Product | Sickbot

Board games are a staple for entertainment in any household. They foster group mechanics, socialization and they’re really fun! However, they haven’t changed that much as far as I can remember. How about we add a little ✨spice?✨

IMC Toys asked us to use mind control (yes, you read that right) in a fun, innovative way, and that’s how Sickbot was born!

Timeframe

6 months

Challenge

Design a toy that uses mind control in a fun way

Let me introduce you to Atom

Atom is a tiny robot that comes from the the year 3438. It comes from Mechania, a utopia where technology and nature live together as one. This world comes to a halt when tiny creatures called Terranians start destroying robots and all their technology. Being the last of their kind, Atom risks everything by going back in time to our age searching for the extinct race of creators (humans), in hopes to finding a cure so that Mechania can be restored to its glory. What Atom doesn’t know is that humans created both robots and the Terranians. Will Atom find people that will help? or someone ready to destroy them?

How do you play?

Sickbot is played under a 3 minute timer, for a total of 6 rounds.

There’s two sides, defending the robot (wearing the mind control crown) and attacking it (tossing Terranians at it until the head is full and the creatures are launched to the air.

Atom is set at the center of the table, about 60 cm from every player, so that the throwing distance requires some dexterity.

The rules are simple, if you succeed in defending Atom by making it flail around with mind control for three minutes, you get a point. 

However if the attackers are successful in tossing 10 Terranians inside Atom’s head, they win. The attacker who tossed more Terranians inside, earns the point. If it’s a tie, the attackers who tied both get a point. 

At the end of every round, players rotate by 1 seat, so that the both get to attack and defend Atom at different times.

The one with most points wins. 

Because Atom is sick, there’s also an unpredictable mechanic, granting benefits to one side or the other, at a random time during the game. 

Atom might get No Signal from the Mind Control Crown, becoming unable to move for 15 seconds. This gives an edge to attackers, because throwing Terranians will be way easier for a small period of time.

Atom may also gather Max Power, making it move super fast and eject some Terranians out, for 15 seconds. This is great for the person defending Atom, because it makes it practically immune to attacks for a short time, while also throwing some of the Terranians out, giving you a bigger chance of surviving the round.

This keeps the game interesting, because nobody knows if or when any of these boosts will activate, and it’s up to you to take advantage of it.

Finally the Health Indicator will beat repeatedly to let players know if Atom is close to becoming fully infected.

What’s inside the box?

 The box comes with Atom, a Mind Control Crown, 10 Point markers and 25 Terranians (5 of each kind). 

The 25 Terranians are intentional difficulty changers.

In a 1v1 setting, the attacker needs to grab 2 groups of Terranians to play and toss them all inside perfectly to win. 

In a 1v2 setting, the 2 attackers grab 2 groups of Terranians each, making it much easier for them to win.

In settings with 3 or more attackers, each grabs 1 group of terranians.

This makes the game more difficult for the either the attacker or the defender, depending on the number of players and the role you are playing in a given round.