Initial game design and playtests
Game Design
The game is "Nuts".
It's kind of a play on words:
- The game involves shipping actual nuts.
- The game has some degree of chaos (things are "nuts")
- The game involves some "things have not gone according to plan" moments ("Ah, nuts!")
The basic idea: the players are all execs at a some nut shipping enterprise.
The main game board is a factory floor with conveyor belts connecting nut dispensers on one end with orders on the other end. Along the way the belts may pass through areas that modify or destroy the nuts. Gameplay involves configuring the factory floor, adding "crosses" (a-la Ghost leg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_leg) to the belts or moving elements, so that the orders get filled.
The key elements I want to deliver:
- Ghost leg is just an interesting logic puzzle: how to map set A into set B. The "crossing" mechanic makes for a meaty problem because any choice affects several different outcomes (by placing or removing a cross you break two existing connections and add two new connections).
- Because of this "messiness" (my choices affect you), group dynamics come into play.
- You can play as a "ruiner/jerk", just doing what's best for you and stepping on everyone else.
- You can play collaboratively, trying to form alliances so that our decisions are mutually beneficial.
Within this framework there's a lot of wiggle room:
- How do you modify the floor.
- How do you select Orders.
- Special goals
- Secret or personal agendas with extra rewards.
- Shared/common goals.
- Exclusive (first to hit goal claims prize, everyone else suffah)
- Persistent (anyone who hits goal gets prize)
- Powers (special ways you can cheat)
- Granted a game start a-la Cosmic Encounter.
- Earned along the way.
- Events
- Various tweaks to the rules/setup to add variance each day
- ???
Playtests so far
Playtest 1
Who
Me, my son (7), and my wife.
What happened
Took a very long time to just set up and explain. By the time I got through the rules my son (who has a fairly high capacity for complex board games) was just done, and we would up not even playing.Takeaways
Simplify rules and setup.
Playtest 2
Who
Me, my son, and my wife.
What happened
Rules greatly simplified from previous run: pretty much just floor configuration. No powers, bonuses, events, agendas, etc.Played through one round.
We did not finish. It took a long time.
Takeaways
May too simple now?
Too long.
Playtest 3
Who
Me, my wife, a couple of friends who like games
What happened
Floor configuration, agendas, events, powers.Played through two rounds (game design aims for a game to be about 3 rounds).
It took a long time again: probably complicated by the fact we were dealing with lots of interruptions from kids, but still... too long.
Lots of useful tweaks suggested: some actions/powers needed nerfing, some interesting/fun events don't happen often enough, etc.
Big "meta" issues:
- My wife is not into 'social engineering' games: the whole play-as-jerk vs play-as-ally dynamic is not interesting to her (actually actively off-putting).
- "More of the same": after playing a few rounds feels like you are doing the same thing over and over. I was hoping Powers would help with that but
- They weren't as useful as I'd thought, kind of a minor ripple vs a big "this changes everything" vibe.
- The Powers don't grow or evolve. Perhaps more interesting:
- Powers with options, you can do X or Y.
- Powers that grow or evolve over the game.
- Powers that you unlock or achieve by hitting certain milestones in the game.
Takeaways
I find myself wondering if this would make a good collaborative legacy game.
- Some randomizer (dice or cards) to limit actions.
- A timer to further limit actions and force people to play quickly.
- A "challenge/reward" mechanic:
- Provide a setup with a target (shipments, dollars, whatever) under these constraints (using these rules, this may rounds, this much time).
- When target is hit, some new thing is unlocked: open an envelope with new game components, rules, and challenges.
Comments
Post a Comment