Week 8

Overview

I've created the final designs of the cards for the capturable creatures ready to be printed. I've also been playtesting the game more to get it as balanced as possible, so that me and Kat are able to move on and design the Journey and Item cards.

Final Cards

Over the past few days I have been designing the final versions of the cards so that they're ready to be printed. This has involved coming up with their final names, as well as some flavour text to give a brief insight into the creature's traits and personality. I also finalised the UI and confirmed the design with the team. This will also be the same sort of design for the Journey and Item cards, just not with all the same information.

Fungal Cow

Capture:

Capture: d6 _2
Reward: +1 d4
Penalty: -1 d6

Flavour Text: These creatures spend the day rolling throughout meadows and dancing amongst the flowers. The spores they produce from their head cause any in the vicinity to let down their guard

Ability: Lower the capture requirements (pick 1) of a creature by 1 [activate before capture attempt].

Planphibius

Capture:

Capture: d4 _2
Reward: +1 d8
Penalty: -1 d4

Flavour Text: In mossy grottos, it lingers, gracefully swimming through the air. The fins on its head react to the growth of vegetation around it.

Ability: Increase or decrease a roll by 1.

Leafy

Capture:

Capture: d6 _3
Reward: +1 d4
Penalty: -1 d10

Flavour Text: Often seen scurrying around in the underbrush, Leafy enjoy munching on whatever veggies they can find whilst basking in the sun.

Ability: Gain a random die.

Briar Wolf

Capture:

Capture: d8 _4
Reward: +1 d12
Penalty: -1 d8

Flavour Text: Briar pups grow up in thickets, resulting in a toughened demeanour. As they mature, they start to grow thorns on their body.

Ability: Attack a player, and they lose a die.

Cave Tortoise

Capture:

Capture: d6 _3
Reward: +1 d8
Penalty: -1 d8

Flavour Text: Dwelling in solitude, the Cave Tortoise lingers with its thoughts. Spare it a moment, and let it share its wisdom.

Ability: Any dice you may lose in an attempt to capture a creature may be returned to you after [activate before a capture attempt].

Potted Cat

Capture:

Capture: d4 _3, d6 _2
Reward: +1 d12
Penalty: -1 d4

Flavour Text: Placid and calm, Potted Cats spend the majority of their day slumbering in pots, soaking up the sun's rays.

Ability: Skip your turn, and gain 2 random dice.

Fey Frog

Capture:

Capture: d12 _6, d10 _4
Reward: +1 d6, +1 d10
Penalty: -

Flavour Text: Residing in lakes filled with otherworldly energy, the Fey Frog is able to draw out creatures from the beyond.

Ability: Raise a discarded creature from your discard pile to your hand.

Swappuny

Capture:

Capture: d10 _8, d8 _7
Reward: +1 d12, +1 d8, +1 d6
Penalty: -1 d4, -1 d6

Flavour Text: A tricky creature, they travel through a network of underground tunnels, able to appear in various locations almost instantaneously.

Ability: Swap your dice with another player.

The Twins

Capture:

Capture: d12 _9, d4 _3
Reward: +1 d10, +1 d6, +1 d4
Penalty: -1 d10, -1 d12

Flavour Text: Seldom seen except for in small bodies of water, The Twins always come in pairs.

Ability: Double the number of a dice type of your choice in your hand. [e.g. 2 d6 becomes 4 d6).

Evergreen Guardian

Capture:

Capture: d12 _3, d10 _4, d8 _3, d6 _3
Reward: +1 d20, +1 d12, +1 d10, +1 d8
Penalty: -1 d6, -1 d10, -1 d12

Flavour Text: Guardian of the forest, wherever it walks, flowers bloom, grass blankets the earth, and trees tower up to the sky.

Ability: Gain 3 random dice.

Playtest 10

I think this playtest was the most successful of them all, which is a good sign. The amount of dice players had were a lot more even this time round, which I will confirm by playtesting again to see if the game is balanced enough. The inclusion of items and scenarios which penalise those in first whilst benefiting those in last was a good choice to make. There was also a lot more player interaction this time around, with new items to engage other players.

The main thing we tested this time around was the player abilities. We tested to break the Medic character, where the player would skip their turn to gain charges for their abilities, then use it to gain 2 dice of their choice. They ended up not drawing a single card, so we changed the ability to two abilities, a one charge skill and a two charge skill. The other characters followed similar paths:

Medic
- 1 charge: roll for a random die
- 2 charge: gain a die of your choice

Hunter
- 1 charge: take out an enemy die
- 2 charge: take out a random enemy creature
Thief
- 1 charge: steal a die
- 2 charge: steal a creature/item

Ranger
- 1 charge: alter a creature's capture requirements by 2
- 2 charge: set a trap; the next creature you come across you can alter the capture requirements by 5

These will need to be playtested in the next playtest to see if these are viable options.

We also thought about how the Grand Beast will work again. Like all our other playtests, nobody wanted to strike the Grand Beast first. To change this, we've included a Journey card which forces a player to roll to take out some of the Grand Beast's hit points. This will hopefully get the ball rolling and incentivise other people to attack the beast. We also thought of giving the Grand Beast barriers that the player can take out (150, 100 and 50), and whoever takes out that barrier gets a bonus. This could be:

gaining an extra 2(?) random dice
gain an item card of your choice
gain a bonus to your next creature capture (lower requirements or gain an extra dice that creature offers)

These should hopefully be some ways to help incentivise the attacking of the Grand Beast, and help to progress the game.

Frostbitten Hand

Flavour Text: A hand coated in permafrost. Whoever bears the burden of carrying it will forever be frozen.

Ability: Force a player to give up their turn.

Mid-project Evaluation

We are proceeding well with our milestones. All our creature cards have been designed, which now leaves the journey and item cards, which will be split between me and Kat, once she has finished her secondment with Tim's team. I've already begun work on the item cards, so those should be completed pretty quickly, and I should be able to join Kat to work on the journey cards. I've also begun work on the tuck box, which will be done very quickly, as it's going to be similar in design to the card back I created. That leaves the models, which Max is handling steadily, as well as the rule book and player mats. This is less of a priority, as we will be using the university's printing service, instead of an outside company, so we just need to work within the time we have left for the deadline.

I still want to give my teammates a chance to have a break, about 2 weeks. That still leaves about 6 weeks in which we can complete the rule book and player mats, which should be entirely possible. I've also looked into dice production, as James suggested to look into everything that will be needed, as if we are selling this product, and it appears 3d printing will cost more than just buying the dice we need, so I'll have a look to see if there's somewhere I could bulk buy, and that doesn't have a restriction on resales.

Playtest 11-14

We playtested our game with some of the first and third years, who have had no prior experience with our game. We found that everyone enjoyed the concept, and that there wasn't much that anyone felt could be improved. However, there was a note on how whoever attacks the Grand Beast first is basically at a disadvantage, as every other player could jump on the efforts of whoever attacked first. To combat this, we were suggested to either include a buff to the player who attacks first, or to give players a way to disrupt each other as they attempt to attack the beast.

Jumping off this, we decided to create a rule in which players are able to disrupt another players attempt at the Grand Beast by using up 3 charges. This is a special case where players are able to use 3 charges in a turn instead of the usual 2.

We also ran into a few clarity issues with some of the cards, and also some cards that felt like they didn't have much of an effect on the game. Cards like Fallen Grace, which I got on my first turn, are basically useless, as everyone is on the same amount of dice, so we changed it to getting one of your choice. The Poacher Camp also isn't very useful at the start of the game when you don't have many creatures, so we've changed that to being gain a random die if you don't have any creatures in your discard pile.

All in all I think we're at a really good place with our game in terms of finishing it. Now that we've playtested a few more times, and gotten any major remaining issues out of the way, I can begin work on clarifying our rules, sending that to Max so he can create a rulebook, and then me and Kat can finalise art for the Journey and Item cards.

We've also talked about a box to hold all the game pieces in, as well as smaller bags or boxes to hold the different kinds of dice, as they can be a pain to clear away at the end of the game. This will be something we'll consider more in depth if we finish our remaining milestones.

3D Printing Workshop

Me and Max also attended a 3D printing workshop to see about using the printers to make our character and Grand Beast models. We used photogrammetry in order to make a scan of an item, in this case the Grand Beast, and prepare it for printing. We need to wait 14 hrs for it to finish, so we'll be picking that up next Monday. What we have noticed is that the models weren't very high quality, whereas Max's polymer clay models have a lot more clear features, so we're both agreed that we will be progressing with Max's polymer clay models.

All-Consuming Venus

Capture:

Capture: d12 _4, d10 _3, d6 _2
Counter: 200
Penalty: -1 d6, -1 d10, -1 d12

Barriers:

150 - Gain +1 dice to all dice rewards of your next creature caught
100 - gain 2 random die
50 - gain 1 die of your choice

Flavour Text: Roaming the forests, the beast scours the land for its next meal. Be wary, for any caught in its maw will meet an untimely demise...

Player Mats

I created a potential design for what the player mats could look like. The majority of the space is used by the player character image in the background, with some designated spots for the players charges and their discard pile. I imagine these mats being about a4 in size, so there's enough space for the cards and charge counters to fit, whilst also not cluttering the art on the mat. I also plan to have these laminated so that they last for longer and won't get as damaged.

I mentioned the idea of having physical counters for players to visualise how many charges they have. Max followed on by suggesting each character have a charge unique to them, for example, the hunter having arrows. I did note the time that we'd have left for this, and we've come to a compromise to use a simple shape that is unique to the character.

Next Week

I need to create the art for the Journey and Item cards, and also create art for the tuck box and rule book, which I'll then send to Max. Kat should be finishing her secondment soon, so she can help me with the design of some of those cards too.