Big Redesign Coming

The coming redesign

This game started with an absurd premise. What if there were a roguelike deckbuilder where you literally build a deck, as in a sprawling patio that consumes an entire neighborhood or village?

When I began, it seemed like a really difficult target to hit. How would the patio deck building work? How could it acquire roguelike or deckbuilding elements similar to Magic: The Gathering? I spent most of the early days just trying to get a basic feel for how those systems might work. I didn't have anything close to a playable prototype.

It was only a few weeks ago that I finally had something I could sit down and play, something that at least tries to hit the target. Once that happened, I realized my target wasn't as hard to hit as I might have thought. In terms of the large in-game loops, it's basically there. 

I did my first in-person playtest last week, and it revealed many flaws with the design. I've also received some great feedback from my friends all over the world. Although I couldn't watch them play, what they say now makes more sense after doing some in-person playtesting.

In short, here's what they had to say.

1.) Losing because of "malding" makes no sense. If the enemies destroy parts of the deck, it shouldn't impact your players health. Only enemies should kill the player like in most traditional games of this genre.

2.) You shouldn't lose because the deck collapses under you. Maybe you lose some health, but this should just kick you off the deck where you have to fend for yourself.

3.) Most of the UX around building the deck itself doesn't make much sense. How come it only costs "muscle power" or labor and doesn't cost wood or concrete? What the hell are these blue/pink/red rocks? Why do you start getting them when you build your deck around them? Seriously WTF Ted?

4.) It takes a ridiculous amount of clicks just to place a basic deck panel. Much of this can be simplified.

To all of this, I violently shake my head in agreement. I've been thinking about how to transition this design from its initial feasibility prototype into something that makes much more sense. I have some ideas.

1.) Better enemy decision making will obviate the need for the "malding" system. Soon enemies will go after the player or other structures which have low health that belong to the player. It will be more like Vampire Survivors in the way you fend off the hordes of angry neighbors, building inspectors, and bureaucrats.

2.) No more incorporating pink/red/blue rocks into the deck. Instead, all resources will exist out in the world to be harvested like in Factorio. You will have the option to spend labor to harvest trees, neighbors houses, driveways, etc. 

3.) All basic building options will require some combination of wood, concrete, and labor. You will start with some wood and bags of concrete. Labor will refresh every turn, kind of like in real life when you go to sleep, recharge, and wake up.

4.) Artifacts and cards will still be in the game, but they will exist on the decks of your neighbors' houses. You will incorporate your neighbors' houses into your deck and "claim" them so you can harvest them for building materials.

5.) A ton of smaller UX problems from the playtesting session will be solved. I can't go into all of them because I wanted to focus on the big changes.

What I have in front of me is basically a redesign of the core game, and I want to stress how happy I am to do that. Many people get too married to their early ideas to listen to player feedback. This is especially the case if you focus too much on high quality artwork in the early stages.

I spent just a few minutes on most of the art in the game. I am VERY comfortable throwing it out and replacing it with something better. The creative phase is where you try out all of these big design experiments, hoping to find a game that is fun to play and also resonates with some audience. If you're just going to hold onto your early ideas, why bother prototyping at all? If you won't listen to player feedback, why ask for it?

I'm going to try and solve the problems my playtesters were so kind to point out. I might succeed. I might fail. It will almost certainly lead to yet another interesting conversation. I'll show you what I've got when I've got it.