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Flower Game Balance Advice Needed

3 replies [Last post]
Sun, 06/21/2015 - 01:00
tuscansun
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Joined: 02/11/2015

Hi everyone,

A few months ago, I posted a thread asking for help choosing a theme for my game idea. And it was super helpful, and it spurred the idea of a flower growing game that I'm now working on. But now I'm struggling to balance out all its elements, and I could really use your help.

The game consists of 108 cards, 1/3 of which are Weather cards and 2/3 of which are Flower card (give or take). Each flower has a point value; the harder it is to grow, the more points it's worth. The goal is to be the first to grow 15 points worth of flowers.

There are five different types of weather; Sun, Rain, Snow, Drought, and Storm. Flowers can only score in one or two types of weather. For example, the Cactus Flower scores in Drought, but it dies (and is discarded) in Snow. You can change the weather once per turn. Those are the basics of the game.

Here's my problem: my game's balance and my game's theme are in conflict. Nothing dies in Rain, Sun doesn't score enough cards, and Snow and Drought are too too overpowered in killing things. Basically the game is "The Snow and Drought Show" and I want it to be "The Sun and Rain Show with special guests Drought and Snow" if that makes ANY sense. It's okay if it doesn't.

But the cards I make to balance this out make no sense. A flower that dies in Rain but scores in Sun? What flower is that? What dies in the rain?! What DOESN'T die in Snow?! I've exhausted Evergreen trees and Snow Lilies. I'm at a bit of an impasse.

I mean I can make fictional exotic flowers (which I plan to do anyway, because the idea of Space Flowers was what made me think of the game). But fictional flowers that don't ground themselves in logic are something I want to avoid.

I want the cards to make logical sense to my niece, who is 7. And I don't want her to have to second guess something that a card says because it defeats what she knows about the world around her.

I don't know if I need flower ideas to help me balance this out or if I need to rethink the whole idea of weather as a mechanic. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!!

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Sun, 06/21/2015 - 01:35
#1
Soulfinger
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Joined: 01/06/2015
I think it would be better to

I think it would be better to eliminate the drought and snow cards except as a byproduct of how sun and rain are played. You get a drought if too many sun cards are played. You get flooding if too many rain cards are played (yes, too much rain is bad). If you need snow then achieve the effect by introducing a temperature variable (cold, temperate, tropical?). I.E. Rain + Cold = Snow.

Really, just head over your gardening center and check out the back of some seed packets to get a good idea of what variables should inform your game. You could even include a mechanic for plants that need to be spaced further apart. They score more points but need buffer spaces. All-in-all, the real world variables for planting are so abundant that there is plenty to dig into for finding ideas for your fertile imagination (see what I did there). If the game teaches actual gardening tips then it has double value as an instructional game.

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Sun, 06/21/2015 - 08:46
#2
wombat929
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Joined: 04/17/2015
different cards?

Soulfinger wrote:
I think it would be better to eliminate the drought and snow cards except as a byproduct of how sun and rain are played.

QFT. If the theme of your game is gardening, there are places where 'snow' doesn't make sense. Perhaps it can show up in the first or last month, but in the middle of the game doesn't fit.

Could you add other environment cards that fit the theme better? Bugs? Bunnies? Fertilizer? Fences?

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Sun, 06/21/2015 - 09:24
#3
debiant
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Joined: 05/03/2015
What if weather is a separate

What if weather is a separate deck with 5 cards revealed in a sort of forecast and instead of planting a player may take a card from the weather deck and play it. Perhaps they can discard a certain number of flower cards based on what day of the forecast they want to effect.

It's not getting more flowers in your garden so it's not something you would do all the time, but if you have a bunch of cactuses in your hand and your opponent just planted a few fair weather flowers then changing that rainy day to a sunny one can be just the thing you need.

Now all that being said, you could avoid weather altogether by having a greenhouse :P

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