Wednesday, May 27, 2015

C-c-combo Breaker or Combo Maker?

From time to time on the blog I talk about about things in metaphors or terms pulled straight from the film making process. Posts relating to changes in the Daikaiju Director brand can come from "the Producer's Desk" or when there's a break in content I will represent it as an "intermission." This is useful technique in explaining things and maintaining the overall aesthetic of the game, but it's not how I'm going to go about writing today's post.

Instead of looking at this update from a writer vs. director viewpoint like I initially envisioned, I'm just going to take the designer vs. developer route. It's simple, easy, and to the point so I'm going to drop the convoluted film metaphors for a moment and talk solely about how Daikaiju Director has evolved over the past month or so.

You've met all 4 of the starter daikaiju, you know the stories and trivia behind them, and you've already witnessed some stark transformations to the game. As both the designer and the developer, I am often at odds with myself when I try to keep a feature or mechanic as I originally intended throughout revisions. Some ideas have been in the game since its first iteration, but are becoming clunky, obsolete, or overpowered as Daikaiju Director evolves. It's becoming increasingly clearer that sometimes the developer in me has to tell the designer in me "no." This has happened from time to time like for example when I had to remove military units because they just weren't ready. Creative cool stuff doesn't always make for a better, more enjoyable gaming experience. Sometimes you've got to take a step back and ask yourself "is this really working?" So what does that mean for Daikaiju Director? Well I'll tell you!

It's time for Daikaiju Director Beta!

Let me explain. Up until now I've been working with Daikaiju Director Alpha. The numerous play tests we've ran with this version of the game have provided an enormous amount helpful data. Now it's time to implement and test the most promising changes to come out of the data. It's time for a whole new round of play testing with a whole new version of the game.

I'm revamping the way a core mechanic of Daikaiju Director works. The Daikaiju abilities are getting tweaked and even the rule book is getting rewritten. During this rewrite of the rule book I'm going to focus primarily on fixing a problem that's popped up in almost every single game of Daikaiju Director.

Twist Cards are an integral part of the game. They add an element of uncertainty and help differentiate the Daikaiju from each other. However, a lot of Twists don't work as intended. For example, Burrow was never meant to be used as a trick for escaping unfavorable combat, but with how the rules are written that is the best way to play the card. I could reword Burrow and the slew of other cards that shouldn't exactly be playable at any moment, but it not quite enough. There are other cards in the works for future monsters that can't function under the current framework for Twists. A drastic change in how twists work is necessary.

This post is getting a bit lengthy and I have a few more things I want to announce before I got into too much detail on this major gameplay change. Things are getting interesting for Daikaiju Director. I've got some events and play tests lined up for the near future that I'm really excited about. We're going to be making multiple Beta Test versions of the game for a couple of playtest groups across the country. A lot more people are going to be exposed to Daikaiju Director in the coming months and that's fantastic for both the quality and promotion of the game.

Speaking of promotion, Daikaiju Director finally has a twitter account. You can follow us @Daikaiju_Direct. We've also got an official Facebook page in the works so keep an eye out for that. I'll announce more about our social media presence in a later post. The blog here is also going to be getting a facelift with a bunch of new content that I think you will all enjoy. 

As always, thanks for supporting Daikaiju Director as it gets off to its rocky start. You guys and gals are the greatest! Tune in next time for a closer look at what exactly is happening with Twist Cards and an exciting announcement!