TianJi's Horse Racing - The Card Game
For our initial prototype, we got the idea from a famous Chinese idiom called “ Tian Ji’sHorse Racing (田忌赛马)”.The story goes like this: General Tian Ji and the king of the Qi Kingdom both like horseracing, and often make bets. Of course, the king of Qi has better horses, so Tian Ji loses all thetime. The rule of the race is that there are three rounds, and the winner is the one who wins atleast two rounds. The reason that the king of Qi is winning is that he has a slightly superior horsein all three levels. Sun Bin then brings up an idea: he uses Tian Ji’s “good” horse for racing theking’s “best” horse, then uses the “best” horse against the king’s “better” one, and the “better”horse against the “good” one. As a result, Tian Ji loses the first round, but wins the second andthird round (because his “best” and “better” horse can still beat the king’s “better” and “good”ones respectively), and eventually wins the race.For our game, it is a two-player competitive board game in which players compete witheach other to win the horse racing. Players not only have to think about their opponent’s actions,but also need to consider the actions from “king of Qi”, a simplified board game NPC. Inaddition to that, in each round, each player has a chance to “delude”: the player can claim thathis/her horse is better than his opponent’s horse or king’s horse. The other player and the kingcan question his/her claim. If the claim is false (the player’s horse is worse than others), theplayer will be punished. However, if the claim is true, the player will be rewarded. At the end ofeach round, the players’ scores will be calculated and the player with the highest score wins theround. By developing the original horse racing story and introducing the delusion mechanic, wewant our players to accept the temporary failure and expect the uncertainty of the game.