History Lessons

 History was far from my favorite subject in school, I saw little more than a series of dates and dry facts to remember so I can pass the next exam and then forget about it.
It wasn't until college that I enjoyed sitting through a lecture. Maybe it was because I completely stopped taking notes which I would never go back to, started listening to what was being said, and imagined how it could be.

Outside of school I enjoyed history from books, documentaries and from certain games. What boy doesn't like to watch a warbird strafe a convoy over remembering the date some politicians signed a pact?

I also wasn't a huge fan of learning about Israeli history. I haven't felt like I belonged here ever since I was 14.

These day I find myself thinking back about what I know about Israel's history, trying to think of what I can use to make board games.
The first such idea that came to me was a push your luck game about the clandestine immigration of aliyah bet, as the refugees of the holocaust crammed into old ships and sailed to Israel, trying to overcome the British blockade to realize the Zionist dream.
Just trying to leverage my heritage to my advantage. I also wonder if I could get support from the government to help with the creation process, the marketing and the finances.

Stray Thoughts

Can't escape from working all week at the day job, missing out on board game night. It's not worth it, I hope I find something better soon and it fades into a story to tell strangers.

A few thoughts about games have come up. The first is in the board game space, in which I'm currently thinking of creating multiple different games, but each a part of the same world, using the same characters and visual style to tell different stories connected together.

The Silicone Valley and the Reverse Galaxy Truckers come to mind as an example. What if one of the "Neckbeards" you can use in your recruitment agency turns into one of the crew members you can draft for your ship.

The second idea I'm occupied with is inspired by the success of Multiplayer online battle arena games. I never tried playing DOTA or LoL, but I suspect I would suck. I would feel much more comfortable with a turn based strategy game. I think this idea is an extension of older ideas for an online TBS, with the current incarnation involving building a team belonging to a faction (similar to miniature games.)  This team could be broken up and used in several simultaneous asynchronous games.

Building the plane while flying it

A saying I read in my copy of "Making Games," a magazine I picked up at GDC Europe, talking about Crytek's mo-cap pipeline for Ryse.

This came after the weekly board game night at the Technion in which I tried Mage Tower for the first time.

As these things often do, an idea was sparked: a game in which you build your spaceship as you fly through the vacuum of space, somehow similar to Galaxy Truckers in reverse.

Pieces added to your ship would work with one another in different ways, creating all sorts of interesting combos.
A drafting mechanic for crew is considered.

In short, this is just another idea in its diapers that will probably gather dust in a corner of my mind, like so many other before it.

Oni Touge

Been thinking some more about the endless drift concept, which I'm currently leaning towards calling Oni Touge.

What if instead of a single right or left button I would use three for each side.
Looking at the following example, a player would need to start a left turn by pushing the "D" button, making his way towards the "A" to increase his turning rate as necessary, even going over to "L" through "J" at a hairpin turn, with the space acting as the break to keep him/her from flying of the road.

Releasing the keys would return the wheel to center. Not sure if pushing a button out of sequence (like starting a right turn by pushing "K") should have any effect, a penalty, or a similar result as if "J" was pushed first.

Endless Drift

I'm currently reading through the Developer Magazine's Career Guide I picked up at GDC Europe. There's an article on how to make your own endless runner in Unity. A rocket avoiding obstacles and collecting bonue points? Lame.

So what sort of idea can I come up with that isn't quite so generic? An endless tōge to race down, drifting around the corners, trying to avoid dropping down the cliff or smashing into the mountain, skidding over loose debris.
A pumping eurobeat soundtrack, cars and achievements to unlock, scenery changing around you from typical Japanese mountain to fire and brimstone in hell... ;)

Left, right and brake, the only 3 buttons you would need as the car builds up speed without any player input.
A camera which gives exciting views and enough information so that the player can react to what's coming up.

Blast From the Past

One of the first X-Com clones I thought of year ago was one based in a fantasy setting, in which you play as the leader of a guild of thieves.

Been thinking about this concept again, and I think it has more meat than the usual spiritual and recent successors to the classic from the 90's.

Instead of intercepting aliens, you would send your band of thieves underground through sewers and tunnels to sack various locations, whether they be residential, commercial or industrial.
Other missions will provide the opportunity to recruit new people to your cause, stop rivals from taking over your territory or defeat monsters threatening your base.

Unlike X-Com where you hired people for the exclusive position which they filled (soldier, scientist, or worker,) in my game people would fill different roles - if you take your blacksmith out to a mission, your ability to forge new weapons or armor will be limited, especially if he is wounded or killed. If you allow your wizard to research spells, she won't be able to come on a mission with you, and you may miss an opportunity to learn new magic.
Recruits will start with stats that will lend them towards particular roles, and they may become more specialized or diversified as they gain experience.

Finally, I thought of a variation on the color based magic system similar to D&D, Magic The Gathering and Tolkien's novels, changing primary colors to such things as brown or grey magic, enabling control of such elements as mud and mildew.

I think this game is a pipe dream, but wanted to write it down anyways, in case I or someone else finds a use for it.
My High Tech recruitment / Silicone Valley board game is a more attainable goal, and sill on slow burn in the back of my head. I need to try to come up with a flow chart of how things could work.

Time For Myself

It seems as though the stress of work has been impeding my thinking, and I haven't been dreaming up game mechanics while I was working everyday.
With the new guy coming in I've finally had some time away from the office, and as I let off some steam the game ideas came back to me.

The first direction I went was to my hi-tech recruiting / Silicone valley game. I came up with some ideas to streamline gameplay and come up with a clearer goal.

At the start of the game, players will take turns placing a CEO to give them their first special ability, place a worker at the lowest rank at a tower of their choice, and start with a worker in the pool/
Each player will have a set number of cards they may turn per round (with one of the bonuses possibly being an extra card,) with the final goal being to be the first to have a control a certain amount of CEOs.

After thinking about this game, I started thinking about XCom and how the base building aspect of the game wasn't as strategically deep as the combat, and how I might that could be amended.
This lead to thinking of a different theme, and I came up with harvesting souls in hell, not that that hasn't been done before such as in Disgaea or Dungeon Keeper, but I might continue exploring that.

Back From A Week in Germany

Found myself in Cologne once again, a volunteer at GDC Europe 2013 with a trade visitor pass to Gamescom which  I made full use of.

Some things were different this year, like my stay at a hostel or the fact that I had no shifts on Wednesday. Other things were similar, like the foot and back pain and the lack of meals.

Parties were better this year, in general, both from the networking aspect and from the free drinks / swag / comfort in room aspects. GDCE sessions a bit more boring than last year, and I had fallen asleep in practically each one I attended, the only exception being one of the sessions I was scanning for (a familiar role from GDC Online,) not that it was super interesting, it was more because I had been working and later had to sit on the floor.
Met some friends from last year, made a few new ones from the volunteers.
Grabbed more freebies than last year, regretting I hadn't brought a bigger bag and being forced to leave stuff behind.
Only scored a couple of VIP passes, one for Square Enix the other for Bethesda (given to my by a fellow volunteer who didn't have the time to use it) and didn't get to fully use them. Wasn't all that interested in checking all Squenix had to offer (I think RPG demos don't work well in a trade show environment, they require a slow build up and can be text heavy, being in German certainly doesn't help.)
Experienced the Oculus Rift, playing a demo of CCP's Valkyrie, played Forza 5 on the XBOX One, but didn't think the long lines for the PS4 were worth it. That'll have to wait for next year which I'm already planning for and thinking of improving. I'll probably spend Wednesday at the entertainment area if possible.

Still in the process of following up on all the leads I gathered. I had 25 business cards to work with, I thought I needed to save them for solid leads, ended up coming back home with a few, so there's some fear I may have missed some chances, but there's no helping it now.

Back in my daily grind of not knowing when I work my minimum wage shifts, falling even further behind in my app development class, and wondering if I'll finally give in and sign up as a freelancer.
On the positive side, it didn't seem that long ago that I thought it was going to be a long time before I get another holiday yet here we are celebrating the Jewish new year, and I've been back to board game night. Played 3 new games this week, and enjoyed them all: Summoner Wars, Battlestar Galactica (won as a Cylon sleeper agent,) and Courtier (won my second game.)

As far as game design ideas that sprung from these shows, there is nothing defined: just thinking how bad game pads are for finer control in FPSs, and how one might come up with truly innovative gameplay.

Job Agency: Focusing the idea

As I was walking on the beach, thinking about my latest game idea, as I often do, I came upon an interesting theme which informed some of my game mechanics.

The idea is that players would take the role of recruiting agencies, competing to place new recruits into a limited number of available spots, promote employees to higher positions, block other players, collect money and more.

Since the cards to do all these things would be shuffled into a deck and drawn randomly, individual pieces may move in unpredictable ways, and hopefully make things fun.

The Deck That Plays Itself

Another game night behind me, and some new ideas coming from my experiences.
Among the games I played were the familiar Dominion, father of all deckbuilders, and my first play of Troyes, a game with an "automatic" neutral player.

Thinking of these "artificial intelligence" systems in which a set of rules is designed into the game to dictate the movement of neutral pieces for the players to deal with, gave me an idea.

My idea is to create a game in which players need to create their own AI systems, hoping to achieve their goals in the most efficient matter, similar to the PC game Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom, in which players could build building and hire adventurers, which would then go adventuring without direct player interaction, though the player could set rewards to entice his adventurers to go to certain locations.

The way I see my game working is in 2 phases.
In half the game, players would acquire cards. I have a few ideas floating around on this, from playing cards for their monetary value to purchase cards that are worth more, to bidding on cards using money chips gained during the second phase of the game, to placing workers to acquire certain cards, create certain combos and block other players.

In the second half, players would shuffle their purchased cards, and flip cards over one at a time in turns, moving their piece or pieces according to whatever is indicated on the card. In a well thought out deck, the instructions on the cards would work well together to get more money to help the player develop his economic engine even further until some set goal is reached, such as a turn number, monetary goal or something else.

I have some more thinking to do about theme. Fantasy was the obvious choice, but I like to explore less familiar, and writing this post made me think of an idea - perhaps playing as parents sending children on errands.

I also need to think about how the instruction system would work: one idea is to have a grid and have turn left twice and go straight one square instructions, while another idea would be to have instructions based on landmarks, such as going towards the nearest enemy or a location on the map.

Racing with Shapes

A game idea popped into my head as I was driving home after the regularly scheduled game night, though it had little to do with the games I actually played.

As I was trying to think of an alternate mechanic from the other racing games I know, I came up with an idea to use different shapes to represent how a player moves his vehicle around a track.
There would be several categories, such as tight curves, open corners, s-curves and a straight or two. Each category would have a number of similar curves shapes, each placed in a separate bag.
A player would choose a bag to pull from, perhaps by using some other mechanic, such as a card from his hand, and attempt to place the curve on the track, starting from his vehicle, hoping to make it fit on the track he is racing on. If he cannot, there will be a damage system in place, which may lead to his elimination.
Curves will be double sided, so that a right turn can be flipped to make a left turn.

I'm leaning towards a sci-fi theme, including weapons.

I also think a campaign mode would work well here. Different race tracks would be provided.
After one is complete, players will assess how they did in the races in a variety of ways, such as the number of curves needed to finish, weapon use, damage taken, etc. and use this information to improve driver skills (one example of an improved skill: pull 2 shapes from the bag, choosing the one believed to be a better fit.)
Winning a race will equal points for the season as well as money to allow for even more personalization.

Enjoying Star Control 3

I know this game gets a lot of beef, especially from fans of Star Control 1 and 2. There's no denying that Accolade mistreated Toys for Bob which is a shame. I'd like to see what these guys would have come up with as a sequel.

Maybe we'll see a new Star Control in spirit if not in name yet.

Star Control 3 may not be considered canon by the hardcore fans. It may have problems, such as from sitting around in the same spot waiting for fuel, weak AI on enemy ships, and the Syreen losing all sex appeal, but I'm having a hard time not playing it.

After playing little else outside of social games, I no longer have to worry about waiting an hour or two to regain my energy so I can go back to the game to click on a few more things. Instead I struggle with quitting the game, as I tell myself I'll only go to one last planet before I go to sleep.

I enjoy the story, the voice acting (set my phone notification to "We are the Mycon, we respond,") the funky puppets, and the wining the fights when the computer provides more challenge than just trying to stay as far as possible.

I wonder to myself if I'll ever be able to spin quite a delightful yarn, while thinking of the different directions I could take.
I think when I finish the game, I'll start playing Shadow of the Colossus, which I never got around to, before I check out the Ur-Quan Masters and what the fans have done with the source code.

Entertaining myself at the grandparent's place

As a child my parents would sometime, such as on long holiday breaks, leave my brother and I at the care of our grandparents, with both sets living fairly close to each other, but an hour and a half drive from home.

Neither my maternal or paternal grandparents had computers, so other ways of entertaining myself had to be found.
TV was one such way, but until the mid-90's we only had 2 stations to choose from, which didn't always have child appropriate shows.
A VCR was available, and walking down to the video rental store and picking something out was as much fun as watching what we chose, it seems we have seen all the classic Looney Tunes and Disney cartoons that way.
My maternal grandparents also had some video tapes passed down from the American branch of our extended family, degraded copies of such classics as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Alice in Wonderland.
Grandma had some girl magazines from when she was a girl (dad's mom is a holocaust survivor who didn't have much left from her childhood, but she survived them all.) which didn't quite suit my taste, but beggars can't be choosers and they were marginally better than grandpa's gardening magazines - there are only so many ads for sprinkler systems I can look at.

Another hit from that time was going to the supermarket to buy freeze pops and something banned from the US and no longer imported to Israel - Kinder eggs. These things had amazing toys inside (unless you had the bad luck of getting a statue) which were a joy to assemble, and fun to play with for about ten minutes.

When I discovered arcades I found there was one in a nearby shopping center, and would spend countless hours in there, even just to watch demo modes going on. Later I found a few others to haunt, longer to walk too and full of cigarette smoke, but with new games to look at.
I even started getting money to play, even though I hadn't asked for any, probably because my brother got bored just tagging along.

In closing, I think these experiences had a lot of impact on my creativity these days, even if it isn't always obvious exactly how.

Space ship design language

Above is an image from Master of Orion 2, showing one color option for the ships which you can choose.
I am currently working on some of my own ships designs, following the long standing tradition of designing such vehicles with a unified design language.
The benefits of using such a system are as clear as figuring out who is friend or foe.

Thing is, when you look at current and past transportation technology things don't quite work out that way.

Fighter jets look quite different from commercial airliners. Different colors and camouflage patterns are used for the same aircraft even when used by the same people.
I think extraterrestrial intelligence may end up working along similar lines: form will fit function, yet we won't mistake it for anything we've built here on earth, just as they won't mistake our vehicles for their own.

I'll continue to design my ships for the human player, but this is food for thought. Maybe I'll stumble onto something.

Thoughts going out to space again

Been walking on the beach, thinking how I couldn't extract a decent sound from X-Com UFO defense to serve as a notification on my phone. I managed to extract the bubbly button sound I wanted, but it's full of hiss and sometimes doesn't play correctly (that might be the phone or the conversion from .wav to .mp3)

Then the "We are the Mycon" bit from Star Control 3 came to me, and I thought I would try to get my hands on that (proving even more difficult to find, now that I'm home,) which got me thinking about this wonderful series of games again.

If I did something similar, I would like to make ships much more difficult to obtain, with a lot of questing and politics to go through to add one to your fleet. They, in turn, would be much more powerful, customizable and unique to each species. Combat would need to be changed as a result, so the quick melee battles where you bounce like crazy around the screen would have to be replaced with a turn-based or a slower real time system.

I'd also find a way of incorporating research, because research in games in the bomb.

Worker Placement Deck Builder - Now With Auction!

Last couple of weeks have been a little stale as far as my thoughts go on games. Probably the recent job, new classes and with playing Burnout 3 on the PS2.
A game night and some Dice Tower videos have made me think board games again, with some new possibilities on my deck builder - an auction mechanic.

This may not be exactly compatible with previous iterations on the idea - trying to incorporate too many elements for a diluted experience, but it might be worth looking into.

What I am imagining specifically is players building a deck of various resources (wood to lumber, seashells to beads, whatever) and cards enabling them to make these various resources. As each turn passes, a travelling merchant piece is moved forward. When it reaches a predetermined spot (perhaps aided or hindered by certain player actions) a number of new options are put up for auction. Players will then use the resources they collected until that point to bid. While they will gain various improvements to the way they play their deck, or to final scoring, they will bid on what they had earned so far, thinning out their deck of the resources  they still need to continue playing, thus needed to find the right balance.

This auction will occur several times throughout the game until final scoring.

GDC Fever

The GDC Europe volunteer application form has come up a week ago, and there is a lot of action going on the facebook group for past volunteers. Everyone is excited about this year's event, anxious whether they will be picked, worried about sleeping and transportation arrangement, and anything else that needs to be taken care of.

As I wait for a response for my own application, hoping to hear a yes, wondering what I'll find this year in Cologne, Germany, I also think of my past experiences, and I thought I would share.

GDC Online 2011 in Austin, Texas, was my first GDC and I was delighted to have been chosen as a volunteer.

Small when compared to GDC and focusing on online, mobile and handheld, it nonetheless presented ample opportunities to gain new insight, network, and collect the all important swag.

GDC Online had the best parties in my opinion, with free food, open bars, more swag and enough room for everyone.

I wasn't able to enter as a volunteer at GDC 2012, but had plenty to do with my expo pass.

This show was huge: The career fair alone was about the size of GDC Online's expo, and I visited most of the booths with my business cards, portfolio and resumes. I went to the main expo floor and collected swag, spent some time in the Play area before the press got in, talked with the conference associates I met before or followed on social media, sat through the breaking in sessions and showed up at some parties.

GDC Europe 2012 was another conference I managed to get into as a volunteer. Similar in size to Online as far as sessions go, it had a tiny expo, although it was through here that I got my first art test.

My fellow volunteers at this show were more diverse than in Online, which I enjoyed (where else can a German, Swedish, Dutch, Briton, Greek, Turkish, American, Australian and Israel hang out in a bar and talk about video games?)

Lunch at the convention center was a definite bonus, although the parties weren't quite as good as the American counterparts, held in expensive places with insufficient space.

The best part about this show may actually be Gamescom - the computer game trade show which follows. While the main halls were open to the general public, volunteering at GDC gave me access to the business area, where I collected even more swag, got VIP passes to cut through lines which could reach 3 hours long for a hot game like Assassin's Creed 3, and made even more contacts. At the main halls I checked out some of the hottest new games (and a few duds,) took photos and yes, collected swag.

Can't wait to do it again, and with enough luggage space to take all my swag home. 

Blood Sweat and Tears

Just some possible theme ideas for my current obsession for a board game with campaign.

Winning player of the first game would be able to pick from blood, sweat or tears, affecting the way the game will play in the future, with subsequent winners having similar choices. Losers will get consolation prizes which will increase their outlook with the frame the winner dictated.

Blood is the aspect of magic, coming from the places in which it is cast. This would introduce more random elements to the game.

Sweat in the physical aspect, brute force in numbers.

Tears are the aspect of faith, power coming from artifacts. Area of effect, indirect fighting.

Onion: Or How To Make a Boardgame Campaign

Descent: Journeys in the Dark (second edition) is getting big with my group of board gaming friends. Having played a couple of missions in a campaign, and an encounter from the Wyrm Queen expansion, both as a hero. This system is basically a pen & paper RPG, narrowed in scope to deliver a quicker experience (nothing wrong with that.)
Other examples I can think of are wargames, taking cues from history to link multiple missions together and Risk Legacy in which the board is changed permanently, which I think adds gimmicks to a pretty bad core game.

How do I link together plays of something more constructive, where players attempt to build an engine to score the biggest point or reach an objective faster? The thing would need to be built in layers, like an onion. It would start with a strong core mechanic, with each subsequent play adding more to the mix. Winners would need to be rewarded, while everyone else would need some way to balance things so they stand a chance of turning the situation around and not necessarily facing a rich gets richer problem.

I'll probably write more about this later.

On a side note, I didn't play it myself, but a game of Illuminati was brought over to last game night, which made me think of other ridiculous themes for games, such as Scientology. And if we are talking about Scientology, why not a game about Tom Cruise, that is more than just a Trivia Pursuit or Monopoly re-theme? ;)

Building a Village

Sketched out a rough idea of how the game could work. How a player wins made a big contribution to this.


The game would start with only a few places to populate with workers: A central hub (village center) which can hold any number of workers in it, and will perform some sort of general action everyone might need to do at some time. I'll need to think on what that might be, probably something to do with excess goods.
There will also be a number of areas in which a player can add raw good cards to his deck.
With enough raw goods, a basic factory could be built corresponding to each raw resources, allowing to pull processed good cards. If a forest produces wood, the sawmill will make planks, ore from mines to steel, etc.

With enough processed goods, the advanced buildings (selected by players before the game began) may be built next. Advanced building will allow to pull cards with various abilities, such as pulling more resources, linking cards together or improving worker abilities.
A player will want to focus on his own buildings, but can use buildings his opponent built to improve his deck. Perhaps I will award the owner of the building.

Once a player builds all his advanced buildings, he will need to focus on building his (or her) totem (or monument, temple, etc.) The first to finish this final building is the winner.

Card Ideas

Been thinking of the cards for my facebook worker placement deck builder.
The Dominion formula has players buying cards with currency. My idea has a player drawing cards from sending his worker to the appropriate spot.
Certain cards (character) will give you the ability to relocate your worker, enabling the player to pull more cards into his deck, as well as giving special abilities and allowing for combos.
A different type of card will be resource. These will be needed for expanding the tableau from which you can build your deck.

An example would be playing a villager from your deck, moving him into the sawmill to draw a wood card. On the next turn, a builder card will be played, moving that worker to the city hall to build a forge, from which you could draw steel cards.

These cards may need more abilities to offer deeper gameplay and prevent skipped turns.

Worker Placement Deckbuilder for Facebook

Still thinking about my solution to the ultimate facebook game, with neurons firing on all cylinders.
From the mechanics of the game, such as how the cards and board will interact with each other, how I'd like an experience that is has more interaction and less "multiplayer solitaire," to whether I want the board game elements hidden under the interface.

I'm also giving a lot of thought to the theme, trying to figure out something outside the usual fantasy or sci-fi, with such things as building a voodoo village, Somali pirates or monsters hidden in plain sight a la Monsters inc.

Thinking about how everything you can buy with real money could be had with enough hard work, and how it needs to be functional but not give a massive advantage.

SimCity Social is Dying

SimCity Social, the facebook game I am currently putting the most time into will go offline June 14th.
One of the first quests I played in said game was connected to the London Olympics, so it's not quite a year.
I had played Restaurant City for much longer, before it went down (another EA/Playfish game) while some other games, such as Pet Society (coming down the same time as SCS) I played because it felt like a waste of time, while others, like Monster Galaxy have become unplayable as facebook and browsers updated.

Is all this trouble an indication of the state of social games? Will more studios be as troubled as Zynga? Will the model of ingame microtransactions change to something else?

Guess I'll be waiting to see how it folds out (including what game I'll be addicted to next) think about new financial models, and keep dreaming I'll find a job in which all-night gaming marathons are an important part of research.

Role Selection Deck Builder

In typical creative fashion, a new idea is now bouncing around my head, even though I haven't quite finished fleshing out the old ones.

Learning that my aunt is coming to visit from Canada in June, I figured this could be a chance to increase my game library by one. The problem comes from deciding which one, as well as finding one in stock, with Kickstarter projects posing some difficulties in that area.
I'm also assuming that with her limited luggage space, it will need to come in appropriate package and card games are good candidates. (If I can get a big box, I want to get my hand on Seasons.)

This lead me to think of all the card games I've played and enjoyed, as well as explore games I haven't played that could be good candidates.

As I enjoy role selection games as well as deck builders, I went on a search on Board Game Geek, and found Eminent Domain. While this seems like a fun game, it wasn't quite what I had in mind for this combo, which is why I am currently bouncing ideas in my head on how I would do it, which is mainly about having a bigger emphasis on the deck building aspect.

I also realize my 4X game idea had deck building.

Syrupy Soldiers

Came up with some preliminary unit types and distribution for 4 players for my Candy Land reconstruction game, in a handy visual aid.



Naturally this would need some play testing for balancing, but the basic idea is this:
Whenever an equal number of forces meet, they are both removed. When one side is stronger than the other, only the loser removes his pieces, giving the winner a chance to advance on his next turn.

King Kandy's Knights are equal to 2 foot soldiers, but follow all normal rules of movement otherwise.
Most units will have to stop at a space where there are other units, even if the player picked up a card that would move him beyond these soldiers. Princess Lolly's spies may ignore this rule.
Gloop doesn't have special units, instead relying on superior numbers of footmen.
Lord Licorice's Legionnaires can push units back at one unit per legionnaire, breaking enemy formations, i.e. a legionnaire moving into a space with 2 footmen can make one of them move into the space behind it, leaving one in the space it is occupying. If it also came with a footman, the Licorice player would win.

War in Sweetland

Been doing my regular walk on the beach, thinking about game genres and annoying mechanics when I started thinking of Candy Land and the possibilities of improving it.
The main complaint people (according to the Ludology podcast and The Dice Tower) generally have about it is the lack of choice, so I came up with a very different game.

The same familiar colored cards, brightly colored track and cheerful characters would be used.
While cards could be used to move pawns, one could also choose to use the very same cards to recruit and upgrade troops, used to attack other players in a tug of war, eventually over running them to be the ruler of "Sweet Land."

Players would have variable powers, from the number of troops, to upgrade powers and special spaces on the board itself.

Pretty simple game, but maybe it will be a good one.

Pieces of Cloth

I spent Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning at Bigor, the Israeli Role-Playing convention.
I practically lived in the lounge, playing different board games. Played with friends from the Technion board game club and with strangers. Played games I was familiar with (I won't be playing Galaxy Truckers for a long time, I think) and added some new ones to the my list.
Catching the last train on Friday, which leaves Modiin at a rather upsetting 13:51 so the shabbat can be kept, I headed over to my brother's apartment in Tel-Aviv as I promised him I would show up for his board game event.
Despite my exhaustion, I had a fun. Played a round of Settlers of Catan, with my brother winning as expected, as well as Carcassone, where I tied for last. Just couldn't get those farmers down.

While we were waiting for my brother's friends to arrive, I tried to teach him Perudo, and told him which games I played. I mentioned I watched Jungle Speed being played (Not a fan of dexterity or party games, so I opted out.)
Messing around with some pieces of cloth my sister-in-law had cut from curtains and left on the table, I started combining Jungle Speed and Perudo into a silly game.

The object of the "game" was to grab the dice cup (the totem) if the sum of all the pips was higher than 15. If it was you would win and pass your piece of cloth. Lose, and the piece of cloth would go back to you. Now I'm playing around with this silly idea, to see if I can make a genuine game out of it.

Back to Outer Space

The latest on my game oriented mind:
I think it was a side banner about Scarlet Blade (A MMORPG filled with CGI boobs? What were they thinking and why do I want to play it?) that lead to me check out the latest on MMORPGs. Found a video on one called ArcheAge, in which I saw a bunch of characters running around doing the usual fighting fare, but then went on to build a house and a sail boat.
Also saw a video about EVE online ship sizes, and I'm currently reading Elisabeth Moon's Victory Condition.

So, I've been thinking about a game where guild leaders build massive ships, recruiting members to fill various rolls aboard it. I guess I've seen attempts at it before, and it would be hard to pull off (everyone wants to be at the top.) but it might have some merits.

Humor me

The mafia is taking over.
Will it make a better emotional impact if I had humorous aspects to the game, or would a more serious tone be better?
Dropped the digital bit for now, and currently thinking each player could choose his mobsters, each with differing powers and strategies.
Some mobsters would be good at forcing other players out, others at maximizing income or victory points.

As the players run around the boards doing their thing, they would collect "heat" and the cops would eventually show up: the game fighting back as it were. Some player pieces might be better able to handle such events, another strategy to win.

Emotional Connection in Board Games

Currently thinking about what I last wrote about, how I could create a deeper emotional connection in board games, the way a novel, a TV series or a video game might.
I sense I am drifting away from the 4X idea and into newer ground, but that's expected and ok, I think.
Seeing a game idea all the way through isn't the main goal for these.

Back on topic, I think a worker placement game could work for my purposes. Replacing featureless meeples with fleshed out characters that evolve over the course of the game and/or multiple sessions.

One idea is to use a mobile device to tell the story of these characters, while each player moves physical pieces on the board and interacts with other players. This would be an additional layer of the game, which must work just as well without it.
This approach would mean a lot of technological hurdles.

I have also put some thought into theme. Fantasy and Science Fiction seem like the easy choice, so I've been trying to think outside the box.
A mafia theme is the best direction I have so far, as each player will play a family trying to take control of a city. My biggest problem with this theme is that it may be too violent - I don't workers dying off before the emotional connection can be made.

Story Telling in Board Games

This isn't part of my 4X game, more of a side note that has been inspired by it and other media.

Been thinking about whether one can tell a story in board games, not in how I imagine (having never played) Tales of Arabian Nights or Once Upon A Time do it, but more in the way a movie, TV series or computer game might do it.
What if losing a piece in the Game Of Thrones board game was as surprising as when a major character is killed in the book?
Could you make a game that really felt like a space opera, where you became attached to certain characters battling within a larger struggle?

I don't have any answers yet, but I think it'll occupy me for a while.

4X: Player Boards - Ships

Made a rough mock-up of the spaceship player board (each player will also have a board representing a colony.)
Each ship will be separated into 6 main areas:



-RESEARCH: Each player will start with one scientist meeple, moving it around according to the area which they want to research. Possible effect on this area might include additional scientist or blocking a wedge.

-FIRE CONTROL: Combat may only be initiated when this module is available. May be upgraded with add-ons that provide combat benefits, such as modifying dice rolls or drawing additional cards.

-SENATE: (maybe I can think up a better name) Necessary for political maneuvering, such as alliances or spying. Add-ons will allow for more of these actions, as diplomats (and spies?) can be dropped of on colonies belonging to other players.

-CARGO BAY: The trading module. Can store various goods to be traded with other players or otherwise. I need to do some thinking about this mechanic. More space for goods can be added.

-CONSTRUCTION YARD: Needed to build colonies, ship add-ons, repairing damage, etc. Add-ons would add more of these actions.

-BRIDGE: The core of the ship, destroying this module will force the player to rebuild a ship at his home planet. I don't want any player knocked out of the game, especially due to an unlucky roll, so how much he suffers would need to go down to play testing. Might just go back home and lose one turn to rebuild, or lose goods and add-ons as well. This part might have some add-ons as well, perhaps parts that would protect the bridge or additional improvements.

I may rearrange the parts, as they are linked to combat. Once you lose a fit, your opponent rolls a die to determine which module gets disabled. With a dice modification mechanice, a roll of 2 might be changed to a 1 or 3 to disable a different area according to the winner's wishes. No such ability would apply when losing to anything other than another player's ship.

4X: Navigating Space

No real reason for being silent over the past week. Updating sort of slipped my mind while I was busy with visitors from Germany, Harucon 2013, birthday party...

Anyways, reporting on some thoughts I've had about my game, concentrating on space, both physically and metaphorically - the board on which the game will be played, representing outer space.
Currently thinking I may have each game played within a single (simplified) galaxy, with several options available for different player numbers or play experience, as less planets may mean more combat but slower research.

Each Galaxy will be made of a number of suns, connected by nodes, through which players could travel. Each player will receive a home system: a planet matching his color orbiting a sun (and perhaps a second mismatched planet for future colonization?) Each other node will have a circular card placed around it. One side of these cards will be unknown (fog of war type graphic) while the other will have between 0-3 planets orbiting it.

Now that I think about it, it would probably be best if both sides had a sun printed on it, both to save costs of punching an additional hole, and of having a clue as to how many and what planets might be in orbit.

Players with their space ship on the appropriately colored planet (similar to their home, or through later research) may be able to place a colony and improve their production/position.

4X: Rethinking

The possibilities of a 5th path bothered me, as I tried to come up with ideas that would stick.
Maybe a terraforming module could work, in which you could colonize more planet types as well as improve existing colonies came to mind (still need to do some serious thinking about the map.)
Another idea was to add a finance track, adding another form of currency to the map with it's own set of capabilities.

As I thought on this, another idea came to me which restructures research, in which colonies will produce major projects with long term effects, while ship research will allow you to use one-time effect. Or perhaps colonies and a player's ship could combine their effort to produce research.

Originally I had thought a player would be able to pick up at least one research card each turn, and once enough were collected, to be able to purchase a "super project" with game ending abilities (i.e. 5 construction + 5 research + 2 politics for a "fold space" card allowing you to move instantly anywhere on the map, even during combat.) with the reworked system, you might need 5 blue cubes, 3 green cubes and 7 coins to pick up a major card, less for minor.

4X: Paths to Victory

I would like each path to be supported by it's own research deck, to be mixed and matched. If I could have 5 of these paths, I could make correspond with a section of the player's ship, and adding another section as the bridge/life support, determine combat results with a die roll. I already talked about Combat, which could correspond with a fire control or gun bay section of the ship. With that disabled, a ship could no longer attack others, and its damage dealing cards would be ignored. It could still be attacked by others. Another path would be research/computers/information. This deck would allow a player to draw more cards from the decks, perhaps draw two, returning one to the bottom of the deck, the ability to choose an extra card from a different deck for the rest of the game, or drawing 5 cards from a single deck, keeping one and returning the rest in any order. Combat wise, a player could build smart weapons, which could modify the combat dice. I would have a politics deck, which will include cards allowing you to steal research from other players (as spies) or make allies to share technology, use their colonies to repair, or combine forces in combat. A construction deck to improve the sections of the player's ship and colonies. Again, this could have combat deck potential. (I could have a number of cards set aside, that would be added to the combat deck once a player uncovers the correct card.) Still thinking about my final deck.

4X: Combat System

I wanted to have a combat system different from the usual dice rolling I see in similar games, and having card based research naturally brought me to card based combat. Currently thinking of a system based on Donald X. Vaccarino's Dominion. A played would start with a basic hand, Say (x2) 1 damage dealing cards (Basic Laser) (x5) 1 damage preventing cards (Basic Shield) and (x3) Misses to foul up the hand. When facing another player, each will draw 5 and compare - lasers will deal damage, unless negated by a shield. Damage will be dealt both ways, and an attacker may regret his decision. The defender may choose to continue the attack, or may choose to disengage. Through research, better cards may be added to the deck, from pure damage dealing or prevention (advanced laser, advanced shield) as well as special effects, such as a tractor beam to prevent enemy disengagement or guided missiles to target specific systems on enemy ships (something I'll expand on in a future post) Combat may also be engaged against assets belonging to other players (colonies) or to the set up of the game. These could have a set power (i.e. deal 3 damage, counter 4) and the player would need to draw a hand able to defeat it to gain control. After hands have been drawn, they will be placed in a discard pile, and a new hand drawn from the player's deck during the next phase. The discard would be shuffled back into the deck whenever the player needs to draw more to complete a hand of 5 (or more, if he has picked up a card that lets him do so from the appropriate research stack.) A player be able to rearrange his or her deck at a friendly location, replacing cards he doesn't want (such as 'miss' cards) for those he has drawn from the combat research deck. I would need some play testing, but I assume limitations could help the game, such as only replacing 2 cards per turn while in a docking station, with research improving this statistic, or allowing to do so without docking. I think I need to give some more thought on disengaging, and whether an attacker can simply reengage when it is his turn again.

4X Board Game - First thoughts

I am a gamer. Video are my entertainment, inspiration, and I hope that someday soon I can make a career out of creating art for games. About a year ago I was introduced to Settlers of Catan, and I feel in love. It was such a different experience than the Monopolies, Trivial Pursuits and other Ameritrash and I started looking for more of these experiences wherever I went. Snakes and Lattes was practically the only thing I went out for when I last visited my family in Thornhill, ON for 10 days. As someone who enjoys these forms of entertainment so much, I have my own ideas on what I would like to experience, and rather than keep it to myself, I figured it couldn't hurt to write it somewhere, even if no one is likely to see it, judging from my main art blog with it's 19 subscribers. ;) The latest idea floating in my head is about translating the 4X in space computer game experience into a board game. Conquering space is nothing new to board games, and I've played a few: Eclipse, Ad Astra, Galactic Encounters and Star Trek: Fleet Commanders come to mind. None of these, or others I've heard of, have a satisfying research system (with Eclipse being the closest) so I started thinking on how I could do it. Down to business: I think cards would give me the best solution for research. There would be several stacks to choose from, representing different fields of research with a general idea of what advantages these cards would have for the rest of the game. The game would have different victory conditions, such as focusing on combat or research, and these could be mixed and matched to adapt to other players or the cards you have been dealt.