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Z-Man's monster game

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Anonymous
"Zombies!!", The Game

== That is a very good point about the "Zombies!!" game (or games, as it appears to be the case, now that I have done a search on the matter). However, Zev's wording is a little ambiguous. He may very well have meant "do not give me just zombies", but I thought that was included in the fact that he wanted multiple, classic monster types, not just one type. Thus, I am inclined to think that he meant "do not use zombies in your game, as I have seen plenty of them in Twilight Creation's games".

== In any case, I suppose that should not matter too much at this stage of the game. If zombies are not to be used at all, I could easily swap them out for something else.

== Thanks for the help :).

Yogurt
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Z-Man's monster game

I'm about ready to send in my entry. One more read through and it's off.

I'm pleased with the design, although I wonder now if I didn't misunderstand Zev's request that the game not deal with named monsters. Are multiple monsters of each type a requirement? I myself only have one mummy, one wolfman and so on. Ah well, I'm committed now, so let the dusty bones fall where they may!

Against my normal leanings, I wanted to play this theme straight, rather than humourously. At the top of my page, I kept this quote from a horror fanzine:

Quote:
"It was the humanity of the classic monsters, more than any other quality, that made us love them. They were strong, ugly, fearsome to be sure, but the crux of their character was their desire to be human."

For the longest time, that was my gameplay design goal. I wanted to have a slider on the character card that would see the monsters descend from noble to beastly. The winner would be the monster that held on to the most pieces of its humanity.

In the end, though, this became an albatross and I had to let it go.

The trouble is, what separates human from beast is largely control and restraint, so remaining human was usually a matter of NOT doing something -- resisting temptation. Not fun to play.

I kept the sympathetic approach to monsters in my final design, but it's part of the overall theme now, not a gameplay element.

Best of luck to all. I'll be posting my proposal once we get a thread going, and I look forward to seeing what other folks wrote!

Yogurt

Z-Man
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Deadline for proposals is done

Hey, folks!

I'll give till this Monday night for all people to submit proposals or modifications to what they have sent in.

I will take this coming week to look over the proposals (and so will my brother). I can't guarantee I'll respond in detail to all proposals, but I will respond to all proposals. Those that intrigue me will be asked to come up with a working prototype for us to test.

If I don't pick yours it could be for many reasons so please don't feel upset: this is a subjective thing and it is not that easy to capture a game through a proposal.

I want to thank all those that have participated. I didn't count the # of proposals yet but I believe it is over a dozen for sure.

Take care and good luck to all!

SteelShark
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Z-Man's monster game

All right. Mine's in. Good luck to everyone!

Nate

Anonymous
Procrastination

== Ah, good old procrastination. I just submitted my proposal, after a bit more playtesting. There are a few things that concern me:

1] How to best write up a proposal so that it has what Z-Man was looking for, and nothing more.

2] Whether having Zombies in would hurt my chances (despite them being highly replaceable).

3] Whether I should have furthered developed the rules, even though this was just a proposal. My current rules seem great, but I did not have time to add in 'chance-cards' and playtest them (plus game-time with them).

== Anyhow, my game is a comical satire of politics, with each monster-type being like a political party running for candidacy on the Underworld's election. It is fairly fast-paced and colouful, with good replay value due to the uniqueness of each of the six factions.

== Naturally, we all have high hopes for our ideas (life would be so dull without aspirations anyhow), but I wish everyone the best of luck.

Lucas.

Dralius
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Z-Man's monster game

Quote:
== Anyhow, my game is a comical satire of politics, with each monster-type being like a political party running for candidacy on the Underworld's election. It is fairly fast-paced and colouful, with good replay value due to the uniqueness of each of the six factions.

Nice twist on the theme.

I went with a well used theme monster hunting. I tried to highlight the mechanics enough that it will stand out. Mine straddles the euro and traditional american game style fence. This i hope will make it more apealing to Z-man games.

hpox
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Z-Man's monster game

I too sent a proposal, the theme might be too whacky though. It's worth a shot.

phpbbadmin
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Z-Man's monster game

Dralius wrote:
Quote:
== Anyhow, my game is a comical satire of politics, with each monster-type being like a political party running for candidacy on the Underworld's election. It is fairly fast-paced and colouful, with good replay value due to the uniqueness of each of the six factions.

Nice twist on the theme.

I went with a well used theme monster hunting. I tried to highlight the mechanics enough that it will stand out. Mine straddles the euro and traditional american game style fence. This i hope will make it more apealing to Z-man games.

Dang. I did the same thing, albeit with more Euro and less American. This is odd for me because I usually design about 60% american/ 40% Euro. Dral, if you feel so inclined drop me a line and share your idea and I'll do the same.

-Darke

sedjtroll
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Z-Man's monster game

hpox wrote:
I too sent a proposal, the theme might be too whacky though. It's worth a shot.

Unless you mean that it involves too much combat, I think you mean "wacky"..?

onew0rd
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Z-Man's monster game

I ended up submitting a proposal for my "Reverse Zombies" idea. Where players control the villagers trying to survive the Monsters. They also bid for control of the Monsters and kill each other's villagers. I added some neat twists and the game seems very cool indeed. We'll see.

FastLearner
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Z-Man's monster game

"Whacky" is a valid alternative spelling.

http://www.answers.com/whacky&r=67

Anonymous
Z-Man's monster game

onew0rd wrote:
I ended up submitting a proposal for my "Reverse Zombies" idea. Where players control the villagers trying to survive the Monsters. They also bid for control of the Monsters and kill each other's villagers. I added some neat twists and the game seems very cool indeed. We'll see.

== Wow, that sounds like a fun concept, if it is done right. How is the pace of the game? If it is relatively fast, I would love to hear about what makes it fast paced, once the contest officially closes.

== By the way, if anyone is interested in seeing my game-board, I have just uploaded a lower-quality sample of it to this site. I figured that now is too late for anyone to **cough** "borrow" elements from my game anyhow (not that I thought anyone here would do that). Here is the sample:

    * The really colourful clusters around the edges are each faction/party's HQ.
    * The lone hexagons with a little stairway are just that, Stairways (so that the monsters can leave the Underworld and go terrorize some Humans).
    * The tombstone hexes are Cemeteries (to create new underlings -- I realize that doing so in a cemetery might not apply to all these monster types in most fiction/movies/games, but I wanted to be uniform about it).
    * The grey buildings are Crypt-Pubs -- hey, monsters need to unwind after a hard day's labour too!
    * Finally, the yellow skull hexagons are the House of Monsters where debates take place (this area is central to the late stages of the game, raising the pace and keeping it high to the end).

[/][/][/][/][/]
Anonymous
Z-Man's monster game

The map looks great, EarnestErnest -- colorful, clear and thematic. I love the goofy monster icons... Did you make those or are they clip art?

I can't wait to hear more about everyone's submissions, or to hear from Z-Man about the entries moving on to the next round.

Shrike
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Z-Man's monster game

I agree, VERY cool board.....

onew0rd
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Z-Man's monster game

earnest_ernest - the game pace is actually semi-simultaneous and a big design consideration:

5 turns as follows:

1) An event card is placed on each of the 5 locations.

2) Players bid on the 5 Monsters and the Special cards

3) In order, each player moves their villagers around the board. Each player rolls 3d6 and moves any number of villagers a total of that many spaces forward. So if someone rolls a 12, he can move 1 villager 3 spaces, another 4, and still have 5 points worth of move to allocate. The board basically a simple board with 1 way movement that doubles back on itself like a race track there are also "secret passes" to other places. This "track" is divided up among 5 zones.

4) Each zone is resolved in order: Village, Lagoon, Forest, Mountain Pass, Castle.
4.1)First the controlling player moves the resident Monster in that zone, attacks, and all villagers killed are removed from play.
4.2) After this, players receive bonuses for the spaces they occupy with villagers (money, more villagers, special tokens, etc)

5) After all zones are resolved, discard the event cards, reveal a new set of Special Cards, players return the monster cards, the Start Player marker passes to the left, and the turn ends.
…Next turn…etc. for 5 turns.

Shrike
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Z-Man's monster game

One question, for you oneword, what do you use to bid with? I like the sounds of it alot, the near simutaneous play is always cool to have in a game.

Mine is more like a race. Players start with 2 characters they can't lose, represented by a pawn, moving down winding paths on the board. As they come up vs the monsters (certain sections of the path tell you when and what type) they gain or lose other townsfolk that they are trying to get to the goal. Think about "Dawn of the Dead", a few main characters that pick up folks as they go along, the "townsfolk" are worth a range of victory points, the player that gets the most points to the goal is the winner.

-Shrike

xantheman
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Z-Man's monster game

I managed to rough out 2 ideas. One based on monster hunting to fill a zoo, the other based on monster gangs rumbling for turf. My biggest challenge was writing the proposals. For a game in this stage, it almost seems easier to do a proposal without having all of the rules fleshed out. I'm not done with work yet today so I will come back and share more later.

Xan
www.rentoys.com

Shrike
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Z-Man's monster game

Quote:
it almost seems easier to do a proposal without having all of the rules fleshed out.

I agree, although I did try to get balance in the encounters and get a pretty good feel for how all of the mechanics would work/fit, the proposal didn't need all of that, just puts me ahead on the off chance that the design moves to the next stage, otherwise it makes it easier to finish it just for the sake of doing so.

Shrike

Anonymous
Z-Man's monster game

== Thanks for the compliments, ynnen and Shrike!

ynnen wrote:
I love the goofy monster icons... Did you make those or are they clip art?

== They are all cut from Corel Photo-paint clip-art. I enjoy playing around with graphics, but I reasoned that it would be a waste of time for play-testing. Besides, those icons are indeed very goofy, which is exactly what I wanted to support the comical feel of the game. I love them too, with the sole exception of the "gillman", which looks more like a lizardman -- but then again, what were the chances of finding clip-art of a "gillman". Lizardman will have to do for now =).

__________________________

== onew0rd, your game sounds very fun and well paced. I am sure that people will be sharing their ideas in more detail soon enough (hopefully in a more organized, specific thread for this topic -- or perhaps one thread to post the game concepts, and another thread to discuss them). However, I am not sure I understand everything, so I would like to ask you the following questions now, if you do not mind:

A] Do the players essentially go around the whole track each turn (as opposed to maybe going around the whole track over the course of the game)?

B] In each turn, are players bidding for a location each, with each location giving them a monster and a special card?

C] Are the monsters always the same for each location?

D] Are some monsters better and therefore more sought after during bidding?

E] Finally, can the game be played by fewer than five people?

== Overall, the idea sound fun and unique. I am curious to know how many people used ideas based on certain games, but modified, and how many people just tried to come up with something new.

_______________________________

== Shrike, your idea sounds like it could include some very interesting gameplay aspects during the process of the race. Are there special events happening at specific board locations (other than monsters appearing, which you have already mentioned). By the way, do the monsters disappear after each attack, or stick around?

== As for the proposals, I agree that it would be easier to write out a proposal without doing too much work on the rules. However, I think that developing and testing the mechanics of the game to a good degree would help ensure that you can stick to your proposal.

== For instance, I mentioned to Mr. Shlasinger (well, both Mr. Shlasingers actually) that I am also considering using cards in the game, and what purpose would be served by them. Yet, I did not claim that they were already included in the game, since I have yet to play-test them. I could have assumed that I could have made them work, but that assumption could have backfired. All other game elements have been reasonably play-tested, so that I felt confident about explaining them in my proposal.

== That being said, I did find writing the proposal troublesome, in the sense that I was worried about not having the right content. However, as Shriker stated, having reasonably developed mechanics gave me a good idea of what the final game would be like. Additionally, play-testing gave me a good idea of how playing the game would feel, and how long it would take. Having that feel for the game allowed me to know what is special about the game -- what would make it interesting and fun.

__________________________________

== Anyhow, I do hope that we get a thread going to further discuss these games, at least once Z-Man makes his decision on the top two or three. An even better idea might be to have one thread just for the proposals' details, and another to discuss them.

== I look forward to it either way =)

Lucas.

Shrike
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Z-Man's monster game

Quote:
Shrike, your idea sounds like it could include some very interesting gameplay aspects during the process of the race. Are there special events happening at specific board locations (other than monsters appearing, which you have already mentioned). By the way, do the monsters disappear after each attack, or stick around?

You pretty much nailed it. When a players pawn stops in certain areas, they draw an "event" card. 24 total in the game and each player would run into 6 during the course of the game. Most have monsters, some have 2, a few have just challenges, most are a combo of both. The monsters leave after the event is resolved (back to the movie thought, each event is a scene) The reward for 16 of the 24 events is to gain a townfolk that is worth x victory points. I went w/ a 50's theme, greasers, letterman jackets, car hops, that type of thing to fit in with the monsters. There are cards for the players to help themselves with during their turns, reactions to mess with the other players. I tried to keep it simple as far as that goes, worked out pretty good, I hope. The hardest part now is going to be getting the board built up, sigh. Shouldn't be too bad, but I'm holding off a little before diving into it. I actually have to work at work sometimes, stupid Air Force.... =)

Shrike

FastLearner
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Z-Man's monster game

Finally got mine off. I was having trouble with a couple of mechanics and wanted to make certain the game would work before submitting my proposal -- I'd really hate to be selected over someone else who had a working game, only to discover there was no good way to make mine work.

In mine, due to a freak meteor storm a bunch of movie monsters have actually become real and have infested a movie studio's back lot. Old scripts are pulled out of filing cabinets -- cheesy ones, sure, but hey, the DVD sales will be huge -- to take advantage of this super-cheap special effects and makeup extravaganza.

Players run camera crews who are dashing around the lot, trying to lure and/or drive monsters into place with the right backdrop, like the Old West or the Pyramids of Cheops (or suburbia for some comedy fun, or Chinatown for some kung fu action), shooting scene after scene, trying to complete scripts before the government comes in and shuts the place down.

A triangular grid is used to drive monsters and determine what the camera can see. I worked through the game and solo-playtested on a primitive board, and am certain it will be a fun and very unusual game. :)

Best of luck to everyone! May the games be so good that Zev decides he has to publish them all. :)

-- Matthew

doho123
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Z-Man's monster game

at the last minute I decided to submit a simple card game based on the Monsters theme.

Each player is a screenwriter developing screenplays for hidden selected monsters; playing faceup Movie Element cards on their face down monsters (Castle gives points to Dracula and Frankenstien, but is worthless to the Creature from the Black Lagoon). A player can "lock out" a screen play when he is happy with his points on the screenplay.

However, a player may continue to add movie elements, BUT anyother player may steal a screenplay from another player if he can guess what movie monster it is. A correct guess awards ALL the points in that screenplay to the guesser, while an incorrect guess awards ALL the points in any screenplay to the defender from the guesser.

So, is it worth you time and energy to bluff and get a player to guess incorrectly on one of your screenplays? hmmmmm....

Of course, there's no board; however, since zman games apparently likes general goofy movie mayhem, who knows.

Anonymous
Z-Man's monster game

Submission is sent. I am very happy with the game I was able to develop. It has great strategic gameplay where each turn you must make decisions on playing offensively or defensively. At the same time you are trying to conceal information from your opponents.

Good luck to everyone.

onew0rd
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Z-Man's monster game

Quote:
One question, for you oneword, what do you use to bid with? I like the sounds of it alot, the near simutaneous play is always cool to have in a game.

Gold. Players start with some and then get more by moving onto certain spaces and not getting killed by a monster. So a space might have a gold symbol with a 3 meaning it provides 3 gold. But it also may be a nice target for the Monster in that zone.

Quote:
A] Do the players essentially go around the whole track each turn (as opposed to maybe going around the whole track over the course of the game)?

They move around the track over the course of the game. There are about 5 spaces per zone going one way and 5 coming back from the other zone. So something like 25 spaces. I thought of a system something like this: At game end, survivors on the board are worth say 2 VP. If they get to the end, they could be "hidden" for 1 VPs, thus ensuring a VP, but removing them from the rest of the game. you put them in a sanctuary space on the board and they are out of play. If they make it back around to the beginning of the game, you could "hide" as well in another place for 2 VPs. Players get Vps other ways too, for example, the idea is that the villagers have to live for 5 days until a Van Helsing type guy arrives. So there are also spaces with generic weapons icons. Players get these on these spaces. The player who has the most weapons (thus provides the most to the Van Helsing guy) gets a VP bonus at game end.
Quote:

B] In each turn, are players bidding for a location each, with each location giving them a monster and a special card?

Each turn players bid on the 5 Monsters. they also bid on 3-4 special cards. Special cards offer bonus scoring (goals) or bonuses in the game.
Quote:

C] Are the monsters always the same for each location?

Yes. Village has a zombie mob token, Lagoon has a AmphibianMan, Forest has a werewolf, Mountain Pass has Frankenstein, and Castle has Dracula. Each monster has different kill methods and effects on the game. Werewolf kills alot but you still get to get any bonuses for spaces you are on, Frankenstein kills 2 villagers and shuts down another spaces for production.
Quote:

D] Are some monsters better and therefore more sought after during bidding?

Yes and No, I mean, it's only at the proposal stage so I haven't played the game yet, but I feel this will vary from game to game depending on how fast or slow players move around the board. If there is a bottleneck in the Forest, well, the Werewolf is going to be bid higher. The game encourages negotiation and dealmaking. Like, "I'll give you 2 gold if you don't kill my guys with Dracula this turn" "Well you stand to make 5 if I don't so make it 3." etc...
Quote:

E] Finally, can the game be played by fewer than five people?

Absolutely. It will probably scale well from 3-5. 2 players would work if each player controlled 2 sets of villagers and the player who has the better average score wins. I even think it could work with 6 or MAYBE 7...

Yogurt
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Z-Man's monster game

FastLearner wrote:
In mine, due to a freak meteor storm a bunch of movie monsters have actually become real and have infested a movie studio's back lot. ... Players run camera crews who are dashing around the lot ... shooting scene after scene, trying to complete scripts before the government comes in and shuts the place down.

Ha! I was considering a similar idea, but turned on its head. The story was that monsters had always been real and were concentrated in L.A., so the government created the monster movie industry as a cover story. Players would be Abbott and Costello-like bumblers who were actually accomplished government agents.

Cute story, but I never produced a game to go with it.

I also toyed with the idea of a Scooby Doo-style approach, where players would be smugglers trying to scare away snooping kids by posing as monsters. I really wanted to work the line "We'll cover more ground if we split up!" into a game...

So are we going to start a thread to gather all the real proposals in one spot? I saw xantherman took the initiative and posted his as a new message, but it might be convenient to have them all in one place, so I've been holding back.

Yogurt

FastLearner
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Z-Man's monster game

It seems possible that Zev might not want the details of the selected games to be public. I know as a publisher, I wouldn't want details about my upcoming games released too early.

-- Matthew

Shrike
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Z-Man's monster game

DOH! Good point, so I guess we should probably hold off until the lucky few are selected... ^_^

Shrike

Dralius
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Z-Man's monster game

Shrike wrote:
DOH! Good point, so I guess we should probably hold off until the lucky few are selected... ^_^

If you get selected you should hold off until the publisher gives the ok to discuss it publicly.

Shrike
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Z-Man's monster game

But of course! No one is going to spill their game if it was chosen, I was thinking more of the non select few. Although it's hard to say anything with conviction after spilling parts of my game out there already.... I have ot remind myself I'm not out of it yet! jeesh. ^_^ That's what I get for not changing the "common sense filter" in the old cranium for awhile, dang thing must be broke and now it's letting too much stuff out.

Shrike

Dralius
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Z-Man's monster game

Come on Shrike don’t be so humble.

Your game is the best and will be picked. If it is not the best why would you have entered?

Hey wait my game is the best!

All levity aside Z-Man and his brother-in-law may already have a mental picture of what they want. The games that can both fit that picture while at the same time meet his production requirements will likely be the ones picked. Z-Man is not a newbie and I am sure he has a plan for his product line that this game will need to fulfill before being made even if he is doing this as a favor for a relative.

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