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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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I submitted my entry into the Iron Game Designer Challenge. While I may not have gotten everything balanced perfectly, I got it well enough to play so that I could get the submission in on time. While I would love to win the contest, I am really treating it more like blind play testing. My hope is that after the contest, I will get enough feedback to polish the rough edges. After I do that, I will submit the game to the BGG database, and make it to the coveted Game Designer Badge! What follows is my entry submission, and part of that submission is the link to the files for the game. Please feel free to print, play, and share feedback.
Sean Johnson
Star Armada
2 Players
20-30 minutes
Necessary Components:
Two 26 card decks, two sets of 4 battle cards, 5 planet markers, 2 star base cards, 80 damage markers (to print these components requires nine sheets of 8.5 x 11 card stock)
4 sided, 6 sided, 8 sided, and 10 sided dice for each player (two to three of each per player is ideal)
Contest Ingredients Used:
Theme: Classic Sci-Fi Movies
Mechanics: Battle Card Driven, Area Control, Dice Rolling
Brief Explanation
While not being tied to a specific movie franchise, Star Armada is a two player game that evokes the feel of classic space opera movies with massive space ship battles. Players maneuver fleets of ships to gain control of the majority of key planets. When these fleets clash, players try to out think each other and gain the advantage with strategic battle cards. Combat is then resolved with buckets of dice (though actual buckets are not required).
Link to game files
All of the required files are available through a google documents folder. To maintain the original and required formatting, the documents MUST be downloaded and opened in Microsoft Word.
Link: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0Bw3GQSHXTiMvZDU4ODAyZGMtMjF...
Photo of the Game
Picture of an uncut sheet of cards as well as example of a battle in progress:
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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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If I want to get a game playable by September 18th, then I figured that I needed to start play testing almost immediately. So this morning, while my son napped, I made all the 62 cards needed for the game. I swiped some components from Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League and Warhammer: Invasion, and we were off!
The game took around 20 minutes to play, and my wife won. After playing the game, she said "There are some kinks, but I think there could be a good game in there."
In my opinion, here are some of the things that really worked:
1. The deck size was perfect. Having 26 cards was a good pool, but it was limited enough to give a slight feeling of scarcity. This made each ship feel more valuable.
2. For the most part, the combat system which is the core element of the game worked. Obviously, since this is the most central part of the game it has the most problems, but the base mechanics will work, and moving a fleet into attack position and rolling a fistful of dice is satisfying.
3. The time was right. This is a light tactical, tug of war game. There was a little back and fort and the game ended at the right time.
Of course not everything worked quite right, so here are some of the problems to address:
1. The single biggest flaw is that combat was way to deadly. The idea is that equal sized fleets would go toe to toe for a couple of rounds, until a player had to make a tough decision of fighting it out one more round or retreating. As it was, with the exception of a couple of times where I had horrendous rolls, the game was one of mutual destruction. I probably need to up the shield modifiers a little, and I really need to up the armor of each ship. I was very conservative in guessing where that should be the first time, and this first test showed it to be way to low.
2. The next problem was with the battle cards. I tried to use a Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock as the basis. This means that each player had five battle cards. Each battle card got +2 against one card, +1 against another, but then lost to the other two cards. Having five cards was apparently to much as my wife felt these cards were arbitrary and not connected well to another. I think I will try again with a simpler Rock Paper Scissors mechanic. Assault will give a bonus against Skirmish, Skirmish will give a bonus against Defend, and defend will give a bonus against assault.
3. There was some initial clunkiness with the "home area". The idea is that all cards not in the deck are in play, in either the home area or one of the "In System" or "In Orbit" areas. Since the home area is hidden from the opponent, this led to a large stack of cards face down, and keeping track of what a player had available was awkward. This was easily fixed by making a player's hand part of their home. Thus home will now have to areas. The hand, where cards wait for deployment and the starbase (on the table in front of the player), where damaged ships heal.
For a first run, I am fairly pleased with the results. I agree that the could be a fun game in this design. I am glad for a couple of days off with labor day coming up, so I can do a bit more with this game. I need to work on the issues stated here, I need to continue making components, and I need to start putting the rules down on paper.
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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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As the blog title suggest, my goal is to create a game that exist in the BGG database and thus earns me a game designer badge.
The past several posts have outlined my ideas for a light space epic game. The game I have an idea for is more of a 2X game (Expand and Exterminate) than a true 4X game. The game idea spawned from me wanting to make a game centered around Starship combat that my wife will play with me, and one of the core ways I plan on doing that is making it a dice fest.
Instead of making a game that has a lot of stuff supporting that main concept, I am going to keep it simple, and focus on a game that is only my core concept. I also plan on doing this in a couple of weeks.
Yesterday (September 1st) a new game design challenge began: Iron Game Designer Challenge. The idea of this challenge is that people have to use two of seven given elements to create a game. Like the Iron Chef show, this is done under the intense pressure of limited time. The contest ends at midnight on September 18th. Using a lot of what I already have in mind I think I can make this happen.
I will be using several of the given elements, including: Classic Sci-Fi movie theme, battle card driven, area control, and dice rolling. I can not think of many things more iconic of Classic Sci-Fi movies than star ships fighting, so I am already in that theme.
This will be a two player only game. Each player will have a pre-set deck of cards. I am going to begin with 26 each and see how it works. Between the players will be five planets, and the goal is to gain control of three of these planets. The majority of the cards, players will have will be various ship cards. There will be three major areas where players will play and move these cards between. In front of the player is their home area. Cards are deployed here, and can be moved from here to the next zone for any of the five contested worlds. The next zone is "in system". A card here will be more committed to a planet, but not fighting for it yet. The final area is "in orbit". When any number of a players cards are "in orbit" they are vying for control of the planet. If at any point a player finishes a round (both players have had equal turns) with ships in orbit of three planets unopposed they win. Until ships are in orbit, they will be hidden from their opponent. This fog of war should allow for bluffing and trying to figure an opponent out.
When two players are both in orbit around a planet, the only way to get rid of the opponent is through combat. Combat will be done using the system I outlined in my last post. . The only difference to the system is that a battle card element will be added. The game 1776 has a battle card mechanic that I love, where before a battle both players pick a tactic card and find out who gets the upper hand. Each player will have five battle cards, and they will essentially interact using the rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock mechanic. These cards combined with the fog of war should really create a lot of tension in a two player game, as is seen in Yomi.
This idea feels really doable and maintains everything I want to see in the game I want to make. Plus, the quick deadline gives me added pressure to get to it. I bought the dice I needed today, and I hope to be play testing a very rough prototype tomorrow night.
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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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As mentioned in the first post, one of the driving forces behind this game idea is that rolling a lot of dice is fun. In explaining the game idea to my wife, I used the term "bucket of dice" to explain the combat and she said she would want to use an actual bucket.
I like war games, but one of the common war game mechanics that I am kind of "meh" about is the Combat Results Table. In these games, the attacker and defender figure out what ratio their strength points breaks down to the best (1:1, 2:1, etc) and then the attack rolls a single die, and looks at a chart for the result. It may be because I grew up with Axis and Allies but I find it more fun to roll a lot of dice.
So with that in mind, here are my ideas on how combat will work in this game:
All Starships can move up to two spaces away. Most often, a player will want to move starships in a group. For simplicity, ships moving in a group are organized in fleets and represented on the board by a fleet counter. Ships are free to leave a fleet and move elsewhere on their own, or not move with the fleet.
When ships move to an uncontrolled planet they have the ability to gain control of the planet. Each planet has an occupation number. The combined marine strength of the fleet must meet or beat that number. If it does, then the planet joins the player’s growing empire. If it does not then, the planet stays neutral or under control of it’s current owner.
When starships of one player move into a space that contains starships of another player a fight begins. One round of combat must be fought before either side may retreat. A round of combat follows these simple steps:
1. Each type of ship has a die associated with it. Players roll 1 of the appropriate dice for each ship in their fleet.
2. Both players add up the total of all of the dice rolled and subtract the shield total from all ships in their opponent’s fleet.
3. The resulting number is how much damage is taken in the battle by a fleet. Players get to assign the damage to their opponent’s fleet using the following parameters: Fighter squadrons are always assigned damage first until all fighter squadrons are destroyed, damage must be assigned in such a way that at least one ship is destroyed if possible, and ships with lower shield ratings must be destroyed before ships with higher shield ratings (but damage may be assigned to better shielded ships).
After each round of combat retreat is possible. First the attacker must decide if they wish to press the attack or retreat. If the attacker did not retreat, then the defender now has the option of retreating or staying and fighting. If both players choose to continue fighting a new round of combat is fought. If a player retreats they must move up to two spaces away from the contested space. If the attacker retreats they must move back to the space they started their move from. If the defender retreats they must move in a direction different from the position where the attacker started their move. The retreat must also be able to end on an empty (no planets or opposing fleets present) space or on a planet controlled by the player. If such a move is not possible then the defender can not retreat.
If the attacker successfully causes the defender to retreat and the space contains a planet that the attacking player does not already control, then they may occupy it if able.
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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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In the last post I gave an overview of the game. On a player's turn, they will have five actions to chose from. Three of those actions will use dice as resources that planets produce, and players will have to balance how they use those resources.
Each planet will produce either a six sided die or a ten sided die. Thus, the more planets a player controls the more options they have open to them. However, taking over planets is a different action, so that gets back to the balance the players have to maintain. The three actions that use dice from planets are research, develop, and produce/build.
Here are the actions in as much detail as I have them.
Research: Expend dice to try and advance up the tech tree.
When a player attempts research, they may attempt to successfully research one technology. If this attempt is successful, the player gains the benefit of that technology for the entire game. All players must start at the basic technologies. Once a technology is developed, then on the next research attempt the player can develop the technology that follows the technology the player already has researched.
Each technology requires a specific type of die to be rolled, and a certain number that must be met. To expend dice a player must have the required type of die available on a planet they control. The player flips the planet over to its expended side and then rolls the die for the research roll. If a player has multiple planets of the required die type, the player can expend multiple dice to roll multiple dice. Doing this is required to meet the research number of some of the more advance technologies.
If a player fails at researching a technology, they will get a +2 to their roll the next time they attempt that same technology.
Develop: Expend dice to develop planets
There are multiple developments available in the game. A development grants a planet certain bonuses. Once a planet has all of the developments, it is considered fully developed. The available developments are:
Space Port: Any damaged ships at a space port heal two damage at the beginning of each turn. Newly built ships during the production action can only be placed at planets containing a space port.
Orbital Defense Platform: If the planet containing a orbital defense platform is attacked, the defending player gets to add a D10 to their defense roll. The orbital defense platform does not take damage. If this development is defending a planet without accompanying ships, it gets one roll to damage/destroy the attackers.
Academy: When taking the leadership action, a player may take five cards instead of three. However, they still only get to keep one command card.
Boot Camp: The number to occupy this planet is increased by 1D6. This die is rolled by the planet’s owner every time a new occupation is attempted.
Research Center: For each research center that a player controls, they may make one re-roll when attempting to research new technology.
Each development has a cost to build. A player must declare which development they are attempting before rolling. To build a development, a player must expend a planet and roll the corresponding die. If the roll meets or beats the development cost then, the development is built. If the roll is below the cost, then the player may expend another planet and add that number as well. If the building cost is still not met, the player may keep expending planets until they meet the cost or run out of controlled planets to expend. If a player runs out of controlled planets and fails to meet the required cost, then they are unable to build the development.
Produce and build: Roll dice and spend the results to buy more ships
Produce and build is the main way to get new ships into a player’s fleets. To produce a player rolls the corresponding for each planet they control. Only planets on the ready, non-expended side may be used to produce. A player must produce with all planets they have that are able to produce. Once a player rolls all of their dice for production, they total the number rolled. This total sum is how many points a player can spend on building new ships. Each ship has an associated cost with it. Each ship that a player buys has its cost subtracted from the amount of points a player has to spend. A player may not retain points from round to round. All ships bought during this action must be immediately placed on the board (or in a fleet) at a planet they control with a space port.
Technically, producing expends all planets that were used to produce. However, once all planets are expended they are returned to their ready side at the end of a turn (after both actions have been taken). Thus, a player’s planets will always be returned to ready at the end of a turn when they produced and built.
Hopefully, next week I will begin with making a prototype to begin playing. One of the main drives of this game is suppose to be starship combat, so in a couple of days I hope to make another update with my ideas about how combat will work.
I hope everything I have post thus far is making sense. If you have any ideas on how to improve these ideas, I would love to hear them!
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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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So the first post I described, in broad overview, the basic concept of the game I want to make. My intention now is to go into a bit more depth about how I see that concept playing out.
First, the board
It is my experience that games with variable boards and/or random set ups have more replayability than static boards. My parents for example, love The Settlers of Catan (the basically play it weekly), and they have stated they do not grow tired of the game because it is always different. To that end, I think the board should be geomorphic hexes. These hexes go together to form paths between star systems. The systems themselves will be randomly placed in the locations, kind of like the numbers are randomly placed on the hexes in Catan. This double layer of random set up ensures that every game is different.
Second, how to win
One of the major euro-game elements that I want to incorporate is multiple paths to victory. Often in a euro game, the winner is the one with the most points and there are just different venues of earning those points. I am thinking of taking the multiple paths to victory a bit more literal and having three distinct ways that the game can be won. Here is what I am thinking right now:
1. Control over half the planets in the game.
2. Fully develop two planets and fully research a specific branch of the tech tree.
3. Fully research a specific branch of the tech tree to gain a Planetary Devastator, and destroy one opponent's home world.
Yeah, I know on that last victory condition I am pretty much wearing one of my influences on my sleeve.
Third, how the game plays
So one of the other major euro-game elements I want to incorporate is the feeling of not being able to get everything done, and every turn has hard choices between to many good options. For me the ultimate game that delivers this is Agricola. On a player's turn they will get to do two actions out of a possible five:
1. Fleet Movement: This action allows players to move their star ships and by extension initiate combat and/or occupation of planets.
2. Research : This action allows players to research technology. The Tech tree will have three branches, and players will have to research them in order.
3. Develop: This action allows players to build structures on individual planets that give bonuses for that planet.
4. Produce and build: This action allows players to collect resources from their controlled planets and then uses those resources to build more space craft.
5. Leadership: This action allows players to draw a card from the command cards. The command cards will be the "wild card" of the game that give players strong bonuses or interrupt capabilities when played.
Fourth, dice
As mentioned in the first post, this game is going to be a die roller. Of the five previously mentioned possible actions, I envision all but leadership to use dice in somewhat. One of the my favorite parts of a game I mentioned last time, Throneworld, is that a late game combat could involve each needing to make 60+ die rolls (or roll 60 at once if you have that many dice on hand). I do not think this game will have that many dice, but for combat I am looking at a bucket of dice approach. For research, develop, and production dice will be used more as resources and players will have to decide which of those three actions to commit their resources to. Right now I am thinking the game will use four sided, six sixed, eight sided, and ten sided dice.
That is a bit more detail to what I am thinking. I have already worked ahead a bit further than this, so my next step is to start making a rough prototype to put the ideas into practice.
In the mean time, I hope in the near future to blog again and begin explaining the actions in a bit more detail. If this interest you, please subscribe and continue to help keep me accountable! Thanks!
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sean johnson
United States
avon
Indiana
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I think the first post on a blog is always the most awkward, don't you?
So as the blog description says, I want to make my own game. Like a lot of gamers I have had a lot of ideas for games. Like several gamers, I have even made feeble attempts at working on these games. However, I want to go to the next level of successfully creating a game, releasing it to the wild in some form, and earning a game designer badge.
I have an idea that I think is good enough to run with, so that is what I am going to do. My intention is to regularly (or lets be honest, it might be semi-regularly), update my progress on this blog. My reason for documenting this process is two fold. First, I have a misguided belief that someone will actually read this, and knowing that there is someone with a small level of interest in what I am doing will help keep me accountable. Second, by sharing my ideas and thoughts as I work on this game I hope to get insights from the collective wisdome of BGG.
So that is the first post awkward introduction part, is my game concept:
I want to make a game about space opera style space combat. However, it needs to also be a game that my wife will play with me. From experience I know she does not care much for tactical games where maneuver and range are factors. I have Warcosm, which is this style of game and she dislikes it. I also know that the game has to be short, so epic 4X games like Twilight Imperium (third edition) are not an option (or for better reference the game we have played of this nature is Throneworld). So basically the game needs to be a strategic game of space combat that plays in two hours or less.
Furthermore, to make it a game that we would both enjoy the game has to get away from the simulation aspects of war games. This means that I am looking to use some euro-game mechanics. Finally, for a game that will have broad appeal to my wife (and me for that matter) the game has to have a lot of dice. Buckets of dice even. My wife loves rolling a lot of dice, and I like some good old fashion ameritrash dice rolling as well.
Thus, the concept of this game is a game that features strategic space combat, with euro-game mechanics, buckets of dice, and plays in two hours or less.
With that concept, I have what I think to be some fairly solid ideas. My goal is in my next posts begin fleshing out how I want to turn this concept into a reality.
Thanks for reading this. Please subscribe and join me on this journey!
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