Hi all,
I've currently been working on a 4X game for the past month and am at the point where I wanted a little feed back. Theme of the game is upgradable robots vying for dominance on a moon/ planet.
Goals of the game are to keep it relatively simple, very dynamic, fun and less-serious, an hour or less play-time, but still keep traditional aspects of 4X games. I know this sounds a bit contradictory, so my approach to my above goals are as follows:
Simplicity: I'm trying to have many of the aspects of the game (movement, combat, etc.) determined by dice pools as these are often easier to learn/ explain than detailed card/ game effects to cut down on complexity.
Dynamic: Hexes start facedown and are discovered as you move onto them (so the board is different every game). "Upgrades" you can purchase to improve your dice pools come from a deck of cards where only a few will be available every turn (so you can't rely on one upgrade strategy).
Fun and less-serious: I'm planning to make custom dice where some of the pips are replaced with random effects (i.e. "misfire" kills your own unit you were attacking with, "rocket boosters" moves you a long distance in a random direction).
An hour or less play-time: This is what I'm struggling with the most, but am hoping the relative simplicity of the game allows for quick play troughs. I may tinker with win conditions and what-not when I start playtesting to address this issue.
Anyways, now that I have some overall ideas for the game, I was wondering if any of you guys A) have any feedback with what I have so far B) Know of any games like this so that I can evaluate what I like/ dislike and make sure my game is still unique?
Thanks.
