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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.