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.

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?

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.

Starfleet Manager

Been to Japan for the Tokyo Game Show. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't as good as the GDC Eu + Gamescom combo are for meeting people, getting my portfolio looked at or for collecting swag.

After a few more hectic, 10 bed dorm room, days - I headed out to Seoul, where I'm writing this post from my room at a serviced apartment hotel.

I like it here in Seoul, and could see myself staying, if one of the game studios I've been giving surprise visits to and dropping my resume at decides to embrace me into their midst, despite the usual work permit, language barrier difficulties.

Korea Games Conference is next week. A couple of weeks later I'll head to Busan for G-Star to wrap up my trip in South Korea. If nothing changes, I'll be out of options but to start making real progress towards becoming a freelance illustrator.

Watching people play on the Tokyo and Seoul subways has been delightful, people of all ages and walks of life enjoying the same thing I do (and some even pay money to do sod maybe I'll have a slice of that in the future.)

Seen a few people play sport manager games, and started thinking about taking the concept and adding a theme I'd actually be interested in: Science Fiction.

Grand scale space opera to be exact - instead of recruiting star players to my fantasy soccer team, what if I micromanaged the promotion of spaceship recruits?

Batting averages replaced by damage reports?

Diplomacy with alien species, research fund allocation, communications with other players?

Developing the world in which these stats would "live" would probably be the hardest part, and the main reason this will probably be just another pipe dream. Maybe I could connect it with my sci-fi programmable deck builder game, which I still think about on occasion.

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.

Looking to the Stars for Inspiration

First, a confession: I forgot my game idea. I remembered it was a good one, so I came back to this very blog, and reading my posts sparked inspiration for a new round of ideas.

Been thinking about Race for the Galaxy and how they didn't introduce combat rules until the 3rd expansion. I hear it's a bad mechanic, but I like the idea of having a game in which you build your engine toward your goal without someone else tearing it down, though they can obstruct your way as they build their own.

To this end I have been looking at the Star Wars universe as my main source of inspiration, and chewing on whether there is enough in if I remove all the combat.
Political intrigue, trading via legal and illegal means, bounty hunters, and more go along in the background, so I think there is something to work with.

I've also been thinking of some of the 4X video games I've played, such as Master of Orion and Civilization and looking for ideas - possible victory conditions in particular.

As I was typing this, I actually thought to look some things up, and an idea sparked - what if instead of playing a supreme leader type of role players took the role of some sort of galactic criminal. Like Firefly, I guess? (Not a huge fan of the series.)

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.

Tutorial Level

An abstract idea has popped in my head, fallout from a past Ludology podcast, I believe.

Ryan and Geoff had been talking about the difference between board and video games, and how most people would want to jump straight into the full board game experience, without messing around with truncated versions designed to teach the game...

...What if a compressed version of the basics of the game would change how the main game would play out?

A simple example could be one timed lap of a race to determine pole position, but that would have a lot of player downtime, not cool.

Single cells organisms competing with each other to evolve into complex creatures, changing the game map and gaining special abilities according to performance is more along the lines of what I'm going for.

An Alien Defense Board Game

Been inspired to recreate the XCom: UFO Defense base building and financial engine aspects in a board game. If I ever take one of these games out of the idea phase, it would probably be something simpler, this is a good thought exercise and elements from it might pop up in other places.

The basic premise is for each player (2-4) to have start with a basic base, a few personnel - soldiers to fight, workers to build projects and scientists for research project. Each would start with an income as well as immediate finances.

UFO will pop up, players would need to intercept and shoot them down with fighter jets, then send in soldiers to grab artifacts.

Taking these artifacts back to their base, players would research them to gain money and special abilities that would make certain things easier, and give access to new buildings.

Eventually a game end event will occur, such as a mother ship showing up and players would have to work together to defeat it before checking who has made the most points, or something similar.

One of the interesting ideas that came from this exercise is the building / research mechanic: each project would start with a certain number, higher for bigger complexity. Each turn a worker/scientist on the project would place a counter, once the number is reached, the project it done.

Placing more workers would shorten build time, but increase cost, making it an important choice. 

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.

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.

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.