The pain tolerance part reminds me of the simple game where two players slap each others' hand in turn; the turn switches when the receiver manages to dodge a slap, but gets punished with a free slap if they twitch on a fake attack. More specifically the version with knuckle hits instead of slaps, which was somewhat common on bus rides between kids.
Not sure it's a great game mechanic, it usually stopped more out of “well enough of this”/“the teacher will notice that amount of blood” than out of winning or any feeling of success. At best you get a feeling of camaradery and very dulling pain.
Can't find videos, only of something called bloody knuckles which doesn't seem to be the same thing—anyway I don't recommend reproducing this game unless you're like a 12 year old child trying to fit in at the back of the bus.
Also interesting from the perspective of game classifications is the one from Roger Caillois from 1958's "Les Jeux et les Hommes" into Agon (competition), Alea(chance), Mimicry(simulation), Ilinx(vertigo), as well as ludos(game(ing)) and paida(toy(ing)). Of course there are others, but i think it's inspiring to think about what can be a game or is part of "playing". For example i think it's funny how many people say the are not playing while they do gardening/skiing or dancing in their free time.
To understand games it's also important to think about who knows what (and what's a secret). Some knowledge of the game state is only available to one player (for example to the player hiding the stones in op example). Other gamestate knowledge is available to all. Some knowledge is not given to anybody, but fixed nevertheless (hidden cards in a stack). > The Art of Game Design - A Book of Lenses - Jesse Schell: p168 . I mention this because it's equally random to throwing a dice for the girl who chooses the hand with the more stones. While it's not random from the perspective of the ones hiding the stones.
I'll add Illusion[1] to the list of games I've played which use perception. Players order cards by how much area they have of a particular color. However, the designs on the cards make this anything but easy. It's a fun game as it gets increasingly challenging to perceive increasingly subtle differences between cards.
Yeah, that game is brilliant. Super easy to get to the table, and I haven't found anyone yet that hasn't been fascinated by it, especially as they could have sworn that this card has less blue in it than this other card, but instead it had 3% more !
Knizia must have at least a dozen games with different auction mechanics.
Also, if you’re looking for a pain-based game, see Shocking Roulette. Each player puts a finger on an electrode, the start button is pressed, and after some flashing lights one player gets an electric shock. The game can sense if one player tries to cheat by taking their finger off the electrode!
- perception stuff - timing/weighing olympics and alternative game mechanisms
- lots of poker variants
- previously on HN - Questions to ask a god-level GO player https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22072193
There are many games involving short term memory. The most obvious is "Memory", where you have to flip pairs of cards on a board.
It is also a common theme in drinking games. For example, one where one player has to do a sign, then another player has to repeat it and add his own, the next one repeats both and adds a third, and so on until someone gets it wrong, and drinks.
Not sure it's a great game mechanic, it usually stopped more out of “well enough of this”/“the teacher will notice that amount of blood” than out of winning or any feeling of success. At best you get a feeling of camaradery and very dulling pain.
Can't find videos, only of something called bloody knuckles which doesn't seem to be the same thing—anyway I don't recommend reproducing this game unless you're like a 12 year old child trying to fit in at the back of the bus.