{"id":815,"date":"2017-03-22T16:01:01","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T21:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lostdice.com\/?p=815"},"modified":"2017-03-22T16:01:01","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T21:01:01","slug":"815","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lostdice.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/22\/815\/","title":{"rendered":"Legend of Hero: Board Game Design Project [PART 2]"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of an ongoing series. I\u2019m documenting my journey through what I\u2019m hoping is my first successful Game Design project start to finish. I\u2019ve tried to start several ideas in the past, this one I\u2019m determined to see through. Part 1 can be found HERE<\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Great! I have an initial idea! Where do I even start?<\/span><\/h2>\n

I\u2019m not going to lead you on to believe that I am approaching this from a professional game design background. I am like we all start, right at the beginning. Where to begin once you have a good starting idea? Start jotting down ideas in whatever format you prefer, pen and paper or a digital document. From there then where do you go? I\u2019ve been turned on to good resources from both BoardGameGeek.com and reddit.com. <\/span><\/p>\n

On Reddit, I suggest r\/tabletopgamedesign<\/a>. Great place to see where others are going and how they are progressing. So far in my experience, it\u2019s a community that is pretty receptive to basic questions and is pretty positive and supportive. It\u2019s good to get your idea out there for a few reasons: you can get some quick feedback and establish your idea in a reputable community.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Board Game Geek, I\u2019ve been leaning on the Board Game Design section in the forums<\/a><\/span>. There are a pile of great stickies that are good beginner guides as to how to outline a game design and what big picture things you need to consider.<\/span><\/p>\n

We live in a time where home brewed games are more capable than ever to spring to life via crowdfunding. This is indeed, a golden age for the amateur game designer!<\/span><\/p>\n

What I want this game to do<\/span><\/h2>\n

I really want this game to play like a fast paced dungeon crawler that never plays the same way twice. I\u2019m looking for a randomly generated game board each time where the monsters aren\u2019t just things you grind through but obstacles that push you to explore. The mechanics need to keep on the pressure so that dawdling too much can be the death of the adventuring party. Items and treasure rooms will be temptations that need to be carefully considered as grabbing them could cause more harm than good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although I am looking for this to play like a dungeon crawler, I want it to feel more like an exploration and adventure game. If I compare it to a video game I want it to feel like the original Legend of Zelda. The first time you play you don\u2019t know what the next screen holds, but you keep charging on to find the dungeon. There will be two phases in this game, the wilderness exploration and the dive into the dungeon.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have some backstory and themes I\u2019m cooking up, but I\u2019m trying to focus on structure and core mechanics first. Without further adieu…<\/span><\/p>\n

Outlining Major Milestones: Building the Skeleton<\/span><\/h2>\n

Although I am not a veteran game designer, I\u2019m drawing some parallels in this process to what I\u2019m more familiar with in my day to day. Production process design. A game needs to follow a course of programed logic that allows it to function start to finish. An assembly line is an incredibly linear logical process that has no variance. Most of us in our jobs function in some structured collection of checkpoints that allow us to complete our day to day tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n

To me, game design is no different. Both production process in the workplace and the flow in a game or organic processes that follow certain rules and laws. So, now that I\u2019ve drawn that connection, how in the hell would I pull this all together? I\u2019m starting with a structure like that is driven by phases, which have within them milestones, and the milestones are defined by my detailed logic.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I write this, my game phases and milestones map out as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n