Well, well, well. This has been a curious exercise. Worked on a design problem for a little while, did up some basic rules for a fictional game, heeded the call and clamor for a real game based on the graphic design, and here we are, just about a week and a half later. I’ve got a date with the IP holders for this project, a proof of concept proto-game (ur-game?) to show off, and la de da, my dance card at GenCon is filling up. Want to see the contact sheet for the cards? Sure you do!
BattleTech DMG: Quick Update
I put together a sample deck and ran through it once with the wife. The gameplay feels right, but the cards need to be adjusted to make it seem like an actual game. I’ve made a few changes, mainly reducing the number of different cards and increasing the amount of the cards that remain in the game, adjusting the costs and the benefits of some cards, and adding heat to the game. Fire that Heavy PPC? Generate 3 Heat. The more heat your ‘Mech builds up, the smaller your hand size. Start discarding cards to remove heat. Too much heat? You’re a sitting duck.
I’ll have a quick playtest again on Monday and get some nicer cards printed up on Tuesday, then I’ll hopefully see you in Indianapolis on Wednesday!
Update to the update: Printed out new test cards and ran a quick two-player game with the wife again. Much better than the first playtest. The Heat mechanic worked out well. I think this may scale up to a four-player game, but I’ll probably only have the two-player version ready for my GenCon demo. Nice!
The BattleTech DMG: Really? Well, okay then.
Based on the feedback I’ve received over the past 48 hours, I think it may be time to move the BattleTech Deckbuilding ‘Mechfighting Game from graphic design project to actual game design project. Like every third member of BoardGameGeek, I fancy myself a game designer — I even have a designer page on the Geek based on my 24 Hour RPG stuff — and, as part of the DMG graphic design project, I somewhat designed the game. So why not take that to the next level? Especially with people threatening to pick me up and carry me to the Catalyst Game Labs booth at GenCon?