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[droqen]

Not dead or anything, but there aren't many details and I am going to let this one sink into the seas because I am probably going to make a game for the computer again before I ever make a game for the board oh no


Because Dom2D has unleashed my lust for board games (and also because he revealed to me thegamecrafter.com which is amazing) I'm creating a devlog for a board game without a name.

It deals mainly with survival, resource management, trust, and combat.

The basic rules under consideration are as follows:
The game takes place on a 5x5 grid city, with 2-4 players (or more? maybe 2-6?).
Scavenging slowly depletes a grid location of resources until it becomes totally picked clean, devoid of any useful material.
Your goal?

Escape by any means possible without dying first: this city is barren and infested and it sucks. Nobody in their right mind would want to remain in a place like this!

Means of escape?

• Car + Fuel = Drive away with three friends!
• Motorcycle + Fuel = Drive away with one friend!
• Fuel (2 or more) + Lighter = Bonfire! Catch the attention of a helicopter! (not to mention the attention of other unsavory folk)
• And there will probably be more.

I feel kind of bad about making a game with zombies in it. They're so commonplace nowadays. Fortunately I think this is going to be done differently enough; the focus isn't really on the zombies. They're just there to put the pressure on all of you desperate humans!

You are more likely to die of starvation or betrayal, anyway
[and yes you can eat your friends if they die. or if you kill them.]

[Ashkin]

I like the premise, although there is too little information to be sure. I'll be watching this though (as with all your projects).

[droqen]

hi, i'm droqen from 8 years in the future. i still want to make this game. there are a few things that get me excited about it, rereading it! i have been thinking about this exact game without realizing i first thought of it... 8 years ago...

- players can co-operate or compete. this is something i've been thinking about a LOT since i made inconsiderate climbers.
- "winning" is a mixed bag. you secure your victory by escaping, but exile yourself from playing the rest of the round. you get to watch, though!
- the play revolves around digging up limited, unknown resources. in a way i can draw parallels between this gameplay & that of some bluffing/risk-reward games. you don't know exactly what's on the field and need to decide whether to act selfishly with what you've got or wait and see if the board has enough to go around.

the dreams i've been having lately have been in a more cyberpunk setting; everyone is in debt to a corporation that's going to kill them if they don't pay their individual debt off. seems about as commonplace as zombies ;P (maybe have a sellout mechanic where you can do some terrible favour for the corp instead of paying off the impossible debt.)

also, wow, past droqen i don't like the way you write. but it's okay. you're me now.

[Geoff Moore]

collab with your past self GO

[droqen]

prototyped a crap card game this morning in the pursuit of making this. playtested it alone... by myself...
note: only suits matter. remove all jokers, ignore all face values.

1. deal 10 cards face-down, these are the "obstacles". the top obstacle card must always be revealed.
2. deal 3 cards to each player (i had 4 fake players). these are your "loyalty" cards.
3. on your turn, you must remove the top obstacle card. put the card in front of you, face-up, sideways.
4. repeat until all obstacles have been cleared, then everyone reveals their loyalty cards. look at loyalty and cleared obstacles to see who survived.

obstacle lose conditions

clubs, spades, diamonds - if you've cleared any one of these obstacles and you are also loyal to that suit (i.e. you have at least 1 loyalty card of that suit), you lose.
hearts - if you've cleared any hearts obstacles and you're not loyal to hearts, you lose.

loyalty cards

at any time you can 'show your loyalty', which means you take a hidden loyalty and play it face-up (vertically). each suit has its own ability, activated by 'showing your loyalty' to that suit. if you have 2 hearts in your hand, you can 'show your loyalty' twice. whether or not you've shown your loyalty to a suit, at the end of the game you are loyal to any suit in front of you or in your hand.

hearts - discard an obstacle as you clear it, or discard a loyalty from your hand. you must also discard this card, i.e. your loyalty to hearts.

spades - look at another player's hand. take one of their (unrevealed) loyalty cards.

diamonds - draw a loyalty card (from the unused cards).

clubs - skip your turn (you don't have to grab the revealed obstacle, but now the next player does).

~

this game is not very good! i forgot to make winning players 'escape' and remove themselves from the game.
the 'delayed-lose' mechanic isn't great.
this is just a big dumb pile of rules, i cobbled them together more than i had for myself. not sure why; i don't expect anyone to play it! the game was only for my own head!

it was kinda fun how clubs was by far the best ability.
as a fake-player-runner i found myself running the whole group into the ground by acting selfishly. everyone wanted to get clubs, basically, desperately trying to avoid taking cards that would cause them to lose. that worked for a while until everyone's loyalties were depleted, and then everyone was forced to draw every obstacle and everyone lost.

generally an unsatisfying ending for any individual tho, which is what needs to be improved.

.......... also it doesn't hit the notes i wanted. seemed very difficult to co-operate. but it might be fun to try this with someone else.

~

i also tried a version with 4 cards and 2 (again, fake) players. it was too easy.