Patricia Bandeira de Mello
Ubolics
A fun strategic two-player board game in which the players have to steal the opponent\'s magnetic ubolics by combining thought and technique when throwing their pieces on the board.
http://itp.nyu.edu/~pbd222/toydesign/ubolics.swf
Ubolics is a strategic two-player board game, targeted to 8-12 year-olds, but can also be played by adults. The game has 26 magnetic ubolics, 4 metal traps and a board. All pieces are colorful and shiny, which gives the game a spacial and futuristic look.
The objective is to steal the opponent’s ubolics. Combining the players' techniques and the natural characteristic of magnets, the ubolics will stick to each other forming strips. To steal the opponent's ubolics, the player has to have his/her color ubolics on both ends of the strip. When one of the players doesn’t have anymore ubolics to play with, the game is over and the one that has the most of their opponent’s ubolics wins.
Rules:
Each player receives 12 ubolics, 2 traps and 1 Xbolic (the silver) and takes a turn throwing one of their pieces on the board. Hands cannot pass the edges of the board. When stealing ubolics, the only shape allowed is strips. Triangles don't count. When a strip with the same ubolic color on both ends is formed, it's taken from the "board" and the player that has the color on both ends gets his ubolics back to reuse and keeps the opponent's ubolics.
The traps are used to block the opponent's ubolics. It doesn't matter the ubolics color, anything pulled by traps is stuck there.
The Xbolic is the silver piece and the player can use it to rescue his/her own ubolics and traps or/and capture the opponent's ubolics and traps. If an opponent's trap is captured, it counts just like any other opponent's ubolic when the game is over. The player's ubolics and traps rescued by the Xbolic can be reused. However, if the player doesn't capture anything with the Xbolic, he/she loses it and the Xbolic is placed outside the board.
Decided to create a construction toy and interested in the different cities\' architectures I started my research for futuristic cities. My sister, Juliana Oakim, who is an architect, collaborated with me in various and wonderful ways. During our talks, she showed me different architects and projects designed in the 19th century for future cities that never happened. Then, we chose the dodecahedron as the basic piece because of its futuristic look and versatility when combined to other dodecahedrons. I spent the semester developing the concept of this future city, what would be the play pattern, how to create towers, elevated roads, and futuristic cars. Two weeks before the deadline to test the toy, I made a couple of dodecahedrons and was playing with magnets to decided how I would place them inside. While I was doing that, I realized that the dodecahedrons snapped to each other forming strips and that was fun. I talked to a few people and let them play with the dodecahedrons and noticed that they really enjoyed it too. Therefore, I decided that I already had a toy and that my next step would be creating the rules.
Children between 8-12 years old and adults that still kept the playing-games spirit.
Two people playing against each other at any place they feel comfortable, indoors or outdoors.
Ubolics is made of cardboard, shiny adhesive paper and magnets.
Cutting and gluing dodecahedrons take a long time, but you definitely get better with practice. It\'s important to be open to different ideas and to be flexible to change the project and the concept anytime.
The objective is to steal the opponent’s ubolics. Combining the players' techniques and the natural characteristic of magnets, the ubolics will stick to each other forming strips. To steal the opponent's ubolics, the player has to have his/her color ubolics on both ends of the strip. When one of the players doesn’t have anymore ubolics to play with, the game is over and the one that has the most of their opponent’s ubolics wins.
Rules:
Each player receives 12 ubolics, 2 traps and 1 Xbolic (the silver) and takes a turn throwing one of their pieces on the board. Hands cannot pass the edges of the board. When stealing ubolics, the only shape allowed is strips. Triangles don't count. When a strip with the same ubolic color on both ends is formed, it's taken from the "board" and the player that has the color on both ends gets his ubolics back to reuse and keeps the opponent's ubolics.
The traps are used to block the opponent's ubolics. It doesn't matter the ubolics color, anything pulled by traps is stuck there.
The Xbolic is the silver piece and the player can use it to rescue his/her own ubolics and traps or/and capture the opponent's ubolics and traps. If an opponent's trap is captured, it counts just like any other opponent's ubolic when the game is over. The player's ubolics and traps rescued by the Xbolic can be reused. However, if the player doesn't capture anything with the Xbolic, he/she loses it and the Xbolic is placed outside the board.
Decided to create a construction toy and interested in the different cities\' architectures I started my research for futuristic cities. My sister, Juliana Oakim, who is an architect, collaborated with me in various and wonderful ways. During our talks, she showed me different architects and projects designed in the 19th century for future cities that never happened. Then, we chose the dodecahedron as the basic piece because of its futuristic look and versatility when combined to other dodecahedrons. I spent the semester developing the concept of this future city, what would be the play pattern, how to create towers, elevated roads, and futuristic cars. Two weeks before the deadline to test the toy, I made a couple of dodecahedrons and was playing with magnets to decided how I would place them inside. While I was doing that, I realized that the dodecahedrons snapped to each other forming strips and that was fun. I talked to a few people and let them play with the dodecahedrons and noticed that they really enjoyed it too. Therefore, I decided that I already had a toy and that my next step would be creating the rules.
Children between 8-12 years old and adults that still kept the playing-games spirit.
Two people playing against each other at any place they feel comfortable, indoors or outdoors.
Ubolics is made of cardboard, shiny adhesive paper and magnets.
Cutting and gluing dodecahedrons take a long time, but you definitely get better with practice. It\'s important to be open to different ideas and to be flexible to change the project and the concept anytime.