Primitive game design. Turn-based card game development. Part 2: From the skeleton to the muscles

In the first part of my series of articles, I began to talk about my card game, which I began to do, without actually having anything in my hands except ideas and the old game deck. I walked from the analysis of the playing field to the initial distribution of the roles of "active cards" and description. And everything seems to be good and simple, but the first stage of the game tests was ahead.



And then it started ...

')

Patch 1.01a

1) Field



As soon as I sat down with a friend and played for the first time, how ... the game ended, barely having time to start. Yes. This is absolutely serious. The round took us no more than one and a half minutes. I could not predict such an outcome. On the condition of playing with the four of us, this would have ended a little later, but such a thought did not warm the soul at all. We had to somehow fix the situation. I walked in memory of a series of the last nastolks in which I had the honor of playing, and somehow a rather simple idea of ​​a small reform of the game process came to my mind.



For a start, I changed the mechanics of the course on the playing field. Now players must start with an empty “entry card” and end up on an empty “exit card”, moving across the field with a “snake”. And of course, which is quite obvious, I entered the cube. This positively influenced both the gameplay in principle and the time of one round. In addition, the number of possible options for combining active events instantly took off. At least when playing together. A much larger number of cards are opened, an element of "randomness" appears, which did not previously exist. But this was obviously not enough.



With a rather rapid speed of thinking, the game still flowed very quickly. But for this case I already had some kind of reserve in my hand, but a trump card. It was worth all-just to intervene in our improvised deck everything, from the twos to the top five. This led to the fact that the old decomposition system 6 * 6 instantly went to the dump. In its place, a field measuring 9 * 6 \ 6 * 9 was arranged comfortably. Moreover, when playing on different versions, the sensations were completely different.



The noticeable enlarged field unfolds just as quickly. No particular difficulties are experienced. We, for example, conveniently decomposed on the corner of the sofa. How you will shape the field is up to you. Actually, the choice of the input / output, which will only affect the direction of movement, depends in exactly the same way. Sometimes during the game one may get confused on the topic “Where am I going now?”, But this situation is quite easily corrected by game pieces in the form of figures, which help not to get confused. For example, I, with great pleasure, uncovered an old box with Kinder figures (oh ... nostalgia) for the time of the test.



2) New ability



The first test games after the almost global update were pretty funny. Almost immediately, some interesting features of the active cards, which had not previously been so noticeable during the “step-by-step” movement, were discovered. The first thing we came to unanimously is the introduction of a new active ability. Thus, we had a " dozen ", which allowed us to change the direction of movement (ours, or the enemy, depending on the color) for one turn. That is, now there is a card that can suit a particular trick to the player who opened it. This resulted in some great fun moments when a few dozen alternated with each other almost at the very exit of the maze.



But the fact that the “dozen” in itself was a more powerful force than the jack - of course, slightly cut the ears, so it was decided to change their places. Graduation of skills began to look much more logical and pleasant.



3) Exit and Entry Cards



By this we understood two cards that previously went beyond the bounds of the field, opened at the beginning of the game and were a kind of “flag” so that the player knew where to start and where to end. But after we introduced a new form of the field, the cube and a couple of times were opened as an exit / entrance - jokers , which are already two pieces on our game deck, it was decided to leave them closed and start with "emptiness". In the future, I plan to still make two unique cards with which you can link the craziest mechanics. (* laughter of evil genius *). But at this stage it is not so important.



4) The Tale of "Triggers"



As you probably remember, I introduced the concept of "trigger" into the game. Let me remind you that this means turning the card under the player to indicate its further activation on the next turn of that player. Suppose a player barely opened a red lady , and then opened a supposedly red ace using the ladies ability.



Red Lady allows you to open any closed card behind the player. If he opens the asset, he has the right to play it on his next turn. The color of the opened card is not important . Red Ace has the ability to enhance the next open red active skill, or weaken the next active black skill of the opponent.

We understand what follows what and how the scheme of more than one trigger works at all. We are at this cool confused.



So. Open the lady . Her active skill works right away . Turn the lady and reveal our ace . He himself works the next turn, which is combined with the mechanics of our ladies . Turn it around. Everything, the move of this player (let it be player-a ) is over. Rotated cards, one of which is our user, will be a reminder of what to do on the next turn. When several people play, there will always be the possibility that the situation will repeat more than once. There will have to strain the memory, but it's not so difficult, right?

Let's return to our situation. The next player walks (let's call him player b ). We have three options for the development of events. (Yes, that's right, not two, as you might think)

a) Player-B comes on the map and reveals a random ability . Player A, having finished his turn, has the right to use an ace prepared in advance for activation, which is already rotated as a trigger , and is ready to act if the ability is opposite to the color of that ace .

b) Player B comes on the map and opens the dummy. Nothing happens. Player A is still waiting for his turn.

c) Player-B comes either on an ace turned or on a turned-up lady , where Player A is already standing. In this case, it was decided by general reflections that the game would become much more interesting if the enemy triggers could be canceled , just standing on these cards. Here is our new mechanics .

Player-B steps on the ace and he, returning to the starting position, cancels his ability.

Player-B advances on the lady and she, returning to the starting position, repeats the feat and cancels along with herself the one that was opened by the player-a.

Here are such tricks.



5) New Aces vs. New Walts



With the introduction of the new active card, the influence of the ace on it has been somewhat supplemented. Thus, being strengthened, the jack does not change the direction of the player again, but forces him to make as many as 2 turns in the opposite direction.

Being weakened, the effect is simply canceled. Generally speaking, “weakening” is a bad mechanic, so we decided that the ace could now simply cancel the spell of the opposite color .



However, there is also such a variant of the development of the game: The player strikes the black jack , which spoils his life. The opponent attacks the red jack , which also spoils the life of the player-a. This is the absolute analogy of the gain discussed above. The player makes two moves back.



6) Ace-Joker-Ace Situation



By warning various questions - yes, the Ace can enhance and cancel the Joker . In the process of gaining the next turn , any two open cards of the desired color can be played . Attenuation will simply cancel the effect. It is important to note that the same card cannot be played by the joker twice, and that the ace trigger can also be canceled by another player, as in the situation with the queen .



7) Situation "Ace-Ace"



Maybe even more fun. No matter how small the chance, players can manage to open up to three identical cards in a row. (The gentlemen from Blizzard underestimated their players. Something suddenly came to mind. We will not repeat mistakes. - Approx. Author.) And this is where the craziest possible imbalance manifests itself. Triple power of Jacks, Kings, Dames, etc., which completely changes the state of the game and, in principle, almost guarantees victory to an overly successful player. Even if we take into account the fact that the ace trigger can be canceled, this is a very, very bad part.



Actually, it is therefore important to add a reservation that the Ace can not strengthen or cancel its fellow . However, the cancellation of the enhanced effect is still possible, which is essentially equivalent.



8) More events!



When your opponent begins to overtake you by 1 row, or even by 2, the game becomes dull and uninteresting, because the winner seems to be determined. Well, at least that was exactly until the moment when we decided to allow re-activation of already open cards , if another player comes on them. The chances of winning increase, the game becomes more fun and lasts a little longer, while not causing a feeling of tightness.



It is important to note that the card cannot be used when canceling triggers . You will simply cancel its effect next turn. Remember this when you stand on a rotated card. If you are on the active card, on which your opponent is already standing - do not be afraid to use it, it is allowed.



9) Choose a new king



With the change in the mechanics of motion, the king was transformed, moreover from the point of view of both of his mechanics. Although this is certainly more conditionality than a really serious change. But the rules for its use, however, somewhat changed and supplemented.

Instead of removing cards from the field, there are now some kind of “obstacles” that are formed by turning the “closed cards”.



The barriers created on the way will have to be circumvented by throwing dice. Our improvised barriers can be made from any closed cards on the field. And if the cube had insufficient value to overcome the obstacle, the player gets on the map, which is located right in front of the obstacle. And now let's remember the last item. Yes exactly. The first hit on the cell in front of the obstacle will allow the player to use the active card if it is in that place. If the player again does not have enough points to cross the obstacle, he simply does not budge, which will not lead to reactivation and the formation of endless cycles. This is also important.



A reinforced black king can block up to four cards in a row, but no more than five in total, for obvious reasons. Also blocked cards must be “closed” .



The red king can now swap absolutely any two cards on the field. In this way, you can remove potentially winning cards from your opponents and violate played combinations of triggers. An open card changes places with a closed one and also turns over. Yes, if earlier it was necessary to mix a row in order to hide the substitution, now there is no point in this, because a cube will make everything for us, which may not allow us to go where you want. You still cannot touch blocked cards aka obstacles , even if you have opened the king.



Under the gain there is an opportunity to change up to 4 cards .



10) NOT REUSABLE



To make the Joker even more expensive in terms of being on the field, it was decided that it was impossible to re-activate it again. So we decided to do it after the opened joker was used about 5 times in a row per round. ( Thanks to Walt and the Red Lady. - Approx. Author. )

Afterword

Tests - probably the most fun thing in the game design game board. Guaranteed elevation of mood in a compartment with a very interesting process of the work itself makes their joint business and incredibly quickly and profitably kill time. The most wonderful thing is that there is no framework in front of a game designer, which is beautiful in its own way. No pre-prepared TK and deadlines. Actual work on yourself and nothing else.



Everything else, if you have the opportunity to test the game on your friends - you get almost instant real feedback, which is embodied both in a visual demonstration of emotions received from the game, and in a “fresh look from the side”, which will help to quickly patch up all the unpleasant holes and most productively re-balance in real time.



This applies not only to the desktop, but also to any application in principle. It is enough just to stand by and follow your friends and relatives. A game designer is not only a person who knows many game mechanics and is able to combine them with each other, while generating a lot of ideas on the go, this is also a psychologist who is able to research the target audience and get much more valuable information than any other specialist.



Speaking even more frankly, the matter is not limited to one psychology at all. Let us return to Monsieur Shell , who tells us that a game designer is a polyhedron. And the more he gets involved in things that are different in their direction, the easier it will be for him to interact with both the team and the audience.



Therefore, I want to say the following.



Learn absolutely everything that attracts you. Creation of music, photo processing, color theory, anything, which can suddenly stick into a bright creative head with another obsession. This will not only expand your horizons, but may well help you in your difficult, but still incredibly interesting work.



And we will see you in the next part, which I almost completely devote to the design of the cards themselves. At the same time, we will talk quite a bit about how to overcome the creative crisis at home and, perhaps, touch on new changes / ideas and their analysis.

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Table of contents:

• First part: Starting from scratch.
• The second part: From the skeleton to the muscles.
• Third part: Let's fly to Egypt!

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