Talk:Crosswalk

As far as I can tell, file uploading has been broken since July of last year. You can try uploading your images at the "Upload file" link on the left in case it's working now.

The easiest way to learn the formatting is to check the pages for other games. Just click "edit" anywhere and you'll see how they're set up. For anything else, check the Help section. It's not the easiest to use, but you can find some formatting info there.

-brilk 14:21, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks. That looks so much prettier. I've tried uploading the photos, but no luck. I'll have to host them externally. I'm going to try to update the page during lunch. Have you tried my game? If so what do you think?

--Robb Bates 15:38, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

I played a few games of Crosswalk, but it didn't really work for me. The movement options are so limited that I had trouble setting up any good plays. The roll and move aspect particularly seemed off here, since low rolls really don't give you any options at all.

The worst thing for me was the mechanic where you can bounce a pyramid if you have no moves. It takes forever to advance a 3 pip pyramid across the board, so having it bounced back really makes the game drag. I think an option when trapped that let the player get closer to winning instead of pushing the opponent further away would be good.

I'll note that none of the games I played actually finished. They all ended up with a roadblock in the middle, trapped pyramids of each color, and repeating bounces. It's possible one side would have won eventually, but it wasn't going to be any time soon.

-brilk 18:01, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Are the directions clear enough? My wife and I playtested this game several times and finished most of them. The ones we didn't finish were only because we got interrupted by an outside source. It sounds like you may be missing one of the rules or concepts. There are usually many options available, even with a roll of one or two. You really can't "set up plays" in this game. Not a whole lot of major strategic options. It's about the same complexity as Treehouse. The two players basically shoot for their own goals, while interferring or delaying their opponent. This game wasn't meant to be a brain strainer, just a quick, light game with some simple strategic choices. Could you please re-read the rules and let me know if there is something unclear or ambiguous. They make sense to me, but of course, I know what I'm trying to say.

--Robb Bates 19:37, 2 February 2009 (UTC)

Well, I tweaked the rules a bit after some more playtesting and rewrote the rules so they were a bit clearer. I also added an example game.

--Robb Bates 21:43, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

What do I do when I've used some of my points during my turn, and THEN have no valid moves? - Cerulean 00:14, 28 May 2010 (UTC)

Best of 2009 evaluation

First, I had a rules question (posted above), and assumed the answer to be "you cannot use your action points in such a way as to prevent you from using all of them during your turn". In other words, if a move prevented you from using all of your movement points that turn, then that move is an illegal move.

At first, I was frustrated by the amount of regression and takebacks in Crosswalk. I often had to undo my own progress, or simply reverse what my opponent had just done on his previous turn. The "bounce a piece" rule was only invoked once or twice per game, since I always had the option of moving pedestrians. Sometimes my only available move was to move a 1-pip pedestrian back and forth, accomplishing nothing. Crosswalk is not a race, it is a tug of war.

But as I played Crosswalk again and again, I began to see deeper strategies. Should I drive pedestrians in front me me to hinder my opponent, or should I keep them behind me to get them out of the way? Can I get away with burying both of our pieces under a huge stack of pedestrians? Does it really buy me time to delay my opponent? I began to recognize mate situations, like when your large is on top of you opponent's large. It became less frustrating, and I ended up hearing "let's play again", and played Crosswalk seven times!

The rule that makes Crosswalk worthwhile is the restriction that you must use ALL of your movement points during your turn. Each turn becomes a puzzle... how can I most efficiently use all these points in a way that helps me and hurts him? Sometimes by most optimum play would leave me with one leftover point, and I'd have to find a different solution. It was fun trying to solve this problem each turn.

One playtester suggested a modification to the game. He proposed that two d6 are rolled, and that you may choose which roll to use. This reduced the amount of take-back turns, and shortened the game time by eliminating many of those useless unproductive rolls. I recommend this change.

Crosswalk deserves more attention. It doesn't improve upon the race game formula of Martian Backgammon or Martian Coasters, but has simpler rules and uses less equipment, and introduces a puzzle-solving aspect reminiscent of Volcano. Finalist worthy! - Cerulean 16:31, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

Semi-finalist review comments

Hackel: At first it felt flat and frustrating, but it grew on me and I ended up playing it six times in a row! I really like the puzzle aspect of using all your movement points each turn. While it fails to improve upon other roll-and-move games like Martian Backgammon and Martian Coasters, Crosswalk is short, simple, and uses less equipment. I expect to play more of this, but I can understand Crosswalk not making to finals.

Stout: I like this a lot. A quick 2-player game that is nicely strategic, given its die rolls.

Bentley: As I've been thinking about Crosswalk, I've come to like it even more. The choices you make in setting up the board for your opponent's turn involve calculated risk, the die rolling keeps things interesting, the rules are simple and fast, and the only con about it is how deceptively simplistic the game appears to be. I've come to believe that this is Backgammon reborn, and even though the endgame can come down to who rolls better, there's a lot of elegance in this simple design. Moreover, it exudes an indefinable quality of fun that isn't immediately apparent on reading the rules. I'd definitely play it again, and again, and again....