Simeon Acker
Roto Temple
Best Board Game - Entelechy 2017
Design Lead - 2016, 2017
Roto Temple was designed and manufactured as a complete board game for professional presentation. It features a modular board uniquely designed for dynamic gameplay mechanics.
As Lead Designer, I managed our design process to ensure that all our concepts and ideas led to a complete experience that would be engaging, balanced, and a blast to play!
Excerpt from the Adventurer's Guidebook:
"Welcome to the RotoTemple, adventurers!
Whether brought here by a quest for ancient knowledge, the search for gold, or sheer chance, a world of fortune and opportunity awaits! For in these ruins lie the knowledge and power of the ancients…
You have begun your journey, but now the path behind you has been closed. Only the strength and secrets of the ancients found here will enable you to escape the grasp of the deity that has imprisoned you.
Find the four heads of the Rotocoatl and, with a feather from each, the power of flight will be yours and freedom will be granted!"
The Team:
Simeon Acker | Design Lead, Guidebook Editor
Christian Avey | Monster Design, Sketching
Braden Beck | Box Construction / Engraving
Will McGowan | Game Mechanics / Card Design
Adrianne Munoz | Illustration / Character Art
Hugo Pereira | Producer, Board Illustration
Krishan Pradhan | Game Design
Tom Schmidt | Game Mechanics / Story Design
Design Process:
It was crunch time for our team of 8 designers, and we had four weeks to create a board game from scratch. We of course began by brainstorming the kinds of board games that interested us, then we all went out and spent a day just playing board games, and finally we brainstormed again. After a few sessions of comparing notes, where we each brought design concepts to the table, we had our top three ideas. We set out to more fully develop each one on paper to see what would work and what wouldn't. Finally, we settled on one game plan which incorporated ideas from all three of our top concepts. The team had one design strategy and one vision, and we dove into production of the final game.
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Each turn, the player may roll the dice for a chance to discover treasure and move a fixed number of spaces. On their turn each player may purchase gear, etc., from the black market, and by moving past certain mechanisms, spin one of the 9 modular rooms. Hazards abound in this long lost temple, and when a feather is plucked from the head of the Rotocoatl, the entire board shifts, causing the players to completely rethink their next move.
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The board and box were hand-crafted and painted with strong yet versatile magnetic connections that allow the rooms to rotate easily. This allowed for some very dynamic gameplay mechanics that would dramatically increase the game's interest and replayability.
The visual style of our game would revolve around aesthetics reminiscent of Aztec culture. We knew our game would take place inside a lost temple, and that the motto that was to drive our asset creation would be "Fate and Fortune." With this in mind, we created a bit of a split-complementary color scheme with purple as our base, supported by a jungle green and with golden points of interest.
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Our game's design had two driving forces behind it: treasure seeking and a desperate fight to escape. The characters, each with their own unique backstory, became trapped in this ancient Roto Temple with the only hope of escape lying with the temple's long-forgotten power. Deep in the temple are hidden the 4 heads of the ancient Rotocoatl, and with a feather from each head, the most daring adventurer would be granted their freedom.
As lead Designer, I managed our iterative production process as well as designed and wrote the official Roto Temple Adventurer's Guidebook!
