Dolomball - moving again, but need to ricochet to a different direction

Finally got a chance today to test the new version of Dolomball with a couple other players.  There were specific elements they liked, as well as the triangle grid movement, but they found it difficult to strategize effectively due to the programmed movement and the cards often moving them too far, making it too easy to overshoot a target.  The challenge for me here is how to reduce this while still making it a game about the Dolomé specifically, and not just generic meeples that I declared to be some kind of aliens.  In Bulldogs, the Dolomé have a trait called Heavy Momentum.  In the RPG this is beneficial, as it gives them a bonus to plow through obstacles once they've built up some speed; for my board game, I'm seeing it as meaning that they have difficulty stopping or changing course while running around the arena.  That's why I went with programmed movement, and why you have to move in a straight line, with ricocheting being the only way to change direction in the middle of a move.  So the next big challenge for me is to figure out how to keep this element without it being overpowering and making the game worse instead of better.  The playtesters today gave me some good ideas to start with; hopefully it doesn't take quite so long this time for me to find the right way to implement them.

The nice thing about having too many projects at once is bouncing between them

Violet Moon has started going out to publishers, I need a break from revising Neon Knights, so today's work was focused on Dolomball.  I came up with some revisions a while ago, did the one solo test, and then forgot about it while I focused on pushing the other two.  So it took some time today for me to reread my notes from before and actually remember what I was doing, but once I was refreshed I was able to rewrite the rulebook to cover all the changes.  Got through the text today, still need to redo the gameboard, then the diagrams in the rulebook, and also finish updating the Screentop prototype.  It'll happen soon enough.  Probably.

Finish line? What's a finish line?

The problem with juggling multiple projects is that each individual one can take a lot longer to make progress.  So for the past week or so I've been focusing entirely on Neon Knights and Under a Violet Moon to try to get through that last "10"% or so for each of them.

Violet Moon - after the playtest a couple weeks ago I've been making small tweaks to try to get the balance just right between the two sides.  Not sure how close I am, but better than last time, I think.  Originally I had worried that the game would be too hard for the villagers so I tried to correct for that, and in recent tests it looks like I might have overdone it a bit.  So now I'm swinging back the other way, but also (hopefully) just a bit.  Raised the threshold for eliminating suspects, changed one of the villagers' special move cards, feeling better about this.  Will show it off again next week, and if that goes well then I think it's time to start pitching to publishers.

Neon Knights - one of the things I've wanted to do before calling it done is to add more example enemies and magic items.  I've been going at a steady pace this week and I think I'm up to a good amount now.  I still need to write a few more example stunts, and I need to reread the whole thing to make sure the style and rules are consistent, and then I think that's it for the writing.  Then I find one or two proofreaders, and if they agree with me then it's time to move on to layout.  And then, someday, posting to DriveThru.

Neon Knights: the Musical

I've been neglecting Neon Knights lately (a symptom of having too many projects at the same time) so I decided to make that my main focus for today.  I feel like I've been making some good progress with beefing up the setting description.  And as I was working on that I came across a note I wrote to myself a while back about seeing if I could come up with an "official" rule for working more music references into the Realm creation system.  What I settled on was a sidebar with two optional rules for doing this.  The one for people who love to lean on random tables and such was to shuffle a playlist and use the songs, in order, to answer the questions in the book.  Well I'm a person who loves to lean on random tables, so I'm going to take a break from the work and have a little fun playing with this myself.  I'll list the song titles and then whatever ideas they give me about how this would work for the game setting.  Let's see what I get...

1) Who is the Lord of the Realm?
Dope Hat - the current Lord of the Realm has some magical talent and is able to work technomagical machinery as well as any specialist around.  However, they also have some health problems and a fair bit of anxiety, maybe some imposter syndrome too.

2) Besides the Knights, what is something or someone else the Lord can count on?
A Secret Place - in response to the anxiety and health problems, the Lord has built themselves a private sanctuary somewhere in or near the palace that is unknown even to their own staff and advisors.

3) What is something everyone knows about the Realm’s history?
Metal Militia - back in the Before times, the pride of Realm's army was a regiment of fully autonomous robots

4) What is something everyone has forgotten about the Realm’s history?
Search and Destroy - the robots going rogue was one of the main contributors to the collapse of the old world

5) What is something from Before that still remains and is known in the Realm?
The Worriment Waltz - at some point, people discovered that one of the Realm's major adversaries (maybe the robots, maybe something else from earlier than that) was unable to comprehend music.  Thus, people developed a system of using music to encode messages.  Some of the specific songs have survived, along with at least a gist of the message they carried, although people might no longer remember why this system was developed.

6) What is a notable landmark or location within the Realm?
Scum of the Earth - there is a cave in an isolated part of the Realm that was once the refuge of notorious outlaws.  They were mutated by their time in the darkness (and exposure to whatever else was down there), and when they returned for vengeance they were barely recognizable as human.  No one lives there anymore, but the cave entrance is still kept guarded.

7) What is a notable landmark or location outside of the Realm?
Torn Apart - a great rift in the earth, said to have been formed when two Titans fought a duel that ultimately killed both of them.

8) How does the Knights’ Code in this Realm differ from the “standard” one?
Hallowed Point - Knights are encouraged to show no mercy to their adversaries

9) What is one thing the Realm needs but is lacking?
Neon Knights - the PCs are the only Knights remaining.

10) Who or what is one of the biggest threats facing the Realm now?
Missing Time - people are vanishing randomly, then reappearing some time later, maybe in a different place, completely disoriented.  Some of them can remember glimpses of what was happening when they were missing, but it'll take some work to put it all together.

11) Who or what is another potential threat?
Rain - someone has been able to put together a working weather control machine using scavenged parts of Before tech.  It's not so good with the fine tuning but it can definitely do some damage.

12) What makes the Realm such a desirable target for either (or both) of these threats?
Pathfinder - whoever these villains are, they are both looking for something within the Realm and have decided that these nefarious means are the way to get it.  Maybe it's something in that cave I mentioned earlier?

Well that was a fun experiment.  Some prompts were easier to work with than others, as is always the case with these things, but I can see how part of it are fitting together in different ways.  So yeah, that's the "playlist shuffle" option for setting creation.  I'm happy with it.

Dolomball - preliminary updates

I did a solo test today with some changes based on the playtest from a couple of weeks ago.  Specifically:

• Everything moves on the lines of the game board now instead of in the spaces
• Bumpers only take up one space instead of the crazy shapes I had originally
• Movement is based on cards instead of dice, and each one moves you farther now compared to the original system.  Each card also has a variable number of dice that you roll for throwing distance if you pick up a ball with that move.  Moves still have to be programmed three at a time though.
• Implemented a rock-paper-scissor system to determine who gets the ball if multiple players go for it at the same time, using keywords on the movement cards.
  
• Stunning is no longer a thing

It definitely feels like an improvement.  I don't know that I'm there yet though - with the bigger move speeds it's actually harder to get into exactly the right position, and players were ricocheting off the walls a lot (which is fun in and of itself, but I don't know if it's something people will want to deal with as much as I had it going on in this solo test).  Plus with the longer throwing distance there were times that balls were getting thrown most of the way across the board in one shot, which is not what I think the sport of dolomball should be like.  I think the best fix for this will be to change the numbers on the dice, so I can still keep the minimum distance that I want but otherwise move the whole bell curve lower.

So now I need to update the rule book and the game board, and then the game should be ready to show to people again.  I also want to add some more cards with team maneuvers on them so they're not all just one player moves X distance (although that will probably still be the majority of them).

Creators - a world-building micro RPG

Had a burst of inspiration and wrote this little game.  Inspired by Microscope and listening to mythology podcasts.

Dolomball: a look ahead (maybe)

I was chatting with another designer today, talking about my struggles with updating Dolomball after the recent playtest, and he gave me a great idea - put everything on the intersections rather than in the spaces.  This means that movement follows a hex pattern, which some players find easier to manage, while allowing me to keep the triangle grid (because I'm leaning hard into the 3s and I'd like to keep it that way).  It will also make it easier to quickly process which way things move when they ricochet, since you can just follow the line instead of having to think for a second about which side of the triangle would be correct.  Based on another comment he made, I might also have the balls start out near the goal zones, with one in easy reach of each team, rather than starting in the middle and having the game start with everyone running into the middle of the board.  I like the idea but I'm not 100% settled yet.  Also probably better not to make too many big (untested) changes at once.

And while we were talking I made progress on getting the new action cards together, which I've kind of been sitting on since last time.  Starting with just the basics for now, make sure it feels right, and then I'll add some more complex ones for stuff like team maneuvering or making an opponent fumble a throw.