Twice a month, Georgia and Miriam give themselves one hour to devise an original game concept based on a prompt. Below is an overview of our fridge management light strategy game, On the Turn.
THE ELEVATOR PITCH
On the Turn is a 2-4 player light strategy game about stocking, managing and cooking from a shared fridge. Players are cooks in a shared house, trying to make the tastiest recipes, keep their food fresh and prevent their own ingredients from entering the trash. They must manage the shared resources in both time and space to maximise their score.
THE LOOK
This game has a detailed but semi-cartoon illustration style, items have clear ink lines but rich depth of colour and a “3D” look.
The components include:
- The Fridge: a board depicting the interior of a fridge, separated into a grid with 7 separate shelves (rows) and 5 “spaces” (columns) on each shelf. Spaces are square. There are 3 “fresh” shelves in the top half, an “on the turn” shelf in the centre, and 3 “off” shelves in the bottom half. Underneath the fridge shelves is a square “rubbish bin” with 25 (5×5) spaces.
- The Ingredients: in 4 different player colours, a full set of 18 different Ingredient tiles. These are polyominos consisting of 1 – 3 squares the same size as a “space” in the fridge. Each Ingredient has an illustration (a jar of mustard, a block of cheese, a steak, a piece of broccoli) and is double-sided, with a “fresh” side and an “off” side. Most ingredients have an “off penalty” – a negative number of points indicated on its off side (e.g. -3)
- 4 Shopping Trolley tokens in the 4 different player colours.
- The Recipes: A set of 32 large recipe cards. A recipe card has the name of a recipe, socketed spaces for 2 – 5 Ingredient tiles, and a total score.
- A Wok token.
THE AIM
Players are adding and taking Ingredients from the fridge on their turn in an attempt to complete Recipes and score points. The fresher their Ingredients, the better their Recipes will score. Over time, Ingredients move down the shelves, losing their freshness. At the end of the game, negative points are given for any Ingredients that landed in the rubbish bin.
SET UP
Place the Fridge board in the centre of the table. Each player takes all Ingredients of their colour and randomly arranges them in one long row above the board, creating the Shop (in a 4-player game, there are 4 rows in the Shop). Each player places their Shopping Trolley at the beginning of their Shop row. The Wok token is given to the start player.
Beginning with the start player, players then take turns adding one Ingredient (the first in their Shop row) to the Fridge, placing it in the highest available space moving left to right. When the top 2 shelves are full, the “round” is completed to ensure there are equal Ingredients of each colour in the Fridge.
Finally, the Recipe cards are shuffled and three are dealt to each player. The rest are placed in a face-up “deck” and a selection of 3 cards is placed in a row alongside the deck.
TURNS
Beginning with the start player (who has the Wok token) and passing clockwise, on their turn a player does the following:
Visit the Shop: Choose 1 Ingredient from the 3 immediately in front of your Shopping Trolley. Add this to the Fridge in the highest available space, moving left to right. Your Shopping Trolley moves to the space of the Ingredient you removed.
Begin a Recipe: Choose 1 of your Recipe cards and take all the available Ingredients needed for it from the Fridge. If there are multiple of the same Ingredient, you may choose which to take. If you take an Ingredient from the central “on the turn” shelf (shelf 4 – an ingredient counts as being on this shelf if any of its squares are), flip it like a coin – whichever side lands upmost is the one you must place in your Recipe card.
Complete a Recipe (if possible): If you now have a Recipe card with all sockets filled, place that Recipe to one side (to be scored later) and choose a new card from the Recipe selection. Refresh the Recipe selection from the “deck”.
At the end of a round (when the player to the right of the start player finishes their turn), two things happen.
- The Wok token is passed clockwise, indicating a new start player.
- Every ingredient in the Fridge is moved one space downwards. If an Ingredient moves fully off the central shelf and into the first “off” shelf (shelf 5), flip it to its “off” side but keep it in the same orientation. If an Ingredient moves fully off the bottom shelf (shelf 7) into the rubbish bin, it falls as far directly down as it can go.
SUMMARY
Rounds continue as described above. When an Ingredient would fall into the rubbish bin but there is no more space, the round is concluded and scoring takes place.
Each Recipe card scores according to the points printed on it, minus any penalties printed on Ingredient tiles which are showing their “off” side.
Finally, each player loses 3 points for every space in the rubbish bin which contains an ingredient of their colour.
WHAT’S UNIQUE ABOUT THIS GAME?
This is a tile game with a dynamic board state and an elegantly tied-in, relatable theme. It simulates the struggle of managing your fridge and living in a shared house where ingredients can go astray. The mechanics are simple, turns are straightforward and the whole game carries a subtle anti-food waste message.
Big Crow Games 