I've been working on a two-player game for a while now, and I've got nearly all the rough prototyping done for playtesting to begin, but I've reached a point where I'm stuck with no idea how to go about creating an end-game. Here's the basic premise of the game...
1. Players pass-and-draft cards with variable values in different categories which they place face-down on their player boards (representing ghostly stall owners at a festival) in order to manipulate the values on the cards they chose.
2. After players reveal their board setup (5 cards each), they receive tokens on their stalls equal to the adjusted values of the cards there. (If a player placed a +1X, +1Y card on a stall with a modifier of +2, they would receive 3X and 3Y tokens to place on that stall.)
3. Another deck of cards (of which not all are used each game) is then gone through, one at a time, containing the patrons of the festival. Each of these cards is looking for a certain variable (e.g. the most X, the least Y, etc.), and the festival that best meets their requirements claims that card and any rewards it provides (i.e. money and victory points).
And now we come to the hang-up. Where do I take it from here? I don't feel that the game has much in the way of decision-making by ending it there (apart from the drafting of cards in the beginning to mitigate the randomness of the patron deck). The players have already secured their VP and currency, but what do they spend the currency ON?
My original idea was that another deck of patrons was gone through, only this time they all had negative effects, and players used their stockpiles of currency to bid on keeping them out of their side of the festival, else they may lose victory points. Due to the theme of the game- the "victory points" being literally the "Belief" that the patrons had in their ghostly festival workers- having cards that stole or chased away patrons from your opponent's stalls didn't make much sense. If a spooky ghost scared a patron away, wouldn't they be MORE LIKELY to believe? And thus be worth MORE victory points in this case? You can see why I'm stuck!
Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated. If there is any other information I can provide, please don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks so much for your responses, guys! Here's my feedback on your ideas...
@Beggarking
Sorry if I didn't explain enough. I was trying to hit all the key points without going into every little detail. I like your ideas quite a bit, though! I'll definitely be working some of them into the design~
I hadn't even considered going into a second or third round of play, simply because I've heard so many times that games tend to "overstay their welcome" if a simple game (like mine) goes on too long for what it is.
After running a quick play-through of the draft and patron reveal phases, the running time was just shy of 20 minutes. Adding in an additional phase, then tripling the length, that would put the game at a rough estimate of 90 minutes playtime. Is this too long? A decent length? Remember, this is strictly a two-player game, and I'd hate for it to drag.
@RyanRay
You're correct in your understanding. After the initial 5-card draft, there WERE no further decisions to be made. However, using some of Beggarking's ideas, I'll be fixing that problem soon.
As for abandoning the "Belief" system and reworking the game into a midway/carnival theme, that's just not for me. I'm actually collaborating with a prominent researcher in the field of Japanese folklore to keep the game as authentic in its design as I can. I appreciate the excellent ideas, though! They just don't work with what my game is intended to be. Thanks for the awesome feedback and support!
@let-off studios
I hadn't considered going in reverse, but let me shed a bit more light onto the game, thematically-speaking. Beggarking, this might be useful to help you understand a bit more as well.
In Feudal Japan, the largest yearly festival is underway and you are drafting ghostly stall owners in order to sway the local villagers to visit your stalls over your rival's. In this way, you'll acquire the "Belief" of these people, which the the Otherworld needs to survive, as well as make a bit of shiny profit, which is something that certain Otherworldly denizens prize. As night falls, however, the roving gang of ne'er-do-well spirits come down from the mountain and surrounding forest to wreak havoc on the festival in various ways (all negative). You can bribe SOME of these to leave you alone and bother your rival, but others are attracted to certain stalls similar to the villagers. Playing this in reverse wouldn't make as much sense, thematically, and I'd really like to work within the confines of my theme. Does that make a bit more sense?
Again, thanks so much, all three of you, for all of your help and advice! Keep it coming! I'll be sure to keep this thread updated with any new ideas or progress I make with the design~