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Week 4

Overview

We clarified the ruleset for our game, and playtested it with others in the class, and outside the course. I also started playtests testing the different creatures abilities. I also worked with Kat to help with more of the creature art, to make sure that we are on time for our deadline.

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Playtest Set Up

I've created some cards for us to use during playtesting. I've just used spots of colour to indicate what rarity the creature is, and have included the requirements to catch them, the rewards for capture, and the penalties for failure to catch, in the top right corner. There are 4 common (yellow) creatures, with 4 cards of each, making 16 common cards. There are 3 uncommon (green) creatures, with 3 of each, making 9 uncommon cards. There are 2 rare (blue) creatures, with 2 of each, making 4 cards, as well as 1 mythic (purple). In total there are 30 creatures possible to collect. 

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Re-cap of Rules:

  • Set Up:

    • 5 Dice​

      • 2 d6​

      • 1 d4

      • 1 d8

      • 1 d10

    • Deck of Creatures (30 cards)

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  • The Grand Beast can be attempted to be captured at any time

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  • Numbers with an _ under them means that this value or over must be rolled to count as a success

  • Numbers without a line underneath them are a total that must be met with the required dice

  • Numbers in a box without a dice specified can be met with any dice (Score Box)

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  • Shuffle the creature deck

  • First player draws a card from the creature deck

  • Look at the requirements for capturing the creature

    • Players can decide whether they want to roll to catch the creature​

    • If they choose not to, return the card to the bottom of the creature deck

  • If they attempt to catch the creature:

    • Upon success, gain the rewarded dice, and keep the card along with them​

    • Upon failure, lose the dice stated

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  • Upon battling the Grand Beast:

    • Follow the requirements, as with any other encounter​

    • If there are any Score Boxes, that have not been depleted upon a failed attempt at capture, those will remain at their current level for other players attempts

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  • The player who catches the Grand Beast wins the game.

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Capture Requirements

Common 1:

  • Capture: d6 (2_)

  • Reward: d6

  • Penalty: d6

Common 2:

  • Capture: d6 (_3)

  • Reward: d6

  • Penalty: d6

Common 3:

  • Capture: d6 (5_)

  • Reward: d6, d4

  • Penalty: d6

Common 4:

  • Capture: d6 (6)

  • Reward: d6, d8

  • Penalty: d8

Uncommon 1:

  • Capture: d6 (_5)

  • Reward: d4, d8

  • Penalty: d6

Uncommon 2:

  • Capture: d6 (_5), 10

  • Reward: d6 (x2), d10

  • Penalty: d4

Uncommon 3:

  • Capture: d6 (_4), d4 (_2)

  • Reward: d4, d10

  • Penalty: d6, d4

Rare 1:

  • Capture: d10 (_7), d8 (_5), 10

  • Reward: d10, d8

  • Penalty: d6, d4

Rare 2:

  • Capture: d4 (3), d10 (_6), 12

  • Reward: d6 (x2), d8, d10

  • Penalty: d6 (x2), d8

Mythic 1:

  • Capture: d6 (_5), d8 (_6), d10 (_7)

  • Reward: d10 (x2), d8

  • Penalty: d6 (x2), d8

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Grand Beast

  • Capture: d6 (_5), d8 (_7), d10 (_9), 20

  • Penalty: Roll d6

    • 1 - 2: d8​

    • 3 - 4: d10

    • 5 - 6: d6

Playtest

Yesterday I playtested the first version of the game. However, we instantly ran into a problem where we were losing dice way too quickly, and couldn't roll to capture any creatures. There was an issue with the probabilities that I had came up with, something which I hadn't even considered when designing the values for capture. I went through a crash course in probabilities, and decided that each category should have an "average" probability to be captured, common having the highest and mythic/Grand Beast having the lowest:

  • Common: 75%

  • Uncommon: 66%

  • Rare: 55%

  • Mythic: 50%

  • Grand Beast: 45%

The rewards and penalties also weren't very fair or accurate, so I tried to average out what dice you'd gain and lose, so players won't obtain too many of one, and not enough of any others. The Score Boxes I came up were also too low, as players could easily capture a creature using one. I worked out the average for a roll of one of all dice the player starts with, and it came to 38, so the scores to deplete should be at least higher than 38. One final suggestion was having the rarity of a card visible on the back, so players can decide whether they want to attempt capturing it, without seeing what values they need to capture it first. The only problem I see with this is players losing too many dice again.

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New Capture Requirements

Common 1:

  • Capture: 1 d6 (2_)

  • Reward: 1 d6

  • Penalty: -1 d6

Common 2:

  • Capture: 1 d6 (_3)

  • Reward: 1 d4

  • Penalty: -1 d10

Common 3:

  • Capture: 1 d4 (_2)

  • Reward: 1 d8

  • Penalty: -1 d4

Common 4:

  • Capture: 1 d8 (_4)

  • Reward: 1 d12

  • Penalty: - 1d8

Uncommon 1:

  • Capture: d6 (_3)

  • Reward: 1 d8

  • Penalty: -1 d8

Uncommon 2:

  • Capture: 1 d4 (3) / 1 d6 (_2)

  • Reward: 1 d12

  • Penalty: -1 d4

Uncommon 3:

  • Capture: 1 d12 (_6) / 1 d10 (_4)

  • Reward: 1 d6, 1 d10

  • Penalty: -1 d6

Rare 1:

  • Capture: 1 d12 (_9) / 1 d4 (3)

  • Reward: 1 d10, 1 d6, 1 d4

  • Penalty: -1 d10, -1 d12

Rare 2:

  • Capture: 1 d10 (_8) / 1 d8 (_7)

  • Reward: 1 d12, 1 d8, 1 d10

  • Penalty: -1 d4, -1d6

Mythic 1:

  • Capture: 1 d10 (_4), 1 d12 (_3) / 1 d6 (_3), 1 d8 (_3)

  • Reward: 1 d6, 1 d8, 1 d10, 1 d12

  • Penalty: -1 d6, -1 d10, -1 d12

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Grand Beast

  • Capture: 1 d6 (_3), 1 d10 (_3), 1 d12 (_2), Score 40

  • Penalty: -1 d6, -1 d10, -1 d12​

Playtest 2 and 3

I playtested the new version of our game with Kat, Max, Alex T and Steff today. This version was much fairer than the previous version of the game, with people earning a similar amount of dice throughout the game:

  • Steff: 18

  • Alex: 11

  • Max: 18

  • Kat: 8 (outlier, but this could be due to a bad start getting worse as the game progressed.)

  • Me: 15

People thought the Mythic creature should have a lower percentage than 50%, or offer less of a reward, as it provided a huge boost (4 dice) for one player. I could lower this to 40%, but that would require changing the Grand Beast, which also underwent many changes. We also tried playing under the rule that capturing the mythic gives you 1 d20. This had a relatively large impact in capturing the Grand Beast, but not much else. More playtesting will need to be done to see if getting the d20 means an easy win against the Grand Beast.

 

Max also suggested that more creatures should require a specific value (1 or 2 values?), instead of using the _n system. I also disagree with this, as about 1/6 of the cards ended up in the discard pile, which seems like an adequate number, but I'll try changing a couple creatures to see what bearing it has on the game. Another suggestion was to limit the number of dice people are allowed to have. I'll try out both, limiting the total number a player can have, as well as the types of die they can have.

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Grand Beast:

We found that 40 for the Score Box was too low of a value. Whoever had the mythic easily managed to break through this score, so we played multiple games, first with 40, then 100, then 200. The game with a barrier of 200 was the most fair game. 4 out of 5 people were what it took to beat the Grand Beast. However, some felt that not everyone had an equal chance to attempt to catch the beast. I disagree, as the game rules state anyone can attempt to catch it on their turn, however, maybe there could be more incentive for capturing the creature? However, the only reward for capturing it is winning, so maybe the penalty should be decreased? But that would decrease the high risk, high reward play. I'll have to think on this more, but I think the score is fine as is.

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Card Art

Kat has made me aware that, with the quality of the work that she's doing, she won't be able to reach our date of the 18th March for all card art to be completed. However, I'm ok with this. The quality of her work is excellent, and so I intend on helping with some of the art so that we can reach this goal together. I don't think my art reaches the same quality, however, I'm following the guidelines of realism, and using texture in order to capture certain surfaces and details. Somewhere on the card layout, we will be including the name of the illustrator, to give credit to everyone's art as well.

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Card Art

I love this design that Kat made, and I tried to stay true to her style, but elements of my own have slipped in, such as the use of lines. However, I've tried to limit this to only hard edges, as I was struggling to make those edges defined using only painterly brushes. I'll attempt to improve and properly capture Kat's vision for the cards, however, she has says she's pleased with what I've created. What I will do is create a proper background for this image, akin to the other pieces Kat has created. I'm imagining a corner of a garden with warm sunlight, filled with other potted plants.

Playtest 4

I playtested the game myself, using abilities I had created for each of the creatures. The game played similarly to the previous two tests at first, with a similar number of dice being earned, and a similar amount of creatures failing to be captured, but the abilities altered some of these outcomes, such as the doubling of a specific type of dice in one's hand creating more dice. However, this was offset by some abilities allowing for players to attack other's dice. More creatures also ended up being captured later in the game, due to an ability allowing players to raise creatures from the discard pile. No one failed in any of their attempts to weaken the Grand Beast too, so the probability of damaging it needs to be lessened as well, to make the final moments of the game more difficult.

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Next Week

Due to being ill towards the end of the week, I feel like I haven't achieved as much as I would have liked this week. We did complete a lot of playtesting, and made advances in balancing the game, which I'm proud of, and so we'll keep on with playtesting as I'm completing card designs. Dylan's secondment is next week as well, so I'll have to make sure that we don't fall behind on any of our work next week.

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