The first game I ever worked on, learning the basics of game design; from core gameplay loops, player feedback and frameworks such as the MDA model and how we can use it to break down and understand (our and other) games.
Pen & Paper Trello Project Management Solo Project 8 Weeks
Development Process
Learning Core Game Design
This project was heavily-focussed on teaching us core game design, from breaking down games using the MDA model and the 3Cs (or Mark Cerny's "Method"), understanding user experience, gameplay loop(s), player feedback and how games and genres evolve. I was exploring board games and video games alike in extra-curricular clubs, and participating in every lecture we had, from visual art lectures from Disney, to game design lectures and ethics of game development. We also learned about production, from Agile Development to Waterfall and Kanban.
Board Game Exploration & Research
During the research of Dead Cells, we had weekly practice to make small games in teams, each focussed on genres that we could use when adapting a video game into a board game.
We had 3 weeks where we designed racing and territorial acquisition games in groups of 3.
Alongside those sub-tasks, we had to break down the video games we were assigned and do so in teams. The team I was part of created a 65-page document breaking down all weapons, enemies, and areas of Dead Cells, and I was covering enemies. All of us together broke down the main gameplay loops, 3 Cs, and the MDA model of Dead Cells.
Adaptation Presentation Breakdown
Playtesting and feedback were two important lessons, I learned that I must shake off any fear of seeking feedback, and playtesting is a must for any game to take off of the ground. During extra-curricular Board Game Club, we playtested our game with teachers and fellow students alike, received feedback, and then iterated upon it during project work hours.
The following sections are my final presentation to the teachers of my Dead Cells Board Game Adaptation project:
Core Game Pillars
I summarized that to get the Dead Cells feel and look of the game, the core pillars of the game are:
- Replayability, as the player dies and learns from it, starting from the beginning each time.
- Combat, the focus of the game is on mastering weapons and defeating hordes of enemies throughout the game.
- Progression, the player gets better items as they progress, but despite losing them all upon death, there is a passive progression to help the player start on better terms and even permanently upgrade their character.
This was all encapsulated with permadeath as it connects all systems together.
Board Game Intro & Inventory
It's a 1-3 player game where the players are racing through progressively harder levels (or areas) resulting in a boss getting to the Hand of the King first in order to win. Players will die often and they also have a choice of cooperating in boss rooms or fighting against each other. The game inventory consists of:
- Level board that are stages of the game.
- Combat board where they clear each room individually.
- Character tokens for level and combat boards.
- Character sheet containing turn breakdown, player stats, equipment, and health tokens.
- Tracking sheet for the combat board, containing tracker for player Action Points, Movement & Dodge Points, and Monster's Health pools.
- Event Deck that players draw from when played in multiplayer to add to player interaction.
- Room Deck that players draw when moving to a new room, and it shows enemies and loot present, as well as layout.
What is missing but I included in testing:
- Enemy behaviour cards (shown in the next section) that player executes as enemy behaviour after their phase.
- Platforms and walls that go on the lines in the combat board, that the player can scale and move around to avoid enemies.
The Turn of the Game
The player moves their token as they enter a new room, and they draw a card from the Room Deck. It shows 2 zombies and an archer present in the room. They place corresponding enemies on the Combat Board, and they take enemy behaviour cards face down for the combat phase.
The player starts first, uses 3 Movement Points to move three spaces, and uses 4 Action Points to attack twice with their Rusty Sword, damaging one of the Zombies. These points reset each turn, so they are saving them as they don't quite know what enemies can do.
Enemies go next so the behaviour cards are flipped, and they execute their behaviour, damaging the player and they now know how the enemies behave.
Reference Games
For reference games, I used the Joust board game as I enjoyed their slightly complex but interesting movement system, Age of Gods I enjoyed the behaviour of neutral races and their pre-made behaviours which I thought suit nicely for enemies in Dead Cells, and Gloomhaven for weaponry and general cardplay.
Conclusion
I believe starting with board games and pen & paper is a great way I learned about prototyping and quick iteration, and core game designs that are much easier to understand this way.
The adaptation was aimed at the fans of the game, it allowed different play styles with different weapons, and it was a close adaptation to the original.
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