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Super Robot Cardgame

4 replies [Last post]
Thu, 12/01/2011 - 05:30
Fhizban
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you know - every once in a while someone has the idea of creating the next "super robot battles game". know its my turn and I want this game to be a card game. I have 90% of the core rules ready (based on earlier designs) - but would like to ask the community for feedback. usually i design games with my own vision in mind - but in this case i would like to hear your oppinions before going in (the probably wrong) production direction.

So its all about 2 or more players bringing giant robots in cardform onto the playing field and battling each other with skills and weapons. you are able to attach "parts" to your bot-cards to equip them with weapons, shield generators and so on.

QUESTION 1: victory conditions
this is rather easy: what victory contition would you like to see? i have five possibilities:
defeat all enemy robots
destroy your enemies home-base (the place where he brings robots into play)
win via terrain control, by locating bots on important terrain locations
gather 7 victory points by blasting opponents bots into pieces
(my favorite): a combination of all of the above: for destroying bots or the homebase and by controlling terrain, you get victory points. the first player who has 7 points, wins the game.

QUESTION 2: robot parts
you will be able to upgrade your bots by attaching cards to them. the question is how far shall i go with this system? how complex? how strict? theese are the options:
robots are represented by cards, you only attach special skills and only a few of them - this allows robots to be unique and characterful. they have all weapons built-in already and additional cards just make them stronger. this reduces freedom of robot design a lot.
robots are empty frames and you have to attach quite a few cards to them (skills, attacks)
robots are divided into card-parts and you have to attach everything from chassis, to gears and weapons. this removes a lot of flavor from the game - as there are no robot cards (just parts). this approach allows maximum freedom of robot design.

QUESTION 3: the setting
also very easy, im just asking if you prefer a pre-set setting or something new:
Generic (my favorite) - a new setting written by me, allows maximum design freedom but lacks material.
Gundam Wing - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.
Super Robot Wars - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.
Mega Man - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.

thats all for now, you can answer like a poll (1:a, 2:b etc.) or write some of your thoughts. thank you for your feedback!

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Thu, 12/01/2011 - 18:20
#1
kos
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Joined: 01/17/2011
Super robot game

I don't know if _everybody_ has tried to make a super robot game, it's one of the games I've toyed with in the past. So you can add me to the list, even if I didn't get far.

Question 1: If your basic concept is to have huge robots blasting each other, then I'd stick with defeating all enemy robots (or points for each robot defeated). You can further break that down into "What are the ways to defeat an enemy robot?" It could be straight damage, or get a critical hit on the cockpit/power core, or drain all energy, or insert a computer virus, or prevent movement. If there are multiple ways to defeat a robot, then this will lead naturally to multiple strategies to win -- rather than simply the biggest guns wins.
If each player has a single robot (or a very small number of them) and they are very hard to destroy outright, then the victory condition could be based on damage received -- each round it costs you money/resources to repair the damage to your robot, and between rounds you can also modify your robot or swap out components to try to increase your chances next round. Play 3 rounds, most money wins.

Question 2: It depends on how many robots you want each player to have. If they have a single robot each, then each robot needs lots of customisation options. If they have a small group (up to 5) then a small amount of customisation would be appropriate. If they have a larger group (more than 5) then standard frames would be better.
In my version of the super robot cardgame, I went with a single robot for each player, and each robot had a standard frame with a half-dozen hardpoints for weapons/equipment.

Question 3: Definitely go with your own setting or one that you have acquired the rights. If you don't have the rights to the setting then it's a non-starter because you could never sell/distribute your game.

Regards,
kos

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Thu, 12/01/2011 - 19:22
#2
JaffetC
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Joined: 09/19/2011
Fhizban wrote:you know -

Fhizban wrote:
you know - every once in a while someone has the idea of creating the next "super robot battles game". know its my turn and I want this game to be a card game. I have 90% of the core rules ready (based on earlier designs) - but would like to ask the community for feedback. usually i design games with my own vision in mind - but in this case i would like to hear your oppinions before going in (the probably wrong) production direction.

So its all about 2 or more players bringing giant robots in cardform onto the playing field and battling each other with skills and weapons. you are able to attach "parts" to your bot-cards to equip them with weapons, shield generators and so on.

QUESTION 1: victory conditions
this is rather easy: what victory contition would you like to see? i have five possibilities:
defeat all enemy robots
destroy your enemies home-base (the place where he brings robots into play)
win via terrain control, by locating bots on important terrain locations
gather 7 victory points by blasting opponents bots into pieces
(my favorite): a combination of all of the above: for destroying bots or the homebase and by controlling terrain, you get victory points. the first player who has 7 points, wins the game.

QUESTION 2: robot parts
you will be able to upgrade your bots by attaching cards to them. the question is how far shall i go with this system? how complex? how strict? theese are the options:
robots are represented by cards, you only attach special skills and only a few of them - this allows robots to be unique and characterful. they have all weapons built-in already and additional cards just make them stronger. this reduces freedom of robot design a lot.
robots are empty frames and you have to attach quite a few cards to them (skills, attacks)
robots are divided into card-parts and you have to attach everything from chassis, to gears and weapons. this removes a lot of flavor from the game - as there are no robot cards (just parts). this approach allows maximum freedom of robot design.

QUESTION 3: the setting
also very easy, im just asking if you prefer a pre-set setting or something new:
Generic (my favorite) - a new setting written by me, allows maximum design freedom but lacks material.
Gundam Wing - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.
Super Robot Wars - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.
Mega Man - lots of material and flavor, but copyright problems etc.

thats all for now, you can answer like a poll (1:a, 2:b etc.) or write some of your thoughts. thank you for your feedback!

On the topic of Intellectual Property, you can call up the current copyright holders for your country and cut a deal with them. Usually itll be a contract of expected sales and you pay an upfront percentage, and as you sell your game and stuff then they make a cut until you reach the percentage they were suppose to be based on the initial Expected sale amount.

So i wouldnt throw out GW, Super Robot Wars, or even Mega Man.

However, making your own intellectual property and working on it can be just as tedious as paying for an IP... So what ever route you go with, just be proud of it and take it as far as you can.

My idea of a Robot game would consist of a Small 20 card deck, with 1 Oversize card representing the robot that you start out with. So maybe have variant robots and try and balance them as best as possible. Then make a set that could be used with them, lets say 80 cards. that a player can use out of in order to increase their robots damage rate.

I would work in 10's so you can divide each card into 4 parts, each side having 100, 100, 100, 100 and as the game progresses when any of those parts reach 0 that part of the robot is no longer usable. You can make it so that If 3 of the body parts on your bot are no longer usable then you lose the game.

You can have some kind of card that lets you repair parts, and combat cards could just be on a 1 turn basis.

Lets say i have a Bot named Hydro.

A Combat card called - Hydro Blast
Requirements - 2 Arm at 10% or less.
Roll a D100, Deal X damage where X is the amount Rolled.

This is as rough as you can get, im sure after going through and polishing and playing you can come up with correct numbers, abilities, and so forth.

But over all the idea of Robots fighting is pretty big. :D

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Fri, 12/02/2011 - 02:16
#3
Fhizban
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Joined: 01/11/2009
yay feedback! I am well aware

yay feedback!

I am well aware about the IP problems that can occur when using a franchise without permission. it has to be said that im not planning to make a commercial project. the initial thought was: i have to use pictures of some sort for the game and at least in the earlier design stages, it would be stolen graphics. so the logical next step was to adapt all pictures from a franchise with lots of material and base the whole game on it. but - i really dont want to sound like im planning to do something illegal (i have already decided for a custom setting, wich does not solve the picture problem).

regarding the game, maybe i should add: add player controls a small group of robots and not a single robot. and each player will bring his own deck (containing robots, parts, weapons, skills, pilots, terrain and events).

what about the terrain control victory condition? anyone who is thinking this could work?

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Sat, 12/03/2011 - 16:03
#4
JaffetC
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Joined: 09/19/2011
Fhizban wrote:yay feedback! I

Fhizban wrote:
yay feedback!

I am well aware about the IP problems that can occur when using a franchise without permission. it has to be said that im not planning to make a commercial project. the initial thought was: i have to use pictures of some sort for the game and at least in the earlier design stages, it would be stolen graphics. so the logical next step was to adapt all pictures from a franchise with lots of material and base the whole game on it. but - i really dont want to sound like im planning to do something illegal (i have already decided for a custom setting, wich does not solve the picture problem).

regarding the game, maybe i should add: add player controls a small group of robots and not a single robot. and each player will bring his own deck (containing robots, parts, weapons, skills, pilots, terrain and events).

what about the terrain control victory condition? anyone who is thinking this could work?

Without a board, or game mat that shows the terrain locations, it would become difficult in a card game, especially for players that dont use game mats or use custom game mats.

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