Zinga - Packshot

2022: ZINGA

Author: Dennis Harmsen, Esmée Spaargaren
Developer: Flo de Haan
Illustrator: Thomas Briët
Publisher: 999 Games

Zinga - Packshot

2022: Zinga

Author: Dennis Harmsen, Esmée Spaargaren
Developer: Flo de Haan
Illustrator: Thomas Briet
Publisher: 999 Games

The couple Dennis and Esmée were at home during one of the COVID-19 lockdowns and were looking to create a game to have a fun time with. They basically combined Yahtzee and BINGO. While this seems very simple to do, they have managed to make this into something new, that has not been seen a lot. They have added just the right touch, and have published the game in private print as ‘Dobbeltime’ in the Netherlands in low numbers.

For 999 Games I have developed this game into something for a bigger and international audience to sell big numbers. To achieve this, I had to overcome some challenges, mainly mathematically.

Original concept Dobbeltime: Each player has a scoring sheet, containing a grid of 5×5 numbers between 1 and 12. But there are 4 different sheets. One player rolls the dice, 1 white and 5 different coloured dice. As soon as a player sees a combination of the white die and a coloured die, he may cross that exact number from his sheet. The active player may ignore the white die. But as soon as a player makes a mistake he has to mark that. Three faults means you’ve lost the game. A blue pawn can be used to keep players from winning… Five in a row wins you the game.

In this project I have worked closely together with the designers of this game, Dennis Harmsen & Esmée Spaargaren to develop this idea into a published game. The main challenge was to create 4 equally balanced sheets that both contain all possible numbers and an evenly division of easier and harder numbers in the right colours. Equally distributed in both horizontal, vertical, and diagonal directions separately and combined, but also in comparison with the other scorecards. Seems simple, but turned out to be very tricky.

The second thing I’ve worked on is the name: ZINGA! A combination of the sound of the bell, the excitement of YAHTZEE! and the feeling of BINGO! A very powerful artwork, developed in-house at 999 Games completes the story.

More about the mathematics behind ZINGA in this video (starts at the right time). You might need to turn the subs in the right language, as I speak Dutch in the video:

Play Video

Summary Made by Flo: Project management, development, creation of testable prototype, testing, writing the rulebook, editing the rulebook, theme development, art direction, production briefing.