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Room for another Wizard dueling game?

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Fri, 07/09/2010 - 15:28
simons
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I wanted to get people's thoughts:

I'm thinking about trying to actually design my recent GDS entry (War of the Ancients). It's going to be a deck-builder game, where players develop armies to battle each other (and can alter there decks in real time). There are a few nifty mechanics that I'm kind of excited about, but at some point realized that they're pretty theme-independent.

It got me thinking: Does having the theme of the game be wizards battling wizards actually hurt it? I know the people I've talked to have described it as sounding just like MTG. I feel like all things being equal, I'd rather it be about wizards (since I think it's a neat theme, and there are some neat mechanics that are really wizard-specific), but am not married to the idea at this point. Do you think there is room in this world for one more wizards fighting wizards game, or do you think that the market is pretty saturated, and I'd be better off making the theme science fiction, WWII, mobsters, ninja lords, vampires with zombie minions, etc?

Simon

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Fri, 07/09/2010 - 20:19
#1
Taavet
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Theme

I think it really depends on how much the theme will be integrated into the game.

Honestly, while playing MtG I never really thought of myself as a Wizard summoning monsters and drawing the mana out of various lands to conjure spells. It was just a fun game to build a deck and compete against others.

If your game has some way of integrating the players character more directly into the game then I think Wizards is great. If it is going to be somewhat abstracted like MtG then I think the better questions is what theme do you want to use for your cards?

Fantasy = Players as Wizards
Sci-Fi = Players as Political/Military Leaders
WWII = Players as Commanders/Generals of Armies
ect

The overall ruling power that each person plays the role of doesn't really make a difference if its the armies/buildings/resources they control that are the actual game. Hope that sounds reasonable. When playing Puerto Rico I never consider myself to be one of the Don's of the island, its just a fun system to work and play with.

I think the good thing about Fantasy, Sci-Fi, WWII, Wild West ect is that they NEVER get old. They have all been done before and not 'to death'. As for which is the most marketable, I am not qualified to say. I personally like the ones that mix themes like Firefly[TV] (space cowboy theme), or Dragonriders of Pern[novels] (sci-fi fantasy), or Full Metal Alchemist/Naruto/Avatar: Last Airbender [anime] (modern/magic/ninja).

So I guess look for that twist which will make yours unique and help it stand out.

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Fri, 07/09/2010 - 21:18
#2
royalfa
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Wizard Game

As I said in other post I have several years now designing a wizard game.

I like magic then I create my own universe around it. In the game you battle against other wizards (players) and the winner of 2 battles wins the bracket (if more players then the winners of the brackets battles again and so on).

I think in special rules when 4 or more players are in a battle.

I play MtG, several years now, and I always bother me of think about mages whit an entire army of creatures (and tokes...) until I discover that I do not represent a wizard I'm a "planeswalker" (lol) Then I understood more MtG...

Good luck
Roy

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Tue, 07/13/2010 - 23:49
#3
richdurham
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Hi Simon, I suppose it

Hi Simon,

I suppose it depends on whether your audience is a very mechanics driven crowd, who like fresh play dynamics over theme. Or if they've not yet played a lot of wizard-dueling games. In the latter case, you could set the standard for all other wizard-dueling games in that player's eyes!

In case of the former, the theme might not matter a lick, since they're looking for a fresh number-crunching/mechanics-spinning experience.

In the middle, you'll have those who hope the theme is fresh for those mechanics, even if it's not a fresh theme. Like "Settlers in Space!" or "Carcassonne....but on water!" or "Race for the Galaxy....of microbes!"

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Wed, 07/14/2010 - 00:10
#4
Pastor_Mora
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Oh, boy...

I'm thinking:
Starship Catan, Carcassonne "something" (what was that expansion?), and Pandemic

I think there is always room for another. You are not inventing the powder here. Take the theme you like and make it your baby. If it goes nowhere (which is the most probable result) at least you'll enjoy it!

I actually would go for a more original theme. But I don't like wizards duels much.

Keep thinking!

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Wed, 07/14/2010 - 13:36
#5
richdurham
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Nail on the head

Pastor_Mora hit some of games right on the head (the Carcassonne version was "Carcassonne: Discovery" which was stand-alone). Those are examples of same mechanics with different themes, and sold (relatively) well because of the name attachement.

Same goes for games with theme. Cthulu-mythos has how many games where you are trying to stop the elder gods from waking up, or from your character from going nuts? Same theme, often different mechanics.

Those sell because Cthulu games are almost a genre, like Zombie games. If there was a well known and deep history of wizards-dueling games, another one would add well to the mythos (like a cthulu game). And I think that's an important distinction to make.

There are many wizards-dueling games, and each has their own back-story/mythos. Because of this none of them build off each other or deepen the story, compounded by the observed similarities across multiple "wizards dueling" in the stories - making them cliched.

Is there a popular dueling wizards story out there you could adopt? Harry Dresden perhaps?

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