Tag: Board Game

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.

Well, That didn’t work!

2021-09-05 / / 0 Comments
Arachnid Version 8 – Rework

In the previous version, I decided to eliminate as many constraints as I could and let go of the reins. As the playtest started, I eagerly anticipated the game moving along like a run-away stage-coach at break-neck speeds……but I think the horse may have fallen asleep. The most insightful comment was “The best part of the game was the teach”. In other words, the game was full of promise, but just didn’t deliver on any of them. I had to call it quits early again because the game just wasn’t progressing. The economy was also dysfunctional, one player just couldn’t get things rolling because of an early expenditure of energy to buy an action card, and another player experienced an over-abundance near the end. Much of the excess gains were just wasted, but in spite of this, the players, still, couldn’t do what they really wanted. The energy track and maintenance costs were simply not working.

I know there are some fun bits in this game, but the players just haven’t been able to get to them. It’s time to take a serious look at the economy of the game.

The second problem, of excess resources, is easy to fix. A slight rule change regarding the incorporation of the bug hexes into a player’s web and a different distribution should correct this problem. These tiles will also be double sided so that their function will be more clear. The broken economy, however, is another story. I’ve often heard the expression “Sometimes you have to kill your darlings” as it pertains to game design. I decided to take out what I originally thought was the most crucial part of this game. The Energy track, along with the maintenance costs are being eliminated.

There will still be some type of economy, but it won’t be an explicit energy track because the maintenance costs are unnecessary and punitive. Players can incur costs many other ways, like opportunity costs when they have to decide between one action or another, or spending resources or actions to gain new abilities. I will be reworking the action card mechanics in order to embed these costs in a less direct way. This might be a bit tricky but I’m sure it can be done.

Another thing that came up in this playtest, as well as the prior one, was the ability of spiders to move onto the opponent’s webs. I originally didn’t allow it, but I really can’t see why this shouldn’t be allowed. This can open up many strategic possibilities, and the opportunity cost of being on an opponent’s web, rather than expanding your own web, will help counter-balance this tactic. I don’t know why I didn’t allow this sooner.

It’s time  to move on to version #9. Hopefully the next game will make it all the way to the end. We’ll see what happens with the next major play-test.

Arachnid Main Page

Arachnid gets a Reboot

2021-08-17 / / 0 Comments

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I thought I was at the tweaking stage of this game, but when one of the playtesters’ most positive comments is “Well….I didn’t hate it…..” it’s time to take a good look under the hood and start yanking out the bad parts of the game. I know there are really fun bits in this game, but they are currently buried somewhere under  the convoluted, redundant and totally unnecessary mechanisms which should be chucked to the curb like a useless old tire.

I added a programming mechanism to the game, simply because I love programmed actions and I thought that the occasional time that you out-guessed your opponent would be really cool. This hampered the players actions and the structured turns required for the programming, revealing and execution of the actions slowed the game to a snail’s pace. It did much more harm than good…..Into the trash bin it goes!

I have this awful habit of trying to control the players behavior with more rules and constraints. These often go against the natural flow of the game and tend to handcuff the players so they can’t do what they really want to do. I have to remember that, if the game is designed right, it will keep itself on track and often control the players indirectly.

One example of this was the limited abilities of the action cards in this game. One let you “spin” or create a web space, and the other reinforced the frail web spaces to protect them from occasional weather events. I limited these actions to one or two spaces. This handcuffed the players and made them feel that they couldn’t build their webs fast enough. The tight energy economy and the physical limitations of expanding adjacent to the player’s spiders already limited the actions, so the explicit limits were unnecessary. I removed these limits on the cards so the players are free to expand as fast as they want. The limited resources and physical limitations are enough to keep the game in check.

The convoluted turn procedure of placing, programming, and revealing the cards is gone. The players simply play a card and perform an action. This will greatly speed up the game and let the players concentrate on the area control and engine building mechanisms of the game. One of my worst ideas to date was a randomized turn order for each turn. It was supposed to balance out the first player advantage, but all it did was confuse and irritate the players. This was abandoned at the beginning of the play test and replaced with a first player pawn which was passed forward with each turn.

The individual spiders each had a unique ability, but it was unclear exactly when to use it in relation to the action turn order. I eliminated these and moved these abilities to the action cards. This way, each spider has their own small unique set of action cards. This simplifies the rules and enhances the asymmetry of the various spiders.

The expansion of the webs was very slow. Players played cautiously and slowly without taking too many chances. This ended up causing a slow moving and boring experience. One of my playtesters “Bert” suggested providing “bait” spaces on the board, rather than letting the players place the bug baits wherever they wanted. This would incentivise players to expand faster and compete for critical areas. Thanks “Bert”, I have implemented something like this in the latest version.

Last of all, I’ve made a few graphic design improvements to clarify game play and create a more intuitive and cohesive look. All told, I think I’ve increased the play speed of this game at least twofold. This was necessary, in order to make the push-your-luck elements of the game really stand out. They were almost nonexistent in the last version because it was such a slog.

It’s now updated and ready for the next playtest. I hope it goes much smoother and is not just broken in a new and different way. LOL . Fingers crossed, I’ll see you on Tabletop Simulator.

Feel free to comment or just say Hi.

Arachnid Main Page