The Royal Game of Ur

Introduction:

This is the second time I'm taking part in a Game Jam. This time the GMTK Game Jam 2022 with the theme "Roll of the Dice". In just 48 hours I had to develop a whole game on this theme. I couldn't think of a good idea, but I recently saw a video from the British Museum about one of the oldest board games called "The Royal Game of Ur", so I tried to turn this board game into a video game.

I've only implemented a two-player mode, so grab your best friend, a family member or a random guy on the street and play a round!

If you have any comments, criticisms or suggestions for improvement, let me know!

How To Play:

Accoding to Wikipedia:

"The object of the game is for a player to move all seven of their pieces along the course (two proposed versions of which are shown at right) and off the board before their opponent. On all surviving gameboards, the two sides of the board are always identical with each other, indicating that the two sides of the board belong to each player. When a piece is on one of the player's own squares, it is safe from capture. 

When it is on one of the eight squares in the middle of the board, the opponent's pieces may capture it by landing on the same space, sending the piece back off the board so that it must restart the course from the beginning. This means there are six "safe" squares and eight "combat" squares. 

There can never be more than one piece on a single square at any given time, so having too many pieces on the board at once can impede a player's mobility. When a player rolls a number using the dice, they may choose to move any of their pieces on the board or add a new piece to the board if they still have pieces that have not entered the game.

 A player is not required to capture a piece every time they have the opportunity. Nonetheless, players are required to move a piece whenever possible, even if it results in an unfavorable outcome. All surviving gameboards have a colored rosette in the middle of the center row. 

According to Finkel's reconstruction, if a piece is located on the space with the rosette, it is safe from capture. Finkel also states that when a piece lands on any of the three rosettes, the player gets an extra roll. In order to remove a piece from the board, a player must roll exactly the number of spaces remaining until the end of the course plus one. If the player rolls a number any higher or lower than this number, they may not remove the piece from the board."

TL;DR: Bring your pieces to the end of the board to win. You can kick your opponent's pieces off the board if possible (not necessary). Squares with a rosette grant you another die roll and keep your piece from being captured. The game will show you all possible moves.

Hints:

• you can roll a zero
• capturing opponent's pieces is not necessary
• it's a race game

Known Bugs:

• Some sounds do not load properly
• When you finished the move, there is some waiting time, if click fast enough in this time frame you can move several figures in one turn which is definitively not intended

Planned Improvements:

• Make the font and icons fit the game (they are too modern)
• Add more sounds and background music
• Add singleplayer mode (human vs computer)
• Add multiplayer mode (human vs human (online))
• Create own assets
• Add a different direction as alternative (see Wikipedia)

Info:

I'm working on a update to make this game fit my other games in terms of style. Stay tuned!

Credits:

• Bar Table by Nick Slough CC-BY via Poly Pizza
• Sounds by MixKit
• Font and Icons by Kenney
• Everything else is made by me