I recently had a great discussion with friends that have a heavy interest in games and design. One of the topics that came up was the mechanical issue I outlined in a previous post. They gave me some alternate views on the subject, and pointed out areas that I was thinking too aggressviely. I think I now have direction on a workable solution that keeps everyone involved but still puts that tension in the hands of the players, and gives them not one, but two countdown clocks driven by the cards. Just to make them feel warm and all.
The first thing I have done is abandoned the idea of turning any of the players into a collective force against any others. I still like the idea, but it does not seem workable in this case. I may try to build something around that later; a tide that rises as those you fought with join the ranks against you. A zombie apocalypse theme sounds right for that, because we just don't have enough proper zombie games, right?
So what I'm left with is that, although each player is pursuing an independent goal, there is a mechanically driven endgame countdown, as well as a rising threat built into the main draw deck similar to what is used in Pandemic.
With some of those key elements thought out, I am turning to building the various mechanics starting with common and shared resources before getting into the various pieces that will support varied ways to win.
A big thanks to Ben the Game Designer and Dan for hanging around until after 2am and sharing their thoughts.
No comments:
Post a Comment