Final Presentation

Presentation for Dominion.



Speaker notes to come

The Difficulties of Board Game Development

I didnt think that I would be alone in saying that the main challenge in board game design is testing. I am used to making small games in Flash and Unity. If I want to test a quick change to the rules, its as simple as hitting run and having a quick go. The changes, and more importantly their impact, are usually pretty clear.

Not so with a board game. Seemingly minor changes and additions can have massive impacts that only become apparent after gathering 4 people, and playing a 2 - 3 hour game. If it doesn't work out you have to tweak the rules and go through the same process.

This forces the designer to invest massive amounts of time in to the smaller details of the game. Time I would rather spend on more big picture issues, but maybe that's just my way. My respect for the great board game designers, such as Reiner Knizia and Klaus Teuber.

I am excited to be moving back to video games, with their instant feedback.

Dominion - A Personal & Artistic Adventure

With this project finally completed, I have had some time to think about what I have learned, what I liked and disliked. Overall I found this a very enjoyable project, certainly one of the most interesting I have ever done in my academic life. One aspect that was very appealing to me was the task of doing some cool artwork for all the different counters and species. This was one thing that from the very beginning I knew would enjoy as well as to give me a chance to show off what I felt was one of my stronger talents. One thing that I had not initially grasped however was the sheer amount of artwork our game would require. Having built up a reasonable ability using photoshop over the years, I felt I was ready for such a task and very much enjoyed the challenge.

The first thing that player should notice when playing the game is the different ship counters. The silhouettes of the different ships was an idea I had at the very beginning of the long personal journey that is Dominion. I had originally planned to have the different ship types displayed as a normal type of picture maybe in an isometric view. However I also wanted to do something a little different and so tried out a few designs with a blacked out silhouette. I was very happy with the initial results and so tried to create some alien looking silhouettes for the other playable species that had to be named. Again I was happy with the early results and so decided to go with this for the first edition of the game. After much positive feedback I decided to keep this look and got to work churning out the various craft employed by the different species. While many of these did not make it to the final edition of the game, this was a rewarding and fun part of the project and something I would like to pursue again in the future.

The gameboard which has been discussed already was something that would be the most noticeable part of the game and again I was very happy with the final look.

Each of the different planets, anomalies and colonies also need their own counters. As well as being a sci fi nerd, I am also avidly interested in astronomy and planetary study. I have read and do read as much as I can about the different planets in our solar system as well as the more exotic extrasolar worlds being discovered all the time. I like to think I have a good knowledge of the different worlds so far discovered as well as how we think they have formed. Over the last year I have been steadily creating planets in photoshop as I enjoy visualising how these bizarre objects could look. So for Dominion, I had a lot of planets ready made that could be used in the game. I also took the project as an opportunity to create lots of new ones, and can now populate a couple of solar systems with my collection. I wanted to give the game as much variety as possible so creating these new worlds was quite necessary.

For the different colonies, I had planned to create a view of a world slowly being colonised from a frontier outpost until it eventually ended up as a ecumenopolis. This was an enjoyable part also, as it gave me a chance to tryout some new techniques in photoshop as well as trying to create a realistic colony and its gradual growth. The other aspect of this was to try to come up with different types of habitations for the other 3 alien races we had so far. With the species ranging from an intelligent biomechanical fluid to creatures living in the hot superfluid cores of gas giants, this was an interesting part of the project. Creating the helium mines was also very interesting as I have often thought about how such levitating facilities would look. Again i was happy with the final result, but would have liked to have spent more time on them. This is also something I plan on revisiting.

There were also a deck of resource cards, research cards and the gamebox that all needed to be done. These also went through several revisions during the games development as rules were added and subtracted. Other anomalies needed were asteroids, nebula, derelicts, demigods and some alien hitch-hikers. There were also several others created that were cut from the final game such as minefields and hyperspace disturbances. All in all it was a very busy task coming up with the many different parts of the game as almost every element needed a image and counter. In the end, probably forgetting one of two things, Dominion required 36 different ships, 20 different colonies, 15 planets, 10 anomalies, 12 research cards, 2 research resource cards,  metal & helium cards, 4 gameboard sections, 4 HUDs, upper and lower lids for the games box, numerous different examples of gameplay and all the different revisions each of these images went through, all done in 3 weeks! While enjoyable and challenging this is one of the most exhausting projects I have ever worked on.

Despite the high workload, as mentioned several times, this was a very rewarding experience throughout the project and I look forward to flexing my artistic muscle in creating something digital in the semesters to come.

3D Foley

As soon as I heard we were making a board game one of the things I immediately got excited about was the opportunity to get some 3D models printed out as physical objects.

3D printing has always fascinated me. Its so mysterious and compelling. There are several flavours of 3D printing. The first technique I head of builds a cube, layer by layer, using two types of plastic. One of the plastics is soluble in acid what is left after this process is a highly detailed model.

The machine

When I heard about this miraculous replicator like technology was in use today I imiediatly wanted to know why it wasnt ubiquitus, in every home makeing everything. The answere is a simple as it is depressing, its cheaper to make it in china.

I contacted the endangering department and started building the space ship models in 3DS Max. Unsure of the level of fidelity that their 3D printers were capable of I eared on the side of caution, sticking to very low poly models. This turns out to have been a prudent decision.

The models that were produced were of a chalky and soft nature. The slightest touch rubbed away detail and they fell apart easily, I lost three on the journey back form Bolton Street. The aplication of several layers of nail varnish has since made them much more robust.

In the end, I am sad to admit, they didn't really add much to the game. But I am glad that I got to have been  through the process. I would like to extend a BIG thank you to the engineering department for being so helpful and accommodating.

The models

The good, the bad and the ugly, I'm coming out with my hands up.

Today's playtest went OK all things considered.
They got diplomacy.
They got research.
Combat (revised) worked (when the ships got in range).
For such a complex game they seemed pretty able to play it (they disagreed with some things but...).
For reasons of familiarity and (I think) inheritance from other games "spend at the end" became practically an article of faith for us.
They want to get, invest campaign.
Fair enough that's an easy fix.
The species traits, in the brief, and recently added, will work with some adjustment.
A combination of playtest slippage and bad luck bled into late production and things went a bit pear-shaped pulling it all together in the end.
But they got a game which they played and I think at least 2 of them rather enjoyed (at least if they could let go of the spend at the start thing).
One thing that worked with gameplay was using the looming deadline to simplify game-play and quash late-emerging ideas.
Perhaps if we could have seen the looming deadline from a production point of view we could have compromised on the card backing and given ourselves a bit of slack.
However, if the printing and room access on Tuesday evening had not complicated things I think we could have delivered on everything from a production pov with Wednesday morning for pick-ups not production.
Reflection. Another name for hindsight?
Speaking of reflection...
I could have applied myself to the more stable elements of the rule-book earlier. In truth, I was out of my comfort zone and invoked rule flux as an excuse to do anything else (play-testing, cutting and pasting and making dinky little boxes) rather than writing the rules.
I had a vision of us handing the box over intact and them setting up and playing. In which case the boxes may have had something to add. Also they were a kind of occupational therapy. Something I could do an feel I was making a contribution.
As it turned out, giving them the game all set up and keeping the rule book from them was probably the kindest way to manage the situation for all parties.
I'll be interested to see the final feedback.
So a few minor tweaks and revisions and we can put his game to bed.
If it doesn't lie quietly I may have to get a pillow and .....

Player HUDs

During the development of the gameboard, we decided that it would be composed of 4 pieces of A3 card arranged in a square. This left us with a large rectangular play area. When we decided to change the gameplay area to a square shape, this left us with a blank area on each of the A3 pieces. In haste and due to a deadline, this space was decided to be used as an area where the player could easily store their resource cards and have any research that had been purchased nicely displayed. It was also decided to have each HUD display the name of the species and its colour under its deployment zone.

After the kleenex playtest, the large amount of rules and stats for each ship type needed to be easily displayed in a way that would help the game to move quicker and with less confusion. Initially we had a set of reference cards that were intended to be handed around as needed. This however proved a cumbersome way of displaying the information. The flow of the turns was also unclear, so we needed somewhere to display this also. The HUD space was the perfect place for this.

We now also had an opportunity to give each species a look and colour as well as further info relating to their species traits that eliminated the need for complicated reference sheets that needed to be handed around.

In the end, the HUDs went from something originally conceived to fill the space left over on the A3 boards to a vital tool to aid the gameplay and give each species its own feel. The different corners of the board now also acted to clearly define each corner as a specific species territory.

Gameboard

Being a board game, it was necessary for Dominion have a playing surface that both looked good and functioned well. The game has gone through several revisions, the gameboard being no exception. Originally the game was played on two A3 boards, with a hexagonal grid, arranged in a rectangular position. This worked OK during early development when the ships were very small and much of the game setup had still to be worked out. Planets were arranged on the board and placed evenly apart, but again, any formal layout process of arrangement had yet to be designed.

During the next revision of the game, the board game shape was kept, but made larger to encompass four A3 boards arranged in a rectangular pattern. This was done because as the game got larger in scope and complexity, it was felt that a bigger playing space would allow more freedom as well as giving the player more room to maneuver. The hex grid persisted and an attempt to have a proper way of arranging the planets and fledgling anomaly system was envisioned. Marked spots on the gameboard were arranged in a regular pattern and the planets were placed face down so the player could not see the initial set up of the board. This was the stage in the game where the scanning feature was devised. This was done to make exploration of the gameboard more interesting as well as to encourage the player away from defensive turtle tactics.

The bigger board worked a bit better and it gave the players more room to play. As this was ultimately supposed to be a 4 player game, it was also necessary to expand the playing area. It was felt that it would be better to have each player starting in their own section, each in a corner, so that they could have a turn or two where they could expand un-harassed so they could get some economic activity set up before the first fleets came into contact. During this phase of development, planets and certain larger ships were bigger than the smaller ones, with planets being the largest.

As an experiment, the hex's were removed and the game was played with distances in centimeters and measured with a ruler. This was abandoned though due to the extra complexity and time it took to complete the movement phase.

The rectangular game play area was then altered to a square shape, which meant distances were even between the players and resources. A nicer background image of a galaxy was also selected.

 
For convenience during the development of Dominion, the gameboards were printed on A3 pages. When the square shape for the gameboard was selected, this left us with a blank section at the end of each of the board sections. What to do with this space led to the development on the current HUDs. This balanced the board sheets nicely and gave us a good place to display useful information that would aid gameplay.

The next and most tricky problem to be addressed was the positioning of the anomaly counters. This had to be done in a fair way, but that would also add a random element to the game. With interesting counters like the derelicts to be placed as well as resource generating planets, this needed to be done very carefully. During early testing it was done by eye and evenly spaced within the hex grid. The hex grid was also increased in size and the counters were changed to be the same size. This was then done by placing the counters on numbered hexes within the board, and the player arranging the anomalies randomly along the board numerically. This worked somewhat, but was decided to be altered. A concentric ring system of anomalies was experimented with to allow the players to uncover the different anomalies in stages. This was partly kept and expanded to have a cluster of resource and anomaly points in the centre region of the map to give a players a reason to move in that direction, this was something that did not occur in the previous playtest. There were several regions of the board that remained empty and unused, so hopefully this new layout will encourage players to use the whole board, and to drive them towards conflict and domination. A permanent wormhole exit in the centre of the board can allow a player to reach the dense central region quickly, which will hopefully add some dynamics to the game.

Over all we were happy with the look of the final gameboard and how it played. Hopefully our testers agree!

Kleenex Playtest

Wednesday was our first proper playtest of Dominion with some unwitting volunteers. It was great to finally see the game in action and we received much useful feedback. It was somewhat humbling and we were forced to re-examine many aspects of the game that we had considered solid. Overall however, the core game mechanics worked well but definitely needed some polishing.

The main areas of confusion related to the overall structure of the turns and the combat stage. The turn structure issue would be remedied with a clear and intuitive flowchart, showing the turn phases, their benefits, and what it could mean for the player to follow certain strategies. This could be incorporated into a more informational HUD that would provide all players with all the info they needed at a glance. The previous HUD simply had sections to provide each player with somewhere to stack their resource and research cards. Information on the ship and planet stats were given on a reference sheet. While the reference sheet itself was useful and clear, the need to hand it round to each player every time they wanted to move or shoot was a bit counterproductive. So it was decided to incorporate all necessary stats onto the HUD to eliminate the need for the reference sheet and speed up play.

In terms of combat, this is the area that had the biggest trouble, mainly due to the fact that we still hadn't fully worked out the rules, and when the game was played by people unfamiliar with tabletop wargames, there were several serious problems identified. The main problem was that the combat was very unbalanced, with the attacking player practically guaranteed victory ever time. We needed to balance this much more and work out ways of giving the defending player a fighting chance in combat. Several die rolls such as the 'to hit' roll, shield saving throws and hull penetration rolls were removed before the playtest in an effort to speed up combat and reduce the need for players to spend a long time consulting tables and adding up values. However it was obvious we were a bit over zealous when were excising some of these throws at it made combat too simple and victory too easy. This will require some attention, but should be reasonable to remedy with some internal playtesting.

Overall we were happy with the games presentation

Visually we were very happy with the games look and feel. The gameboard looks good, requiring some polishing but overall looking nice. The counter size was also about right as well as the overall gameboard. Some text could probably be made bigger also to make things a bit clearer. The main thing that needed some changing is the HUD as mentioned above, and finishing off some the racial artwork.

Secondary playtest conducted with some tweaking proved better

A secondary playtest was also conducted that evening with some tweaking to the gameboard setup. Starting situations were also changed to give the players more resources at the start of the game. The different spacial anomalies were also layed out with a more precise layout to give each quadrant a more even distribution of resources and anomalies. This definitely helped to give each player a stronger starting position.

We also plan to introduce some race specific features and statistical changes to make each race different and identifiable. This will need to be done carefully so as not to make one the more superior from the outset. So overall, the playtest was a valuable experience where the users got to express their confusion and issues to us directly. This gave us some important pointers in the way we needed to progress with this final stage of development.

An Arm or a Tentacle? Creating the species of Dominion

One of the more interesting aspects of our board game is the need to come up with 4 interesting playable factions. Dominion, a game of galactic expansion and conquest immediately gives us a lot of scope for creating some interesting races to choose from. Most popular science fiction today, especially main stream television and computer games, tend to use the same sorts of clichéd aliens and locations, Star Trek and Stargate being some of the worst offenders. While much of this is usually due to budget constraints and trying to appeal to a wider audience, there is still a clear lack of imagination and effort put into this side of popular science fiction. Most aliens are humanoid, speak English, breathe oxygen and so on while the locations are all very similar to Earths environments (Every planet in the Stargate universe looking very similar to the woods of Vancouver). For Dominion, we wanted to create an interesting blend of creatures to choose from that the player can use to depopulate the galaxy in their favour.

The game brief was a for a game of 2- 4 players, so we needed to give the factions something to fight over.
Humanity was included to give the player choice where they could easily relate to, and to appeal to people who might not be very familiar with the general science fiction setting. We wanted to create some races that had some interesting backstories and each with their own look and feel, while remaining as original as possible. Normally you have the standard situations of humanity being attacked or invaded by a vastly more advanced and over-the-top evil alien species. Earth is often targeted because the aliens wanting to steal its resources or water. When you look at this situation rationally it usually falls on its face. The fact is there are bigger planets with more resources, comets and other celestial bodies made entirely of frozen water, existing throughout space that has the benefit of no indigenous population that need to be subjugated. While the fight for space and resources is usually the cause of most human conflict, in a vast resource rich universe, it is hard to justify this as a realistic reason for starting an interstellar war.

So we wanted to create some aliens that were so different from one another that conflict was inevitable. Our four races we named, Humanity, speaks for itself, The Gelf, hardy aliens from the centre of the galaxy, The Riem, bizarre creatures from the depths of gas giant planets and the Kernal, a species of biomechanical creatures with advanced nanotechnology. We also wanted to avoid having images of the creatures themselves as we wanted the player to imagine their own mental image of these aliens. Similarly, when it came to the design and look of their spacecraft, we wanted to keep the player thinking, so simple silhouettes were used to represent the different vessels. This meant that the different fleets could still have a distinct look, but without overloading on detail.

When it came to creating the species backstories, it was important again to try to stay away from the 'standard' science fiction settings. Humanity is usually portrayed as the victims of a belligerent alien empire, so instead, in Dominion, Humanity is an expansive impatient species that is rapidly expanding throughout the galaxy, much to the alarm of the other species. We are also warlike and have no gripes getting into the occasional squabbles with our neighbours as we push ever further towards their space.


The Gelf are an old species from the galactic core, which is lethal to life due to the high energy radiation being spewed from the densely packed stars. The Gelf were a slow and ponderous race that was unaware of life outside their own region of space until relatively recently. They have tough durable bodies and this is similar with their technology, which is needs to be rugged to survive in their natural environment. They also contrast with humanities high rate of expansion and consumption.

The Riem then, come from deep within gas giant planets. This was an interesting idea as gas giants are by far the most common types of worlds in the universe. There seems to be no reason why these could not be home to some forms of bizarre life. So from the hot dark depths, where hydrogen is compressed into a think fluid, then finally metal, come the Riem. So extreme and different are these aliens, that some worship them as gods. The Riem encourage this belief as they can use their followers to extend their influence and help them to spreads throughout space. This also gives the game a theological aspect, as some Riem special abilities can take advantage of their revered position in the different species societies.

Finally we had the Kernal, a race of creatures that are an amalgamation of biological and mechanical parts at the nanoscopic level. They are hardy and are capable of surviving in a huge variety of different environments. Their spacecraft are fluid and ever shifting, the crew forming part of the ship itself, and are capable of growing new components as required. Despite their advanced nature, they are still susceptible to the drives and hatreds they lived with before their present state and so in terms of their goals, are quite similar to humanity.

So with these different factions, we hope to make the game as interesting as possible. As the game develops, we hope to incorporate race specific features that will give them each a distinct playing style. Kernal ships could change into different forms, Gelf spacecraft are very tough, Riem can convert enemy spacecraft crews and Humans can colonise more quickly. With these and other features, the game can hopefully have interesting dynamic factions that will keep the play experience and varied and fun as possible.

Combat Problems

I think that one of the main challenges that faces us in the creating of this game is one of flow.

We wish to create a deep and fulfilling game, the kind of game that you could really sink a night in to, but we don't want the players to be spending half that time looking at charts and tables. Rather we want them focusing on their strategy.

This, it seems, shall be a tricky balance to strike.

To this end I have been thinking about our current combat system. We are going to try replacing our standard dice with one that have simply "hit" and "miss" on the different faces. By doing this we eliminate the need for the play to consult a table every time they wish to do battle. Though we may have to sacrifice some complexity, I am hoping that we shall see faster and more streamlined battles lead to a more exciting game.

3D Printing.

I just got a set of ship images form Biran. I am going to turn them in to some 3D models.

From the start we knew that we wanted to make use of the college's 3D printer. Though it would be great to replace all the counters with models, its simply not realistic. We have decided to model the counters that will be used to keep track of the scores. If we have the opportunities we will also print models for the fleet counters.

While we cannot model every ship we can model the planets with a nice lo-fi solution. Ping pong or bouncy balls blue tacked on to pins.

By adding 3 dimensionality to the game we hope to invoke a sense of overlooking a futuristic galaxy map.

Humble Beginnings

Dominion is a board game under development that allows the player to explore and expand across a region of space, building up their empire and economy and ruthlessly crushing all who oppose you. The game can be played by 2-4 players and a variety of tactics can be employed against one's opponents. The game is still very much a work in progress, but its humble beginnings and subsequent development is an interesting yarn which will be described in this blog over the next few weeks.

Our board game Dominion began life as an idea brought in for a ludology class some weeks back. Since then it has grown and developed into quite a different beast than its earlier incarnation. The inspiration and theme of the game came naturally to a group of nerds like us, but working out the game mechanics is quite another story. The vast majority of strategic boardgames are historical or fantasy based games, so we wanted to create a game that explored many of the themes and ideas that are common in modern space based games and science fiction. Having played some examples of excellent board games over the last few weeks, there is no shortage of great ideas, however implementation of these ideas is much more difficult.

The first incarnation of Dominion

The fleets close in for battle! Some imagination required

After the initial ideas, transcribing these into a working game was quite a challenge. Rules that make sense in a discussion or one's head, often fall on their face when incorporated into a game. Throw in an unexpected variable that wasn't considered, the whole rule may need to be scrapped. Every aspect must be considered, tested, reconsidered, tested again, before finally beginning to make sense. The core of the game remains somewhat the same, acquisition of territory and combat between spacecraft. Very early playtests revealed a plethora of issues but the intial problems were that of starting deployment and combat, which didn't really work at all. The nascent economic rules had some merit, but needed some serious revision, however the main principles worked OK.

Each turn would be split into 3 phases, movement, where the player can move their fleets, combat, where any combat is worked out and finally, consolidation; this is where the economic side of the game would be played out. As the player captured different planets, each planet generated resources depending on its type. Rocky terrestrial worlds produce metal, while gas giant planets generate He3, which could then be used in combination to purchase more warships. A familiar and tried formula. The combat was based on rolling dice to determine shooting and damage, also a tried and tested method. As the game was played, the rules were being altered in real time until it almost worked. After much meddling with the original rules, the two core components of battle and acquisition were ready for the next round of testing.

Before this could take place, a major issue needed to addressed; that of presentation. Its hard to imagine a gripping battle between waring fleets of spacecraft when all your looking at is hexagonal grid on two pieces of paper with Lego blocks representing the different units. So the game was given a new look, complete with different planet types and spacecraft. This was immediately beneficial as players could now readily imagine who they were conquering and with what ships. So with an initial look and feel, the game was playtested again.

Some planets and spaces ships at last!

This second playtest was very productive. Certain aspects, such as deployment had yet to be properly worked out. Initially, layout was done by simply laying out the pieces as randomly as possible by eye across the board. This was admittedly a temporary measure, as the main focus of the playtest was to get the game moving, explore the combat and colonisation aspects. These, while progressing from their earlier form, still needed much development as there was some confusion about damage, targeting and movement. Although there was much to work out, Dominion generated some attention and positive feedback.

As the game has progressed, many issues have come up and been dealt with, while many more have appeared. The different aspects of the games development will be discussed over the next few posts. Stay tuned.

Play-testing with the stabilised basic rules and board.

Owen's observations:
Ship and entity stats visible on the counters (reverse-side);
Central victory points counter to keep track if last-man standing is not the objective.
Need to speed up combat?
Limit scans/add empty space to board to slow down discovery?
Draw scanable entities from the top of the shuffled pack on scanning rather than lay out at the beginning ... much simpler.
Need for a 1 sheet quick-start guide the exploits implicit gaming conventions to get gaming quickly.
? low cost functionality upgrades to a simpler menu of ships? How to implement?
Judicious use of models to aid immersion.

A pair of experienced but fresh eyes was really useful.

But we're still stabilizing, may not have race/religion, diplomacy or research tree implemented by the kleenex test.