Category: Arachnid

The spider game.

The Arachnids are Back

2022-12-06 / / 0 Comments
Arachnid v25 by Roger Meloche

The Arachnid game has gotten a serious overhaul. Version #25 created on “Tabletop Playground” is shown above. In spite of all the changes, the theme remains the same. You are part of a colony of intelligent spiders living in a missile silo. You struggle to survive, and fend off waves of invaders as you build your web and try to solve the mystery of “The Red Beacon”. You must unlock and activate the launch beacon to start the new age of Arachnid. Time is limited because the “Hoover-Bot 3000” is getting closer and closer to the web, threatening to destroy the colony in a horrible “Hoovergeddon”.

Under the Hood

In the previous version, the actions were performed by a worker placement system. The quarterbacking, however, became a problem, especially when there was an alpha player or one player more experienced than the others. A completely open system just provided too many opportunities for quarterbacking. I decided to go back to an action card system, much like the one used in Concordia. Each player has a hand of cards representing various actions. Each round, players select an action, then they are simultaneously revealed. The players can discuss a general plan of action before they select their cards, then debate the order the action cards are used after they have been played, but they cannot tell another player which card to choose. That is the intent of this new system, but we will soon see if this actually works.

The prior version of Arachnid also had too many moving parts and the administration was excessive. The AI used to activate the “Critters” invading the web and Flies being trapped has been added to the ever growing scrap pile. It involved of a bag of chits, a die with a weird action table, and an action track. This, combined with various scripted behaviors of the Critters resulted in a ridiculously overcomplicated system. Players used to flip over rocks as well, revealing some bonuses as well as new Critters. All of this is gone. The new “Event” deck will be used to trigger Critters invading and Flies hitting the web.

Better Decisions

In the prior few versions, players flipped over tokens as the web was expanded up to them. They contained bonuses, keys to the Beacon, and new Critter Spawn points. This did the job but the game decisions were too obvious and even a bit boring. These tokens were also eliminated in the latest version. Players still have to gain a number of keys to unlock the Launch Beacon, but it’s a bit more complicated to do this. There are a number of action cards available for purchase, but you can’t spend money or food to get them. These cards also have keys on them, and you have to sacrifice a portion of your web to gain the card. This is costly because you need your web to catch food and evade Critters. At some point during the game, players have to permanently discard these powerful action cards to unlock the beacon. Timing is important because you need the abilities of these cards.

Each card you play stays on the table until you play a “Rest” card to retrieve them back into your hand. This, however, will trigger the Hooverbot advancing closer and closer to the web. Do you retrieve that card you desperately need and get the colony one step closer to annihilation?

Will it Work?

This is an extreme overhaul of the game. It might just result in my own private Armageddon with the game going up in smoke. I guess we’ll find out soon. Fingers Crossed.

Broke Again – The Arachnid saga continues…

2022-05-15 / / 0 Comments
Arachnid version 20 by RogerDogerGames

The Arachnid game was coming along quite nicely. The cooperation between players works quite well. Each player tends to have their own speciality, but they also have to depend on each other to get things done. The mechanics are smooth and intuitive and the game length seems just about right. In spite of all this, I still went and broke the game.

Working out the earlier kinks made the game run smoother. Unfortunately, it started to make the game a bit boring and predictable. There was no compelling reason to come back and play the game again. The players had experienced most of what the game offered. I needed to inject some replayability into the game or it would just end up on the shelf after one play, never to be taken out again.

I started with the current main objective. Players have to acquire 4 or 5 keys to enable the launch button before “Hoover” ends the game by finally reaching the web. This worked fine, but would just be a boring repeat if the game were played again, in spite of the different ways the spider characters evolve during the game. I decided to mix it up a bit. Players can play their introduction game with the keys displayed on the corners of the hex shaped player board as before, but they can choose to randomize the positions in subsequent games and hide the keys under rocks. This way, a player never knows when lifting a rock, whether it will reveal a new ability, be one of the sought after keys, or reveal a dangerous critter. This will create some variability to the game.

I also decided to start working on the action cards, increasing the count, so that only a small subset of the total cards would be in play in any given game. This should greatly help with the replayability of the game. It’s a real challenge coming up with new and interesting spider behaviors and ways to implement them, but I’m slowly picking away at solving this puzzle.

The third way I plan on dealing with the replayability problem is by introducing different scenarios with unique objectives. I will address this after I work out the latest kinks in the game and expand the deck. Some of the new cards can even be specific to certain scenarios. I will get to all of this after I fix what I just broke in the latest version of the game.

One of the complaints from the paytesters was the excessive administration of the “Critters” during their activation phase. This caused a break in the rhythm of the game which broke the players immersion of the game. This needed to be dealt with, so I decided to simplify the critters to eliminate redundant behaviors and reduce the administration of these A.I driven beings. This is how I actually broke the game……BOOGERS…..!

Originally, as you tried to acquire the keys, you activated Critters from the same location which could start chasing you around the web or wreak havoc in other ways. There were some logistical problems with the new, hidden, critters which were revealed as you turned over the rocks so I had to change this. In an effort to simplify the rules, I decided that the critters would enter the web at one of the six points of the board. This would be decided by rolling the A.I. die, the same way as they entered when drawn from the event bag. This simplified the rules, but turned out to be a very bad decision.

The result was a reduced risk of exploring and acquiring things because the critters would enter the web in places that didn’t immediately affect the spiders. This removed almost all of the tension from the game and made it very easy to win. It sucked the life out of the game, just like a spider drinking a “Critter Shake”. I now have to backtrack a little and find another way to deal with the introduction of the critters as they are revealed. They absolutely must start out from the rock under which they are revealed. This will create a tense moment whenever a rock is flipped over. I don’t know what I was thinking when I eliminated this in favor of a simpler rule-set. I just have to find an elegant and intuitive way to do this. I’m always amazed at how easy it is to derail a game with a simple rule change. It’s time to put my thinking cap back on and fix this game, then start making it better. Piece of cake…..LOL!

More Bugs – Less Filling

2022-04-20 / / 0 Comments
Arachnid 19d
Arachnid 19 on Tabletop Playground

Arachnid has gone through some major changes to reduce the number of components, simplify set-up and streamline game-play. I was worried for a moment after I finally worked out most of the problems with the action deck and action board. Once the game flowed smoothly, I realized that there weren’t enough interesting decisions throughout the game. I thought this game might just end up on top of the ever growing scrap-pile of dysfunctional games.

I took a short break from the game before deciding it’s fate. After taking a fresh look, and getting some good input from my #1 playtester (my wife) I was able to narrow down the problems. To start with, the game was too easy to win and the path to victory was too obvious. The “Critters” attacking the web weren’t really much of a threat and the end-game countdown (Hoover) wasn’t very dramatic. This all made for a boring and predictable game. With just a few tweaks, I was able to turn all this around.

The main objective in the game is to acquire the four keys in order to unlock the “Launch Button”. I made this task more complicated so players had to work together or find different ways to get them. I added more Critters and gave them more interesting and dangerous behaviors. This really ramped up the tension in the game and forced some tough decisions between defending the web and acquiring the keys. Having so many things to do and limited time to do it, automatically, made the end-game count-down much more dramatic.

It looks like the game is back on track and it’s time to write a final set of rules. Writing the rules is an important part of the design process. It reveals logic errors and provides a completely different perspective on the game. I’m really looking forward to ironing out the final glitches. I just hope there aren’t any really big issues I’ve missed. The “Kinda” “Sorta”, simultaneous turn-order (but only if you need to…) is going to be tough to explain. This should be fun!

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Arachnid Version 19

Chaos Reigns in Arachnid Land

2022-04-04 / / 0 Comments
Arachnid Board Game v18 by RogerDogerGames

I’ve always enjoyed a little chaos in my games, and I also like simultaneous play. These two things are tricky to pull off in a board game, but I think I’ve done it. The new action selection board for Arachnid is shown above, and it seems to work well in initial testing. I guess I should start at the beginning.

The earlier designs of Arachnid (Versions 16 and 17) had been switched to cooperative mode which eliminated many of the problems of politics and the boring “tit for tat” play of the competitive mode. This, however, introduced a whole set of new problems specific to co-op games. Certain bits of the game were fun but the game lacked an overall purpose and cohesive theme. I was at a loss for words when a game developer asked what the hook was. Just being a spider wasn’t enough and the game was going nowhere fast unless I could pull it all together. I finally came up with a juicy theme and a “Raison D’Etre” for the game, with a little help from my wife who likes to vacuum up spiders and bugs.

Arachnid is about a group of spiders living in a nuclear missile silo. Through being exposed to radiation, they have gained intelligence and are working together to expand their web and gather the keys to the “Red Beacon” (Launch Button). This will bring on Armageddon and the new age of Arachnid. Meanwhile, there are a number of “Critters” constantly invading the web in ever increasing numbers. An ominous whirring is getting louder and louder as well, which is Molly the cleaning lady vacuuming up the dust and cob-webs in the silo. Will the spiders gather the keys and hit the launch button before molly sucks up the spiders in a in a horrible “Hoover-geddon”? You’ll have to try the game and see for yourself.

The spiders must perform various spider actions like building the web, reinforcing it to capture food, gathering the food and fending off the “Critters”. This was originally done with cards placed on an action conveyor, which is explained in an earlier post. This puzzle didn’t mesh well with the action on the main board and severely detracted from the theme. It also failed miserably with 4 players. It had to be discarded from this game and replaced with something more streamlined so players can concentrate on the gameplay on the main board. There were a few conditions that had to be satisfied with this new mechanism:

  • It had to be streamlined and simple
  • It had to be expandable and flexible
  • Players had to have well defined roles
  • Player roles needed to be customizable
  • Players needed a clear direction to avoid confusion
  • It would be great if simultaneous play were possible.

I decided on a shared action pool. Players each have their own colored actions which are played on their own cards. There were also some shared tokens and shared actions which provided some flexibility. Players can also purchase more action tokens or action cards which enhance their abilities. The pool has a default order of actions which can be overridden when necessary by the players when certain actions have to be played in a specific order. This may sound a little wishy washy but it actually worked. In fact, the last playtest resulted in the players playing simultaneously in the second half of the game. It happened naturally and it appears that the game may even go faster with more players that with just two. I have no idea how to write rules for this player behavior which seemed to organically come about during gameplay. I hope it wasn’t just a fluke, and that this chaotic behavior will remain a big part of my game. Only time and more playtesting will tell.

A cool Mechanism in Search for a Game

2022-03-30 / / 1 Comment
Arachnid version 17 Cooperative

This is a super cool card based, action selection mechanism. Cards are selected by players (or drawn from a deck) and placed on a conveyor. They each represent a action that a player can perform by placing their pawn on them. Each card represents an action with three different variations which increase in strength from left to right. The position on the conveyor will determine which specific action variant can be activated, as indicated by the arrows above the card. After an action is performed by a player, the card is removed from the conveyor, the remaining cards slide down to fill the empty spots, and new cards are added to the conveyor.

In the version shown above, there is an alternate action indicated by the circle in the centre of the card, which can be chosen instead of the main card action. The topmost positions can be activated but they will require two player tokens as well as additional resources in the top-most space.

In a Cooperative game, this makes for an interesting puzzle where the cards get cheaper to use and gain in power as they stay on the conveyor. Players can plan ahead by placing cards they might need on a later turn, but may have to pay a high price or perform a weaker action if they have to use the cards earlier than expected. I’ve also tried a simpler version of this in a competitive game which worked but didn’t quite fit with the game. Below is an image of the single player board.

Arachnid version 12 Player Board

Unfortunately, this mechanism just didn’t work with the Arachnid game. The main game is a tile laying and tactical skirmish game but the card conveyor impedes the game play more than it challenges the players. The two different puzzles just don’t seem to mesh. I had to remove this mechanism and replace it with an action point system with upgradable and expandable action spaces. This simple action efficiency system should help the game flow much smoother.

The mechanism isn’t lost forever because it is way too cool to throw away. I’m sure I can use this in a future game where it might fit just right. If you know of a game where a system like this is used, or you would like to use this in your own game, I would love to hear more about it. Comments are welcome.