The Mine Shaft Gap

6 Districts:
To help tackle the enormous challenge of street addressing in 3rd world countries, the World Bank Institute, as part of a much larger initiative, recently announced a competition for game design submissions themed around this problem. The intention is to use the winning submission as an educational tool for public servants involved in or impacted by activities related to street addressing. The winner’s prize is modest but serious: a trip to Washington and a US$6000 consultancy fee to help finalise pre-production aspects of the game.
I was pleased to learn that Richard and Alex were teaming up to have a crack at this, although the time left available to refine the submission was not a luxury. They released v1.1 of the rules to Pat and me during the week, with the view to ”blind playtesting” on Sunday night, ie., to having one of us read and explain the rules to the players while they observed, to help debug the written rules. And apart from a few minor points, this passed the test well.
The game comprises cards that when laid together form a city street map of 6 different coloured districts (one per player), with criss-crossing streets that may change name as they pass through districts.
Game play is divided into two phases. In the first phase players build their map and earn points as they try to provide “services” throughout the city. In the second phase players jump through map locations Ricochet Robot-style, demonstrating the benefits of a formally addressed city plan.
Phase 2 played quite well, and this aspect alone should help nudge the game into the finalists list of the design competition. The playing of Phase 1 revealed a few problems, although Al and Richard have already implemented a major overhaul to this.
The remaining time is short to add the final polishing touches, but in their favour is the strength of the current phase 2 play, and Alex’s cards themselves - a very elegant prototype. We look forward to the next playtest, and the finalists announcements in about 8 weeks’ time.