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Designer Divergence

Oh why, oh why can’t I ever finish a single thought?! I have a couple theories.

1. Every idea is golden

This is a straight up fallacy that a lot of people share. Especially the creative and artistic type. New ideas come through every minute. I can easily switch between reading about literal rocket science to how beer is made, then find some odd pattern somewhere, then get an idea to design an trick taking game where astronauts take tricks from 99 bottles of beer in a rocket ascending into space. There! New awesome idea. Yeah... No. The feeling that an idea is unique and fresh is the illusion that it’s golden. Like everything else it starts out unpolished. Time and effort and energy need to be put in to buff that bitch to a high gloss shine. And even then you may buff out the surface before getting that sweet smooth finish. I say every idea is like an egg. Incubate and foster it and it may grow up to be that golden goose you’ve been looking for.

2. Nothing’s ever good enough

The evil twin of the first point, ‘nothing is ever good enough’ may come from a lack of confidence in oneself. Or maybe just a lack of persistence to see something through to the end. Early adopters of ideas have a difficult situation. Move from flower to flower as each new opportunity blooms, or stay on something until something better comes along. Well, that latter part is the persistence issue I’m talking about. In my younger days I was that guy. Doing the new cool thing until I found something “newer” and “cooler”, apparently. Never staying on one thing long enough to see it through. And when I did, I had too many things on my plate. Now I’m in my late 30s and STILL doing the same shit. Lucky for me life filled in a lot of the gaps so I only have limited space for the things I love. I now have a huge appreciate for those that play the long game to better hone their skills and deepen their interests.

3. Time is on your side

Oh, the creator and destroyer of everything. Managing time is key as one gets older. Life, as I’ve mentioned, fills in a lot of slots leaving the bare minimum of free choice - for the lot of us who don’t have exorbitant amounts of money - and it’s necessary to get your act together or you’ll be spinning wheels for a long time. And when you’re in your late 40s you look back and realise SOOOO much time had been wasted. I’ve learned to slow down and “make” time to do the things I like at no cost to my obligations. Family, friends, work, food, sleep, commuting (for some). These things munch up a lot of the 18 waking hours we have on the average week day. As I say to my 6 yr old son all the time, “sometimes you gotta do the things you don’t want to do to get to the things you do want to do. So eat your dinner. I don’t care if you don’t like it!” My parents channeling though me, I suppose.

4. Blast from the past

Ever had an idea for something you have been fiddling or fumbling with for some time, but then left it alone? Yeah. I’m like that ALL the time. More so with my creative story writing and board game designs. That hurdle you just can’t get past. Can’t seem to see the forest through the trees. It’s hard to realise something when you’re too close to recognise its use. Jumping from game idea to game idea works well for me because I’ve done it so naturally with a lot of other things in my life. Sleeping on it sometimes help. Refocus by no focusing at all also works. Sometimes those treasures lie in another box you haven’t opened yet. Moving around helps keep things moving, keeps the gears lubricated. I’ll usually burn hard and deep on an idea until I feel myself reaching and manipulating answers just to fill in gaps. Best to stop there. If it’s not intuitively or mathematically apparent then you might be bogging up a good idea. Why be convoluted when you can be clear and concluded.

5. Leggo my Eggo, I mean Ego

That big balloon of gas we all call ego. Speaking to some I’ve heard that ego is ultimately a bad thing and not necessary for people to better themselves. I look at it as a supplement. Not like drugs or anything, but I guess you can relate it to that. A self esteem enhancer so to speak. A steroid. I understand the ego’s plight and we can all agree there is a fine line. The key is to stay humble whole being close enough to the line you can dabble in its head swelling greatness. ‘Everything is good’ so it’s on to the next pasture, even though it’s sometimes clear to everyone else this effort is half-assed at best. Toiling and tinkering away is not the egoists. Though one of the many facets of egoism is obsession. Well, that’s when good ole OCD comes out to play, but we’re not talking about that. Lack of ego puts you back on point #2. Too much ego groups you with point #1. How does one balance the scales? Self reflection, honest feedback and accepting failure is a start. Failure is a catalyst to greater things, and a little humble pie does the body good.

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I started this blog a month ago with a title and the first line. I had so much running through my head I wasn’t able to get it all out in words. As of this posting I sat for 20 mins and just dumped it all out in one go. No re-read, no skim and edit, no restructure. I wanted it to be a reflection of some of the things I’m sharing about myself and how I view my work ethic and creative process. A lecture based on self reflection. Excuse the grammatical hiccups I’m sure this post is laden with.

Hopefully some of you might find a nugget or two of truth here and realise you’re not alone. Stop. Breathe. Play a video game. Hug someone you love. Eat, sleep, take a long hot shower. Then sit down at your place of creative expression and just let it all out. Feels good, doesn’t it?

Cheers. 

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2am with the boy produces miracle game play

Yes. Another 2am development was in the making and this time I was accompanied by my not so sleepy son -- who was in bed, made a washroom trip and found his father in the office toiling away in the dark under a solitary desk lamp. The game in question; 52 Strong. Or, as I’ve been calling it since I’ve been fully awake, Quest 52 or Level 52. 

It began with a slow burn

I was in bed kind of early with the wife talking about stuff. Doing the end of day scroll through socials, recounting funny pictures and just plain winding down. As I began to zone out I found myself scrubbing through videos on my phone. Half awake I realized I was wasting time and figured I should read a few of my game design notes before I crash out. Maybe I can add a little more insight to a concept or train of thought. BAD IDEA!!! And I know this! Anytime I find myself trying to wind down by reading or viewing my own creative work it does the opposite. It’s like someone trying to put out a fire by throwing more flammable material on top to “smother” the flames. But I digress. Even if I’m dying out I usually find it a chore to really focus and I end up falling asleep with phone in hand (which eventually ends up on the floor, beside. Well, not this time. I couldn’t get my head around an old solitaire concept I started well back in April or May of this year. The premise; a turn based, action packed RPG card game that one can play alone, keep stats and grow their character while only using the same 52 cards. Each suit represented a land in the world I would create and every card was a unique creature or being. Items, Status, Magic, Gold, and Weapons were all stats the player can track and combine to conquer the world and become the greatest adventurer there is. 52 Strong.

There seemed to be 3 incarnations of the same basis;

A unique solitaire game with custom actions and rules not commonly associated with the classic card game.

A D&D style play with minis, tracking cards and dice.

A hybrid that leverages the classic card game rules as a foundation for game play.

The most recent one, being the hybrid, was vividly stuck in my mind. The original notes for the first incarnation seemed spotty and poorly explained. I needed to know more. I needed to retrace my steps to fully appreciate the jumble jargon I had written oh so long ago. And all of this ALL AROUND 1AM! Not so crazy, but yes, I’m crazy. After getting frustrated trying to reenact game play in my mind I got up and headed to the office to play it out physically. I figured out how to set up the tableau and balance the card count. So far so good. Then I tried a simple turn of hand. Clunk. Something was off. I reread my notes and reworked the player’s turn again, and this time was able to complete two or three hands before realizing the simplicity. Sweet, now I have my core mechanic. Time to build. As my mind flooded with What Ifs, I tried to streamline the flow of outlandish ideas that crept across my ever-turning mind. Each iteration was better than the last. More and more player options were proving themselves useful and it slowly became less and less of a draw-n-play type of game. It was evolving into a choice driven solitaire where fixed actions coupled with combo cards and equipment options where lives were on the line.

It keeps getting better

I was smiling. I was addicted. I wasn’t alone. My son had popped in after his washroom break and was just hanging about. I only really noticed he was paying attention when he started pointing out matching cards, and exasperate when I failed to land that critical move or flip an important card. He was learning while I was learning, and by the end of it all we were both playing to end the night on a winning note. After a few more attempts to clear a quest/level I finally did it. I beat all 18 quest card. I started a new quest, but how do I differentiate this from the previous one? Well, I was thinking either show more cards or have more lives. The game doesn’t actually get any easier, and I don’t want to take away any cards as all 52 have to be in play (for the math). The same challenge persists throughout the deck, but if a player can uncover cards previously hidden and strategically work through their hand with a limited knowledge of what’s to come might do the trick. Just like a veteran adventurer who’s traveled many lands and knows many ways around a cavern or two. Yes. That is it. All 52 cards are always in play and it’s a combination of the draw and player choice that can land a hero in the lap of luxury or pits of despair. Challenge seems like an inverse curve where it’s harder at the beginning. I don’t mind this, but I am going to take a crack of at a fully visible tableau (Final stage/level/quest or the game) and see if it’s any easier to win. Easier to navigate? Yes. Easier to complete due to ease of navigation? The numbers say so, but probability and the action deck (the face down deck of lives divided into 3 sets of 10) is still the X factor. That unknown makes up 30 of the 22 cards a player has knowledge of. This is going to be epic either way.

Playtesting continues.

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For most a new year has always meant a new beginning. For #adlinteractive a new season has begun. Starting off this year strong with a mixture of oldies & newbies. -- #gamedesign #newyear #newideas #conseason #conventions #adlgamelab

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The Perfect Game - Part 3

In this segment I plan to outline the original concept of my bowling game idea. Part 1 covers my card game idea. Part 2 covered the pure dexterity game version. In this third and final part, I will outline the original idea that spawned those two different concepts.  Through a series of cards and options, plus a little dexterity, people can play this game with varying degrees of difficulty.

Dexterity Plus

Dexterity Plus refers to the game being primarily a dexterity game PLUS other elements. The other elements are cards and potentially dice. I wanted the game to use calculations to simulate the physical experience, but thought it odd, as there is no physical interaction with the disc (ball token). So I thought to myself yes, bowling is highly mathematical but what I’m doing doesn't leave room for player consistency. So I added a dexterous element to the game that allows a player to simulate bowling the ball by flicking a disk down a lane. The disc must land in 1 of 3 zones, and based on the board and zone. Then ball spin and power outlined by card types come into effect, which in turn determines the impact point. This means the more consistent a player is at flicking the better chances they have at strikes and picking up spares. That is the general idea. The card types I mentioned play a baseline factor in the game. There are 3 types of cards in this game; Pin Action, Bowler and Ball cards.

Card Types

Pin Action - these refer to the pin action you get when you don’t get a strike on your first go. Each player, like in bowling, has two tries at knocking down all the pins. Upon your first go if all pins aren’t bowled over a Pin Action card is pulled. This indicates what pins are left and shows the required shot to pick up the spare.

Bowler - these cards outline the bowler profile. They are mostly open ended if players want to engage in the advanced version of the game. They do have fixed stats that determine the bowlers power, special ability, and additional condition. The player must refer to these stats when approaching certain shots or conditions in the game.

Ball - these fun cards have different types of balls with different difficulties, abilities and weight. When matched with a Bowler card, these stats drastically affect the way each player plays the game. And the variety of combination make for a different experience every time.

The card part of the game adds variety. When selecting bowlers and balls, players must consider difficulty levels which are indicated. This allows for more experienced players to compete against younger or new players to the game. These handicaps help make the game entertaining no matter your skill level. There are default combinations of Bowlers and Balls, but under no circumstance is that the only way to play. Players can blind draw or pick and choose, or even flip/roll/bowl for Bowler and Ball selection. It’s all up to you. 

The dexterity part of the game fixates on player consistency. Like standing on your markers, lining up your shot and hitting your boards and zones, and providing the right amount of pressure and angle. There is something physical about bowling that you can't just simulates with maths. In this game format mechanics will rely more heavily on dexterous consistency. 

The dice part of the game is really just a randomizer. It aides in setting up Bowler stats and meeting rolling conditions dictated by the Ball cards. Like a game of D&D it allows for that chance of landing a critical move at that precise moment. The right spin, the right board, the right power. An interesting adjuster that isn’t necessary to the game experience but can definitely enhance it.

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The Perfect Game - Part 2

Welcome back for a more in depth look at the designer divergence for my bowling game. In part one I covered what and how I’m going about working on this game. You can read Part 1 here. In this segment I started to break down each divergence and detail my approach, application and considerations.

Full Dexterity

Tabletop bowling games have existed for decades. And beyond the pine wood lanes we’ve seen adaptation in skee ball form factor, bartop shuffle board form factor and so on. In my version of the game, players roll their little disks down the a lane and into a set of slots in a box at the end. The slots represent the pin count. It’s trickier with a disc as it has an edge is can roll and bank on. This makes bowling a controlled event. Similar to the real thing. After getting the hand of the movement, players take turns flicking the disc down the lane into the slots. The narrowest slot in the center is, of course, a strike. The next one on either side is a 8-9 pin count. Next to that is 4-7 pin count and last, and widest is the 1-3 pin count. The scoring works exactly the way bowling would on paper; two turns per frame, any pin count higher than the remaining pins gets you the spare. Any pins left leave the frame open. Pretty straight fwd. What’s not straight fwd about my design approach is how I want these slots to work. At first it was going to be just pockets in a box with a wire dividing the pockets. Good idea to maximize the width and give more room per box, but if the disc hits the wire, what next? My solution would be the player is awarded the next pin count over. So if it hits the wire/wall between strike and 8+, they get the 8+. If it hits the wire beween 4+ and 1+, they get 1+. If they hit the wire between 1+ and gutter, it’s a gutter ball. To me it works. For others?  EEEHHH, not so sure. The other way would be to have no walls and have the disc drop into a slot. This reduces the bounce back condition. Now the wires/wall edge is horizontal, so whatever slot the disc drops into, that’s your score. This idea works a lot better for me. Even if the disc rides the wire initially, it would have to fall into a slot. That dictates the score. But what if the disc lays across 2 to parallel wires? I haven’t gone that far yet. I see the fun in this one because of the physical action required. But I also see the fault in this due to the lack of strategic planning, consistency and frustration.

Things to Consider

There are a lot of if conditions that I need to narrow down to make the game quick and fun but there is a lot of math that needs to be applied to simulate what control a bowler has at any given time during their turn. At first I was planning to simulate this whole experience using maths to calculate board travel, curve, weight and speed, but needed a random factor to simulate human inconsistency. At first the game was a dice rolling game but that already exists. Granted, mine is more simulated through the action and reaction of ball and pins compared to  where the dye itself determined how much left and right leeway Paul had, the over or under use of average power, and the bonus points to adjust ball upon travel. Left and right movements determine which board Paul was ads any of the three segments of the lane. Speed represented the impact power on any given pin and combined with the angle of Entry a fixed set of 10 to 14 different reactions for the outcome. It was a purely mathematical calculator game. 

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The Perfect Game - Part 1

Who here likes bowling? Even if you're not good at it bowling is an entertaining sport slash Recreation that I think everybody should play at some point in their life.

I used to bowl in a league for many years so I've enjoyed bowling at its most demanding. There is a huge psychological side behind the sport that I think a lot of people don't get until they start playing competitively. Though you're competing against other bowlers, the real challenge is within. The battle against consistency is real. Adjustment in power and speed, spin on the ball, lane conditions and background distractions are all factors to consider. It truly is an internalized sport. Other sport like archery, golf and swimming fall into this category as well.

So what makes bowling fun? Well, I think it's a combination of casualness and anticipation. Those things, including the external game which is scoring against your opponents, is fun. Even if you're not great at bowling, or even good at being consistent bowling provides a level of excitement either way. I love technical sports and I think in essence every sport is technical for that reason. It is a test of one's skill, knowledge and execution ... Just like in board games. So why not make a bowling game that feels more like bowling and less like rolling dice for the pin count? That's what I'm here to test.

Yes, there are other bowling games out there that use actual rolling balls and pins, but at such a small scale it's hard to replicate the lane conditions, ball weight, spin, and other factors. On the other side of the spectrum there are bowling dice games. Roll the dice, get strikes, spares or nothing. No skill involved, just luck. So I figured I'd try to simulate it in a way that's challenging and still exciting. As of right now I have 3 plans. Welcome to designer divergence.

Over the last week I’ve come up with at least 3 viable ideas that I’m willing to pursue. Who knows. No one mandated only one game design per genre or theme. Here’s what I’m thinking, from presumably lightest to complex.

Card Game

The bowling card game is nothing new. It’s been done, though old, and I must consider why hasn’t there been one since? The card game would play very similar to a standard deck of 52. The game would play like a hand management and trick taking game. Each player would be dealt 3-5 cards. The premise of the game is to close frames by matching pin cards of playing strike (trump) cards. Score is kept on a standard scoresheet

Pin cards - each card from Ace through 10 represents the same amount of cards. A standard bowling scorecard could be used to track frames and pin count. 2 card would represent two pins, 3 card three pins, etc. Since there are four of the same numbers per suit each card will have a slightly different set up. 

For example: of the four number 2 cards, a 2 pin spare could be 1-5,  2-4, 9-6, or the infamous 7-10. The same goes for some of the other sets of four. The idea is some of the harder spares to pick up are splits. And in this game picking up splits are uncommon, so having/saving the right card to do so is important.

A card from the deck is draw and placed face up. The active player must place a card from their hand with an equal or higher pin count, or a strike card. If the card played is equal (as mentioned above), it’s a strike. If a strike card is played then a strike is recorded. If the pin count is higher, then a spare is recorded.

This is where the game can get interesting. If I want to keep the game a card-only play style I will need to have some way to track frames and tally score. I have a couple methods I’d like to test for that. If players kept score on a sheet, like in bowling, then that would be ideal. This does mean that I won’t be able to use tokens for scoring or other features.

If I don’t mind using other items, I would have pin tokens or chits that identify strike and spare and open frames. These tokens/chits can also come in hand for other mechanics like handicaps; Acquire 1 for every strike (max 5) and use them as additional pins when shorthanded to pick up spares. Will discuss it more in length when I get a chance to playtest the concepts.

The game may also have a few other funky conditions. In theory it is possible to score a perfect game (12 strikes in a row). It’s all about playing the right cards at the right time.

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Red Handed - Update 3.3

Yes. You’re reading it correctly. I’m using versions now to track these updates. Here has been the log since Update 2.0

Killer’s Prowl updated: During the song killer card is placed on any discard

Anyone with the killer’s card can attack another player. Once it’s been used it’s buried back in the deck by the player who was attacked.

No ‘guess the killer’ feature

The killer doesn't have to be only one player through the whole game, but the killer card cannot be discarded.

Killer can only be defeated by being caught red handed or in a showdown.

Found use for the floor levels in the game.

Define and Test

Now that these updates seem to work, in theory, I must now put it into action with playtests.

On the Prowl (NEW) -- This new way of attacking players comes back to my original idea of using the knives to attack. I couldn't figure out how to make it work as the killer would have to wait around in the game for 1 of the 2 knives to show up before they can do anything. I quickly removed that feature and had it so that the killer already has a knife. That card acts as a third knife in the game, yet if a player possesses the killer card and receives a knife during hand-off, they can’t be killed. Killer is technically impervious to death in the game. Placing the killer card directly on another player and drawing a card from the discard pile is a great way for the killer to attack and hide among the group. In a way, each player can potentially be the killer. Controlling the killer’s motives to be the last one standing.

The flip side to this is to stay with the card replacement mechanism but instead of swapper other players cards, the killer card is swapped out for whichever player is being attacked. At that point the player who ends up with the killer card only has one line of defense. If the card in their hand is a closed room (indicated by a door icon) they are safe but have to discard that card. If it is an open space (no icon defined) then they are dead and out of the game. This is also true for the aforementioned mechanism but instead of the 1 wall safety, the player in the former scenario has two rooms. This means for more cards eliminated quick which would speed up the game. If that were the case then I’ve also considered recycling rooms.

Recycle-Cycle -- This function of the game extends the game play until there is only one standing. Before the game begins players can choose to play 2 modes; Last One Standing, where the discard pile is reshuffled up the the second to last card being drawn so that everyone continues playing until one is left standing. Or Survival, where after all the cards are drawn, there is some funky home-free type of game. Still working that out.

Can You Guess Who -- I didn’t want there to be a way to guess/bluff your way to eliminating the killer. Technically this is a survival game so the only person standing is either the killer or the lone survivor. This was an option I was considering but then decided against it. Maybe in another game, but not in this micro game with too few player options.

The big fix was that Killer’s Prowl. It is the key to the excitement and surprise in the game. I don’t want the game to suffer around the key mechanism created to drive the game. I think I can get it to work. Now, trust is also a factor in this game and if people can’t trust each other to play fair then this whole game falls apart.

The little rhyme created to mask the killer’s movements and bide time for the climax. It’s like a micro murder mystery game, but instead of solving the crime after the fact, you’re escaping the impending crime in real time.

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Red Handed dev update

So red-handed is coming along very well. After a night of fussing with to play phases, I found a way to merge the best of both and keep the game entertaining and challenging. My first task was to identify what cards I wanted to use and what type of experience I wanted the players to have. I have read a couple posts about starting with the emotion, and after analyzing my own game development process I've noticed that reaction and theme are check boxes at need to take off early. Because this game plays like a murder mystery I want there to be shocked and deceit and mistrust and genuine fear of pulling the wrong card and being knocked out of the game.

After working out the theme and the field it was down to play phase; how are the cards dealt, hand management and taking a turn. It's easy to say dry card, choose a card and place a card, but there's more to that than meets the eye.

I found that single card or do a card hand Management in micro games allow game to play longer and provide more mystery to the cards than if all cards were dealt. At least for this game it works because it adds a lot more gameplay and deduction. Another part of this game that aids in its hidden ability. When's the cards are dealt a player then goes first by drawing a card from the deck. This player can be decided through a standard rock paper scissors or evens and odds, or my age, a dice roll a coin toss, whatever. But the player who draws first gets a chance to dump that card and allow the player to their left to go next. iPlayer will draw card, decide which of the two cards they want to retain and their hand and place their discarded card face down in front of the person to their left. Person to their left now has a choice to pick up the card place in front of them or leave the card as is and draw from the main deck. And repeat the process of deciding which card they want to retain and placing their discarded card face down to the person on their left. If a player decides to choose the card place in front of them then they can discard a card and place it in front of the person to their left. But if the person to their left already has a card face down in front of them then that player is stuck with both of those cards I must place one of them face down in front of themself.

Once all players of exhausted to turn everybody pulls up the two cards in front of them and assess that round. Anybody who has a lock card or a red handed card must play them face up in front of them and that card sticks for the next round. A player can only play the locked card face up if they have a card that is marked with a lock. There are a lot of nuances to this game due to the card formatting, and this adds to the depth of the game without adding a lot of complexity.

The play phases continue until a player is knocked out. The cards dictate places in the house that one can hide, which is the card that you retain in your hand. There are three dagger cards. Any player who turns up both dagger cards in their hand is outed as the suspected killer and are removed from the game. Any player who turns up a dagger and the red handed card is outed as the suspected killer as well. Any player who has the killer card cannot discard that card throughout the game, and if they turn up the red handed card while holding the killer card they are outed and everyone escapes. If the player with the killer card is the last one standing in the game then the killer wins.

Those are the basic rules behind play phase and winning / losing conditions period more on the cards and their details in the another log. See you next time.