Designing games around a playmat and a single component: Six Sided Seas

A few years ago, I visited Thailand for the CMON Asia Expo. My friend at Wise Box games gave me a wonderful tour of Thailand game shops. I saw a shop worker laminating a game board in order to protect the longevity of their public copy. I thought “What if the board was a playmat?” making it more appropriate for social settings where drinks are frequently present. When I returned home I issued an internal design challenge to my community. What does a game that is a playmat and single component look like? We explored a ton of really interesting designs and even did a limited release for one of them but none captured me like Six-Sided Seas by Kroze.

Kroze came up to me at PAX Unplugged with a crumpled piece of paper and asked me to play his game. I declined. Later, my peers were insisting I try out his game and I was very happy I did. Kroze managed to nail the design parameters and build an extremely exciting replayable game. — Chris Solis

What gave you the idea for the Six-Sided seas game play?

We had pirate characters we featured in Pocket Paragons and I wanted to give them a home. Pirates love games of strategy and chance, so I immediately thought of how Blackjack is such a great base to use for another kind of game…and then what if it only used dice? Three days later, I had a rough idea of the game and started running it with people who found it quick and addictive.

How did you come up with the name Six-Sided Seas?

At dinner with Brieger Creative at PAX Unplugged, we were talking about how difficult it is to name a game. I wanted to make Ming ( Re;MATCH) and Breeze (AEGIS: Combining Robots) angry with how naturally it comes to me. The game started with the name. I bought the domain Sixsideseas.com that now actually! Yaaaarrr!!!

When did you first see this idea begin to stick?

After 2 playtests of the first version, it began to stick. It played so fast, and the press-your-luck mechanics were highly addictive. The whole “one more roll” to gain more resources brought a lot of fun to the game as a whole.

Why d6s versus any other component?

Pirates love their dice games and d6 are so commonplace. The initial concept implied the components would need to be something most gamers would have at their home, and I wanted to ensure that. Six-Sided Seas does come with dice now but when I was designing it, I was concerned that would not be the case! Also, d6 can represent several components easily. It is used to track different things like HP, Workers, etc., and people do not get confused.

Is this game better or worse for being a playmat only game?

The game being completely contained on the playmat makes it so easy to store and carry around, while also just feels good quality-wise that it can only be seen as a plus. It makes a unique statement out there compared to games played on boards. Also, it is less intimidating to casual gamers since there is only one component. I was surprised to see my non-gamer friends wanting to play Six-Sided Seas.

Tell me something interesting about your journey designing the game.

So Chris doesn’t know this yet but secretly I’ve taken a treasure of his and buried it somewhere… The game is an actual treasure map and the one who decodes it can dig up and find the secret stolen Solis treasure hidden somewhere in the world! Wait, what do you mean Chris has to proofread this before it goes out?!?! Oh well, I doubt he’ll read this too closely… amirite?!?