Balance in the Round

Balance in the Round. A model inspired by the 2000's board game Hamsterrolle

How to play:

1. Stand up the wheel

2. Place the black starting cone in between two ledges at the base of the wheel

3. Give each player the seven differently shaped pieces

4. Choose a starting player to place a piece one or two sections away from the cone

5. Take turns balancing pieces into the wheel, following these rules

   1. Follow the rotational direction set by the first player (did they place to the left or the right of the cone?)

   2. Place pieces in the same space as the previous player, or 1 or 2 spaces away

   3. No repeat pieces within a space

   4. Must be further ahead on the circle than the previous player's piece

6. If any pieces fall as a result of your placement, those now belong to you

7. You can pass on your turn to not risk dropping pieces. If passing, you must instead move one piece from the base of the wheel one space in the direction of rotation.

8. First player to place all their pieces wins!

Notes for play: You can steady the tower while placing pieces. After your turn, once the wheel has stabilized, you may gently slide it away from the edge of a table if needed to continue playing. Generally, players should only take about 30 seconds to place a piece, to keep things moving.

Trouble with the rules in text? Watch it played

Print Settings:

I've only made a prototype so it could be submitted for the January contest, so I printed using 0.4mm nozzle at 0.28 DRAFT print settings.

BALANCE WHEEL: You want the wheel to be light so it will roll, so I printed with 3 perimeters and zero infill. You will probably need supports, although I've included a beta version with beveled ledges which might not need supports? It takes up the entire print bed on my MK4s, but if you are lucky enough to have a larger printer, I think a bigger wheel would be more fun to play with, so try some scaling!

GAME PIECES: You want the pieces to have some weight to them in order to make the wheel rotate, so I used 100% infill. There are 8 individual STL files below for each of the seven types of pieces and the starting cone, If you want it to be easier to know that there are no repeat pieces in a space I recommend making each type of piece with a unique colored filament. Those files are labeled with suggested colors, but any 8 different colors would do. If you don't have 8 different colors of filament (I sure don't) I've also included one 3mf file with 4 sets of game pieces and the starting cone to make things simpler for you. NOTE: If you scaled up your balance wheel, remember to scale up your game pieces accordingly!

Since this is based on a game that is still in print, I set the license on this model as creative commons noncommercial, but I would love you see your Remixes! If you enjoy the game, consider supporting the official release by game designer Jacques Zeimet, they deserve all the credit for the original game design!