Before I get to that, though, I want to point out that there are some near-legendary analog game titles floating around our classrooms, namely 'Polarity' and 'Shockwave'. These titles—being two winners of previous VFS board game nights and with their creator's names immortalized on a plaque in one of our game labs—are held by previous students who took an extremely simple game mechanic and built fantastic and highly strategic games out of them. The equivalent of re-inventing checkers. Easy-to-play, hard-to-master.
Being me, I want to see my name on that plaque. Unfortunately, despite a lot of solid ideas—I'm pretty sure I could make 15 enjoyable board and card games from my list of 26—I didn't re-invent checkers. Early on, I decided to focus on polish, rather than pure innovation. So, here are my two front-runners.
1. God Seed - a card game where the players take the roles of enormous, warring anthropomorphic trees. This game would be heavily steeped in African or South American mythology, and would be played over the course of 1000 years (20 turns). The goal is for the trees to grow the largest and wisest, and to have the most followers. The trees would unleash their wrath upon each other and perform miracles for their people.
Pros: Easy to build, easy to iterate, interesting premise, strong uniqueness
Cons: I don't have many of the mechanics worked out, which means I have no game
2. Sacrifice - A board game set in the distant future where four survivors battle starvation and horrible mutants as they scrounge for supplies in post-apocalyptia. Safety can come from numbers, but splitting provides more draws for supplies while increasing the chances of running into dangerous critters. The goal is for at least one player to survive long enough to collect (or build) a set number of fuel cells, reach a shelter, and seal themselves inside in relative paradise. The sacrifice mechanic may come into play regularly as food is scarce and rampaging mutants are content with a single meal.
Pros: Accessible theme for the average gamer, high degree of (scalable) challenge, boss critters, multiple paths to success, clear mechanics, sacrifice mechanic is unique, if done right this game could really cause some emotion
Cons: Much harder to make, more complex (so harder to playtest and iterate)
So, as of this evening I was leaning towards Sacrifice (actually the whole title might be "What are you willing to SACRIFICE?), but I have just a touch over three weeks to build a whole board game. It's a difficult choice for me, and one that I have to make this week.
Here's the first draft of my intro text for Sacrifice. Let me know what you think of the ideas.
What are you willing to
SACRIFICE?
Earth during the 24th century. The bombs have fallen and the atmosphere has been scorched away. The sun's energy, source of almost all life on our once-verdant home, kills without mercy anything that is foolish enough to brave daylight. Humanity is all but extinct, having fallen side-by-side with the flora and fauna worldwide. There is no industry; there is no civilization. There is only the flagging hope of the few starving survivors brave and strong enough to scrounge for forgotten food and shelter during the longest, coldest nights since our last ice age.
But at night, the abominations come out to hunt—twisted monsters from the films and videogames of ages past. They scream and charge and relentlessly call to their horrid siblings, growing silent again only in death or when they feed.
On the brink of starvation, you are one of four survivors who have beaten all odds to reach what could be your salvation—a huge sealed shelter that will provide food and safety for years. Only now, at the end of your strength, do you face your greatest challenge of surviving long enough to gather or build the fuel cells required to get inside, activate the shelter, and seal yourself away in relative paradise.
You'll need to work together, watch each other's backs, and take a great number of risks—any one potentially spelling doom for you all—to succeed. You may be hunted, wounded, or killed, but above all else you will answer the following question: what are you willing to sacrifice?
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Sacrifice is a game of survival horror, where supplies are scarce, danger is around every corner, and fighting will usually be your last resort. Your goal is to find (or build) eight fuel cells and get them to the shelter in the middle of the city. The abominations pose a constant threat, but even more relentless is your need for food—your bodies are at the very end of their strength, and missing even a single day will cause you to start shutting down. Balancing your immediate needs with the constant threat of abominations behind every door will be difficult, but it is made far worse by the slow but steady and permanent migration of abominations into your area of the city.
Each day leaves you with fewer places to search for supplies and a greater chance that a single abomination could summon several others. At the end of your 10th night in the city, the abominations will have filled this area, and you will be forced to wait outside for the sun's deadly rays, or to be killed by an overwhelming force of monsters. Hopefully you will have unsealed the shelter by then...
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What do you think? Got any feedback? Think I should focus on God Seed instead?
Thanks for reading.
What's the Win/Lose condition for Sacrifice? If one player succeeds, do all players win?
ReplyDeleteNope. If one player succeeds, only that one player succeeds (though technically it would be a win for all the players versus the board game). Ideally they would all reach safety, but the game is meant to be difficult and to set up situations where players need to be strategic or selfless to garner success.
ReplyDeleteCool, cool. I'd recommend building in some sort of secret info each player has, something like -- but not quite the same as -- the traitor concept in that Camelot boardgame I had and didn't play enough of.
ReplyDeleteSomething a player can barter with, like a key component of the generator the group needs to avoid a costly, drawn out battle.
It's a cool idea nonetheless.