Skip to main content

Project Heracles - Design Journal, Day One


I know I said I was going on a holiday break, but I saw a shiny and couldn’t resist.

While I’m going to stick to my guns on not doing my normal posts, I thought this would be a good opportunity to experiment with another style of design journal— the daily entry.

That’s right, I started on a new game, and I’m going to be writing about it every day.  Well, not every day, just each day in which I make significant progress in my game.  So that means (probably)no Sunday posts or holiday posts, and intermittent posts the rest of the time.

In case you’re wondering, the game is called Project Heracles, a superhero-themed Flip and Write/Wargame which I may or may not enter into TGC’s Roll & Write Contest.  So, without further ado, the journal!

Day One(11/20/19):

This is the only retrospective entry in this journal, as I started writing on day two.  It’s also arguable that the  design actually started far earlier, perhaps a few days ago when I was thinking about a super-hero creating Roll & Write, a few weeks ago when the contest started, or about six months ago, when I created Forgotten Heroes, a RPG that inspired this game, but the first real work began on this day.

While I was taking a break, I was browsing TCG’s Facebook designer discussion and saw someone asking about top-down perspective art for his Wargame, which I seem to have recalled was being entered in the Roll & Write contest.  I began pondering my own Wargame, Worldscapes, and how Wargames in general might fit into the contest.

Having the nutty, unfocused mind that I do, I of course was simultaneously thinking about drawing, ancient romans, and the aforementioned superhero-builder game that I had considered, but had not found fun enough to actually try making.  All of a sudden, Project Heracles leapt out of my head and screamed for attention.

The idea was a two-phase Flip and Write/Wargame themed in a dystopian government facility(or, perhaps, entertainment company?) where the main project is to engineer superhuman warriors to use in wars/provide entertainment in gladiator style fights.  

The first phase consists of drafting powers and weapons, which you reflect by drawing with a dry-erase marker on a custom acrylic piece.  

The second phase is a Wargame-esque fighting game in a gridded futuristic Colosseum.  At the time, I decided to use Woldscapes’s combat until I found something different.  As that system no longer exists, in the context of Project Heracles, and because it was removed not because of error(it just was made for an entirely different game and thus did not fit perfectly), I won’t describe it here.

After the burst of ideas, I created a dummy copy on TGC to see what kind of board I’d need, as well as how much the game would cost.  I landed on the accordion board at first, as it both fit in the medium stout box and was big enough for a 10x10 grid of .75 inch squares, which was the size I had tentatively chosen for the battle grid.  Once I had done this, I drew up a quick sketch on Adobe Comp, then started to draw the board on cardstock, along with two poorly cut standees.

That was the last major work done on day one, but I had a solid concept, a theme, and a prototype.  I still hadn’t actually played, but there would be time for that soon.  I hope this was helpful to someone, and if it was, I’d love it if you’d comment!  Have a good day, and, as always, keep on geeking on!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Free Art Assets for Tabletop Games

I know as well as most of you what a pain it can be to get decent art on a tiny budget. In fact, for me at least, finding art is one of the biggest hurtles between a good design and a finished game.  It's expensive, it can be hard to find, and it's stressful.  And if you're like me, it's really hard to barter over the price of another creative's services;  You know they're pouring out their heart and soul for your game, and that's priceless.  But at the same time, most of us game designers don't have deep pockets, and anywhere we can save a few dollars gets us that much closer to actually getting your dream out there. Because of this struggle, I've compiled a list of some of my favorite resources for getting %100 free art, no strings attached.  Of course, it won't be tailored to your game, and you probably will need to commission some of your own stuff before all is said and done, but it can get you pretty far with your game, and might save y
4 comments
Read more

Project Heracles - Design Journal, Day Four

Day Four(11/25/19) After a full, but sadly gameless, weekend, I finally got some playtesting done today, as well as a rough draft for the graphic design of my cards.   Not too bad, but I wish I could have done more. The playtesting mostly just verified that the system was solid enough, though I did end up doing a bit of power-tweaking to make things more even.   I’m considering taking out the more mundane abilities of Marksman, Brawler, and Multi-Tasker, as they don’t add much flavor, and they are impossible to reflect on the standees.   A possible replacement for Marksman(+3 Ranged Skill) would be X-Ray Vision(+1 Ranged Skill, Ignore line of sight).   Other than that, the only new content I’ve added is a new power, Flameskin(Ranged attack, and when you’re attacked in Melee, deal damage). As for the graphic design, I’ve got a pretty decent draft for my cards done: As you can see, it’s very rough at the moment, but I think it gives a pretty good impression of
Post a Comment
Read more

Don't Be Shy: DMing 2.0

W e’ve all seen that player.   The one who never interacts with the group, and only really exists to jam their “slash” button during combat.  No one wants their players to be this way, and these players aren’t having much fun, either.   The only real issue is shyness, or unsureness of what they’re “supposed” to do.   This, of course, can be remedied, and that’s today’s topic. Ask the Player Directly One of the best ways to get players to interact is simply to ask them to do so.   This is very simple, and equally effective.   Essentially, when players are doing something, such as talking to an NPC, and one player isn’t saying anything, simply say something like “Jeff, do you have anything to say?”   They may say no, and if they do, just say “Okay” and move on. Reward Roleplay In psychology, this is known as Positive Reinforcement.   In short, when you reward good actions, people tend to repeat those actions.   In RPGs, you can do this in a variety of ways to pr
Post a Comment
Read more