Epic Hero Battles Yeah!

Aight bro.

So a few years back I spent a ton of time here seeing what others did and working on my own products. You seem to be motivated and put in an excellent effort here. And I do mean excellent, very familiar, in fact, to my own early efforts. Please keep this in mind when reading below. After reading your material and taking the time to appreciate that effort I read your other posts and got a much better idea of where your coming from.

While you certainly have an excellent grasp of the KINDS of things it takes to make up a good game you have missed the fundamental principles of game design that separate the professionals from the amateurs.

First, there IS an easy fix. If you want you could use the SHAZAM method. Your game has some really deep issues that won't be fixed by implementing some new rule or changing something simple. So grab a big group of play testers and wait for them to tell you how to fix it. This may seem lame....however...its literally THE most common method I see aspiring game designers use. I really frown on this, there is a place for play testers and this isn't it. If you want to try this approach then toss the game at a group of friends and scream SHAZAM....maybe you'll get what you want out of it.

Moving on...instead of baking your noodle trying to figure out what MECHANIC you botched take the time to analyze "what" you're doing. Simplistic games that use literally a quarter the rules and mechanics your using would result in more immersive play. Why do you think that is?

The reason, as you will discover when you spend more time designing...and less time implementing....is that these products were designed with purpose in mind. Rules were not implemented as a matter of convenience but as a matter of course.

IE: I need a random element, what do I have that can be used to generate that element? Everyone has some spare change, I implement the use of flipping a coin as my random element.

Need = Rule

Please notice I did not include some convoluted math involving per-existing cards, the necessity of dice for a single rule or some other complex and ultimately time consuming method. If its fast easy and fun...your most likely on the right track.

You seem to have gathered a large selection of rules already implemented in MTG and compiled them into a card game. Take the time to imagine WHAT your players will be doing during the course of game play, WHAT will limit downtime and promote strategic thinking, WHAT will keep players immersed and most importantly entertained during the game. Develop a NEED based on these questions THEN create rules. All the problems you listed at the bottom of your design doc are the result of a common amateur mistake, implementing rules without a design.

E

reminds me of an Idea I had a while back before I started on my current card game.
Basically each player had a single hero card with "attributes" each attribute allowed the player to play special ability cards and troop cards.
for example one hero might have strength 1/3 meaning they had a starting level 1 in strength so any card that required 1 strength to be played could be used, and he can only have a max of 3 strength.
then there were skill cards that increased the attribute, added attributes or the likes.
I also had racial attributes (IE Dragon 2/3).
I also came up with the idea to have special large card packs, they were level progression sheets.
as you killed x troops (or extra heroes, each player could have 3 heroes that leveled.) you could move up the sheet. Some sheets were linear, others had different "paths" but may have been harder to level, or the likes.
each hero had his own deck (but each deck can only be drawn from if that hero were in play. so you could have like 10 heroes in one deck, 2 in play, have 10 decks and progressions, and play one more hero, grab the correct deck and sheet and play from there. If that was how many heroes you wanted ready.)
I did have it where if the main hero died you lost, he was the most powerful "large" card who stayed in play (all heroes had 2 large cards, the hero card that displayed their stats and a special ability, and the progression sheet of your choice. made it easier to seperate decks and progression sheets.)

So, going to be a wall of text, but you asked for it heh.

Those, my friend, are some excellent questions. So then let's begin with your MOST important question.

"What should I be trying to do and what should I be trying to avoid."

YOU should be following your heart. Sounds campy as hell but to be completely candid, it's what counts. Most importantly it will lead you to making better choices when you're trying to design games. Your imagination is going to lead you down the proper path here. Try to take that solid base knowledge of rules you have and apply it to the theme and ideas your working with.

To be more precise, try to think of a combat scene from a movie or perhaps a favored comic book. What happened in the fight? What made the team or group of warriors work well together? How, using the mechanics you have or can imagine, can you recreate this feeling of battle? More specifically the concept your using here (elements working as one) is Synergy. Try to take these factors into account and you'll soon find theme much easier to interconnect with rules.

As far as thinking of things then dismissing those ideas through logic (faulty or infallible) there's nothing wrong with that. I certainly do a great deal of that myself. I would encourage you, however, to record these ideas regardless of their use. I have a massive doc on my desktop that is a little over 200 pages full of random ideas. Each idea is logged as a single paragraph with a bullet point. Ill grant you that its poorly organized and certainly contains at least some level of repetition but it never fails to be useful.

As far as the design process and what it looks like, well, this is where we're going to run into a problem. I can give you a BASIC outline, but the fact is that the process varies greatly from designer to designer. I would say that I take the following steps, most of the time in this order, each time I deal with a game concept.

• IDEA: Get an idea of what you want, even if it's just some neat conceptual stuff that doesn't really seem to be a game. A great idea can go allot farther than an interesting mechanic.

• RESEARCH: Take a look at what others have done. I assure you that the concept "if you thought of it so did 100 other people" is completely valid. Try to see what others did and compare that with what you wanted to do. Most importantly, especially in this stage, don't get discouraged. Thiers TONS of similar games out their but only a few truly great incarnations. Perhaps YOU will make the "stand-out" version everyone comes to love.

• DESIGN: Get some basic concepts of what you think will keep the players involved in your IDEA. Now try to keep in mind here, what you initially imagined. That THING you had in mind, THATS your design goal. If you wanted to make a game about goblins warring over the limited space in their mountain homes (for instance) then what can we do to keep the player entertained and share with them what YOU thought was so great about this idea.

• IMPLEMENT: Start bringing in rules. You have, hopefully, some vision for the product at this point. If (using the example above) we need to start working out our goblin game then let's start thinking about some basics. How will I represent goblins? Should I use a game board with markers or cards? Will there be random events? Should I consider dice, perhaps used for spawning goblins or combat? Here we see that we have developed a NEED based on our THEME and then implement RULES based on that need.

• TEST: Unfortunately theirs allot of philosophy surrounding play-testing. I prefer to NOT play the games I make and instead observe and take notes. However, you'll find that just as many designers enjoy playing. It's really your choice. In my own experience I can tell from the first (3-4) play tests if the game is a keeper and then start identifying any hurdles my players may be facing. Perhaps they find a rule useless or overly difficult to implement. I take notes on these and then deal with them AFTER the game. Changing things during the play-test only serves to make learning the game harder for the players.

• FEEDBACK: A really hard pill to swallow is criticism. You should, when talking to your players about feedback, watch YOURSELF, not the players. You make a grumpy face or retort in a defensive manner to their criticisms and you could be dooming your project. Play testers don't want to get yelled at and are less likely to be honest with you if you're constantly chewing on them. Listen to what they say, record their thoughts, THEN answer. DO NOT take your play-testers for granted, respect their opinions and thank them for the feedback. As I tell anyone willing to listen, never get attached to a rule or method. If it has to go, trash it.

IMPLEMENT: Here we hit the loop. You're going to IMPLEMENT and TEST over and over until you hate the game. Once your completely sick of it.....its probably ready :)

That's the cycle as best I can describe it. As can be imagined many other things may make their way into the cycle as you work but I feel like I hit on the best points.

I hope I answered your questions and that this is of some use to you.

E

The thing that keeps sticking out is that you have found the game to be "unfun" to play. This is probably the most important aspect to consider. Someone once told me that to be successful in your work, do what you love to do. The seed has been planted in your game concept, but it needs to be nurtured like a rare flower. If the game is not fun, how can you make it so?
The ideas that have been tossed into the mix are quite valuable towards making your game "fun". The fun-factor is vital to making your game a big hit! Without it, it will end up being sold at the 99¢ Store or as a big file just taking up hard drive space.