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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
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    Default MoG's Game Dev Journal

    Me and my best friend made video games in highschool, and we decided as adults to try something similar and see where it goes. In this case, we started working on making a Card & Dice game that incorporated the design philosophies we fell in love with over the years. He has experience in the gaming industry (programming and QA for gambling games, is an Electrical Engineer that solves most of his work problems with SQL), and I'm something like the mad scientist that sounds crazy until someone with more sense is able to translate for me. He's good with math and patience, I'm good with game design and secretly insane, so we work well together.

    And what started out as a weekend hobby ended up being pretty serious. Realistically, as long as there aren't big complications in the "producing" element of things, I suspect we'll have a ready-to-sell game in about 6 months.

    So I decided to share what we're doing, what we learned, and maybe talk about game philosophies to anyone that cares. Below is what's basically the entirety of our game.

    The game plays in three different rotating phases (Strategy > Army > Hero > Repeat), using dice to track the player's investment into a single card/effect, and cards being flipped up/down for misdirection against your opponent.

    Note that all phases are generally done “pseudo simultaneously”. Players don’t have turns, as much as “initiative” is regularly checked on players and cards to determine what order they act or resolve.

    Spoiler: 1: Strategy Phase
    Show

    Essentially a setup phase. Play your cards, assign your dice, and decide what cards are turning face-up so they can attack this turn.
    Spoiler: General cleanup from the last round
    Show

    • Faceup spells are discarded, facedown spells are put at the bottom of your deck.
    • All dice on all non-equipment cards are returned to your reserve pool.

    • Determine which player sets up first by checking their Initiative through comparing their Power (their number of dice available). In the result of a tie, players roll against each other.
    • The current player may choose any number of unit cards to flip face-up.
    • You may draw any number of cards, up to having 3 in hand. You can also choose to add a die to your reserve pool (effectively hurting yourself) to instead choose cards from your discard to draw and to shuffle your remaining discard with your deck for a new deck.
    • You may play any number of cards from your hand after drawing. Unit cards enter facedown and vertical. Spells enter facedown and horizontal. Equipment enter faceup and vertical.
    • Assign dice to your cards. Adding a die to an equipment card also requires you to discard a card from your hand for each die added. Any card that ends this phase without any dice is discarded.
    • After the first player finishes this phase, the other player(s) then repeat this process.



    For the latter two phases, they revolve heavily around "Engagements", which requires the acting unit to lock in combat with a defender, where one, neither, or (in rare cases) both of the units can be defeated.
    Spoiler: Engagements
    Show

    • The engaging unit rolls to attack, adding any attack bonuses to their roll.
    • The defending unit then rolls to defend, adding any defense bonuses to their roll.
    • If the attack roll exceeds the defense roll, the defender is then Hit.
    • Hit cards are discard, with assigned dice returned to their owner’s dice pool, while Hit players permanently add a die.
    • If the units are still engaged, the defending player may choose to have their unit get a Counterattack during this engagement. This Exhausts the defender.
      • During a counterattack, both units roll one less die than normal for their attack/defense rolls, although you roll a minimum of 1 die for defense rolls.
      • Generally, only one counterattack can be made per Engagement.




    Spoiler: 2: Army Phase
    Show

    Your unit cards spend this phase attacking other units or players.
    • Check Initiative between all faceup, nonExhausted units. The unit with Initiative may do one of the following:
      • Exhaust themselves
      • Flip facedown
      • Engage a target of their choosing, whether that is a player or a unit. This Exhausts the unit.



    Repeat this process for every faceup, nonnexhausted unit on the board.

    Spoiler: 3: Hero Phase
    Show
    After units have acted, players may repeat a similar process using their Equipment cards.
    • Check Initiative between Equipment Cards
    • For the card with Initiative, its owner may choose to:
      • Exhaust the card
      • Equip the card and Engage a target. This Exhausts the equipment and removes a die from it.
        • During these engagements, the player is considered to have any stat bonuses granted by the equipment, use their reserve pool for rolling, and can make attack rolls (when otherwise they could not).
        • Equipment cards with no remaining dice on them are discarded after the engagement.



    Players start with 5d6, losing whenever they would add an 11th die.
    Decks only contain 12 cards. This means that, after 4 rounds, you're either out of cards, have a full board, or you're taking a Hit to get a new hand/deck.
    Also, the only time a card can remain on the board with no dice is during the Strategy phase, while you're allocating where you want all of your dice to go. If a card ever runs out of dice otherwise, it's discarded.

    A few key things not covered by the phase breakdown:
    Spoiler: ”Power”
    Show
    The word “Power” is used to reference the number of dice on a card, or a player’s dice in their reserve pool, often used in reference to other cards/units (such as with Initiative or some spells)

    Spoiler: Players can’t make attacks without Equipment
    Show
    Players can’t make Attack rolls without first Equipping an equipment card. This include Counterattacks. If a Player has Unexhausted equipment cards, they can use them during the Hero phase to initiate engagements and make attacks against units.

    Spoiler: How Rolls work
    Show
    Roll all of the dice allocated to the player/card in question, keeping the highest value rolled. For each duplicate of that number, add +1. Technically, if you rolled a die lower than your highest roll, but ended with more duplicates (like getting three 4’s in a row), you may use that instead.

    Spoiler: Equipment
    Show
    Equipment cards keep dice on them to represent the player’s investment in its durability. With them, player can engage units similar to units themselves, and can make attacks. What’s interesting about Equipment cards is that the player still uses their own reserve pool for the sake of their rolls. Since all dice are returned to the player’s reserve pool when the card they belong to is discarded, players will generally end up with lots of dice at the end of the round. However, Equipment also require a long-term investment to remain efficient, and don’t pay off until the end of each round (unless you’re attacked directly). They’re efficient when it comes to card advantage (since a single equipment can remove/prevent several problems), but they’re expensive with dice and board state. They get stronger the more you lose, making them intense, risky, and strong to use.
    Example equipment cards:
    • Boom Stick: +1 Attack. While equipped during the Hero phase, you may make an attack against the enemy cards adjacent to your engaged target, picking the order for each. Remove 1 die from me before each extra attack made this way.
    • Dou-blade: +1 Attack. Making a counterattack while equipped unexhausts me.
    • Slotted shield: +1 Defense. +2 Attack during Counterattacks.



    Spoiler: Spells
    Show
    Spells work by having a Trigger and an Activation effect. When the Trigger occurs, its owner may Activate it by removing a die from the spell and obeying its text. Spells are facedown until the first time they are Activated.
    Example Spells are things like:
    • Necromancy: TRIGGER: When a unit card you control is Hit. ACTIVATE: Move a die from Necromancy and your reserve pool onto any other cards of your choosing.
    • Illusionism: TRIGGER: When a unit you control is attacked by a unit with no more Power than Illusionism. ACTIVATE: Turn Illusionism into a unit with +1 DEF and -2 ATK and it becomes the attacked unit. If Illusionism survives the engagement, remove a die from it and turn it back into a spell.
    • Jinx: TRIGGER: When one of your units is attacked. ACTIVATE: The attacking unit must roll higher than Jinx’s Power, or they get a penalty to their attack roll equal to Jinx’s power and Jinx loses a die.
    • Heroism: TRIGGER: When one of your opponent’s units attacks one of your units with less Power. ACTIVATE: Move a die from Heroism onto your engaged unit, and that unit gains a +1 bonus to all rolls during this engagement. (This one is interesting, as it is more powerful when your opponent forces the trigger. It’s the difference between getting a bonus on just your Counterattack defense roll, or getting the bonus on both your Defense and Counterattack roll).
    • Shadowstrike: TRIGGER: When one of your Facedown units uses its Protect feature. ACTIVATE: For each of my Power, your unit gets your choice of +1 Attack or Defense for this Engagement, then Enchant them.
    • Dis-Enchant: TRIGGER: When an enemy card is Enchanted. ACTIVATE: Remove a die from the Activated Magic card and Enchanted card (after it has been Enchanted), then Enchant another one of your cards.

    All spell triggers have to come from your opponents. Basically, your opponents have to “opt in” to letting you get value from your spell, with the first time it triggering catching your opponent by surprise.

    Spoiler: Note on Facedown units
    Show
    Facedown units have a keyword called Protect, which allows them to replace one of your non-Protect units when they are initially engaged. Similar to Initiative, this requires the Protect unit to be Unexhausted, and it Exhausts the unit afterwards. This means that Facedown cards can also act as defensive tools, and you’re incentivized to attack Facedown cards, since they can’t be Protected (as they, themselves, have Protect). This creates synergy with something like Illusionism for a player that enjoys lots of Facedown cards, since you can now redirect an attack without putting a Facedown card at risk, and without revealing information to your opponent.
    Thematically, Facedown units are a representation of an asset being “hidden”, separate from the main army. This is why they can interject when your target is obvious (which is why “hidden” units have Protect), and why attacking them directly means they can’t usually receive reinforcements (as Protect units can’t be Protected).

    Spoiler: Keywords
    Show
    • Protect: When an opponent engages one of your units without Protect, an unexhausted unit with Protect can choose to replace the defender. This Exhausts your Protect unit.
    • Ranged: Unless you are Exhausted, or engaged by a unit with Ranged, you always attack first during an engagement.
    • Bloodlust: When this unit Hits a unit card, remove one die from it and unexhaust it.
    • Enchant: When a spell removes a from itself die and puts it on an allied unit, mostly used for triggers and easy tracking of spell effects.
    • Initiative +/- 1-3: For the sake of Initiative checks, you gain a bonus/penalty to your Power equal to the number listed.



    Spoiler: Balance
    Show
    The game is balanced around most cards having a total value of +2, with most keywords being worth +1, and penalties being applied to address major synergies between stats and powers.
    For example, a unit with [-2 Attack, +1 Defense and Protect], or [+1 Attack and Bloodlust], are all fairly evenly balanced. However, there are some caveats:
    Attack is inherently more valuable than Defense, as Defense exists to prevent a problem, while Attack exists to remove it. The difference is, if you succeed on your Defense, you prevent a loss, but didn’t change the board state. A successful Attack prevents a Counterattack, and makes the game easier for the Attacker going forward. As a result, stacking multiple Attack-type bonuses on a single card has proven to be exceptionally strong.
    For example, we tried out a +2 Attack, -2 Defense, Ranged unit. Despite having a total score of +1 (less than average), it was stronger than most things on the board. And since it didn’t have Protect, all I had to do was stick a bunch of Facedown cards to defend it each turn while it just churned out easy victories.

    As a result, we’ve started looking at all Offensive and Defensive keywords and stats as using a formula where each stat/keyword in the same category is worth +0.5 more for each one you already have. For example, +1 Attack (+1), +1 Attack (+1.5), + Ranged (+1.5), -1 Defense (-1), -1 Defense (-1.5) totals to a unit with a score of +2.5, stronger than it should be. Include the fact that Offense is stronger than Defense, and that it’s hard to attack directly due to other Protect units, and it made sense why it destroyed.

    Due to the math, a single +1 bonus isn’t a big deal, but a +2 almost guarantees that the opposition needs a bonus to their countering roll to actually stand a chance, with the dice not really changing that aspect as much as we originally liked.

    We are looking into making special powers that incentivize stacking dice on a single target, but right now the winning strategy seems to be to flood the board with units and switching to more Equipment the more you get into the game (and card draw becomes expensive), using Spells when yours or your opponent’s strategy for a round is particularly obvious and strong.

    Some examples that we have for this is to introduce some kind of “Saving Throw” mechanic, where a unit has a trigger (like “When this unit is attacked”) that requires the triggering enemy to roll a “save” (roll higher than the Power of the defender), or be “Hit”. This incentivizes both Attacker and Defender to want to stack lots of dice on fewer cards to cause/avoid a free hit that ignores bonuses. In a nutshell, it is a mechanic that states that the dice are more important than the stat bonuses. Now all I need to do is force our units to Engage somehow while stacking lots of dice on my “mage”, and I either get to attack with no risk of Counterattack, or you’ll have to invest lots of dice into your card to ensure you don’t get blown up before you get your Counterattack off.


    So...yeah. That's a lot. Any questions?
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2020-10-23 at 06:56 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Man_Over_Game's Avatar

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    Default Re: MoG's Game Dev Journal

    We decided to do something a little different.

    We wanted 3 separate "pillars" for gameplay, to allow it to feel like 3 different minigames that attract different kinds of players.

    We know what the card types are, between:
    • Units
    • Equipment
    • Magic


    And we knew that Units were representative of a strategy game, similar to Chess. We knew this, because that's what it felt like playing against each other using just Units during our first playtest.

    But then we didn't really know what to do with the other two card types. We had the idea that Equipment should aim for a "risky" playstyle, while Magic focused on a "mindgame" playstyle, but they didn't feel...self-sustaining. They weren't bulky enough on their own to be anything more than a support role to the main game of "hit each other with units", which is cliche and overdone.

    So we decided to take a look at some new mechanics we were considering and consider how they could solve these problems.


    First, we knew we wanted Equipment to be risky when it comes to determining how much investment you put in them, because they're expensive to use (requires you to discard a card to put dice back on them), and they can generally only be used once per turn to convert yourself into a powerful unit. Problem is, it was a very slow kind of risk, as it mostly just felt like it was more expensive in the hopes that you'd get a payoff in the long-run, and that doesn't capture the visceral, action-oriented feeling you'd expect from being an Axe-wielding commander that solves his problems like a man.

    To explain our solution, I need to go on a related tangent. We've been mulling over the idea of allowing you to permanently add dice - effectively hurting yourself - to add a die to something that you thought was worthwhile. Problem is, since taking a die was the universal currency of the game, and saving one card's worth of value at the cost of a hit never seemed like it was worthwhile. But there was also concern of "bursting" out that kind of effect. By hurting yourself intentionally to ~9 dice and flooding your board into a stable state, you can just wipe out anything your opponent tries to counter with as you hit him 5 times in a row safely.

    So we're going to change how that works. You can instead "Channel" a die onto a card by discarding a card and taking a Hit, which both Unexhausts that card and moves 1 die to it. However, Channeling with an Equipment card makes you choose EITHER a Hit or a discarded card instead of both. The catch is that dice on Equipment cards can't be added or removed, unless you're using the Equipment, or you just played the Equipment.

    So now Equipment cards have a similar feel to MtG's Red/Black decks, full of high risk/high reward, and benefiting those who are comfortable walking into the fire. With 7 dice (AKA 3 lives remaining) and 3 cards in-hand, you could afford to reuse the same equipment 7 times in a row!


    So what to do about Magic?

    Well, we do want to make it a sort of deck-builder, one where you pick your "class" by selecting cards at the start, and then you can pick up revealed cards from a neutral deck to get immediate solutions against the opponent's strategy.

    And I'm a big proponent of making everything a resource, including cards in your hand and deck.

    So when it came down to what kind of "win condition" a Magic playstyle would have, which mostly consists of trap-style buff/debuff triggers, how could you win without relying on units or equipment?

    And it clicked: Mill! The art of crippling someone by burning away their deck.

    We had plans to have the decks start with a very small card count, between 6 and 15, drawing until you have up to 3 cards in your hand, and being able to put cards held in-hand back to the bottom of your deck when you would redraw. When you would draw, you can burn yourself to draw up to 3 cards from the neutral stack ...


    Actually, I was typing this as I did my very exhausting adult job involving loan paperwork, and I am very tired. I'm finishing this crap later.
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2020-11-02 at 11:22 AM.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    Man_Over_Game's Avatar

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    Default Re: MoG's Game Dev Journal

    Back to what I was saying, you don't start with many cards in your deck, and your opponents know exactly what cards you put in there (as you pick 3 cards at a time from a neutral stack of 5 revealed cards that refill when a slot is emptied, until everyone has 9). If you need more cards, or if you just need to reshuffle your discarded pile into your deck, you can take a Hit and draw your 3 cards from the neutral stack.

    Combined with that, we made it so that any time an opponent's card is put in the discard pile, you can remove a number of dice from any of your Magic cards and attempt to roll higher than that player's Power (the current number of dice in their reserve pool). If they succeed, the opponent's card goes in YOUR discard pile instead.

    This works to both negate your opponent's current strategy while also forcing them to burn themselves to negate your "milling" playstyle, which also makes them more predictable (due to the fact that the cards they have to use are revealed). Of course, this also muddies up your normal strategy a bit, as you'll start to draw your opponent's old cards instead of the ones you want, so it does have a bit of a Catch-22 about it.

    One interesting aspect of this is the fact that the Magic strategy is stronger the less your opponent has been Hit, as he'll have fewer dice in his Reserve Pool to counter your card-stealing. This also means that the Magic playstyle is naturally countered against the Equipment playstyle, as the Equipment playstyle has a naturally low card-loss rate, and wants to have a ton of dice in their Reserve Pool.

    In essence, we have:

    Units > Equipment > Magic > Units...

    Or, alternatively:
    Board Control > Burst Damage > Card Advantage > Board Control

    In a system where your universal currency is a d6.

    So you can make a deck entirely around using Equipment to take out key targets and defend yourself as you use Magic cards to wall off a major weakness of yours, forcing your opponent into burning through his own health to keep up his card advantage.
    Or you can make a Magic + Units deck that just throws out as many units as you can to put pressure on your opponent while relying on Magic cards to protect them or to steal cards to fuel your rapid draw rate.
    Or maybe you make an Equipment + Unit deck, where you put up a wall of units to absorb hits for you while their dice return to your pool to later be recycled for your big-hitting Equipment at the end of the round.



    Right now, we're looking at finding the means of making custom cards into .XML files to use on Cockatrice (a program that allows you to play MtG with people over the internet with made-up decks). Cockatrice does a lot of the things we're looking for, like turning cards upside-down, stealing cards from your opponent, or putting various counters on cards.

    I know it's possible, but most resources that did this died like 5 years ago, so we've ran into a lot of dead ends. If we get this to work, though, we can look into getting playtesters from the internet, which means we can be a lot pickier about what help we can get, rather than whoever just happens to be in the only open game shop in town.
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2020-11-02 at 04:01 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: MoG's Game Dev Journal

    We think we've settled on the theme of "Fantasy Western", emphasizing chaos and fun in everything. So you got your goblins and gnomes wearing oversized cowboy hats, bridge trolls that have adapted into the necessary role of corrupt sheriffs, etc.

    We're considering possibly adding various Heroes to the game, something you can pick at the start that modifies certain effects toyour benefit. They're fairly general-purpose, so that they can work with whatever kind of deck you're playing, although their thematics may imply a synergy with certain card types.

    A few we've thought of so far:

    El Mucho, a Luchador vigilante gnome that can change the size of an object (including himself) at will. In-game, he can move all of your dice to/from a card once per round before any roll.

    Arthur, Aegis Knight. The Aegis is Equipment card that has the theme of being a legendary shield that allows people to summon a temporary copy of it via a "Shield" spell (copies are opaque discs with a slight curve), with the card effect of allowing you to move Aegis to the bottom of your deck to increase any defense roll by Aegis's current dice. Arthur expands on this concept by being a warrior that solely uses summoned Aegis shields in combat, using one as a hat, a few smaller versions for shoulder and knee pads, and Aegis's attached to strings as yoyo weapons. His power allows you to move a die onto him whenever one of your cards is discarded (which includes cards on the field), which you can then move onto another target when one of your units makes a Defense roll.

    Shin-Toqua, Lord of Shades. Thematically, they're an assassin that manipulates shadows. With them as your Hero, any of your facedown cards get a +1 bonus to their Power and rolls during their Activation or Engagement that caused them to flip face-up. You also get +1 attack when engaging facedown units.

    It's still an early idea, and we're brainstorming a bunch more.
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2020-11-06 at 04:52 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Titan in the Playground
    Join Date
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    Default Re: MoG's Game Dev Journal

    So this is interesting, though I do think it'd be easier to grasp what you're going for if you did an example of a walkthrough of playing the game.

    One note, I would say about Magic. WotC once made a game called C-23 / the ARC card game system. Basically supposed to be noobie MTG but where they could make decks for a bunch of different popular media they had a Hercules and a Xenia: Warrior Princess variant and whatnot.

    Anyway, the way to win the game was by damaging the opponent. But instead of taking damage they would mill the deck. And this proved INCREDIBLY unpopular. It turns out people like to actually get to draw their cards and play them, who knew. And even in modern MTG control/milling decks are usually seen as the least interesting to play against, provided the game state is not completely out of whack with obviously overpowered cards.

    Just some food for thought on what you're making.

    Anyway this all does seem interesting, but it is a lot to read through.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: MoG's Game Dev Journal

    Wow, I was actually kinda surprised to come back to find responses!

    @Dienekes, that makes sense. Personally, I enjoy mill strategies as a concept, but MTG hasn't done a great job of making it a very interactive mechanic. It's also a slow, attrition-style mechanic that doesn't really feel very impactful, and so having a life system that revolves solely around milling probably wasn't very fun to begin with. Still not 100% sure what direction we're going in on that front.

    @Suffect, Thanks, man!

    Spoiler: Our last big problem that changed the game
    Show

    We were advancing a little bit too fast in a lot of scattered directions, which led to us having a few problems without really much knowledge on how to fix it. I started studying up on lessons that aspiring developers should learn, and one particularly important lesson was to make the smallest, simplest game possible. Once you have a perfect foundation, start building on it.

    This is important, because our game had a HUGE stumbling block with our previous version, which was the "Setup Phase".

    We originally planned it that you set all of your cards up each round, allocating dice, drawing cards and playing them, etc. Except...there's no real good way of determining the turn order in which a player did those things. For what we had planned, we could:
    1. Have one player do all of their setup, then rotate.
    2. Have one player do the first part of their setup (such as putting cards facedown) and then rotate.
    3. Find some way of removing the turn-based setup phase.


    #1 is common, but cliche.
    #2 is fair, but annoying to do when there's no action between players' setup actions.
    #3 is actually quite doable....but it requires a whole revamp of the entire system.

    We decided to use #3 and trim a lot of the fat that we've been piling onto the game at the same time.




    Spoiler: What the game is now
    Show
    For now, we've trimmed away the Exhaustion mechanics, Hidden/Facedown mechanics, Heroes, Magic, and Equipment cards.

    As of now, the entire game is just:
    • Dice are assigned to cards or a player's pool
    • Check Initiative by counting the amount of dice on a target. The source with the highest Initiative acts during the Initiative check. If there is a tie between two players, both roll against one another, with the winner choosing their source with that much Initiative to act.
    • All dice rolls are totaled by rolling all dice on that target, counting the highest number, and adding +1 for any duplicates.
    • Units often come with +1-+2 Attack or Defense, or some other card-specific powers.
    • When a Unit has Initiative, they can take an Action. One Action is to Engage an enemy target (which is basically just Attacker attacks, Defender defends, and then roles reverse if the Defender is still alive)
    • Combat is resolved identically to MTG after the dice totals are added.



    As for drawing cards and assigning dice (Setup), we realized that we ready have an incredibly intuitive and robust initiative system that would be easy enough to modify for a turn-less setup portion of the game.


    We changed it up to have any dice in your reserves to also play a part in determining Initiative for a "Player Action", where you then draw as many dice as you have, can remove dice from anything you have in play, and must allocate all of the dice in your pool to your cards.


    For example:
    1. You have 3 cards out with two dice each and no dice in your pool. The opponent wins with an Initiative of 3, and kills one of your cards, with those two dice returning to your pool.
    2. The highest Initiative on the next check for both players is 2, so you both roll to beat the tie. You win, so you make one of your 2 Initiative cards use some kind of action that removes a die from it to return to your pool.
    3. The next Initiative check counts your Initiative from your reserve pool as 3, which the opponent cannot match, so you get your Player Action. You draw 3 cards, can pull any of the dice from your units, and must allocate all of your dice from your pool. Any cards you do not play are discarded, and any time you run out of cards, you are Hit and must take a permanent die to shuffle your deck.


    This creates both a Positive and Negative feedback loop in multiple directions:
    • First, you can notice that you can combo several actions in a row by expending dice from your units to then get a Player Action, and repeat several times over.
    • However, each time you get a Player Action, you must draw cards. While this seems like a boon, any card you don't put a die on is discarded, causing you to mill yourself to death if you choose to invest in something already on the field.
    • If your opponent manages to finish off a buffed unit on the board, they are technically making you mill more from your deck. Since high-dice units are how you win the game (as we've removed the Exhaustion mechanic to instead just cost a die after a card's action, so it can technically act several times in a row uncontested if it had enough dice), you're caught in an awkward position of "Do I play all the cards in my deck to avoid waste", or "Do I put all of my dice on one card and try to combo him faster than I mill myself?"



    And just in case someone manages to pull off some high-dice combo that we didn't account for and ends up breaking the game, we made it so that anytime a player is Hit (by something other than him milling himself), that player immediately gets a Player Action after gaining that die. This gives a player the response time needed to react to an ongoing combo attempt.

    It's simple and fun. There's not enough "strategy" in it for now, but we're still on the playtesting portion of this mode.

    I have a habit of moving too fast and not focus on the issues that we're already aware of, so we're going to be a bit more patient on stuff to make sure that the endgoal is as refined as possible.
    Spoiler: The most recent, small hurdle that needs a fix
    Show

    As of now, we need a solution to the fact that putting all of your dice on one card (and milling yourself) and putting all of your dice on multiple cards (and having worthless cards on the board) aren't quite as rewarding strategies as they should be.

    If I put 3 dice on one card, discarding two of the other cards I drew, I'd have to get three kills with that card to gain value (two for the cards I discarded, and one for itself). Technically, the defending player would lose more, as they now have to draw several cards (and discard other cards) after losing to counter your play. The game would effectively evolve into who can trade more efficiently, which is about what you'd expect. The problem comes in with the fact that the difference in who's winning vs. who's losing would be in things like "I discarded 5 cards while you discarded 6", and that doesn't feel very impactful. Sure, you could hit the enemy player directly if they didn't have cards that could protect him, but when you're drawing 3 cards consistently, choosing one to be a backup defender isn't all that inconsistent of a possibility.
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2020-12-02 at 12:04 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  7. - Top - End - #7
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    Default Re: MoG's Game Dev Journal

    So, some rough news on this front, we've decided to shelve our card game for a while, for two big reasons:

    1. It was becoming my project, not our project, and that wasn't what either of us wanted when we started working together.
    2. The game was hitting a dead end where all of the mechanics were too close-ended with each other. You couldn't modify one thing without changing another, and it became a slog to make any kind of adjustments for. It woulda been really clever had we been able to pull it off, but we don't have the experience for that yet.


    So we're off to make some vidya games! We both have programming and video game development experience, and we're also adding a third person we trust to the group to take care of art, creative design, and team coherence. Fact is, me and my best bro are, well, guys, and guys have a hard time communicating. So we're adding someone who's been helping us bridge that communication break accidentally, so that they can start doing it intentionally.

    We're probably going to start developing on Godot, as Erik has a ton of Python experience (and GodotScript is apparently identical to Python), it's a game engine specialized around 2d games, it's really simple, and it's 100% catch-free on all production costs.

    This weekend, the three of us are just going to be discussing what kind of games we'd like to try to work on, and we'll go from there!
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  8. - Top - End - #8
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    Default Re: MoG's Game Dev Journal

    So video games were a bust. Real life got in the way for everyone and stalled the project too much to stick with a rigorous schedule that you'd want for programming a game.

    I'm taking the card project back to the state it was in with post #4. Having a "Start/End Phase" adds a lot more consistency and mechanics we can rely on, as well as allowing more strategies for players to use.

    I'll be working on it solo so that I only need to work around my schedule for progress. I'll go over a full breakdown on how the game works and plays in my next post.

    The only thing unfinished at the moment is how the "upkeep" step will function, but that will just take some trial-and-error to hammer out, or maybe some good ideas from you folks.

    More coming soon!
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2021-03-11 at 03:20 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  9. - Top - End - #9
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    Default Re: MoG's Game Dev Journal

    The game is separated by four different decks, all with a mini instruction booklet. They are Deck Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4. As you get more personal experience from playing the game, and you feel you want to “level up” the gaming experience, you open the next level of decks and add them to your previous set. Each level essentially makes the game more complicated, more “advanced”.

    Level 1 introduces the core mechanics and Command cards.

    CORE RULES:
    You start with 5 dice. This is your ability to influence fate. The closer you are to death, the more power you have. Each time you are Hit, you gain a die, unless you have 10, and then you DIE.
    You assign dice to cards, cards spend dice to do things, and spent dice returns to your Player Pool.

    When you roll dice from any pool (from a card or your own pool), determine the result by rolling all of the dice, keeping the highest value and adding +1 for any duplicates of that roll you may have.

    COMMAND CARDS:
    These are essentially units on the board, and they act in their own phase called the Command Phase. For each Command card in this phase, follow this pattern to determine Initiative for which card acts:
    1. Find the largest dice pool among cards you control that can act (note that facedown and exhausted cards cannot act)
    2. If an opponent has a card with the same amount of dice, both of you roll to determine which player gets Initiative.
    3. The player with Initiative then picks a valid card they control with that much dice and that card act.

    A unit with Initiative may:
    • Engage an enemy target (Exhausts this card).
    • “Burn” (remove) a die from itself to fuel an effect on the card.
    • Flip facedown.

    When you start an engagement with a target, you are generally also attacking immediately after. Roll all of the dice from that card’s pool, adding any bonuses that unit gets to its attack. The defender then rolls all of their dice for their defense. If the attacker meets or exceeds the defender’s roll, the defender is Hit and the attacker loses 1 die (unless they only have 1 die). If the defender prevails (and most cards are discarded immediately when Hit), they can retaliate with their own attack roll, losing a die afterwards in the same manner.

    It's also important to note that some cards, and all facedown cards, have the Protect keyword. A card with Protect can Engage on behalf of another card without Protect by Exhausting. So by putting one of my cards facedown, I can have it Protect a faceup card, while also keeping its effects hidden. However, a Protect card can be attacked directly without the benefit of another unit with Protect.

    Lastly, a unit can Burn a die to resist becoming Exhausted. If a Command card runs out of dice somehow, it’s put at the bottom of your deck.

    At the start of each round, determine initiative for upkeep based on each player’s player pool. The player with initiative draws cards up to their current player pool, unexhausts any exhausted cards, may flip any current cards faceup or return them to the bottom of your deck, plays any number of cards facedown, and then reassigns all of their remaining dice.

    Cards will often have a +/- Attack or a +/- Defense bonus listed on the card. Statistically, these are roughly equivalent to added or subtracted dice (so a Command card with +1 Attack and 2 dice makes attacks with roughly the power of 3 dice).

    When a player is attacked, they roll the dice in their Player Pool for a defense roll, but a player cannot attack (at least until Deck Level 3).



    Level 2 introduces other keywords:

    Assassin: I ignore Protect (from both Allies and Enemies!)
    Ranged: I always attacks first, unless I was Exhausted before the engagement or if I’m engaged by an enemy with Ranged.
    Enchant: Move a die from your Player Pool onto another, specified, card. Not necessarily a card keyword, but a keyword for effects. For example, the Shadowmancer has “BURN: Flip a Command card over. If it was an ally, Enchant them.”
    Initiative +/-: I get a bonus or penalty to the dice I count for Initiative and any rolls I make for Initiative.
    Protect: Same as the facedown rules on Protect, but I can now Protect while faceup.
    Brash: Revealed as soon as the Command Phase begins (so it can attack the turn it was played)
    Gambit: Activate an effect when I am revealed.

    You should generally ignore keywords and effects on a card while it is facedown. This means that Assassin cards can Protect while they’re facedown, and that a Ranged card can still attack first when it’s engaged while facedown (as it’s flipped faceup after the Protect effect but before any attacks).

    It's worth noting that, while having cards facedown limits your opponent's information and often times comes with strategic benefits, attacker wins on a tie. This creates an interesting dynamic supporting both aggression and tactical caution.




    Level 3 covers Might cards, which allow your player to attack almost identically to a unit, in a phase that comes after the Command phase called the Hero phase. Level 4 covers Magic cards, which essentially work as triggered traps/buffs, as well as functioning as a mechanic to steal a card when your opponent would discard it. I'll go into more details on these in my next post. Level 5 will add Hero cards, which add modifications to mechanics in the game (such as modifying the discard pile or adding/removing dice from cards), akin to classes.
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2021-03-15 at 10:18 AM.
    Quote Originally Posted by KOLE View Post
    MOG, design a darn RPG system. Seriously, the amount of ideas I’ve gleaned from your posts has been valuable. You’re a gem of the community here.

    5th Edition Homebrewery
    Prestige Options, changing primary attributes to open a world of new multiclassing.
    Adrenaline Surge, fitting Short Rests into combat to fix bosses/Short Rest Classes.
    Pain, using Exhaustion to make tactical martial combatants.
    Fate Sorcery, lucky winner of the 5e D&D Subclass Contest VII!

  10. - Top - End - #10
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    Default Re: MoG's Game Dev Journal

    Quote Originally Posted by HertDsert View Post
    One interesting aspect of this is the fact that the Magic strategy is stronger the less your opponent has been Hit, as he'll have fewer dice in his Reserve Pool to counter your card-stealing. This also means that the Magic playstyle is naturally countered against the Equipment playstyle, as the Equipment playstyle has a naturally low card-loss rate, and wants to have a ton of dice in their Reserve Pool.
    You're exactly right. It's a weird balancing act where there are several ways to force your opponent into a losing situation, and the cards you pick have different values based on the phase of the round and the entire timeline of the game.

    Might cards function better for countering the enemy's command cards (and sacrificing yours to add more dice fuel later in the phase), while Magic cards keep your units alive by making surprisingly favorable trades while forcing your strategy to become more predictable. If you don't get value out of your Magic triggers, you can steal cards for long-term advantage instead (but it means you spent dice and cards for little board-state gain).

    Might is better at defense, while Magic is better for maintaining a successful offense.

    While stealing cards seems strong, it has the catch of loading cards into your deck that are unlikely to be optimized for your strategy. So it gives you a lead, but it means you're taking a risk on less consistency as the game goes on.

    I've always believed that relying on maintaining a stagnant board state is a toxic strategy in games, and that the game should become more unpredictable the greater your power is, and this happened to satisfy all of that. Since you start at 5 dice, and have a max of 10, it's difficult to maintain a board state without needing to fluctuate a bit.

    • AGGRESSION
    • Magic
    • Command
    • Might
    • DEFENSE


    • CARD ADVANTAGE
    • Magic
    • Might
    • Command
    • BOARD STATE



    Was kinda by accident, but I'm not complaining!
    Last edited by Man_Over_Game; 2021-03-12 at 03:29 PM.

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