Crafting research

A bit more industrial than theoretic, i have been looking into what would be best for creating the final product and the resources I have on hand at my university. Also I am going to look into existing products and their packaging for more of an insight.
My game box will consist of two decks of cards, board segments, rolled up board cover, four "hubs", 25 counters per hub (100 in total) and 10 die. I want to create a box that can hold all these objects in a secure and tight way and maintain the aesthetic design I researched and developed in earlier posts.

Game mechanic testing

So I have devised the stat system and the point cost, so now all that is left to do is some testing of situations to see if the system works and is balanced. I had to characters of the same point cost (estimating they will be balanced in combat) and after 10 combat repeats each won 5 times each! This is exactly what I wanted! The next situation I had two characters who's combined point cost was the same as the opposing single character. And again they were very balanced after some repeats. The whole game will be fully tested in january when I have a prototype set completed but at this point i am very pleased indeed. As well as a rule book I will submit the point cost formula to show how the characters are valued once created.

Cards

With cards the best way to describe the skill part is "Doing the best with that you've got". Its that simple. Games like poker, Pokemon, Digimon, Yugioh, Whisp, Rummy etc. all start from drawing a "hand" of cards from a deck. From that point on you play the cards that you think will suit the game situation best. Infinite strategy will play the same way. Each card will have the stats on as described in the last post and the skill will be choosing the right cards for the right situation. As I am working through this developing research, I am also building up a rule system. I will submit the full draft rule book with my BA7 work.

Stats

Looking into Warhammer, the stats and rules have changed over the years, many many times. The basics are this. Each character has stats unique to them that act as attributes when in combat. The players take turns to attack and roll dice determined by their characters stats. The outcome is left to the chance of the dice. Again this is simply playing the odds, but in a more tactical and devised manner. I am devising a very similar stat system but less complicated and less constricting. This is so the creative side of the game is not too limited by the rule connotations. Another system that I believe is quite interesting that is utilized by Warhammer is its points system. Each character is worth a certain amount of points determined by how good their stats are. For a game to be fair each army has to be worth near enough the same amount when added up. With my idea however, seems as I am using cards, I will make each character worth a specific point COST. Then every turn each player will get a wage of points that they are able to spend on characters in the hand of cards to deploy onto the board.

A board with specific movement and pieces

The most prominent of any game like this would be Chess. An extremely intellectual game that challenges both whit and composure. This game is a game of pure skill and no chance, the player must utilize tactics to over come his opponents attempts to do the same. Each piece has a predetermine movement type. I am going to utilize this also in my game, so that movement on the board will require tactics and understanding of the situation, removing the aspect of luck as a factor.

Dice

Perhaps the most famous dice utilizing game would be snakes and ladders. An ancient indian game of pure chance, where the dice are simply used to randomly determine player movement along the spaces, the person who get to the end first wins. This isn't much use however because I don't want the to be too much luck involved, I want to se if I can use the dice in a more skillful way. When looking monopoly I see the the dice are still used in a random way for movement. The only way I can really see dice being utilized for skill or even a small factor is in games when you play the odds. Warhammer, Dungeons and Dragons or even a few gambling games. These games give you a situation with different outcomes, the skill comes taking the right chances. The dice are simply used to determine these outcomes. Warhammer and DnD use stats to determine characters abilities and when this character enters a situation in the game, the dice are used to determine the outcome, very simple. I will look into this more and try and devise my own system when I look into cards and stats.

Game Mechanics

I have loosely based the rules around my original game from my first year. However I am going to look at games that relate to my concept in hopes of finding some inspiration to integrate into and solidify the rules as a whole. There are three main mechanics that make my game. Cards with stats, die and a board. I am going to look into games that utilize these aspects and learn how they are used.

Questionnaire

I thought that I had to have a bit of an insight into the the market, just to see if my would actually be popular or not. So I have devised this questionnaire which I am in the process of quizzing to people. I have asked questioned generally about board games and questions about certain aspects of my game concept. I am going to ask 20 different people of different ages to try and get a varied and unfocused target audience. This in the end will help me see in which audience this game may be better suited.

1. Do you play board games? y/n
2. Do you play video games? y/n
3. Do you prefer board games to video games? y/n
4. If there were two identical versions of the a game but one was a board game and one was online, which would you play? bg/vg
5. Do you prefer a game of chance or a game of skill or both? c/s/b
6. Have you ever collected trading cards? y/n
7. Would you enjoy being able to create you own trading cards for a universal trading card game? y/n
8. Would you prefer however preset trading cards with a theme and genre? y/n
9. If an online trading card game was the key aspect of a social networking sight would you use it? y/n
10. Do you prefer multiplayer games to single player games? y/n

I shall post up the percentage results soon and contemplate further development of my game.

Board Design

This is my final hexagon map design, which will hopefully be printed on assertate in the end (this is so it can be rolled up and stored in the box). The under layer will be a simple hexagon of a colour and texture chosen when you order the game pieced together from segments (this is also so in can fit in the box). It will all be held together with the players hubs which will clip or slide onto the sides.

Card Development

I have developed some layouts for the board and the cards. Im very confident about the board and I am sure it will work. I made an initial card layout which I liked but after doing a couple concept layouts with actual characters I felt it looked a little unprofessional so I scrapped them and stared an new one. I decided the main customizable aesthetic of the cards (besides the image of the character) would be the hue of the card, hence the grey shaded template. This is simple yet effective because you can connote almost any colour to any genre combined with the theme of you character.

Above was the design I went with and below was the design I scrapped.

I am going to develop the chosen design further until I am satisfied with its aesthetic then upload some testers with some of my pre-made characters.

Some game mechanic ideas

For the pieces and board of my game I was looking for something simple but with potential to have any narrative or scenario created on them. For the pieces I believe simple colored counters will be fine. This is because they simply represent the character cards that the players use so the aesthetics are left to the cards. This also means the board wont get to visually confusing when played on. For the board itself I was thinking a simple grid spaced board, something like Snakes and Ladders or Chess. I don't want simple squares however, that would be far too 2 dimensional for what I have in mind. So I looked into what the highest sided shape is that can be put into a solid grid and it is a hexagon. This grid board will infact be made from something see through, perhaps perspects or assertate. This is because there will be a customizable board with flat scenery pieces that can be moved around and customized to create a landscape suited to any scenario or narrative. The clear grid board is then placed on top to determine movement spaces on this landscape. I shall illustrate this idea in future posts.

To transition the cards to the pieces to the board I have come up with what I call a Card Hub. It will be a simple slab that will have slots to place "deployed" cards. These slots will correspond to specific coloured counters on the board. This will allow players to know which counters are which characters at any given time. I will Illustrate this in future posts to explain further this idea.

Consistency

Looking at other trading card games, games like Magic the Gathering, Digimon, Yugioh, Top trumps etc. They all have very basic layouts. Not too clustered and confusing, simple to read and aesthetically pleasing. With this in mind I am going to move on to concept some card layouts and research into other board game design aspects, such as playing pieces and the board itself.

The hand I am dealt

First I am going to look at the card layout. An obvious place to start is pokemon cards. There layout has a certain neutrality to them. This is perhaps because the pokemon all have different elemental powers which means they need a neutral design to keep it consistent. The only variable that stands out to connote the corresponding element is the colour of the cards. I think I will use this aspect as one of the customizable options in my card editor.

Aesthetic design

So for my game idea I need to create and aesthetic consistent design through out the product. This design however has to have a neutral theme, something that does not suggest a certain genre style. This is because I want the game to completely open to the players imagination and creativity, like a blank canvas. Not to say that certain themes or narrative frame work wont be available to the players. I had the idea of having alternative sets of cards, narratives and boards already made up for the players to choose from. This broadens my audience to players that enjoy certain genres and existing narratives. For example the Lord of the rings, or the Marvel universe.

Because of this, I am going to make the initial design neutral but leave it open to customization so that it can be made to fit a certain genre.

Stuck! ALREADY!

This being my final year I want to get it right! And looking at my idea, it has a lot of potential but it needs a lot of tweaking. At my quick presentation, my lecturers thought it was a great idea, original and tries to tackle an issue (the one I am writing about in my essay) but they also picked a lot of hole in it.

The two main issues being piracy and censorship. Censorship is a delicate issue that can be handled by maybe a word filter or maybe when you have submitted a card creation in the editor you have to wait for it to be checked before you can use it.

Piracy however is a bit more of a tricky foe. The main idea that comes to mind is making the whole game online? Have maybe a membership payment instead of paying for a deck? Perhaps have both online and offline?! This would more likely work actually, seems as not many people would want to buy a board game let alone play one these days. Maybe having the online option will not only help stop piracy but generate more of an interest in the game, in turn increasing the chance of someone purchasing the real version of the game with their personal decks and boards. PANIC OVER!

Initial Idea

My idea is a very simple trading card and board game that gives the player what I can best describe as a canvas to create his own characters, his own map and his own narrative. With a few universal rules and a simple point cost system to keep it fair and balanced, you can devise a truly imaginative and unique game.

This game is called Infinite Strategy. The game has two aspects, the cards and the board. The card aspect of the game starts on the internet with a card editor where you can upload an image, write a description, fill in the stats you want and then purchase your card. Depending the stats you use determines on the point cost of the card. This is what will fairly balance the use of the card during gameplay.

The second aspect, the board, is a large hexagon shape. The board will have three layers. The base which is just a single colour hexagon (colour of your choice), the second layer will be birds eye view pieces of scenery which you can arrange on the base in whatever way you want to create your own map to compliment the narrative you have created. Once you have done this the third layer will be a large piece of see through assertate with smaller hexagon spaces which you place on top of the base and scenery. This gives you set spaces that will determine your pieces movement.

Both these aspects allow for complete creative control over the narrative of the game. This control can be extended to certain gameplay rules that will allow you to create certain scenarios on the board for your own directed narrative.