Gateway

Gateway is a board game created together with my son Tim.

Background

Some time ago I had an idea of a video game where the player explores a universe of video games history and helps some creatures to get home. While working on it I leaned a lot about game design, pixel art, game development, and more. Also I learned that this project is much bigger than I could ever handle. So it was put on a shelf.

One important aspect of the game was the idea of not having any violence. So instead of fighting monsters, you help them.

The game story

Imagine two parallel worlds. One of them is your home, another is home for creatures. Something happened and few creatures appeared in your world. Your mission is to find them and bring home.

Components

• 2 game fields representing two worlds
• 4 player characters
• 6 creature characters
• D8 and D6 dice
• 1 portal
• 4 score cards for each player
• 24 score tokens

Setting up the game

Each players gets:

• 1 character
• 1 score card
• 6 score tokens

Place both world boards next to each other the table. Mark the creatures world by placing the portal in the center of it. Each player puts their character in the center of the players world.

Spread all creatures in the players world. It's up to you to decide where to put them, but try to be fair and place creatures not too close to players.

Object of the game

The object of the game is to rescue all creatures and bring them to their home world. The one who helps the most creatures wins. In case many people have the same high score, they all win. The main point to have fun, and not to be the only winner ;)

The game turn

The player who rolls the lowest number with the D6 dice goes first. Play then proceeds clockwise around the table, each player taking one turn at a time until the game ends. On their turn, a player must perform one of the following actions:

• Move on the board: the player rolls the D6 dice and moves on the board to reach a creature or the portal. The player is allowed to travel as many steps as a number showed by the D6. Players can move in any direction, but not diagonally. If the player reaches creatures, they're allowed to immediately try to rescue that creature.
• Try to rescue a creature: the player rolls both D8 and D6 dice. The D8 shows the result of the rescue attempt:
  • 1 or 5 - the player travels together with the creature into the creatures world. They both appear in that world at exactly the same coordinates they were in the players world. The player places a score token on their score card to indicate a successful rescue.
  • 2 or 6 - the creature is afraid the player. The fear forces the creature to push the player back. The player must step away from the creature on the number of steps showed by the D6.
  • 3 or 7 - the creature is afraid the player and tries to escape. The creature moves away from the player on the number of steps showed by the D6.
  • 4 or 8 - the player travels to the creatures world, but something went wrong and the creature stays behind in the players world. Now the player must return home first to get back to the rescue mission.

Each time a player appears in the creatures world they need to reach the portal to get back to their world. When the player travels through the portal they immediately appear in the center of their world and must stay there until their next turn.

Game end

The game ends with the last creature is brought to their world.

Calculating scores

Each player counts how many score tokens they have on their score cards. The one with the highest number is the winner. It's possible to have many winners if some people share the hight score number.

License

Copyright (c) 2022 Alexander and Tim Sulim