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.
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| The first incarnation of Dominion |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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