Category: Games Cancelled

These games just couldn’t make the cut for one reason or another.

Even More Buggy

Arachnid Version #3 – 3 Player Mode

The game is coming along quite nicely. The first playtest didn’t go, down in flames as usual. The worst that happened was that one player got a bit bored, and the mechanics and components were much too fiddley. This is all fixable, especially with the great feedback I received.

I started by reducing the board size to encourage more engagement (less boredom) amongst the players. The action selection system evolved into a mechanism much like the one used in Concordia. I added the ability to play two cards if they interact with each other so it wouldn’t be a total rip off of the Concordia card mechanism.

Drawing the food tiles out of a bag turned into a neat push-your-luck mechanism. I originally planned on using a die, but threw the tiles into a bag because I didn’t know how many faces I would need. It turns out to be a pretty nifty push-your-luck mechanism if you draw them all out one at a time, then refill the bag when it’s empty. I added the “Wiggle” tile to simulate the potential bug escapes as well as the Swarm and Storm tiles which have drastic effects on game play. If the storm comes out early, it’s a free-for-all as players built their webs as fast as they can before the bag is replenished and the storm risk increases again with each tile pulled. This bag has also simplified all the awkwardness of the earlier implementation of all four of these mechanisms, random food selection, escaping bugs, periodic swarms of bugs, and the occasional storms that come along and damage your frail webs.

I’ve switched to simultaneous play with a turn marker which is just used to resolve conflicts. This will speed up the game quite a bit and provide a simple programming aspect to the game. (One of my favorite mechanisms.) I’ve also modified the game set-up and beefed up the child spider capabilities to encourage more asymmetrical play. The first couple of turns are similar but the play diverges quite quickly.

I’ve streamlined the play as much as I can and tried to incorporate all the complexity into the cards. This, I hope, will make make the game flow better, and be simpler to follow.

The next test will determine whether I have succeeded in working out the initial bugs. Even though I’ve run through it quite a few times myself, It’s hard to see all the potential problems that might arise with other players. Fingers crossed.

My next step will be to fine tune the player interaction once the webs start running up against each other. The basic gameplay needs to be fine tuned first, before we get into the nitty gritty.

If you want a peek, you can check out the Tabletop Simulator Mod Here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2552783520

A Little Buggy

Arachnid prototype By Roger Meloche 2021-06-28

Arachnid
You are a spider in a small area where other spiders (players) also reside. You build your web to capture food and expand your web as you build your small spider family, while defending your web from other spiders and competing for space and control. You are subject to the elements and interactions with competing spiders as well as periods of feast and famine, so you must always plan for the unexpected. Keep your colony on an even keel or you might slip into a rapid decline, or even a rapid expansion which could be just as bad if you’re not ready for it. You win the game by having the biggest and most efficient spider family.

At least, this is the way it plays out in my head. I have jotted down enough mechanisms, systems and components to choke a horse and have begun to sift through them to build a base prototype for testing. I’ve come up with some intriguing new mechanisms which are meant to constantly push the players toward chaos as they fight to maintain some kind of control over their spider family. It’s basically an area control / resource management game with a little “Push your Luck” thrown in. Oh yeah…I almost forgot…since it is my brainchild, there is definitely a little “Take That” in the game for fun. I hope it works because it sounds like it could be really fun. I’ll let you know when it’s ready to try on TTS.

Stay Tuned!

Roger

Fight Night in Canada is Added to the Scrap-Pile

It looks like the scrap pile is getting a little bigger. Fight Night has finally gone down to the mat and was counted out. The mechanisms were still really cool, and I’m sure I can re-use them in another game, but not this one. Fight Night had it’s moments, but there was a severe thematic disconnect which doomed this game to mediocrity at best. I’ve seen quite a few bouts, and I have never seen anybody squat down and punch somebody in the knee. This is what the mechanisms of the game were basically asking you to do. Although it was funny at times, this disconnect stopped the players from really immersing themselves into the game. The timing and the intensity may have matched a real fight, but the actions never seemed quite right. Lesson learned.

A Glimmer of Hope

Fight Night in Canada V9a (Temporarily Broken)

The first playtest of Fight Night Version #9 went off the rails. The hurriedly put together graphics were hard to follow, there was no clear player direction, and the mechanism’s in general were a little clunky and slow. The teach was horrible (My Bad) and one of the mechanisms was broken so bad we couldn’t finish the game. Ouch!

There is, however, a glimmer of hope. I witnessed the first emergent strategy in any of my games. The players were also immersed in their roles in the game, not through any story or art in the game, but by their behavior alone. It would have to be the behavior, because the art in the prototype is so cheesy. This is a sign that there is something intriguing buried under this current mess of a game. Yeah!

The first steps are to fix the broken mechanisms, then deal with the graphic issues, and finally guide the players a little better. This version of the game will be a test bed for determining player behaviors and looking for patterns.

Once I have more information, I can start looking at simplifying the game while adding more opportunities for unique player actions. This will come later in version #10. “Stay tuned to this station for further updates.”

Special thanks to the play-testers for their time and their valuable insights.

Where’s the Beef?

Looking at my latest iteration of “Fight Night in Canada”, I keep picturing that lady in the old hamburger commercial yelling “Where’s the Fun”. It’s in the game somewhere buried under a pile of pasted on mechanisms and ill fitting fixes. It’s time for some drastic measures, time to “Kill my Darlings”.

Lets’s start at the beginning. I came up with a really cool system of resolution conflict, combining dice and a type of area majority/worker placement. I had to find out from some local game experts if this has ever been done before, as well as show off my my new toy. “Fight Night in Canada” was born. I made a quick prototype and showed it to Moe and Sean (Of TabletopBellhop Fame).

Fight Night in Canada version 1a

It turned out that this is likely a new idea and it could be fun, so I decided to pursue it. After man play-tests and redesigns, I found myself at version #7, an over-complicated, sometimes fun, but way too complicated mess.

Fight Night in Canada version #7

I thought I had nailed it on version #2f, when I wrote the full rules with illustrations, but certain issues kept rearing their ugly heads, and no matter how many ways I tried to rework the attack dice. I just couldn’t give the players enough interesting choices without introducing too much complexity. After all, this game was nothing more than a simple two player “dice chucker”; a 45 minute teach was not acceptable for a 20 minute game. My last attempt (version#8) to streamline this mess helped a bit, but not enough. It’s time to take some drastic measures.

I looked at what worked well and put everything else, including the attack dice which were part the original foundation of the game on the chopping block. In design circles, this is known as “Killing Your Darlings”, a brutal but sometimes necessary part of a game design. I am keeping the defense dice but I’m “Chucking” the attack dice and any other component which is not working or creating complexity. Version #9, here we come!

I will post the new version as soon as it is completed so you can judge for yourself whether or not I was successful.