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Context: We have just finished our second sprint when developing a vertical slice for Lethal Deal. We are 8 weeks into our 12 week development cycle for this vertical slice. We have just conducted our second round of over-the-shoulder user testing.
One feature that I want to implement is a card economy and rarity system into the card drop system and pack system that we have in the game. I feel like this is important because it allows us to lean more onto the TCG flavour of Lethal Deal.
Check out below how the system is prototyped to work in a "pack" format. Press play to see it in action. 6 Ways to Make People Want to Read your Game Design Document - Lethal Deal Development Log 42/11/2022
Most players when traversing carefully designed levels never realise just how carefully that level was put together. With Lethal Deal, from the very first block out, I wanted to make sure the player never felt overwhelmed, confused, or lost. And on the flip side, I always wanted the player to feel powerful and in charge of their movement. The core design pillar of Lethal Deal is to make the player feel like a badass, and being overwhelmed by decisions isn't a great way to achieve that. Example 1: So many jumpads!!!  Problem: I noticed after finishing the first pass of the block out for the opening arena level that I was getting overwhelmed by the amount of glowing jumpads in my immediate view when I spawned in. My first instinct was to just remove some of the jumpads, but I knew that it would mess up the flow of movement that I had designed into the level. I've always found that it's better to try and make an aspect of a game work first before deciding to remove it. Hello all and welcome back to another blog post about Lethal Deal, if you aren’t caught up on the development of Lethal Deal, please refer back to the previous blog post here.
Why?
In game design class today, the tutor brought up itch.io to discuss puzzle games. On the site there was a game that essentially used roll and write mechanics in the form of creating your own forest with sudoku like rule sets (except without the harsh punishment of having to start over if you get something wrong). The reason why I mention this is because I have always been interested in making a free game for people to download, especially around the holiday time. However, due to my like of expertise when it comes to art, I thought this would be economically not viable due to the need for artwork. This along with my lack of experience with creating print and play games really put this dream on the back burner for the last two years. However, since running two Kickstarters which had a print and play pledge, and also discovering how amazing roll and write games can be, and just how unique you can make them, I have decided that I am going to challenge myself to create a small, fun roll and write game for people to enjoy over the holidays. These series of blog posts are going to document this brief journey. A couple of months ago in one of my recent iterations for one of my upcoming games, I tested out how players would respond to increasing the amount of points you get for essentially every single action in the game.
Context: In the game, you get points for completing route cards by going to planets, and that’s it. What I changed: I made it so that you get points for going to any destination, you get points if you rolled a specific dice face, and you also get points if you do your character specific goal. (This could be as simple as moving to a specific destination a number of times in a round, or gaining a certain resource). It has only come to light recently in my discussions with other developers, as well as tutors at my University, that when I say I playtested Food Time Battle in Space for six months, or that I’ve been playtesting Space Game for three months now, that I’m just plain wrong.
If we look back at the development of FTBS, it took me roughly about a month to work out all the kinks, and make sure that the game is playable and enjoyable. Due to the game being so tightly designed yet very asymmetric (I only had 12 cards to work with for each player to create and balance that asymmetry) it then took me five months to balance the game. To break that down more simply, development on FTBS was split into:
This blog post is going to briefly cover the key difference between the two, as well as discuss what your aims should likely be whilst in these two different phases of development. I have been selling games for four years now and I have never made any money. I’ve generated income to pay for manufacturing, distribution, conventions and marketing material. I have even generated enough income to support five amazing and talented freelancers at various points in time over the last four years of my board game development journey. Still, my board game development company has yet to turn a profit.
Now I’m not saying that you can’t make money from board games, or even that I can’t make money from board games, I’m sure that I will in the next couple of years just due to compounding effects. However, the point is that this is coming from the perspective of someone who has been working flat out full time for the last four years, developing three games and growing a business from the ground up, and hasn’t been rewarded monetarily for their efforts. Here’s 5 reasons why you should definitely make board games: |
AuthorHello, my name is Niall Crabtree, and this is my comprehensive blog showcasing all of my game development Archives
March 2022
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