiting the amount of walls could fix this.

— Zen Albatross @ motherboard.tv

Minotaur — I like it.

This is a creative reminder that tools are all around us, waiting to be used — we need only awaken to the possibilities.