Probably the biggest challenge in designing this game was the movement. The entire game’s centerpiece is the Dreadgate, and the core mechanic involves getting units into the Dreadgate. Because of this, getting the maneuvering right was top priority. With this blog post, I want to take you through all the iterations that led us to the current state of things. This will also pull back the curtain on why certain decisions were made.
origins
The original idea for the game, back in 2009, was that we would have cards that represented minis or meeples on a huge hex grid. At that time I had never played Warhammer 40K, so this concept was entirely foreign to me, but I could see the possibilities. I loved the idea of movement with a tactical purpose. It was basically wargaming (as I now know) but with the benefit of having thousands (potentially) of options via cards, which were very portable. More so than minis.
So that was the idea.
Above you see one of the original card designs for the first iteration. The feet icon represent the range this unit can move. Up to 6 hex grids. The representative on the board could go anywhere within 6 hexes. Movement was simple.
But I eventually went back to the drawing board completely because I wanted the game to be more portable. No more minis, no more dice, no more hex grid. Just cards. So I needed a different system.
Enter the grid
The game now has a 5 x 5 grid where the cards can operate. This made it so you could play the game with nothing but a deck of cards. Already it’s better.
So now we have this limited area with which to work. Because the Dreadgate is usually no more than 3 spaces away from any one unit, that became the max distance a unit could move. So now we have a baseline. Units all have a range of 1 to 3 spaces they can go.
But I wanted to give the game even more flavor. One of the most iconic games of all time that features movement is chess. What makes chess so tactical and strategic is that each piece has a different movement pattern. Some have different ranges. I like this aspect of game design.
I wanted each unit in this game to have unique stats. Each unit has stats that are not found on any other card in the whole game. So I have a spreadsheet for this, and there are over 16,000 unique card possibilities as it currently stands. With 22 possible attack/movement combinations, that allows for every possible combination of stats ranging from 1 through 9 power levels. (It wasn’t that hard, I swear.)
Movement and attack direction
I laid out 22 possible combinations of movement and attack direction. Initially these were different, as cards could move in 2 directions, all the way up to 8 directions. The most powerful cards could move in 8 directions and attack in 8 directions. The least powerful had directions of 2 each.
The direction icons were two compasses, one inner and one outer. It seemed awesome on paper.
But this was a problem. Upon testing it, we quickly found that the lowest powered cards were super unusable. Only being able to move in 2 directions (up and down, for example) was far too frustrating. They were BORING. No one would ever want to have these cards in their deck.
So I went back to the drawing board once again.
new and improved
This time, instead of being able to move in 2 directions, I made it so that all units could go in at least 3 directions. The other major change I made was the redesign of the compass icons completely. I made it bigger, and the new one made it so that no direction was shared between attack and movement.
In the card above, you can see it moves in 3 directions and attacks in 3 directions. The icon was much more legible on the card, and it just looked cooler. Given this new design, I reconfigured the possible move/attack combinations (of which there are 22 now). Currently the minimum movement is 3, which leaves a max of 5 for the other stat.
The game is much better this way, and play testing it proved that this was the right call. So now we have the movement and attack directions all figured out, and all built around this new set of directional arrows.
Some cards are better at movement while some are better at attack. Some are even-Steven. This still offers a lot of possibility within the confines of the game. I always like to make mechanics as simple as possible while leaving myself open for endless possibilities within a nice set of constraints. Don’t be afraid of constraints. By giving yourself a limitation, you pave the way for more creativity.
iterate until you get it
The lesson I want to impart upon you is that it’s okay to go back to the drawing board. Don’t be afraid to throw something in the garbage if it isn’t working. Try a lot of things until you find what works best for your game. If you hate a mechanic, scrap it. If you need the mechanic (as we did here, with the movement), keep iterating until it feels just right. Find what works best for your game. Ignore the naysayers (lots of people have said card games with movement are just poorly designed board games; I disagree). You can make any mechanic work with enough creativity. Keep at it. You’ll get there. Make each iteration better than the last so you are always glad you made the change. Sometimes it’s scary, but if you always improve, you’ll never be disappointed that you scrapped a lot of previous work. You’ll always be glad you did the new work.
Most of all, have fun!
