Over the latter part of this year, I’ve been tormented by the game bug. Back when I started NUPUGA I figured this would be a good avenue for my creativity and a chance to provide my son with entertainment when he gets older. My plan was to create games for kids and adults alike.

Fast forward to now, I’ve just been on board game forums, game dev sites, looking up game engines and reviewing a load of games in the commercial and hobby markets. Hell, I’ve even been reading books on Game Inventing and the industry.

I jot all my ideas down, see if they are viable, see if the mechanics/rules apply to any other recognized market game and THEN choose whether or not to pursue it’s purpose. Some have come and gone, others are GIPs (Games in Progress), but this little tid bit of a game came to me at work today and over the course of 3hrs, I banged out the mechanics and finalized the purpose. The game is called Storm the Gate.

Storm the Gate is a grid game that is played on a 4×4 grid. Each player has 3 coloured pieces (called soldiers), and moves are made by moving each piece from 1 intersection to another. On opposite ends of the board is 1 hollow intersect which is termed the GATE. The idea of the game is to get any one of your soldiers to that gate. I guess this game really is a capture the flag game. It only takes one opposing soldier to storm the gate. Beginners will surely see that it resembles checkers and chess in a way, so almost everyone will get the hang of it right off the bat.

The rules are simple.
– you can only move one intersect at a time
– you can only move forward or sideways, not back
– you cannot move the same soldier back from where it was on the following turn
– you overtake an opponents piece by landing in their space (like chess) and that opponent is then sent back to its home behind their gate
– If the gate is not occupied, a player can use 1 turn and respawn a downed soldier to their gate. The soldier restored to the home gate cannot overtake an opponent sitting on the gate.

The full set of rules, along with a printable version of the game board and game play strategies are available for download below. Game pieces can be anything. Coins, shells, caps, candy pieces even. And if you happen to have an checker or chess board you two can use it’s grid to play the game. It’s easy to learn, fast to play and fun with a little strategy.