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!

Daikaiju Spotlight: Vulcanus

Earth's explosive response to the recent, destructive arrival of two alien daikaiju, Vulcanus is lava made supernaturally sentient. Perplexed scientists are at a loss as to explain just how this impossible beast came into being, but leading theories point to Vulcanus being a previously unknown part of the planet's immune system. This destructive protector cares not for mankind or any living creatures in the animal kingdom. It's singular purpose seems to be eliminating the giant alien interlopers through brute force and it's mastery of geological phenomena. Since it's appearance, Vulcanus has ravaged city after city with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions chasing Eelian and Spacehunter X. Nothing can stand in his way!

The stage has been set for the clash of the kaiju! Vulcanus, Fenrir, Eelian, and Spacehunter X converge on the same battlefield and only one can be the victor! Will mankind survive their first contact with giant monsters?

Alright! We've finally got to Vulcanus in our Daikaiju Spotlight series. Remember when I said Fenrir was a fan favorite? Well this monster is THE fan favorite. Vulcanus has been picked first more often than any other daikaiju available at the various playtests I've ran.

But enough about his popularity, let me give you a breakdown of this lava master's -er I mean monster's evolution!

He started, as I've said before, with a mini. Here I was with a sentai looking robot, a space snake, a giant werewolf, and a lava guy. I knew I wanted a daikaiju that messed with the set and the lava guy seemed like a logical fit. So I created Igneous! Yeah, that's right, Vulcanus went through a name change just like Eelian, although his new name was picked by play testers and to this day I still sometimes call him Igneous by mistake.

Anyways, on to the mechanics. I had a lava monster who's shtick was going to be altering the terrain of the set. Obviously, I made him spew lava. The problem was, at least for the first Epic Games Contest playtest, that the rules for lava were not thought out very well. The player who played him sat down at the table and prophetically proclaimed "I'm going to break your game!" which is good and I'm glad he did. I just wish it would've been a bit more difficult. Vulcanus and his lava were Broken with a capital "B."

I hadn't given much thought to how lava actually worked in the game and my snap rulings on situations like "what happens when you 'Crack the Earth' in a space occupied by 3 building props" made it way too good. (Editor's Note: That ruling was that it destroyed all props instantly an awarded the player victory points for each prop.) I kept tweaking the rules for lava damage, but in all subsequent playtests players continued to state the obvious: Vulcanus was too good. His stats are perfect, but his lava ability along with Twist Cards like Earthquake and Burrow forced me to re-evaluate the way a lot of things worked in Daikaiju Director. A lot of play testers proposed a weakness to water as a way to balance out some of his advantages with an additional drawback besides his slow movement. These were all interesting ideas that have helped further the development of the game.

As the game continues to be tweaked and balanced, Vulcanus has been an immensely valuable indicator of just what need to be investigated or even changed.  He has a unique set-altering style of play that is a blast to experience, and I look forward to giving the fans the most fair and fun version of this problematic daikaiju. Vulcanus has truly been my greatest challenge in game development.

That covers the 4 daikaiju that you'll find in the game's first release, Daikaiju Director: First Contact. I'll be updating the "Meet the Monsters" portion of the site to include these terrific terrors! I've got an announcement to make in the next month or so, so stay tuned for more updates from your direct source for all things Daikaiju Director!

Daikaiju Spotlight: Fenrir

A ferocious beast ripped out of myth, built with science and given life through dark magic, Fenrir is not only a threat to mankind, but to other daikaiju alike! His insatiable appetite for destruction was instilled into his very essence by his neo-nazi techno-wizard creators. They summoned the Ur-Wolf's untamable spirit and bound it into a massive werewolf-like body that they had pieced together with genetic modification and profane surgical techniques. Using circuitry and magic to strengthen it into a worthy vessel and Dr Frankenstein's old methodology for animating dead tissue, this abomination is stronger than any natural creature this planet could produce. To further enhance Fenrir's capability to destroy, they sought out ancient god killing artifacts like the Spear of Longinus and even a fang from the original Fenrir of Norse mythology to create his claws and teeth. Now that two giant alien monsters have landed on Earth, the neo-nazi techno-wizards have unleashed this beast to not only save the planet, but conquer it too.

Fenrir, the "kaiju killer," has been a fan favorite since the beginning of Daikaiju Director. When I first started thinking about what different Daikaiju would be capable of in the game, I started a list of different archetypes and abilities that I thought were crucial to providing the most balanced and diverse gameplay possible. The first item on that list was a monster that dealt "increased damage vs. kaiju." When the time came to create the first monster for the game, I looked at that first item on the list and grabbed the meanest looking mini I had set aside for the Daikaiju Director prototype: a werewolf.

Fenrir seemed like a more than perfect name for a giant wolf-like armageddon-heralding daikaiju, so I borrowed the name from Norse Mythology and quickly drafted up his backstory. He got the Vicious ability, which made him deal extra damage to Daikaiju. This later got changed to just other actors in general when I decided to eventually add "extras" or smaller non-daikaiju units to the game. (More on that in a future installment!) Being combat oriented, I gave Fenrir the best attack modifier and more twist cards for modifying combat than any other daikaiju created thus far. I wanted him to be an unstoppable juggernaut when he got into a brawl with an adjacent daikaiju and these two things seemed like the most practical way of achieving this.

I was kind of wrong.

The extra combat modifying twist cards was later determined to be a boring idea. Even daikaiju with the normal amount of combat modifying twist cards drew them way too often. His original active ability, "Fight Dirty," allowed Fenrir to use a free extra Twist Card the turn it was activated. Either nobody used it because they never needed that extra boost in a fight, or they used it in conjunction with a particularly lucky hand to jump all over the set and make a bunch of attacks. The ability was either crap or way too good. There was no middle ground where it was just plain fun.

When something just isn't fun in your game, you've got to change it. Fenrir's Fight Dirty active ability got replaced by Pounce, an ability that let him use 1 action to move and attack. This turned out to be reminiscent of the lucky hand fueled, explosive uses of the old Dirty Fighting ability without being too powerful. Also, since Fenrir does not have an area of attack ability or twist, pounce functions as a way for this monster to hit more than one enemy on the set in a turn.

In the play tests I've run for family and friends as well as the ones open to the public at UD Con, Fenrir has consistently been a player favorite. His simple and ferocious play style is very appealing for players looking for a direct, straightforward win. There were initial concerns that dealing extra damage to other players on every hit was too strong since he could kill most other Daikaiju in 4 successful attacks or 2 turns if he is uninterrupted. However, it quickly became apparent that the amount of aggro his abilities attracted made him somewhat of a glass cannon if the player wasn't cautious. I foresee Fenrir being possibly too good in a 1 on 1 game, but I haven't done very extensive testing on that type of play as of yet.

Anyways, that's all for this round of Daikaiju Spotlight! Tune in next time for your first look at the explosive Vulcanus!

From the Producer's Desk: Logo Change!?

That's right folks! If you haven't noticed already or if you're a Futurian looking back through time, Daikaiju Director has a new snazzy logo courtesy my graphic artist. Here's a comparison: 

The old familiar logo:

The old logo incorporated everything I thought I wanted: the red-white-black color scheme as well as the kanji for "Daikaiju." However, there was a resounding consensus that the kanji (my favorite part of the logo) obscured the name too much. Since a logo's main purpose is to bring recognition to your brand, I decided to work with my graphic artist to increase it's readability.

Here's the new and improved logo:

As you can see, the new logo is much easier on the eyes while still including all of the elements I originally wanted in the Daikaiju Director logo. It took a lot of communication back and forth and probably 30+ different versions, but I am extremely satisfied with the end result. I hope you all are too!

Daikaiju Spotlight: Eelian

A mysterious terror from the depths if space, Eelian has set her sights on Earth to be the beginning of her new cosmic empire! Many millennia ago, her species once ruled much the galaxy with their mind controlling siren song and monstrous size before they were slowly driven to extinction. Eelian, the most ruthless and cunning of her kind, escaped her species' fate by going into a long hibernation in the vast void of space. As the last of her kind, now it is up to Eelian to remind the galaxy of the utter terror her species once wrought across the cosmos. She has begun slowly bending the pathetic humans to her will and establishing her dominance in Earth's oceans, but her machinations will not go on unopposed. Space Hunter X has followed her to this backwater world! Whether it's through the brute force of a thunderous tsunami or the mind bending music of her siren song, the giant interstellar bounty hunter has to be eliminated before she can continue with her plans for galactic conquest and stardom!

The idea for Eelian started to take shape even before Daikaiju Director reached its current incarnation. Back when the game was going to be a specific monster movie simulator and I was working on stating out Legendary's 2014 Godzilla and the MUTOs, I knew that I wanted to make my own monsters and scenarios. I had recently watched some episode of Godzilla the Animated Series and I was really inspired by King Cobra. I jotted down some notes and pretty much forgot everything about the character except that I wanted him to have a constrict and burrow ability.

Fast forward a month and a half: I had just started to make the first four daikaiju and I found a serpent-like mini. I instantly began to make a Daikaiju based on my old notes. I decided to ditch the burrow ability in favor of giving her more mobility in water. I knew water was going to be a special type of terrain and I wanted a character that had an advantage in it or could manipulate it. Manda, from Toho's 1963 film Atragon, is an aquatic snake-like dragon kaiju so I figured there was a precedence for this type of giant monster. Her origin quickly took form and I began to fill out her abilities. I added that weird constriction ability from my notes and some poison, and BOOM! Viper was born... 

Wait- Viper?! I thought we were talking about Eelian! 

Well, we are, but she went through some significant changes since her first incarnation (including a name change). Viper sounded too generic so I changed it. It wanted something that highlighted her giant "space snake" origin so I took the words "eel" and "alien" and mashed them together to get the punny "Eelian." 

The name was one of the last things I changed so let me take a few steps back and discuss the evolution of Eelian's abilities. Leading up to the first FASFAC playtest, I just couldn't figure out how to make poison work. I tried a few different things, but every solution I came up with either didn't feel like poison or it was too convoluted to work smoothly with the rules. I had 4 decks of 40 cards to make for the meeting that evening and I really didn't have that much time to mull it over (I actually cut the deck size down to 30 because I spent so much time on Viper). Swiftly running out of time, I ditched the poison ability and created what would become Eelian's iconic ability: the Siren Song.

The first FASFAC playtest convinced me that my wording for constrict was way off. Not a single player interperated it like I intended. I took that as a sign that it just wasn't working and I removed it like the burrow and poison abilities. Being rushed and messing up her abilities made Eelian what she is today: a fun character who wins through indirect and clever means. Her abilities are deceptively powerful and the UD Con playtest proved. She can outmaneuver most other monsters and use water greatly to her advantage. Pushing two daikaiju together to fight, pulling gravely injured daikaiju away from the action to score the killing blow, and making monsters take lava baths with the help of Vulcanus are all cool things that only the player controlling Eelian can do.

That's all for this installment of Daikaiju Spotlight. Tune in next week for more information on the mythical kaiju killer, the ferocious Fenrir

Daikaiju Spotlight: Space Hunter X

The 10th iteration of the most ruthlessly successful interstellar bounty hunter to specialize in bringing down giant monsters, Space Hunter X has come to Earth in search of its most dangerous mark yet. It was created through an aggressive mechanical-evolutionary process by aliens who's home world used to be overrun by tyrannical daikaiju, and it can adapt to any situation and always has some technique or tool perfect for capturing its quarry. After eliminating all of the giant monsters on their own planet, Space Hunter's creators hired out this deadly, sentient machine to anyone in the galaxy that had a particularly pesky kaiju in need of capture or extermination. It has continued to evolve and add strange new weapons to its arsenal. Space Hunter X is sure to be an insurmountable challenge for any other daikaiju looking to become the star of the show.

The development of Space Hunter X started just like the development of most of the other original 4 daikaiju: with a mini. The first playtest for FASFAC's Epic Games Contest was coming up, and I wanted a visually appealing demo that stood out from the competition. Until I could make my own minis for the daikaiju, I decided to use stand-ins that had a similar feel to what I wanted in the finished product. I found a few minis that I had lying around that looked good on the board I was using and created monsters around their appearance.

The mini that became Space Hunter X was a sentai-looking robot with a jetpack and a gun, so I started there. I started with giving it flying movement and a ranged special attack. That eventually got reversed and Space Hunter X ended up with a ranged attack passive ability and a flying activated ability. Then, I decided his role. I knew that I wanted each Kaiju to have a distinct play style after I made Fenrir, the first daikaiju I designed, a "Daikaiju killer." Since I didn't have much experience with sentai, I resorted to the tropes I knew.

Unless you consider the original Ultraman series to be loosely associated with the genre, I haven't watched any sentai series in this decade. To me super sentai represents a kind of space police, so I decided his twist deck should be full of neat tricks to subdue or apprehend other monsters. I gave him cards that stole energy from enemies, ensuring they won't be able to bother you with their annoying special abilities. In addition to that, there are twists in his deck that stop enemies from moving and even can make them skip their turn.

After the stats, abilities and twists were figured out, Space Hunter X's backstory grew organically. The name is a play on "Monster Zero" and "Monster X" from the Godzilla franchise. In the initial playtest, he varied wildly from being completely useless and too good. This largely depended on how the player playing him used his abilities and twists. If they stayed back, took pot shots at vulnerable daikaiju and controlled the set with Super Snares and EMPs then they could usually out maneuver and outgun the other players. This led to complaints that he was too fast when in reality, his flying ability only puts his move speed on par with Eelian's.

At the UD Con playtest, Space Hunter X wasn't played much, so I don't have too much data on how I should tweak him moving forward. The player controlling him never drew his good twist cards and only had the combat modifying ones to work with. This put him at a significant disadvantage. Moving forward, I'm scaling back the number of combat modifiers in twist decks and upping the number of cards with interesting abilities. I'm going to be doing a lot of play testing in the coming months and maybe I'll come up with some more changes to implement then.

That's all for this installment of Daikaiju Spotlight. Tune in next week for more information on Space hunter X's quarry: the mysterious Eelian!

UD Con XXII: Giant Robot Con - Punching Things in the Face Edition Play Test

Wow that title was a mouthful...

Anyways, this past weekend I held my second public play test of Daikaiju Director at the coolest Con in Dayton: FASFAC's 22nd annual UD Con! I got to see some old friends and meet some awesome new folks this year. On top of that I had a blast running all of my events. (Not all of the Daikaiju Director related) FASFAC always hosts a wonderful con and I look forward to going every year in the foreseeable future.

Before I get into the details of the play test, let me show off something I got in the mail Friday (just in time for con.) Behold the prototypes for the boxes of the first two sets of Daikaiju Director!

Now the images of the monsters will definitely change when the temporary standees are finally replaced by the actual minis of the monsters or possible even some art. Anyways, let's take a closer look at "Daikaiju Director: First Contact." 

The first set of Daikaiju Director will feature the dauntless Space Hunter X, the mysterious Eelian, the ferocious Fenrir, and the explosive Vulcanus. I'll tell all of you more about them in the coming weeks. This is the set I tested at Con, and everyone's response was overwhelmingly positive and encouraging. I got some excellent constructive criticism from people much more experienced in game design than me. Let's take a look inside the box.

All four twist decks fit snugly in the box. As you can see, each monster has its own unique design for the back of their respective deck. There's also four slots for each of the monster minis. Right now the temporary standees are sitting in there awaiting the next game.

I'd like to give a shout out to my dad for not only surprising me by building these amazing boxes, but also for designing the cards, printing them out and cutting close to 1000 corners just to get all of this ready for me before Con. Thank you so much for making this past weekend that much more awesome.

Here's a closer look at the second set, "Daikaiju Director: Age of Monsters," but more on that later.

Here's a candid photo of me participating in one of the play test games. If I remember correctly, this was taken shortly before the other two players turned the tables and beat me. That's embarrassing. 

Anyways, I've some takeaways from this weekend include the following:

- Vulcanus is still overpowered, but his stats are near perfect. I need to consider revising his twist cards or how lava works; maybe both.

- Eelian is deceptively powerful.

- Fenrir can be a bit of a glass canon since he draws a lot of aggro really early.

- Space Hunter X has a lot going for him, particularly his ranged attack ability.

- I need to look into letting players spend energy to play more twist cards.

- Some twist cards have unforeseen side effects when they're all able to be played at anytime. Consider making some playable at anytime and some only on your turn.

- The game is simple enough to teach new players how to play in under 10 minutes.

- I need a more structured format for gathering player feedback.

All in all, everything went great and I want to thank the University of Dayton and FASFAC for letting me play test Daikaiju Director this weekend. We're one step closer to the finished product!

That's all for this installment from your direct source for everything Daikaiju Director. Tune in sometime in the near future for your introduction to Space Hunter X: the interstellar kaiju bounty hunter!