Been working here and there since getting home, and progress on my game has both backtracked and advanced. It's almost not the same game anymore, but the fundamental ideas I wanted are still there. That card version idea I initially thought of, but said I'd hold off on for a possible card version of the game... well, I went back to it and tweaked it after lots of writing, and just rambling to friends about what I'm working on. And lots of sitting down, chucking dice, and making up cards that have no real meaning yet (again).
I scaled back a lot. There's no board now, and no traditional movement; therefore, there's no stamina. I playtested my manila folder map and didn't like it (I overdesigned it, so that's on me), but that led me to coming up with a way to program my stalkers/killers as a threat to the players, with scraps from that stamina/movement idea. I feel like the stalkers/killers have really become the heart of the game, and everything I was thinking of doing with the players kind of organically shifted to the stalkers/killers (I don't know what to call them yet, haha), as well as still applying to the players. Two birds, one stone!
This also means no one can directly control the stalker/killer like I originally planned (1vsAll), so, that movement dilemma I was having early on has been solved. Players can now only influence the stalker/killer with certain abilities or items, and I'm having fun coming up with different killers that do different things to mess up certain players more than others. For example, a
La Llorona-inspired killer whose thematic color is blue (water), and she'll pick on blue players more than the others. Or if she goes after someone else and they use an ability to divert her attention to another player, it will always be towards blue. Stuff like that.
I'm being vague about the gameplay for now, but I want it to be an intense, fun, and fully cooperative (with minimal selfish actions so as to not allow griefing) tug of war between players/killer, but definitely in the killer's favor. I'm even considering having more than one killer under certain circumstances (or as a higher difficulty).
Cards and dice are the meat of the game, with player pawns just to have some player representation.
I wonder how long till I report back with a completely different game again
. Everything feels
right so far, though. Now I just have to work on the other half: minor enemies, items, key items, card effects, etc.
I want death to be common, that's why each player gets to control three(?) characters, and if one dies, they skip a turn after bringing in the new character to pick up where the last one left off. If any one player loses all three, it's game over for everyone. That's why I'm working hard on having a bouncy feel to stuff, for lack of a better term. I want everyone to suffer almost equally. An idea is having an ability or card for a character to be able to take a hit in someone's place. Teamwork stuff.
Anyway, that's my update!
Hope you guys are having a good time designing your own games.