Executive Summary:
Bored Meeting is a multi-player strategy game where deceptively simple game play quickly leads to fun and interesting situations that will keep you and a group of friends entertained for hours. Bored Meeting is available for the Xbox 360 as a free trial and a full edition on Xbox Live Community Games.
Trial Edition: The Bored Meeting trial edition lets you and a friend take Bored Meeting for a spin on one of the many customizable scenarios available in the full edition.
Full Edition: Got some friends over? The full Bored Meeting lets up to four players compete in a nearly unlimited number of fun scenarios. Combining an intelligent level generator and tons of options, players can customize Bored Meeting for fast paced party games, cerebral real-time strategy games, and everything in between.
Bored Meeting turns whiteboards into warzones: "Bored Meeting, a downloadable party game for Xbox 360, is probably the most fun you'll ever have in a conference chamber (albeit a virtual one)..." (Edwin, flytrapgames, link).
Bored Meeting to update with online multiplayer: "...Already proving popular in offline multiplayer bouts as players everywhere discover that their friends make even better stationary thieves and passive-aggressive note leavers than they could ever have expected, Bored Meeting's [random map] feature ensures online play should stay firmly based in reaction-tactics rather than memorization of certain levels. Priced at a measly 400 80 Microsoft Points and also available as a free trial, maybe you just have time to check out Bored Meeting before those sneaks in the other departments get a head start on the leader board!" (Brenna Hillier, games.on.net, link).
Get bored with Bored Meeting: "...[Bored Meeting] offers strategic gameplay that is far from boring." (Robet Cram, msxbox-world, link).
Bored Meeting Takes Center Stage On Xbox Live: "...[Bored Meeting is] interesting, in that it mixes together real-time strategy, party-game flare and a little bit of simulation... While players manage their time on the white board, the game simulates the varying changes in the market they're fighting to control, which can add a good sense of challenge and urgency to the gameplay." (William Usher, Blend Games, link).
Boring Meeting? Try Bored Meeting! "A smart group of geeks (Bumble.bz) has brewed one of the most innovative and funny [Xbox Community Games] ever: Bored Meeting." (angry yuppie, yuppiegamers, link).
Gameplay Playlist:
Goal: The goal of each meeting (that takes place on a white board, of course!) is simple: raise as much money as possible. However, with limited resources available, the ability to re-route funds from other players' supply chains, and the option to go on offense with budget cuts, this simple goal becomes immensely entertaining!
Game Objects:
Markers: Players use their markers to draw arrows.
Arrows: Players draw arrows to guide funds and budget cuts.
Money Bags: Funds and budget cuts come from money bags.
Funds: Funds are the resources players compete for.
Budget Cuts: Budget cuts are the resources to avoid.
Goals: When funds and budget cuts reach a player's goal, that player's funds increase and decrease, respectively.
Barriers: When funds and budget cuts run into a barrier, they turn right.
Bees: Players can use bees to break down barriers (by generating market buzz), though angry bees can change a goal's ownership (during market meltdown).
Techniques:
Directing Funds: Simply draw an arrow in a fund’s path to make it turn in the arrow's direction. Because the arrows you draw are ink, arrows are eventually wiped away by funds.
Directing Budget Cuts: Budget cuts are directed with arrows just like funds. However, because budget cuts are represented by erasers, much more of the arrow is wiped away. Players can protect their base from budget cuts by leading erasers away from their goals, and can go on offense by directing erasers into other players' goals.
Insurance: If someone is sending budget cuts towards your goal and your marker is far away, consider using insurance: it costs half of what an eraser would take away (as a budget cut), and buys you time to reach your goal to protect it.
Generating Market Buzz: Players can form a path for funds through barriers by generating market buzz. Simply draw an arrow next to- and pointing at- a barrier, and when enough funds travel over the arrow, a swarm of bees will knock into the barrier and wipe it away.
Market Climate: Overview: Bored meeting simulates market climate by changing the rate that funds are added to money bags over time, and players can sense the market climate through Bored Meeting's music tempo. As each game progresses, the market climate will trend upwards (increase the amount of money added to money bags), and periodic booms, crashes, and meltdowns add volatility.
Boom: During a market boom, funding from each money bag is greatly increased.
Crash: During a market crash, budget cuts appear from each money bag.
Meltdown: During market meltdown, all the rules you knew as a project manager are thrown out the window. To simulate this, Bored Meeting sends an angry swarm of bees to the white board, where they knock down barriers and change whose goal is whose. As a customizable timer, market meltdown provides a certain spice that keeps the end of each meeting exciting, and prevents meetings from lasting too long.
Scenario: Oil Well
General Options:
Meeting Scenario: Selects what white board layout to play on, from two forms of random levels (Symmetric for level playing fields, and Chaos for truly random levels) to pre-build custom levels, including Oil Well, where players must dig through barriers to reach funds.
Funding Goals: The amount of funds that will signal a win.
Floating Funds: The maximum number of funds added to the white board at a given time; smaller numbers create more intense competition.
Distribution Channels: The number of arrows (which simulate distribution channels) each player can have on the white board at a given time.
Channel Reduction: Determines what erases arrows (i.e. funds, budget cuts).
Market Boom Probability: The market simulator's percent chance of market boom.
Market Crash Probability: The market simulator's percent chance of market crash.
Budget Cuts: The percentage of player funds removed as losses when a budget cut hits their goal.
Budget Cut Period: How long budget cuts travel the white board before disappearing.
Disaster Insurance: Whether or not insurance is available to players.
Market Buzz: Whether or not players can generate market buzz to break down barriers.
Market Meltdown Timer: How long the meeting lasts before market meltdown.
Smallest and Biggest Sizes
Options Specific to Random Levels:
Board Size: Applicable to randomly generated levels, smaller board sizes provide fast action, while larger sizes provide more strategic play.
Barriers to Funding: Provides guidelines to the level generator for the number of barriers to add to the white board. The level generator will always ensure that a path exists from each money bag to each goal.
Accounts: The number of money bags added to the white board.
Loading and Saving Options: Options are associated with each profile, so each player can have their own favorite sets of options.
Fetch Agenda: Loads options from a hard drive or memory unit.
File Agenda: Saves options to a hard drive or memory unit.
Funding Bar Graph: During each meeting, each player's funds are displayed in the bar graph on the left of the screen.
Statistics: At the end of each meeting, statistics of what occurred during the meeting are displayed on the right.
Revenue: The number of funds that reached each player's goal.
Losses: The number of funds lost by each player due to budget cuts or using insurance.
Attacks: Each player's offensive rating, or the number of funds each player made rival players lose by directing budget cuts into their goals.
Diversions: The number of funds each player directed with their arrows.
Market Buzz: The amount of market buzz each player generated.
Feedback: If you have comments, suggestions, bugs, or requests for future updates, please contact us, or post in our community! (coming soon)
