One of the remaining aspects of the game (and I'll admit that the design is 80% done) was the Monster Battle Decks. Obviously the Monster Compendium is not fully written ... Never-the-less I managed to hash out thirteen different types of "Attacks" and realized that some may "recycle" and others may get "discarded" when their action(s) play out.
What remains to do is COMPLETE the "Monster Compendium" that comes with the game. That BOOK will contain ALL the enemies that you can battle. Of course you can expand the game and "invent" new or "mod" existing Monsters.
That's the beauty of this Design ... All I need to do is to complete the BOOK and then write a rulebook and the Design is DONE! This is my reason for saying it is 80% done.
Right about now I'm a bit ecstatic. This design is finally coming to a CLOSE. Yeah, there is the Compendium. But these are DETAILS. The "design" needs to be playtested soon enough... However things like Battles, Dealing Damage, Different Types of Attacks, Various Game Tiles, etc. All that has been taken care of!
So I'm very happy ATM! Cheers to all and have a good night...
Comments
Feels good to "complete" yet another design...
When I say "complete" it just means that the FUNDAMENTAL mechanics of the game are confirmed and seem to be properly adapted to the game. This has nothing to do with "playtesting". I am now able to design a "PROTOTYPE" and see how the game plays and what needs fixing and correction. But it's been "nice" how over the last few months I have cemented "Crystal Heroes" (CH) and now "SpellMasters" (SM). Both CH and SM are planned to be hits in the Board Game Market, where CH is a Tile Laying-Area Control Game and MK is something different (more of an open-ended adventure game).
As I mentioned earlier, the only SM component that needs to be finalized is the "Monster Compendium" that is a book with all the Monsters you can battle and it will probably be around 170+ pages. Yes about 20% left to go... But the book's FORMAT is already done and truth be told, it's another type of creative effort. We'll see... I've got time to work on the design some more...!
Sometimes that last 10%...
... can take 90% of the time. At least in Civil Engineering it works that way. Dotting all the Ts and crossing all the Is, checking all the boxes from all the different jurisdictions and utilities. Of course game design doesn't have a dozen plus third party checklists to coordinate with so probably not applicable here.
Revised the Battle Dice Mechanic
I already told @X3M that I will not be using his 2 Dice Poly system for combat. I am instead going to rely on 3d6. Two (2) standard (one White and one Black) and a Wizard's die (which varies in terms of the values on the dice...) This means CUSTOM d6s for all of the Wizards.
Yeah, I know I like POLYs but there were too many. PLUS I also like CUSTOM dice ... So having different pips could be interesting for each Player that gets to play the game.
I know CUSTOM dice are "hard" to make... But really all the dice in this game could be "custom" and I would have them made into "fancy" polys as a show of diversity and self-expression.
Got to work on those custom d6s (for each Wizard). Another custom component... Best.
@AdamRobinGames-ARG you are RIGHT... but
This is usually true when in the "Development" phase. I am still in the "Design" phase. To explain further, the "Design" phase is usually BEFORE you have a working prototype and something you playtest on your own. This also includes all the necessary mechanics and solutions used to GLUE together the IDEA/Concept into what is a GAME (ergo the prototyping). This period also covers the inception and all the time taken to find the right answer to make the game unique and distinguish itself from rival products and/or games.
Once you've completed the "Design" phase and have made perhaps a half to a dozen prototypes, then the design is cemented and FIRM. The next phase that occurs is the "Development" phase. This is categorized by making a rulebook and passing along the game and its rules to a Developer. The Developer reads the rules and tries to play the game him/herself and responds to the designer the "quality" of the rules (are they clear? are there typos? are there issues with the rules?) Once this is done, the designer and developer cycle through the rules and game a few times to improve the overall quality of the rulebook and iron out any specific details that were not 100% in the design.
After this is done, the Developer passes on the game and rulebook to a team of Playtesters. This is what is called BLIND playtesting. The group or groups (emphasis on several) try to play the game as your average buyer would do when they buy and take the game home. Another set of ratings come in with grading to determine HOW WELL the game is and how clear are the rules. You won't cycle a Blind Playtest again ... But you'll probably review with your Developer to see what the Blind Playtests have revealed.
It's this "Developer Phase" that can take a long time and the LAST 10% of it is hard because of all the "back-and-forth" between parties. So usually if 90% is satisfactory, you might not need to get down to the last 10% of the initiative...
But you are CORRECT: the last 10% is hard to complete and that's why most games add a few percentage points but are rarely PERFECT.