A Roadmap of Tiny Things

Several months back over on the Cardboard Warriors forum I posted some retro pixel-style models for the N64 video game Jet Force Gemini. The theme for that month's figure compilation was "Supervillains and Birthday Cake Battles", and the company who put our Jet Force was just releasing a 30th anniversary game collection. You can see and download the models over here.

A long running design philosophy I've been working with is to produce a series of different tabletop games that all share similar core mechanics. While I don't want to make a completely universal game system like GURPS or the like, I feel there is something to be said for simplicity and ease of play in games. If you enjoy huge, company level wargames but your buddy wants to play a fantasy skirmish game tonight, the same rules won't fit for both. However, there's no reason they can't both work on the same basic principals, making switching from one system to another easier. With that in mind, I decided to adapt some basic rules from other projects into a simple dungeon crawl With giant, evil, blue space ants!

The first step I took to get things off the ground was to determine what the Minimum Viable Product of something like this game should look like. This project was aimed to be along the lines of simple classics like Space Hulk, Siege of the Citadel and Space Crusade. So I made a list of what my smallest playtest would comprise of:

• Objective: Heroes must get from point A to point B. Bugs must kill them before they do (simple asymmetric game goal)
• Actions: Models have to be able to move, attack and be attacked. For starters, everyone has two actions, moves 3 spaces and rolls 3d8 to attack, with a 6+ being a hit. Bugs get hit, they die. Heroes get hit, subtract 1 because they're tough,  and take that many wounds from a starting pool of 3.
• Reinforcements: Bugs have to get reinforcements every turn to make up for being weaker. Two sets of two bugs was the basic plan.
• Map: Instead of coming up with my own maps for the basic playtest, I used tiles from Siege of the Citadel. The tight corners, twists and turns with a few longer, open halls and rooms seemed like a good variety to test with.

This is what I started off with, quick and dirty. I knew there would be many tweaks needed off the bat, but for a "Test Zero" it was plenty.

Things that were also fairly simple additions but that I decided to wait on till at least the first full test were:

• Aiming shots: re-rolling missed attack dice if you use two actions to fire instead of 1.
• Overwatch/held actions: firing out of turn in reaction to an enemy model.
• Alternate bad guys: red bugs need 5+ to hit and have armor like heroes, normal blue bugs need a 6+ to hit, snipers roll one 5+ die but ignore armor if they hit, and yellow coward drones roll only 2 attack dice unless they can see another friendly bug.
• Hero weapons: machine gun can split fire, rocket launcher does AOE damage, flamer attacks everything in a line.

So, test 0. With the limited number of actions, the Jet Force heroes weren't able to pump out enough firepower or move fast enough to overcome the bugs spawning every turn. So for test #1 I would make heroes hit on 5+ instead of 6+. Basic, simple, core mechanics for moving, firing and doing damage were off to a good start, though. Knowing that, I could move onto the slightly-less-basic variables I listed above and start fine-tuning.

Total time elapsed between grabbing tokens/dice/boards, scribbling out basic test notes, and actually doing a test zero: about 45 minutes. I was able to move dudes around, roll dice, and kill hordes giant blue space ants. End goal is to do all of that with a degree of balance and variety. So, off to a good start.

The MVP of game design is starting small and building up from there.

-Mick

The Importance of Starting Small

Lesson number one: make it as absolutely small as you can, and then trim off some extra.

I wish I had learned this lesson years ago. I've been modding games and making new ways to play my whole life, and I always dream big. For an aspiring game designer that is a great trait, but one that you must learn to suppress at will. Epic plans for overarching story plots and randomly generated quests for your dungeon crawl game are great things to work towards, but those mean nothing if killing a room full of monsters is boring. So the first thing that you should make for any game is the Minimum Viable Product. Which means pull back on the reins, and build something small.

Part of making a game is playtest. Playing it yourself, getting friends to try it out and give feedback. Without the information you get from testing your game, you can never know how it will actually, on a tabletop with real people, work. All of the theory-crafting and careful planning in the world will amount to naught if you can't see how your mechanics actually play out. This isn't to say you shouldn't plan things out; quite the contrary. But when starting a game design project you need to know as soon as possible what of your core idea holds any weight.

With that in mind, your first step after coming up with a game idea should be to distill it down to the fewest possible rules and variables, and play that tiniest version right away. And I do mean right away - find whatever pieces or dice you need from other games, write some basic notes on a scrap piece of paper, and get at least a few plays in by the end of your next weekend. When you have a game to start playing, you find out what's good and bad, and then you can build from there. So even if your first test build sucks, is boring, or even is unplayable, you now can move forward and start actually making a game.

This is the biggest reason that your local gaming group has so many aspiring designers who have never finished or published a game. Without the crucial step of actually starting to work on a game, people naturally get caught up in per-production, making endless notes sketches for a game that they've never really taken the plunge on. Think of making a minimum viable product as a way of overcoming designer's block.

One other big advantage of starting off your design process as simple as possible is this: you can add as many variables as you want after, and do it one at a time. If my core mechanic for playing cards, trading resources,or resolving conflict is solid but a tad boring on its own, I can layer on however much depth I want. But if you start off with tons of rules and your game by some chance plays mostly okay, identifying whatever variable is throwing gameplay off becomes more difficult by degrees.

But enough on the theory for now. Next post I'll be going over an example of a minimum viable product for a dungeon crawl board game, as well as how we plan to use it and how it's growing.

Welcome to the Random Number Generation.
-M

On New Beginnings

Here we are, friends; we stand at the brink. The cusp of something new and fantastical, the starting line for tomorrow.

Who are we? We are all part of a global community that has existed as far back as records stretch. We are gamers. Many people claim that title, and rightly so. But it has not been until recently that games themselves, how we design, play and even live them, has been a topic of discussion. That is part of why we are here.

We are gamers. Game designers, artists, players, fans. It's what we do, and for many of us, who we are. We at the Random Number Generation are here as a part of that, and we want to help grow the world of gaming. So this is what we're going to do:

1. We're going to make games. We have many different tabletop projects in the works, but with the shifting boundaries of game genres this is sure to change in the future.
2. We're going to talk about making games. As we work on projects, we'll share how we go about the process. There are many lessons we've learned coming this far, and certainly many more to come. Hopefully by seeing our failures, as well as our successes, others may learn or be inspired to try something new.
3. We're going to build a community dedicated to making games the best they can be. From players supporting their favorite releases, to artists trying to work their craft, to designers who want to make the next big thing, we aim to support and encourage community and collaboration.

Together, we can change how people see games, and how people have fun. We can make games more thought-provoking, more engaging, more enjoyable. We're here to connect the right people, with the right tools, and the right knowledge to change the world.

We are the Random Number Generation, and this is how we roll.