Eagle's Elements of Game Design Final Project Idea (tell me what you think)

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Eagle's Elements of Game Design Final Project Idea (tell me what you think) by EagleWulf on 10 Nov, 2013 07:39
Hey guys, this post is gonna be kinda long so you can tl;dr it if you wish. i take a class for my Game Design major called Elements of Game design and for our final project we have to create an analog game and perfect it in the coming weeks until the end of the semester. I have created not only the concept for it, but i have also set up the rules which (i'm hoping) i'll be able to attach to this post. if you are into games and gaming and care to read it, that would be great. any feedback in general would be really helpful. tell me what you guys think! thanks
Reply #1 by Kwaurtz on 10 Nov, 2013 07:47
Seems like an effective balance between ameritrash* and euro-game. I honestly like games like this. It seems good enough, and short enough time frame to achieve the balance between maintaining interest and not making it too short. I'd recommend changing some names of the classes, but aside from that it looks easy to pick up on but deep enough to where it drives political strife between players to make quick alliances.

*Ameritrash is not a insulting term, it is used in referrendum to a style of game that is focused on combat and direct player confrontation, IE RISK, Twilight Emperium, Arkham Horror, etc. Some of my favorite games in this catagory, its just the name that stuck with it because even with the utmost strategic planning, the fate still comes down to dice.
Reply #2 by EagleWulf on 10 Nov, 2013 07:55
Quote from: Kwaurtz on 10 Nov, 2013 07:47
Seems like an effective balance between ameritrash* and euro-game. I honestly like games like this. It seems good enough, and short enough time frame to achieve the balance between maintaining interest and not making it too short. I'd recommend changing some names of the classes, but aside from that it looks easy to pick up on but deep enough to where it drives political strife between players to make quick alliances.

*Ameritrash is not a insulting term, it is used in referrendum to a style of game that is focused on combat and direct player confrontation, IE RISK, Twilight Emperium, Arkham Horror, etc. Some of my favorite games in this catagory, its just the name that stuck with it because even with the utmost strategic planning, the fate still comes down to dice.

thank you! haha i'm glad you like the idea. and yeah, stuff like names and details like that i will definitely change in time, right now it's all kind of sloppy because it's in its beginning stages. And yes, i was hoping for it to be a very political game, each player has to plan out their attacks very carefully based on the identities of the other players. i'm hoping that despite everything being based on the roll of a die, there's enough strategy involved that players feel like their choices matter (i mean, i think they do).
Reply #3 by Christovski on 10 Nov, 2013 13:11
Seems interesting enough
Reply #4 by Leninade on 10 Nov, 2013 16:04
Issue I see with it is that this game could potentially last all of 5 minutes.

Some of the effects cards are just blatantly too strong, or at the least, there aren't enough cards to dilute them. The identities are also pretty unbalanced. Some of them are ridiculously strong, with absolutely no drawbacks. On the other hand, some classes are basically just counters for the other classes, which creates a sort of nuclear war scenario, where now one player will basically never use their ability because the other player can counter it for something even stronger.

As for potential alliances, in all honesty, depending on which classes are dealt, certain classes could basically ensure that they are the only ones left after a few turns, simply because the other classes can't really perform as well.

So, I think it's a decent start, but you might want to run through some scenarios for max damage a person can do in a single turn, and decide on whether or not that's fair. You also should probably throw some +/- attributes to the cards and identities to keep it a bit more interesting. You might also want to consider limiting the number of effects cards a person can hold at one time (like 2/3), which would also solve the problem of all the cards disappearing if players horde them. 40 cards is also not really a whole lot in terms of RNG.

Last, but not least: The way this is set up, it is very "math" intensive. Speaking from a classic Risk players standpoint, that kind of stuff gets old reeeeeeally quick. It also creates a natural barrier towards younger people who might not be able to either do the math, or be able to do it quickly enough to keep the flow going.
Reply #5 by Kwaurtz on 10 Nov, 2013 19:09
Quote from: Leninade on 10 Nov, 2013 16:04
Issue I see with it is that this game could potentially last all of 5 minutes.

Some of the effects cards are just blatantly too strong, or at the least, there aren't enough cards to dilute them. The identities are also pretty unbalanced. Some of them are ridiculously strong, with absolutely no drawbacks. On the other hand, some classes are basically just counters for the other classes, which creates a sort of nuclear war scenario, where now one player will basically never use their ability because the other player can counter it for something even stronger.

As for potential alliances, in all honesty, depending on which classes are dealt, certain classes could basically ensure that they are the only ones left after a few turns, simply because the other classes can't really perform as well.

So, I think it's a decent start, but you might want to run through some scenarios for max damage a person can do in a single turn, and decide on whether or not that's fair. You also should probably throw some +/- attributes to the cards and identities to keep it a bit more interesting. You might also want to consider limiting the number of effects cards a person can hold at one time (like 2/3), which would also solve the problem of all the cards disappearing if players horde them. 40 cards is also not really a whole lot in terms of RNG.

Last, but not least: The way this is set up, it is very "math" intensive. Speaking from a classic Risk players standpoint, that kind of stuff gets old reeeeeeally quick. It also creates a natural barrier towards younger people who might not be able to either do the math, or be able to do it quickly enough to keep the flow going.

RNG is looked down on a lot however. At that point it becomes a matter of tact and strategy versus 'lets draw and see if it winz lulz'. I mean, if we look at other analog card games, magic is a great comparison in terms of playstyle, they are similar, this is just a lot simpler, and magic depending on the format, is limited to 40 cards as well. Games should be based on careful mathematics and planning and not the luck of the draw.
Reply #6 by Leninade on 10 Nov, 2013 20:30
Quote from: Kwaurtz on 10 Nov, 2013 19:09
RNG is looked down on a lot however. At that point it becomes a matter of tact and strategy versus 'lets draw and see if it winz lulz'. I mean, if we look at other analog card games, magic is a great comparison in terms of playstyle, they are similar, this is just a lot simpler, and magic depending on the format, is limited to 40 cards as well. Games should be based on careful mathematics and planning and not the luck of the draw.
Which ties into my other point, you either need to make those really good cards harder to get, or throw in some kind of downside so that you can't draw a few of them and basically instawin.

This is less about being random and more about just balance in general.