Home

Tournament Time (Working Title) - Getting Started

Tue, 04/17/2012 - 19:22 — BMinNY

I am a little late in starting my Game Journal, as I am well underway in designing my game.

I picked my theme first and have built the game around it. I find that many of the games I play and love have great mechanics but are lacking in their connection to their theme. I didn't want that to be the case with my game.

My theme is that the new and mysterious king is bored with the years of peace throughout the lands. He has commanded the lords of each province to send a knight to take part in a tournament. There are a couple of problems.

With peace throughout the lands, none of the lords have a tournament trained knight or the necessary weapons, armor, horses, etc. This is going to create a mad dash by the lords to locate the best weaponsmiths, armorers, stable masters, tactics trainers, etc. There is also going to be a shortage of the raw materials needed to create all of the items needed.

The other problem is that the king gave no real details about the tournament. Traditional tournaments of the past had been based on 4 distinct disciplines; Jousting, Melee Battle, Archery, and Pagentry, however this new king is thought to be a bit "mad", and may have a slightly different take on what he wants to see at the tournament.

The game mechanics are going to be a combination of worker placement, hand management, and resource management, with a couple of new wrinkles to these mechanics.

At this point I am leaning toward the game being played in a series of rounds, with each round consisting of a series of phases to be followed in order. For example, it will go something like this 1-Collect Income, 2-Replenish Cards, 3-Worker Placement, 4-Collect Resources, 5-Take Actions.

I have recently made my initial pass at creating the cards. I have just finished typing them all into Excel, and am going to begin merging them into card form over the next couple of days. My hope is to be able to make a very rudimentary play-test this weekend with my support staff (also known as my wife and 9-year old son). After that I will have a much better idea where this design stands, and where I need to focus my efforts.

I know I haven't given you a lot yet, but please feel free to offer any comments, questions, or opinions that you may have. I have been reading a lot of the posts on here and am amazed at the wealth of experience and knowledge that the members here have. Any feedback from such a talented group can only make me and my game stronger.

~Brad

Tue, 04/17/2012 - 23:14 — SlyBlu7

So kinda like this:

So kinda like this: http://www.bgdf.com/node/6368
Race you to be the first to get art and find a publisher.

Wed, 04/18/2012 - 10:47 — BMinNY

Similar Theme - different mechanics

SlyBlu7 wrote:
So kinda like this: http://www.bgdf.com/node/6368

Wow, what a similar theme. That being said, I think these two games are going to play completely differently. It appears that Ironclad focuses much more on the actual combat phase, where as Tournament Time focuses more heavily on the preparation for combat phase. In Tournament Time, there is only 1 Tournament, and it is the game ending event (final scoring phase). TT is more about balancing your resources and time - most of the knights, horses, weapons, employees, etc have certain special abilities that are only triggered when paired with other conditions.

For example, the Regal Horse receives more points in the Pagentry Phase of the Tournament, than it does during the combat phases of the Tournament. Thus, it would be a good idea to get a better grade of Horse Armor to offset this drawback.

The other part of the balancing act is that fact that the Tournament is comprised of 4 parts, that are based on different skills. For example, the outcome of the Joust is based on Knight + Lance + Armor + Horse + Tactics. The outcome of Melee is based on Knight + Melee Weapon + Armor + Tactics. Thus, you have to decide, as armor is factored into more of the Tournament phases, do you focus more heavily on that, or do you focus on specialty weapons that provide larger bonuses, but are only useful in one phase of the Tournament.

SlyBlu7 wrote:
Race you to be the first to get art and find a publisher.

No race there - I am no where being ready for art or searching for a publisher! My wife was the founder and original president of our high school art club, and she has expressed an interest in being the artist on the game when I do reach that phase.

I want to wish you the best of luck with your game! As we are obviously interested in this common theme, maybe we could bounce ideas off each other as our designs progress.

~Brad

Tue, 04/17/2012 - 21:32 — avalaunch

That sounds interesting. I

That sounds interesting. I think you were right about not giving us a lot to go on though. The theme seems solid enough. I personally am more a game mechanic man though, so what do I know? As for game play, I look forward to your next update, which will hopefully tell us more... :-)

Syndicate content