After the bear sketches, on the second page came some beaver stuff – and first of all, I started to gather ideas about the land. The map, the board. I’ve had some images from this topic in my head from the “old” B&B computer game, so it came naturally to begin with. My very first written thought was about trees that could be cut out by the beavers (but otherwise only with some great AoE*) and the visibility/modularity of the board – some of the factions may be responsible to build the board, or the whole land is only visible to them?
And yes, none of these latest ideas reached the current state, but wait a minute… now that I re-read my thoughts maybe I should integrate these somehow? Hmm…
*Area of Effect
Ok, let’s get back on track again. As I always imagined the original game as pixel art (check ‘The first clue’ post), I wanted to integrate this somehow. It connected in my mind with the square prism-ish terrain memory and I imagined a multi-level, modular board… and a prime rule for the whole visual; that the land and surroundings would be this orthogonal order, and the living-moving things would be cartoonish curved shapes.
I was imagining big wooden trees** all over the board – which are useful to some, somehow – and with (or in addition to?) this, came a new thought: an invasive species. Some wisps that are feeding from the trees? Is it a symbiote or a parasite? A virus? Can it possess other factions? From these sprouts two of the playable groups have emerged later: the Crows and the Forest ranger. But we are far away from these developments, so let’s get back to the first pages.
So now I’ll just list some ideas from the book, let’s see what came from them later:
- The Emperor rules the galaxy, but these battles are for this solar system, or for a few others in the local cluster.
- The goal of the Emperor is that no one wins in X rounds. (So there is definitely an emperor faction?)
- When the first player loses or quits, the game ends, and they determine the winner.
- Three types of terrain by height, two types by type: green and water.
- Crossing the water needs special movement rules.
- The bears are fatiguing from the use of lasers.
- Pre-made maps with condensation points.
- Every faction has their own dice at fight? Whoever has the upper position on the board, has the advantage – but the fight should not be a calculus lesson, rather something elegant.
- Or defender-attacker dice separately?
- Small tiles, so not too many game elements could fit on? Limit how many?
As you can see, these ideas are from all over the gamedesign… and from these wishes, some boundaries were forming.
** Aand a pricing problem is already raised with this idea immediately.
At this point I reached double crossroads – or at least I formulated one for myself:
- “Tactical” game – faster (in terms of gameplay and lore), premade teams fight, no building
- “Strategic” game – longer timeperiod in the lore, 4K-ish
- Game board – compact, fast, could be nice and well designed
- Modular board – height differences, diverse planets
I’ve left them hanging, but for the board one – as I suggested earlier – I had made my decision already. Probably.