by Sam and Max
Many solo (and, by extension coop) games are just timers, anyway. The earliest solo rules were the lame "beat your high score", although a timer can be created exactly that way. Play the game a few times until you reach an efficient number of turns or points, then set the timer to end the game at that many turns and require a certain amount of points. The tricky (and interesting) part of design are how you push back the timer through, say, sacrificing VP's or resources that could be used elsewhere, as well as how creatively you implement the timer. (Zombie and other coop combat games replace an explicit timer with increasing odds and limited resources. Forbidden Island's timer is the sinking island.) So, for Fireball Island, the timer would be how soon until the island erupts. Perhaps within that timer, you'd need to accomplish certain objectives.↧