So, I don't have access to the internet at my apartment, but I've finally decided that I wanted to work on a full-scale game again. It's been a while since I've taken the plunge and poured all of my free time into a game since I got married a few months ago and have moved twice. But, now that I'm a bit more settled, I think that it's time to give this idea that I've had some physical form.
I will start by fleshing out my concept in writing.
The game is played by a group of 3-5 mad scientists that are vying for world domination, achieved through their respective diabolical plans. The board will be similar to Risk or Pandemic, where there are specific territories and limited ways to move between them.
Each player is dealt a mad scientist card, which has a silly bio and an explanation of what they are trying to accomplish in order to win and comes with a stack of tokens which represent things that the scientist can construct with their minions on the world map. Note that the different scientists will have a limited quantity of structures to build, and each scientist has some they can build more than other scientists (I want to give one a lot of traps, while another gets doom rays, which each help the scientist with their respective goals). A list of potential objectives and individualized tokens will be covered in a later entry.
On your turn, you may order your minions to move or to take an action on the space they are on. Minions can construct new building, hunt down other players' minions, develop influence for you, or attempt to destroy an opponent's building. All of these actions have their uses.
At the end of your turns, you may spend influence that you may have acquired to purchase country (or city; undecided) cards, which represent areas where you have a lot of influence. It also means that you can spend the card and allow minions to build your structures or travel to or from there easily (a la pandemic).
You can have a relatively large number of minions in the game, but you can only issue orders to up to 3-4 of them on your turn. [order quantity undecided]
The big idea with this game is that I'm toying with making each player start with something different. Giving them a different goal and different structure tokens they can build represents a different strategy, and means that it entices the player to play differently each time they play. Also, I'm thinking about including a henchman which represents a specialized minion that can do certain things particularly well, and random start locations could help achieve more of that feeling that the game is different every time you play.
Comments
Megalomania!
I'm working on a game called Megalomania! http://www.bgdf.com/forum/game-creation/new-game-ideas/megalomania-game-...
I've been quiet about it as I try to fine tune more of it, and also because I've got two other games that I've been making playtest sets for. I've had a few changes since that thread.
The key thing with this type of game is that the theme is the selling point. You need to make sure you make the theme immersive enough. You don't want players sitting down to play Mad Scientists, but feeling like they are businessmen, or countries conquering territory, or... etc.
Unique player powers and goals is a big way to do that, so stick with it! Good luck!
Theme is important
I once made a game called Dr. Hypnos revenge.
It was horrible, but everyone loved the theme. Make sure the theme comes across clear and people will at least give the game a chance.