Follow + Worker Placement

Combining the leader/follow mechanic of Puerto Rico / RftG etc. and worker placement to influence the individual phases.

Every phase will always happen, but players can place their pawn in a space next to a phase to change how it works for their benefit, such as improving income or turn order.

Freemium combined arcade cabinet

What if we brought the free to play with micro transactions business model to the traditional arcade?

What if we combined a racing game cabinet with a light rail shooter, to emulate the car chase scenes we see in movies?

These questions have been running through my mind lately.

A new player could sit down at either the driver or passenger seat, grab the wheel or a gun, and select one of the few stages or weapons available, to start playing. After completing a mission, a card would come out (or a direct link to a mobile app?) which would store player data, allowing a player to keep score and unlock new play options. A timer would then start counting down to the next free session (keeping an interested player within the arcade or nearby shops) or one could pay to continue. One could also purchase cars, tracks, weapons, cosmetic modifications, music tracks and more, pair up and compare stats with other players, locally and globally.

A Passing Parcel Game

Played Unlocked yesterday, one of the physical board game takes on the escape room genre. It was fun solving puzzles as a group, but I'm not sure I'll dare do a real one, even though I have some friends who have asked me.

Anyway, back on subject: there's no replayability to the game. Once you solve the puzzles, there's no way to change the clues. It's similar to a legacy game in the regard. As soon as you open envelopes, stick on stickers and modify the board, there's not much else you can do with it.

Could you make a game in which you are presented with a puzzle to solve, but once it is done, you'd change something about it that will give a different experience to the next group that solves is, maybe even so far that a few playthroughs by other people will change the game enough that you could play it again yourself, without already knowing how to solve everything and how it ends?

Co-op Minis - Kaijus

A kaiju theme for the co-op minis game I came up with.

Take command over policemen, soliders or super sentai heros to defeat mini-bosses until the conditions are right for the main boss to arrive

Maybe everyone controls a different team of plucky teens that turn into themed super heroes (i.e. Masked B-Boys, Construction vehicle robots or natural elements, including weird ones like mud or clay) and have squad cars or attack helicopters as support units

Harass monsters to enrage them for different abilities and to guide them to preferred locations. Complete different goals such as rescuing citizens and saving as many buildings as possible, while ultimately still needed to defend the boss.

Spaceship MMORPG

Would it be interesting to have a sci-fi MMORPG where you play as crew of a spaceship?
I'm thinking something along the lines of a Battlestar or Enterprise, and less like a space version of Guns of Icarus.

The big selling point would be the need to pass tests if you want to take part in the more interesting missions aboard. Similar to the story mode of Gran Turismo in which you had to pass tests with a certain grade to earn the right to participate in races, so too will you need to try a flight simulator to be a fighter pilot, or earn a certain score in a mini-game to have a mechanics license to repair or modify certain parts of the ship.

Those in leadership roles might need to assign manpower and resources to accomplish their goals, so there might be a limited number of fighter pilot positions available, and only the best scorers might be chosen to fly out to fight threats.

Cooperative miniatures game

Is there a cooperative miniatures game out there? Most are based on the idea that you build a force and fight against one other player, which I can see the appeal of, but it also seems limited to me.

Board games have themes that go far beyond that, and explore a wider array of mechanics, so why not bring more of that into the hobby of collecting, building and personalizing your own force. Even as I've been writing these words, I've started thinking about the viability of collecting farming miniatures for a game. :D

An idea of thought of last night while writing about lore in games was a game inspired by SRPGs - starting out with a force of low tier soldiers and evolving them through combat experience to specialize in different roles - think Disgaea or Final Fantasy Tactics. You'd bring a squad (say, 3) of soldiers into playing field, and have the board game set up a scenario for you and a friend or 3 to get through.

A base set might have one or a few such scenarios, and a couple of options to evolve your characters - say from a grunt to a brawler, archer or cleric. Further expansions might through new scenarios, enemies and character evolutions to build on the experience.

Lore in Board Games

The second expansion of the third Race For The Galaxy arc recently showed up on my radar.
I started thinking about lore and stories in board games.
Some games tap into the rich lore of big IPs such as Star Wars, the Call of Cthulhu or Song of Ice and Fire.
Some games are a one time experience of pushing tokens across a board.
There aren't too many games that explore deeper story lines the way RftG attempts to do, and I'm not sure how well it succeeds in the attempts, with most of the gameplay revolving around combos of icons.

Legacy and campaign games offer more interesting examples, with storytelling done through changing the board and player abilities, leading to emotionally investing in the game.

I'd like to create a game with it's own unique lore, that will come through during gameplay.

Puppet Alien Avatars

Inspired mainly by Star Control and to a lesser degree Star Wars as well as Vangers, I've begun imagining creating a space opera game in which you interact with aliens through screens (similar to Star Trek as well, as to how ship captains would interact through view screens.)
The real difference would be in how each alien would be represented in a completely different technique - humans might be live action actors, while a friendly species might be portrayed like the Yip Yip Martians from Sesame Street, while an evil alien might be a hand marionette in the style of Barnaby Dixon, while others yet might be made of clay or other animation techniques, maybe even old school 8 bit graphics or more modern and familiar techniques.

Could be cool to have different freelancers work on different races, and see what they produce with loose briefs, then try to create the actual spaceship game objects in a similar visual language.

Also have some thoughts on the actual game itself, and combat in a truly 3D environment, ships slowly maneuvering to bring their guns to bear in similar fashion to naval tactics in the age of sail. Have I written about that before? I've had the idea for a while.

Slow E-Sport

As far as I know, all current and past e-sports have been fast paced.

Whether it is a run and gun shooter, a vehicle based shooter or real time strategy, fast reaction times are important, even if there can be a lot of strategy in choosing weapons or when to activate abilities.

I'm not very good at such games, so I've had a few ideas of slower paced games. I think they main concern is making it as exciting to watch as it would be for the players. People do watch chess tournaments, but even those have timers.

Time limits could be much shorter in a game, and still provide plenty of time to react and make tactical decisions, but that would depend on game mechanics.

Waifu Collection

Waifu collection

- Meaningful choices city building: Choosing certain buildings will block others from being built. i.e. good vs. evil; technology vs. magic.

- Strategic combat involving units unlocked from city building choices. Possibly squad based tactics

- "Splinters" to build other cities

- Trading of characters, limited to basic form

-One resource for real money, helpful in many ways, but not pay to win

-Quick playing sessions, so squad might be out. Puzzle? Battle Ogre?

-Mini games, such as fishing, for collection and resources

Shred: The Deck Building Game

Let's blow the dust off this little corner of the net and share some thoughts.

I am still floating ideas about my action programming deck building game. In a recent epiphany I realized I could use the fact I have a specific series of cards, corresponding to player choice.

This series of cards could be used as a new way of expanding the deck, making me think of mastering tricks and unlocking them, which lead to the theme of skateboarding (or snowboarding, bmx, inline skates, or any similar Extreme sport)

Basically the top level idea is that each player sets a number of cards down. Each player then flips a card, performs the action printed on the card, and passes to the next player. If a move is successful, a player continues on to the next card. If the player fails his move by ending in the wrong place (i.e. on a ramp instead of a rail) crashes into another player, or is crashed into, he wipes his sequence of cards and becomes a static obstacle until the next round.

At the end of a round, players look at their sequence of cards, and may purchase a new card fitting the pattern they created, or part of it (i.e. if a player played a straight, a straight and a right turn, he may add a deck to his card that requires two straights in a row.)

Cards would come in several stages, ranging from easy moves with smaller benefits, to more difficult maneuvers that offer greater rewards for a player who pulls them off.

I can think of a few options for an end game: one might be to add an 'ultimate' type trick to a deck and land it successfully. Another might involves a final round where the player who racks the most points on a single run (with each card in the series he plays have a numerical value towards that end) wins the game.

More to think about: Specific cards, and potential powers. Adding a counter to denote special abilities unlocked, especially for adding cards to a trick. Throwing unique player abilities into the mix.

Tailoring for platforms

I've had a few stray thoughts about games over the past week.
Claiming to want to make a AAA Mobile games is stupid.

If we look at budgets and earning, I just don't see a company investing as much to develop an IP on mobile on the same level as GTA V or Destiny, would be hard to get a return an investment as well - would mobile gamers pay console prices? Subscription based payment? Enough spending on microtransactions from whales? I know I wouldn't

Other areas would also lack. Graphics might come closer to claiming the same FPS or polygon counts, but you are still talking about a much smaller screen.

Would areas such as AI, storytelling or multiplayer support offer similar experiences as the big budget titles.

Controls will be different, and I think that trying to emulate a gaming pad on a touch screen is a lazy solution and a drawback on most games.

I think most people will agree that developing for specific platforms gives the best result.

That last thought reminded me of the other game related thought I had this week: facebook games are all the same.

Well, sort of. They come in several categories, all of which have a lot of samey games within them. The one I'm think about in particular is the strategy games: they all have base building, in all of them you have time counters for various resources, and they all have a real time element where you attack other players or NPCs. I guess they are still profitable enough to spew out, but I abandoned such games and have stayed away.

I think this platform could use some fresh new ideas tailored specifically to it.

One last thing - I've started entertaining the idea of getting a master's in game design from a South Korean University. I don't know which ones have good programs, what my chances are or if it will finally land me a job. I do like the fact there is a full ride scholarship including studying the language for a year and that it will give me a chance to revisit the country.

There's more pressure from my parents to just find a job, which is a breeding ground for these wild ideas, time will tell if this will take root.
Casual Connect Tel Aviv is next week, maybe I'll gain new insight there - I'll be volunteering, attending session, networking at parties, and hopefully collect some good swag. :)

Plenty of Ammo

2 Weeks since I've been back from Cologne, Germany, after my 4th GDC Eu / Gamescom.

Managed to get a spot as a Conference Associate again, and it was a blast seeing my friends and making new ones. Went on swag runs, took advantage of free food at parties, expanded my network, and yes, even played some games.

Brought a few games with me this year. Bought Orleans for myself and enjoying losing, Tier Auf Tier for my brother/nephew and even got a free game for free - Gremlins inc.

The conferences were a little disappointing. Most GDC sessions didn't seem that interesting, The games I was most excited about had exclusive videos rather than hands-on gameplay, and I didn't have my friend Alex to get me inside places.

I know I'm going to have a lot of inspiration and ideas from what I did experience, so maybe this blog will see the frequency of posts go up.

Having gained some insight on what makes League of Legends such an exciting e-sport, the first thing that comes to my mind is the lack of turn based entries for professional gaming.

The idea I'm currently mulling over is an arcade flight sim, with timed turns that play simultaneously, with challenges coming from choosing an aircraft and weapons to suit the play style, then carefully maneuvering the aircraft into the correct position, and predicting where the enemy might end up during his turn,

Who knows if something like that would be appealing enough to be as popular as Star Craft or LOL, even if I do make it, but that's the way it goes.  

The Game I Want to Play

I have 2 games on my mobile - Puzzle and Dragons and Terra Battle.
As a gamer I tend to give a lot of love to single games, especially when they are endless (although I'm fairly close to finishing the story mode of Terra Battle as it stands right now.)

I've been looking for another game to add, specifically one linked with Google Play Games, but nothing has made a significant impact quite yet. Maybe I'll learn of something at GDC Eu / Gamescom (Signed up to CA this year as well just recently) that will entice me.

While I have been looking, I've been looking through the data of popular games in various countries. South Korea has it's Kakao platform which doesn't work for me. Americans are generally more into the casual experience, while the Japanese have more hardcore games which is one of the reason they appeal to me more. I also appreciate the artwork and stories.

Looking at mechanics and genres, I came up with a mash up I might have fun exploring - Mixing collectible cards (with lots of sexy anime ladies of course ;) ) with city building and a dating sim?
It just seems that most, if not all, of these collectible card games end up in a turn based battle system, which made sense for physical games like Magic or even war, the card game, and I still enjoy it and think there's room for more, but maybe we can do more in digital media.
Some of my inspiration comes from the Suikoden series, where some of the characters you recruited during your quest build up shops and add mini-games to an ever expanding castle.
Another source of inspiration is what I consider my favorite JRPG - Thousand Arms, where improving your relationships with your female team members allowed to forge weapons with special abilities.

Maybe my game could have a sci-fi theme, where you build a space station, visited by various alien types, each must be persuaded to diplomatic relations in various ways in order to collect their cards and unlock new facilities of the station.

Post Conference Ideas

Bigor, the Israel convention for roleplaying, miniature, and board games was earlier this week, during the still ongoing passover holiday.

I've played some games I was familiar with, as well as a few new ones, including Yinsh, Cavemen: The Search for Fire and Kings of Israel.

Some were better than others, but the most influential so far has been the Pathfinder card game.

The idea of a co-op game where you can not only customize your deck to match your own style as play but help your teammates during the post scenario trading phase seemed different to me, and I started thinking about implementing and expanding this idea into video games.

I guess MOBAs have some of these elements of helping other people build their characters and form strategies to defend and attack on multiple fronts, but I think it could be pushed even further - if killing mobs gave out experience points to the entire team, which needs to decide on how to distribute it.

What if different characters were suited for different tasks, which would unlock equipment best used by team members going after different goals?

How about players unlocking abilities for their teammates but not themselves?

A game based on combat and magic linking all these abilities seems like the easiest and obvious choice, but I've also given some thoughts to some more unusual themes such as city building, or flying an airship.

Spiritual Successors

Played XCOM: The Board Game a couple of weeks ago. Fairly entertaining experience, especially when we barely eked out a victory.
This got me thinking about the game, which made me start a list of games I'll need to pay once I feel I've progressed enough in my career choice that I can relax at home... Might take awhile longer :/

It also made me think of the spiritual successors and clones for the original game, and whether this remake will spawn new ones. Maybe it will, or maybe it just isn't as innovative as the original and mobile games are where such things pop up now.

I've played quite a few number of these games, and rate them much higher than most reviews.
While analyzing what made these games appealing I started coming up with my own ideas.

The aerial combat of sending interceptors against UFOs always seemed on the slim side compared with the squad level combat - what if it had more depth to it?
What if there was ground combat element of using armored vehicles against a massive alien invasion, while still having squad based combat for terror missions or clandestine operations?
What if I used elements from the "chariots of the gods" theories and give an ancient Egyptian or Mesoamerican theme to such a game, shrinking down the geoscape but expanding base management into more of civilization building game?

Super villain guild - flavor

Going back to thinking about my programmable action deck building game, and the super villain guild leader theme.

There are a few mechanics and flavor ideas I don't want to forget.

a. Before regular play begins, players will choose a super villain card to add to their deck, in some form of bid, with some sort of balancing mechanic put into play - perhaps the one who chooses last gets to go first.

b. One super villain will be left over, and would dictate scenario conditions, special rules and winning conditions. A fun idea for that would be to have different artists prepare a small 4 pager comic to some back story fluff and cool art

c. The map will have area control aspects - each action would allow to place at least one cube onto an area, with certain cards improving upon this mechanic. Having a cube at a specific area would give certain benefits (influence,) having more cubes than any other player would give better benefits (control.)

d. Cube could be played to areas with influence (with a starting area designated by the initial super villain choice each player makes) or to adjacent areas.

e. Police cars and super heroes would foil player plans, by removing cubes, forcing discards, changing order of set cards, etc. These would be follow a specific rule set, perhaps with players turning a card at the end of each turn (AI)

Polar Opposites?

After finally going through the game trade publications I picked up at GDC Eu / Gamescom, a few new ideas started floating around in my head.

The one I am currently pondering most about is the possibility of mashing up the sandbox and point and click adventure genres.

In the former the player is given a universe and some tools to play with. Testing the boundaries, coming up with creative ideas and generally letting the players find their own way to have fun is what it's all about.

The latter has a very rigid and linear construction, and when the rules aren't followed, the player will find himself stuck.

I'm currently favoring an episodic approach to a possible genre bender: On one level the player will have a world to play with, but will unlock certain pixel hunting, inventory combining at designated points. 

One example might be a part of a pantheon of gods: Part of the game would involve building, populating and molding a world of your own, but to gain further skills you must perform fetch quests for the other gods working with you.

New theme idea

Popped into my head while thinking about Venture bros. and Sentinels of the Universe: giving my programmable deck builder a super hero (or rather super villian) theme.

Instead of exploring the galaxy or the wild west, each player would control an organized crime group, along the lines of the guild of calamitous intent, with a basic deck of henchmen to run around and create chaos in a city, gaining notoriety to hire more henchmen and eventually attract super villains with better skills, earn money and fight of AI police and superheroes trying to thwart them.

Drafthouse Poker

Came up with a card game using some of the rules of poker. Still fiddling with the rules, as usual, but I wonder how it would play.

Dealer starts by giving every player 2 face up cards. Antes up and draws 2 himself.

Places on of the cards next to his starting 2. Face down to keep it hidden, or face up to use it's ability.

The next player, in a clockwise direction may then fold or ante up. If he antes, the dealer then gives him his remaining card. He then draws another, chooses one to place and play continues.

When all players have 5 cards in front of them, the last card is discarded face up. All those still in the game reveal their hands, highest hand, according to poker rules wins the round. Dealer changes, play resumes.

Face up cards may have effects such as reversing play order, drawing an extra card, discarding and drawing 2 new cards, etc.

That part is still a work in progress.

Also considering changing the number of suits, number of face cards, number of number cards (will those have an effect as well?) and with the names of the cards, just to make it a little more unique.