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A trip down Denial

2023-01-07 / / 0 Comments

Pack your bags, we’re heading for a trip down “Denial”. So far, I’ve wrestled with my creative muse, wrangled with game mechanics, and tackled the near vertical learning curve of computer graphic design. I thought I had this game design gig licked until I was derailed by the insidious specter of Denial.

Recently, the design of the Arachnid game was going OK. I was at version #24 when I decided to change things up.I modified a few things to make the game more interesting, which seemed to be working. I also decided to tackle the biggest problem, quarterbacking, which can be a serious issue with cooperative games like mine. I scraped the shared tableau where players selected their actions, for individual hands of cards for each player. It would work similar to the hand of action cards in the game “Concordia”. This way, the players can manage their characters on their own, without an alpha player constantly telling them how to play. This seemed to work….sort of.

I ran through a few simulations of the game, but kept getting hung up at a certain point in the game. I would tweak a few things, then try it again, just to end up at the same impasse. I kept tweaking, and running tests, but amazingly, something would always distract me or I would discover something else that had to be fixed around the same time that the strange flaw would appear during the game. I even put the game aside for a while, hoping the flaw would somehow work itself out. I was in a serious state of denial.

It took a lot of effort and a little soul searching to finally face the fact that the game was currently broken. My new fangled solution to the quarterbacking problem just didn’t work. Reluctantly, I scraped the new card based action system and replaced it with individual player boards with worker placement spaces. Not only did this get the game back on the right track, but it proved to be a more flexible system, while still reducing the quarterbacking issues. I had wasted a great deal of time and effort because I didn’t want to admit to myself that the game was broken. It was surprisingly easy to lie to myself, rather than face the possibility of a long hard path in front of me.

Designing, whether it’s machines or board games, can be a really fun and challenging endeavor. It can also be an arduous and tiring task. Those are the times when we’re tempted to overlook the flaws or settle for something that is just barely good enough. It is important to recognize these biases that arise during a design. Taking an impartial look at your project through another person’s eyes is a simple concept but it is definitely not easy.

I’ve gotten over myself and busted through the latest wall of Denial. The design is back on track. I hope, after all of this, the game works well. I guess the players will have to decide this for themselves. Just like Martin Luther King Jr said, I just have to “keep on keeping on”.

Fix’n Moonshine Empire

2022-12-18 / / 0 Comments
Moonshine Empire on BGG

I finally got my Kickstarter copy of Moonshine Empire. The components were top notch, the artwork was good and the game tray holding the components was very handy. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t as smart as it looked.

The characters in the game were portrayed a dim-witted country yokels with teeth missing. This was a a bit too cheesy for for my taste but I was willing to overlook it if the game played well. The movement mechanism seemed really cool because you could chain together various modes of transportation for some really great plays. In reality, however, it was very difficult to accomplish any significant chain of movements. The swamp tiles, which you get to explore, looked like fun until we realized that they tend to beat up on the players and some were so punishing that they could cost you the game. The rewards for exploring these tiles were minimal, so we avoided this part of the game. Finally, the randomizing of the turn order before each round was a real pain in the butt and had a very minimal effect on game-play. Overall, the game was very mediocre.

This game had many cool items and could potentially be a lot of fun, so my wife and I decided to tweak the game to try and fix it. The first thing we did was cut out some of the components we didn’t like by removing the following:

  • “Fix a Moonshine Still” tile – this tile trapped you until you removed one of your stills. This is a game-ender if you only have one still.
  • “Find an inventor who Needs an Idea” tile – this tile traps you until you discard an upgrade card. If you don’t have one you you’re stuck until you win one at auction, just to give it away. Another game-ender.
  • “Hire a Sneaky Thief” cards – Stealing half of another player’s cash just didn’t seem like fun for us.
  • “Steal an Upgrade” cards – These didn’t seem like fun either
  • “Mix it Up” cards – These allowed a player change the player order. They just seemed ineffective and not worth bidding on.

The first thing we need to do is tweak that really cool movement mechanism. During set-up, we decided that each player will get one additional vehicle which they don’t already have and place it anywhere on the player-board on the appropriate terrain. According to the current rules, whenever a vehicle makes it to Pappy’s Tavern, it is removed from the board. Instead of this, the player who is last in player order (last to move) will place the vehicle anywhere on the board except on the outer edges. These two rules should get more vehicles in circulation, which should make for some interesting moves.

The turn order is the next item to be simplified. In the original rules, the turn order is randomized each round. This is too often for something that doesn’t seem to have a strong effect on gameplay. Why not randomize the play order at the beginning of the game then alter it each time somebody makes a delivery to Pappy’s Tavern. Whoever made the delivery would take the position at the end of the queue which will let them go first in the auction and last in movement. All of the other players will shift down to suit. This should provide enough variability in player order, reduce the administration, an opportunity for the players lagging behind to catch up.

Finally, there should also be more of an incentive to explore the Swamp Tiles. After removing the two tiles mentioned earlier, there are still three red tiles left. These tiles should be included in the other tiles used each game while setting up. Each time a player reveals a red tile, they can take an Auction card from the top of the Auction deck. This might make it more worthwhile for a player to explore and flip over the Swamp Tiles.

Hopefully these changes will make the game much more fun to play. If anybody has tried these house rules, I would love to hear how it went. Please leave your comments below.

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.

What’s New Under the Hood

2022-11-06 / / 0 Comments
Nova Raiders version-20

Nova Raiders version #20 has some new features. So far, they have tested well enough to show off in the next On-Line Protospeil coming up in January. The game has been streamlined and has a new dice engine. It still needs a little tweaking, but is is coming along quite nicely.

I had originally considered abandoning this game because it was a bit repetitive, had a little too much “Take That”, and wasn’t really engaging enough. While playing the game with a game developer Chris Chung, we came up with the idea of drafting the dice rather than constantly re-rolling a set of your own dice. This sounded like a great idea, so I started to come up with a dice drafting mechanism to suit. It had to have the following attributes:

  • It had to be simple and fast
  • accumulation of bonuses must be possible
  • players could use more than one die on their turn
  • a player can’t be faced with no movement options on their turn

I started out with a public pool of dice (The Power Market) which each player draws from on their turn. They then add the new die to their personal power bank, and decide to use any or all of their dice to move. Any spent dice are re-rolled and added to the public pool. Bonuses are enabled as the power banks fill up, so a player can sit back and try to build up a killer combo. This gave the game a nice syncopated rhythm and allowed for more strategic play.

The original “Hijack” move had to be modified. It was too punishing, too complicated, and didn’t allow for an easy counter-attack. Players can still land on another player’s ship, but the attacked ship is simply bumped around the orbital ring onto the next open spot. This allowed for a possible counter-attack, and was much more fun.

The game, however, got a bit more aggressive. It became much more challenging to bring home stacks of energy, so I had to modify the time track to speed up the game. I also eliminated the “Expansion Rate Track”, which was too complicated anyway. The time track is much shorter and is advanced each time any player brings in an stack of energy to their dock. This gave players some control over the game pace and added more strategic possibilities.

Overall, the game is much more engaging and might be more appealing to hobby gamers. Players can chose to play with the simpler movement rules if they want a lighter game, giving the game a broader appeal. Let me know if you want to try it out, I’m always looking for play-testers.

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Voices in my head?

2022-05-15 / / 0 Comments
The Sheeny-Man Game

My head is a scary place lately. I’m supposed to be working out the kinks of my latest game “Arachnid” and finalizing the rules, but I keep getting distracted by two new games in my head, just itching to get out. I’ve put a couple earlier games on the back burner for now so I can concentrate on the latest one, but these two new games are coming together as if they’ve got a mind of their own. Here’s a peek at one of them.

Sheeny-Man

Sheeny-Man will be a card based game that has a two-phase turn system. Each player, in turn order, will perform phase one, which will be two actions from a list of three or four available. These actions will include “Pick’n” to collect items, “Shift’n” to arrange them on your tableau (Your junkyard) and “Swap’n” items with other players. There will be a unique method of set collection and a super simple but effective market mechanism. Turn order will be tracked by the “Sandford and Son Pick-up” first player marker which is passed to the next player after phase#1.

The second phase will be led by the previous winner of the “Gavel”, rather than the next player in turn. This is where a player can auction things off to other players, sell items at the market and then auction off the “Gavel” by itself, or auction off various power-ups which become available in the later part of the game. The player with the “Gavel” will have an edge when auctioning the power-ups and can only sell their valuable sets of merchandise when they have it. This will make the “Gavel” a very desirable item. It is passed to the winner of the Auction, ending phase#2.

The next round will be started again at phase#1 by the player who has the pick-up marker. Phase #2 will then be initiated by the player who holds the “Gavel”. It is possible for one player to have both items, which could result in a powerful turn.

Timing is crucial in this game. The value of your items will fluctuate with the market, there will be times when you really need that Gavel, and don’t forget about the “Market Crash” which happens near the end of the game.

Accurately assessing your opponents is also important because different phases of the game are triggered as players fill their mattresses with money. You need to anticipate when somebody is going to trigger the market crash or the final phase where the market is declining again and you must hurry to sell off your items before they become valueless.

There should be a lot of fun decisions in this game. For example, when Pick’n at the dump you might find a “Diamond Ring”, but you could also find a “Dead Possum” which will actually cost you money to get rid of. Don’t worry because you can always auction off the possum to another player who’s desperate for that “Gavel”.

Stay tuned for Sheeny-Man…..At tables near you.