Pictured is a snapshot of a sample setup. Players work as a team to advance up the grid, battling or evading the enemies guarding the boss up top. Upon slaying the boss, the player team wins. The blue token also serves as a medbay to heal wounds, and the orange token is a shop to convert enemies into allies.
As far as my process goes, I went into this assignment wanting to make some cool character cards. My top priority was designing a system which promotes experimentation and unique playstyles based on the strengths and weaknesses of each character. The whole narrative structure is actually sourced from a TV series I’m solo-developing, so the biggest challenge there was converting the themes and personalities from that series into a micro card game. The “Scrapper” card, for example, is the game-y interpretation of my character Evelyn who is a pacifist, and who values others more than herself. To translate those ideas, I designed her stats to reward her for avoiding combat, especially having the lowest health of the 3 player characters, and her special ability serves to support her allies. This differs from the “Gambler” card, based on my character Finn who is much more reckless and self-serving, but can deal some big damage when taking charge.
I actually began with the game Inscryption as a template, especially in the positioning of player cards and enemy cards in a grid-like play area. The ability in that game to sacrifice your cards for currency to play higher-cost cards is something I also heavily considered, but of course being limited to 16 cards, I didn’t want any sort of sacrifice mechanic to leave the field dry and empty. Mostly, I wanted combat that feels sleek and simple but provides lots of freedom. In a similar fashion to other tabletop games, I decided players should have the option to move, attack, or use a special ability as the three main action types. But additionally, I felt that working in co-op forced some really cool strategizing. For example, a player can usurp a teammate’s square using their movement, but doing so pushes their teammate to another square which may be in the attack range of an enemy. So having a system where players must deliberate and make sacrifices for each other is something I really strived for, especially to emphasize the roleplay aspects.
I think the grid system also created a really good sense of tension and claustrophobia, since safe squares are few and far between, especially when trying to advance to the boss. The core gameplay is fairly simple, and my group all gave really positive feedback (especially about the depth and the artwork!) but I did find myself struggling to explain the rules in a simple manner. It certainly looks daunting when each card has unique abilities, and players are forced to think strategically in a game they’ve never played before, but after the first few rounds I was pleased to see everyone engaged and excited. I may have put too many layers into a game designed to last 5-10 minutes. That much I will admit. But the result is something I’m eager to continue playing with friends. It’s strangely kind of addictive to me.