watch as we bring skunk’d to life!
The SKUNK’D Scoop
Issue 4
building SKUNK’D
**OUR FIRST RUN OF 500 GAMES**
…day by day the boxes of stuff are starting to pile up!
And any day now, we’ll have a box with thousands and thousands of SKUNK’D dice featuring our fearless mascot landing on our door step!!
The making of a game is an interesting challenge! Sure, we’re manufacturing dice, cards, pouches, boxes, etc. But we’re also working on things that might not necessarily jump to mind. We’re working with the U.S. Patent office on trademarking and copyrighting our ideas. There are legal and regulatory considerations, such as, we recently obtained the symbol we will use in labeling our game as a potential choking hazard for 0- 3 year olds. Gotta do it or you’re risking being out of business before you start!
We’ve finalized the “ratings” for our game by taking input from people in the game business and performing our own in-house analyses, like what Simon did, below. The game will be rated for:
Ages 8 and above
Playing time of 10- 25 minutes
Number of players 1- 99
But, Skunk Squad?
What about the kids??
under 8???
Introducing SKUNK’D Junior**! Yup, we’ve already completed the conceptual design and copyrighted it! We are NOT releasing a single detail yet but, PARENTS — YOU ARE GOING TO BE EXCITED!
**working title
SNEAK PEEKS
Exclusively for our backers and followers… SNEAK PEEKS!
skunkd.games website
WE HEARD YOU! Some of you haven’t had the chance to order your game yet — maybe you want to grab one of the remaining Limited FOUNDER’S EDITION games — now you can right on our website! If you are dying to don your own Super Stinker Headgear, or scoop up some of our other fun add-ons, sniff no more.
We are exploring your ideas of dice boxes and rolling cups, plus, we have not given up on our hope to make a skunk plushie available! In the mean time feel free to explore the funky SKUNK JUNK options we do have available in our merch store. Use code SKUNK20 for 20% off your orders for the rest of this year; a thank you to celebrate the exciting journey we’ve all started together!
this is huge…
THE SKUNK’D CHALLENGE
Have a favorite game (besides SKUNK’D of course)? Submit it to the SKUNK’D Challenge! We are planning to have YouTube video face-offs between SKUNK’D and all contenders to determine which game is the WORLD’S BEST based upon a variety of criteria. For example: Which game smells the best? Which game can survive a blow torch? We already have plans to have face-offs between SKUNK’D and Monopoly, SKUNK’D and Scrabble plus SKUNK’D against the world’s most popular dice games likes Yahtzee and Farkle!
SIMON SAYS…
How Long Does it Take to Play a Game of SKUNK’D?
Simon Armstrong, our VP of Science & Mathematics, delves into the Strategy and Probabilities behind the stink-tilating game of SKUNK’D
Reader's Question: Simon, how long does it take to play a game of SKUNK'D?
Simon Says: Thanks for your question! It's Simon Armstrong here with another deep dive into the exciting world of SKUNK'D probabilities and stats. Today, we're going to explore some fascinating trends and findings from our analysis of data from recent gameplay here at Hooked on Johnson Games.
2-Player Games: Let's start with 2-player games played to 10,000 points. On average, these games took about 9 turns and lasted 10 minutes. The shortest game wrapped up in just 4 minutes, while the longest stretched out to 18 minutes. Interestingly, the number of turns to finish a game varied quite a bit, ranging from as few as 2 turns to as many as 16.
With a target score of 20,000 points (which at HOJ Games is whenever we include rules completely devoid of reason like Extreme and Pungent), the average number of turns remained at 9, but the game time extended to about 14 minutes. This makes sense because players need to score more points, which naturally takes more time, but the high-scoring chaos does not double the time it takes to play!
3-Player Games: The average game took 7 turns and about 13 minutes to complete. This shows that adding a third player slightly reduces the number of turns each player gets before someone reaches the target score. The overall game time increases, but not as much as you might expect, given that more players are involved. This suggests that each player's turn duration remains consistent so as the number of players increases, the number of rounds is likely to be fewer than 5 minutes per player.
Solo Play: The average game took 15 turns, meaning the player typically scores 9 times before "skunking" 6 times. The average game time was 9 minutes, with players posting a score 60% of the time. The average score in solo play was 14,600 points, with scores ranging from a low of 2,750 to a high of 32,000. This wide range highlights the variability in solo gameplay, where strategy plays as significant role as luck.
Trends and Conclusions
1. **Consistency in Turn Duration**: One of the key findings is that the time it takes for a player to complete a turn remains consistent at about 35 seconds, regardless of the number of players or game rules. This consistency helps us predict game durations more accurately.
2. **Impact of Player Count on Game Duration**: As the number of players increases, the number of turns needed to reach the target score decreases. However, the overall game time increases, albeit not proportionally. For example, 3-player games take longer than 2-player games but involve fewer turns per player on average.
3. **Variability in Solo Play**: Solo play shows significant variability in scores and game duration. Players score 60% of the time, and the average score can vary widely, suggesting that solo gameplay is both challenging and unpredictable, influenced by both skill and chance.
4. **Games with Higher Point Targets**: When playing to higher point targets like 20,000 points, games naturally take more turns and time. However, when using additional fun and exciting rules like Extreme and Pungent, the pace of play quickens, too!
5. **Efficiency in Multi-Player Games**: As you add more players to a game of SKUNK’D, games are relatively efficient in terms of turns taken. This suggests that the dynamics of having additional players naturally quickens the pace of play, and suggests that the number of opponents be factored into your game strategy.
Final Thoughts: Whether you're playing a quick 2-player game to 10,000 points or diving into an intense 16-player match in teams of two, knowing these statistics and understanding these trends can give you an edge and make the game even more enjoyable. May you soon be rolling those SKUNK’D dice, and may the skunks be ever in your favor!
“Simon Says” is a regular feature in The SKUNK’D Scoop and @skunkdice
