4-Way Connect Four

Hi, I am a high school student at Northern Secondary School in Toronto, Ontario.

I have always enjoyed Connect Four, but often I find it repetitive and basic so I have decided to spice it up. I improved the game by expanding the board, adding more playing piece options for the players, and making it playable with 4 people. This adds much more strategy to the game, as players have to be aware of the whole board and their foes' moves.

Now, the board has 4 grids which can be used by all players. A player can win by making a 4-in-a-row across two faces, forcing everyone to be more conscious of the whole playing area.

The new playing piece I added is the Bomb Token, which each player has one of. The Bomb Token accounts for the added space and player count by being able to "blow up" an entire grid of pieces. (more in-depth rules at the bottom)

To make the game easy to package and transport, 4 pins on the corners can be removed to allow the 4 grids to be separated and stacked. (This disassembly can be visualized in the attached files)

Rules:

• A player wins if they align 4 of their own coloured tokens (red, green, blue, or yellow, NOT the black bomb token). The tokens can be aligned horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. These lines can go across grids (as can be seen in the thumbnail image with the diagonal blue pieces).
• The game can be played with 3-4 players, each player receives 15 of a randomly picked colour and 1 Bomb Token.
• The player with the red tokens goes first, then blue, then yellow, then green. After green plays the cycle repeats.
• One piece is played at a time by dropping a token inside the top slot of any grid.
• The Bomb Token can be placed to "blow up" the entire grid of pieces it was placed in. This is done by shifting the bottom slider piece and letting the tokens fall. These tokens are now out of use and put away. After, the player who used the bomb must place it anywhere on the cleared grid. It cannot be used to complete a straight line of 4 for any player.
• The game ends if a player wins via a 4-in-a-row line or if everyone has played their pieces and there is a stalemate.
• Next game, the loser of the previous game (4th place) becomes red, 3rd place becomes blue, 2nd place becomes yellow, and 1st place becomes green. If no one won, everyone's colour is random.

Please view the attached videos as they showcase some of the features of the game!

Fusion 360 was used to model and design everything.

First, we will want to make one of the four grids. Initially, we will just make the base of it without the smaller features (they will be added later).

1. Make a sketch for one of the grids. Extrude the large part of the grid, and then the smaller circles on either side.
2. Cut slots throughout the entire depth of the body to cut paths for the tokens to fall through.

Second, we will make joints attached to the grid so we can connect all of the grids together.

1. Make two joints on the right side of the grid as can be seen in the attached images.
2. Cut a hole through both joints to allow everything to be connected.
3. Repeat this process on the middle of the left side to make one joint (as seen in the last image).

Third, we make a pin that will hold all of the joints together. The goal is for it to be removable so the grids can be separated.

1. Make a sketch of half of the joint and revolve. Select "New Component" because we want the pin to be removable.
2. I painted the pin yellow, but the colour is optional!
3. Connect the pin to the grid using the "Rigid Joint" function. ("Cylindrical" and "Slider" joints might work as well, but to keep everything stable in Fusion 360 I chose to use the "Rigid" joint, in real life the pins would be removable.)

Fourth, we will want to make legs for the grid.

1. Make a sketch on each side of the bottom of the grid.
2. Extrude these sketches up and down for the desired shape.
3. Cut out parts of the legs to make them look better. This is done by making a sketch on each of the legs and then extruding them out with the "cut" operation selected.
4. I also painted the grid blue but, again, the colour is optional.
5. Fillet all of the edges.

Fifth, we will design the sliding mechanism that allows the tokens to fall.

1. Cut out an area for the slider to move.
2. Cut out an area for the handle of the slider to operate.
3. Using the same sketches that were used to cut out space for the slider, make the slider with the operation "New Component" (so it can move).
4. Connect the slider to the grid using the "Slider Joint."

Next, we will make the board itself by adding 3 more copies of what we just made and joining them together.

1. The most important step here is to right-click the "Bodies" header and select "Create Components from Bodies". This will make everything able to be attached.
2. For simplicity, drag the "Pin" component and the "Slider" component into the original grid, making them all one assembly, this will make it so we don't have to copy the pins and sliders individually, as they will be with the grid.
3. "Ground" the original grid.
4. Copy and paste the assembly we just made (containing the grid, pin, and slider) to make 3 more copies.
5. Connect the grids together using the "Revolving Joint" function.

Now, with the board done, we will move on to the tokens! First: The Bomb Token.

1. Make a disc by, symmetrically, extruding out a circle with an offset.
2. Add a bomb design on both sides of the token (I chose to make the design myself, but you could import a design as well).
3. Chamfer edges.
4. Paint black.
5. Create 4 Bomb Tokens.

With the Bomb Token made, it will be easy to make the other tokens. We will:

1. Copy and paste the bomb token (without the bomb design).
2. Colour one token green, one red, one blue, and one yellow.
3. Turn bodies into components as shown previously.
4. Create 15 of each colour player token.

Finally, we can bring everything together to create a final diorama. This will showcase how the game would be played, so if you are just creating everything to 3d print, this step is unnecessary.

1. import the token file by dragging and dropping.
2. Using "slider joints" and the "move" tool, put all of the tokens into place.