#Week 9

#Week 9 
The one where I only produced paper work

Item Deck
This week I have focused on what kind of items should be implemented in the board game.

Players receive items by using the search action which can be used on any map tile. The search action is a quick action and can be used up to two times in a players turn. When they use the search action they are allowed to draw one item card.

The item deck consists of mostly beneficial items but can also be negative such as having to remove a cube token off a slow action or dropping an item they already have. I also tried to make items contextual to the story to create a more immersive element for the players.


There are wound cards for example which tell the player that they hurt themselves while searching for an item and that they will have to remove a cube off a slow action. But there is also fruit or water they can find which gives them enough "strength" to play another action in their turn.

Story Deck
I have also created this flow chart that would represent the "perfect" or "ideal" play through to see how many cards are necessary and where and when story cards should be drawn.


I came to the conclusion that I will need to have about 15 story cards to tell the entire story and to give some help to the players in case they are struggling. The timer card will let players now if they have to draw a card in a certain "hour". These cards are there to help. The story deck will inform the players about their next goals and if they need to draw a different story card once they accomplished a goal.

I also decided to cut the event deck as I found that it would add to much randomness to the game and I am trying to accomplish a linear experience as a proof of concept for this type of game. Adding random or procedural elements to the game would make this project too complex for the time frame given as I had to draw out all possible outcomes and eliminate any chances of flaws in the game (in terms of mechanics or story).  This also means that I planned when and where monsters will spawn which also avoids from monsters to spawn too late in the game as it happened in the play test. 

#Week 8

#Week 8
The one with a busy Schedule

This week wasn't very productive as I had many meetings and shifts at work as also some other
society (that I am chair of) events that I had to attend.

In-Engine

But I still managed to create a little block out for a puzzle using the shrinking mechanic.

Character one is strong so it can destroy bigger objects making way for Character 2, who can shrink, to access low locations in order to pick up an item that will give access to a chest where the object is hidden they need to find.

Board Game
I also had a look at what materials I will need in order to build the board game after I created the art for it. This is the list I came up with:

- Adhesive Paper
- Black Foam Board
- Little wooden cubes
- Round black tokens
- Grip seal bags
- Box to put the game in
- Cardboard

I will print my art directly on the adhesive paper to stick on to the foam board to create the map tiles, character cards and timer. I will also print the playing cards on the adhesive paper and stick on the cardboard to create the decks. The little cubes will replace the stickers on the character cards. The round tokens can serve as a base for the character and monster tokens and to create the lures, complete tokens and a a time token to track how many turns the players have left. The grip seal bags and the bogs serve to store the board game nicely in one place.

I will focus on the item cards and their context to the game next week and start to plan out the story and how/when the story cards come in game.

#Week 7

#Week 7

The one where I am in Alice in wonderland

Progress Review

This week I have mainly focused on my progress review. For this I analysed which tasks I have achieved so far a scoped down my project a little bit. I decided to reduce the numbers of players as this will reduce the numbers of puzzles I will have to implement in-engine. I also changed to a PC version instead of a mobile application and instead of doing a weekly play test I will only do one when I find enough play testers, as this has proved to be complicated.

I also established my next steps and priorities in order to finish this project. With this I established that I want at least two mini games and 2 small puzzles in engine and get the board game to a finished and polished level. The progress review helped me to redirect my focus again.

Art&Setting

While creating the layout for the progress review I also established the type of art style I was going for the board game. As I will create most of the board game art myself I decided to go with black and grey shades and use silhouettes as this makes the art progress fast and easy. It also adds an element of mystery which helps to the story of the game.

I also researched more into cultural believes about sleep paralysis to establish the item the players would need to find to rescue their friend (something silver which is believed to hold spirits away so that people wouldn't suffer from sleep paralysis). Since I am not very good in creating 3D art myself I had a look at free asset packs on the unreal market to decide the setting of the game.

Players will find themselves on the search for a rare artifact in ruins in the deep forest of mexico.

In-Engine

I also managed to work a little bit in engine and created a special ability for one of the characters. The character will be able to shrink their size so that they can access locations the other character can't. This can be helpful to create some of the puzzles where characters have to work together to find objectives and solve the puzzle.

Next week I will lay out my first little puzzle with this mechanic.

#Week 6

#Week 6
The one where Anxiety, Rage and Paranoia raised from the dead

This week I tried to understand how the monsters could work in a better way as they were too random and unstructured. For a start I decided to have them planned in the story deck so that they wouldn't randomly appear (which might make them appear too late in the game).

I will still have three monsters (rage, paranoia and anxiety) in the game, but each will act differently.

Anxiety:
The player can't use the avoid action on this monster which means that the only way to move through this monster is using lures to move it to other sections or attack it to push it back and make room for the players to move through other sections.

The players will test their Agility against this monster and have to roll at least one 5 or 6. If they fail their test they have to take one of their stickers off their attack action. If they succeed they can push the monster back into an adjacent section. Players test against a monster when they attack it or in the monster phase when they are in the attack range of a monster. This monster only attacks players in the same section as they are.

Rage:
Players can't use their attack action on this monster which makes the lures the only way to move it out of the way.

They test their strength against this monster and need a 3, 4, 5 or 6 to succeed. If they succeed they can push this monster into an adjacent  section. If they fail they have to take one sticker off their avoid action. This monster only attack players in the same section as they are.

Paranoia:
The player can't sleep while this monster is in the same section.

The player tests their mentality against this monster and need at least a 4, 5 or 6. If they succeed they can push this monster back into an adjacent section. If they fail they will have to take off an attack sticker from another player. This monster attacks from adjacent sections to where players are.

In the monster phase monsters always attack the player with the highest number of the trait they test against. If players share the same number the players choose which one it will attack. If no player is in the attack range of a monster it will move one section closer to the player with the higher trait they test against with. If players share the same number the monster will move to the closest. If both players are equally close the players decide what direction it will go. If there is a lure on the board it will move towards to the lure.

Lures will be an item the players can find using the search action. Using this action allows them to put a lure anywhere on the board.

Other tasks I worked on:
Besides the monster system I also changed my play test questionnaire as there were no impartial answer, too many comments sections and no section for play testers that had played the game before. 
I also started with my progress review which I will mainly focus on next week too.
I will also try and do some more tasks in-engine next week.