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.

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.

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.

New theme for my game

Been playing around with the theme for my programmable action deck builder, changing it from a space opera to a game about going an expedition to explore north America, in the same vein as Lewis & Clark.

Players would start at a major city, a set amount of money and supplies and a basic deck. Before heading out to explore, they would bid on a random set of cards to enhance their deck, with the player who payed the least (or has the fewest cards, or a similar device) starting first.
Each player could move forward at least one space. Those falling behind could move faster, as the territory was already explored, giving a bit of a catch up mechanic and something players must consider. Those discovering new territory would also flip over an event card, with various beneficial, harmful or neutral effects.
Moving would also exhaust supplies which would have to be replenished through hunting or bought at various checkpoints (towns/forts) along the way.
Recruiting people such as European traders or native guides would also be an option along the way, with these having benefits over the basic cards.
Some cards would go onto a players board, rather than into his deck, giving a permanent effect.

Finally, the length of the game could be changed to suit players wishes by giving different paths to explore.

Musician brand - another thought exercise

Went to the GameIS convention last week.
Didn't really change anything about how I feel about the Israel game industry and my chances of breaking in through it. Brought my portfolio, but only showed it to a couple of people. Met a few familiar faces and a few new ones, collected the few freebies available and sat through a few sessions.

One of the sessions talked about music in games and how difficult it is to license for a low budget production. On the other hand, using the name/image/brand of an artist is easier to accomplish, and adds theme to a game.

This lead me to think about board games, and if that can be applied.
I'm sure there are board games out there with a musical theme, mostly of the party / trivia variety, but I can't think of anything that uses a personality like Michael Jackson or Ozzy Osbourne as a theme.
Been thinking if something like that could work.
Not looking for another Monopoly or Love Letter retheming, but something custom.
Probably something small in physical size, like a deck of cards and a few counters, with a set of simple rules that would draw non-gamers into the fold.

Stripping the Theme Out

My deck building programmable action card game is still popping up in my thoughts. I like the science fiction theme I started with, but I have some issues making it all fit.
Sometimes I think it is an entire race/culture you are controlling, but then I have an issues with the mechanics of area control.
Sometimes I think a player controls a space ship, but then I have issues with some of the player interaction.
Sometimes I think of a completely different theme, such as sailing ships at the age of exploration.

I think that stripping out the theme and concentrating on pure mechanics may be the way to go for now, and figure thematic issues once everything is ticking well enough for testing.

A track for laying down actions and having them unfold is a must.
Powerful deck customization is also important, with the possibility of adding or removing multiple cards from the deck in one turn, searching the deck and combining cards for powerful combos, etc. - something that Dominion still does very well.
I also like the idea of adding customization to the player board during gameplay.

Now to figure out how the cards could interact.

Narrowing the Playing Field

Been giving a lot of thought as to the all important basic actions one could perform in my game (which I think I'll start calling Starguments, after a funny exchange on facebook)
What I came up with, which also affects the game board, is a politics action for exerting control over the galactic house and the various planets, a navigation action for reaching and connecting these planets and a trade action for collecting bonuses from said connections.

Each player would start with a home planet of his color and a connection to the planet where the government is seated.
The full board will be build from modular components selected by the players according to their actions in the initial tutorial phase, as well as choose their unique alien race with it's specific powers (and goals?)
Tutorial actions will also allow for deck customization by replacing basic cards with randomly drawn powered up version, if the player so chooses.

Everyone likes lists

Things to possibly include in my game:

Galactic map - possibly modular

Tutorial - A short explanation of game mechanics that would double as a set-up randomizer

House of Representatives - area control type deal for various combos and end game victory points

Multiple victory paths - with some randomization available

Variable player powers.

Different ways to add cards to deck, i.e. playing an action that involves the house of reps may allow to add Politic cards, visiting cantinas may allow to add smuggler cards, visiting a starport for ship upgrades.

Player pieces moving around the board to collect cards and change spheres of influence.

Galactic Senate - Deck Building

The latest game thought exercise, the tutorial level thing, has brought me back to an older theme: that of a Galactic senate in which culture differences and language barriers pose obstacles to the players. Overcoming these obstacles in the best way possible is how players make points and win the game.

Originally with a worker placement mechanic, I'm now mulling over deck building to tackle the theme.
One way in which it differs from Doiminion and company is that instead of purchasing cards with a hand full of treasure, you would need a card that speaks the same "language" as a card you wish to add to your deck (or a crisis to solve?)
A second difference would be programmable actions, similar to Wings of Glory, where you need to place a card in advance to determine movement, and hope it works out the way you planned.
Finally, in similar fashion to Trains, cards will give you actions (and reactions) to make changes over the player board, such as persuading representatives to your cause, to affect scoring.

A Roll and Move Exercise

It's been while since I've posted, hasn't it?

It's not that I haven't thought about game design, although maybe I did think about it less.
My cardinal sins card game still comes up in my thoughts, with some variations on how it would play - sometimes it has a board, other times it's pure card based; Different ideas on what each card might do, etc.

I haven't been listening to the Ludology podcast over the past few months, yet as soon as I do, the ideas start flowing back.

This time it was a question directed towards the hosts - Ryan Sturm and Geoff Engelstein about whether any game mechanics are going to disappear in the future, or fall out of vogue .
Roll and move was mentioned as an unpopular mechanic amongst the hobbyists, and yet still prevailing amongst the general populace who expect it and haven't been exposed to better things.
So I've been thinking to myself how roll and move could be improved upon. The main problem is that it doesn't give any choice and the game ends up playing you rather than you it. You have no real control over which space you fall on in Monopoly or Talisman, while you can at least split the dice results in a game of backgammon.

What if we used this random element to determine our possibilities, the way the dice roll in Catan determines what resources are handed out (or whether the robber strikes again) regardless of who rolled the dice?

Roll the dice, move your pawn around the track, and from where you land have certain choices available to you, such as selecting a role you can play this turn? Would that work? I'll play such scenarios in my mind and look for more interesting ideas. Who knows maybe I'll combine it with earlier ideas in interesting ways, maybe even to an idea I could take to play testing.

Mechanics That Don't Make A Game

Drafting is still playing a big role in my pipe dream game ideas, I find the possibilities of completely changing how you play the game via the cards you are dealt exciting.

I have a problem though, it's not enough to make a game.

Trying to come up with a thematic reason to start a game with a draft has lead to the concept of a master and subordinate, one of your cards will serve as your main character, with powerful abilities to help you during the game. A second card would have more limited abilities, based on what it could have had if it was chosen first.

This idea has also lead to find uses for other cards from the draft: a starting building, currency or even a map piece.

From there I started thinking of settings. Starship captains for a sci-fi flair came first, but didn't seem to hold together very well. Wizards with apprentices came next and is a stronger idea, I think, but I also like the idea of demons vying for control until hell freezes over and the game ends, which is what I am playing with right now.

Just another game idea

Go to game night, play a few games, preferably ones I haven't played before, and get inspired.

Walk on beach and hone the ideas.

The one floating on top right now is a dice rolling and manipulation game with an online dating theme.

In a nut shell, you would start by selecting a character card to give you an initial set of dice to roll.

Then you would go on "dates" with other character randomly pulled from a deck, and try to match as many of your dice rolls. Each failure will get you closer to your goal of being the first to match all dice results with your 'date' or getting enough cats to be a crazy cat lady.

It's a fairly simple idea, maybe I should focus on something like that and really push to bring one of these ideas to completion.

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.

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.

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.

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.