Evan Fankhauser
Initial Design Ideas:
I designed a bagatelle inspired by the Gilded Age of the USA (around 1865-1902). It was a time period where a lot of wealth was consolidated in a few corporate monopolies in key industries such as oil, railroads, banking and steel. Due to these monopolies, leading to a few recessions and market crashes. From there, I designed a game where the player tries to accumulate as many points as they can without causing a market crash of their own. I felt that this theme and gameplay loop fit the gambling roots of bagatelle boards in America.
As for the playboard, I thought that a giant dollar sign made out of pins would be an effective and thematic centerpiece. My original idea was to have more dollar signs to redirect the ball, but they ended up taking up too much space. I placed the primary “Market Crash” section at the bottom of the machine, where the ball falls out of play. I added two more “Market Crash” catchers down the sides and angled them so the ball had a decent chance to roll out, helping to drive suspense and engagement. As for scoring sections, I placed six towards the bottom of the playfield, two up top, and two with the highest point values inside the main dollar sign. The highest point sections were quite literally “in the money”. For the scoring section on the top and bottom, I assigned points based on where the ball tended to land most often during my initial testing.
Changes and Iterations:
In the end, the general shape of the playboard stayed the same. Some of the pins were adjusted slightly to ensure that the balls could not get stuck anywhere that did not score points or cause a “Market Crash”. The walls in the back corner were changed from straight to curved to direct the ball more subtly. A small curved wall was added at the end of the ball launching track to help guide the ball towards the center of the playboard. The rules were updated slightly to tell players to remove balls once they landed in a scoring section. Otherwise the balls prevented other balls from being scored.
Playtest Feedback:
Overall, players seemed to like the game. They reported that the theme was well executed and most remarked that they liked the giant dollar sign in the center. There are still a few spots where the balls can get stuck, and I also noticed that the green marble is a little larger than the other two, so I may need to check each space with that one. A few players lamented that it was too easy to hit “Market Crash” and that they wanted to be able to play a bit more and get more points before losing. One player suggested adding more decoration, which I agree with. Despite all the critique, I think The Gilded Age bagatelle was a success, considering the materials and time I had to work with.