Farmotage

by Zachary Walker-Liang, Jordan Stewart, and Aminah Statham-Adams

Introduction

Farmotage is a strategy game based on farming, and suitable for all ages. Play time and setup time are quick making the game an enjoyable experience. You win by collecting as much money as you can and comparing it to your opponents at the end of the game.

Estimated setup time - 15 minutes

Estimated play time - 15 minutes

Players Per Game - 2,3, or 4

Number of materials

Each player will one game board and there own arduino set-up

Each player will also need to print out a full deck of their own cards.

How to play

1. Goal of the game

   1. This is a farming game where the goal is to plant crops and gain money from harvesting the crops. Each type of crop has a different value as well as a different amount of days (rounds) that it takes to finish growing, and after the required amount of rounds have passed, a crop may be harvested and the player adds the value of the crop to their total amount of money. The player who has the most money at the end of the game is the winner. This game mainly utilizes card gameplay and a little bit of chance.

2. The cards

   1. Our first crop is the parsnip. This crop takes 1 day to grow, and will earn you 10 dollars at harvest.

   2. Our second crop is the potato. This crop takes 2 days to grow and will earn you 30 dollars at harvest.

   3. Our third crop is the cauliflower. This crop takes 4 days to grow and will earn you 60 dollars at harvest.

   4. There are also several different types of sabotage cards:

a. Normal Sabotage cards (user chooses a column to sabotage, enemy has to destroy the crop in that column)

-The different types of normal sabotage cards are the Weeds card, the Overfertilization card, the Drought card, and the Deer card. These all have the same effect and are simply distinguished for added interest.

b. Special Sabotage card called a “flood” card (user has a ⅙ chance to destroy all their opponent's crops)

3. Gameplay

   1. The game will last 20 “days” (rounds). Each game is 20 days but you can play as many games as you want and pool the money at the end.

   2. At the start of the game, each player draws 5 cards to fill up their hand.

   3. At the beginning of each round, each player draws a new card from their deck. After this, each player can decide to either plant 1 crop with a crop card into the spot of their choice, or attempt to sabotage an opponent of their choosing with a sabotage card (make sure to discard every card into the discard pile after it is played). After making your move, it is your opponent's turn. Players can decide who goes first and what order you will play in. If a player runs out of cards to draw, shuffle the discard pile and use the cards again.

   4. Planting crops: to plant a crop, simply write the name of the crop in the box of your choosing on the game board to act as a placeholder. After the next round starts (ie, 24 "hours" have passed), the planted crop, as well as all other crops on the player's board, has grown for one day, and the player may write one tally mark next to each crop on their board. Once the needed number of tally marks has been reached for a given crop, you may harvest this crop and add money to your stash from your Arduino. Note that one one crop can be put in each individual space and you can re-use a space after you have a taken a crop from it.

   5. Sabotaging: when you sabotage, you have the power to try to destroy the enemy’s crops. When you use your turn to sabotage, you can choose a column on your enemy’s board to target much like the game battleship. Each column is labeled 1,2,3, or 4. If you hit a column that your opponent has a crop in, every crop in that column will be destroyed. Note that you can only choose columns and not rows.

a. Flood cards: flood cards are special. In order to use one of these sabotage cards you must roll a die (use the red button on the breadboard to initiate dice roll). If you land on a 6 then you wipe out your opponent's entire game board.

3. 6. Getting money

      1. On each card it says how many days (rounds) it takes in order for them to finish growing. After that amount of days has passed you can harvest that crop and increment your money by that crop’s value on the LCD display (use the green button on the breadboard to increment your money). You can harvest the crop at any point before the game ends as long as it has finished growing for the required amount of days it says on the card.

      2. Betting: at the beginning of the game you need to bet on what your opponent’s most abundant crop will be. If you are playing with more than two players, you may choose the opponent you will place your bet on. If you guess what it is correctly, after checking at the end of the game, you will get $150.

How to set up the game

1. Autocad

   1. Use the provided pdf to print the playing cards. Each player should have 8 of each type of crop card, 8 of the regular sabotage cards(weed cards), and 2 of the flood cards (dice roll cards) for their deck. Tape paper to pieces of cut cardboard to make a backing for your card. If you wish to save time putting the cards on cardboard isn't necessary.

   2. For the gameboard each player should print out the provided pdf

2. Arduino/Sparkfun

   1. Each player will need their own Arduino, as it will allow each player to count their money.

   2. Set up your breadboard and Arduino using the provided wiring diagram

   3. Download our Farmatage Arduino Code, and upload it to the Arduino.

Wiring Diagram

Arduino Code

Cards PDF to Print