My favorite RPG game, Nier, has this ending where on your
third playthrough, you can choose to sacrifice yourself for the woman you love,
or watch her die. The unique experience is, when sacrificing yourself, all your
play data will be deleted. It will display your savings, achievements, weapons,
then delete them one by one, and the operation is irreversible. I really like
this design because it makes the player realize what they are doing: it’s not
about pressing a button, but about sacrificing something you have as a player
for someone you really like. When you sacrifice your savings and achievements
for this character in game, you will at least understand the struggle of the
main character, who sacrificed everything. That is something about the dramatic
element that I really want to bring inside the game. In most of these “darker”
games, it’s just the characters who are struggling, and the players knows it’s
all “not real”. I want to bring something “real” into my game to enhance the
dramatic experience.
Therefore, I want a game where “gameplay choices” are
connected with “plot choices”, so that players feel a part of the emotion that
the characters feel when they are making those choices. That was how I started
making Eye of Anger.
What went
right
Good
“betrayal” mechanic
I decided to make a 2 player card drifting game where
players have to share resource and cooperate before they betray each other. I
had a hard time figuring out what to do when a playtester told me that the
betraying does not make sense because it was mandatory, then it becomes a “just
for fun” thing. Then I realized that the betrayal was not engaging because
there was no reason for player to betray one another and decided to make it so
that the game is very easy to snowball. The player who gets ahead will be able
to control the flow of the game and overpower the other side. Even the choices
they make are done purely for good intentions (like a card that adds really
high score to both side but prevent the other side from doing anything the next
round, and only playable when you are ahead), the feeling of losing control will
make the other player “slightly unhappy”, therefore making the betrayal a
reasonable choice, while the other side will still feel angry when being
betrayed because they did it out of pure good intention.
When I was playing the game with my friend, he was very
unhappy about it and refused to play after the first game because it “was not
balanced”, even when the final score difference is not very obvious. I do feel
happy because it proves that the game is not mechanically wrong, but it does
let player feel like they are losing control and being on the weak side the
whole time.
Dramatic
elements embodied in gameplay
I used an “era” mechanic to make player feel like their
characters have grown up and changed when they are playing. Each era, player
will abandon old cards and get new, more powerful ones. Therefore, the event
happens in the beginning will never happen in the end of the game, and I can
ensure the story development is logical.
I took a different approach to name my cards. Rather than
naming them “the minion of something” or something magic related, I use those
cards to tell a story of two people meet each other, become friends, start to
doubt each other, and finally betray their friends. I use name like “first
meet” and “team up”, combined with customized flavor text, to really tell a
story in the game. I asked my friend what he thought the story was, and his
answer is almost exactly what I wanted to hear: two people fight together, one grow too
strong, and the other is poisoned by anger and envy, then betray his friend for
power. My favorite part about that response was, even though the betrayer’s
attitude was not directly described anywhere(not even in flavor text), he still
realized what the betrayer’s motive is, which proves that the story conveys
emotion pretty well.
Strong
sense of collaboration
To make the betrayal truly dramatic, I needed players to
trust each other in the beginning of the game. Therefore I decided to use a
card drifting system with many cards that will benefit both side or just the
other side when played. All playtesters said they like how collaborative they
felt in the first two eras: they shared everything and helped each other, but
never fully trusted each other. That kind of shady collaboration is what I am
looking for to meet the atmosphere of the game.
Constrain
in dramatic elements
I want to add in dramatic elements in as many ways as
possible, but I also want to keep the information short and precise so players
are not overwhelmed with them. If the description is too accurate and packed
with information, it could probably irritates the player because something was
not the same as they imagined, therefore reduce the sense of reality.
Since English is not my first language, I make my flavor
text very short, with as little “accurate” information as possible: players
will know that the two characters meet and like each other from the flavor
text, but not how they meet or what part do they like in each other. I believe
leaving space for imagination only enhance dramatic elements, since player will
be able to have their own interpretation of the plot, which is always based on their own life
experience, thus become more attached to their character.
I decided to go for full text on my cards because first, it
was too much work to be done in a short amount of time. Second, I already added
enough flavor text, if I add in more accurate information it might destroy the
player’s imagination.
It is hard to conclude how the texts worked out, but
everyone said the dramatic element is great and they really feel bad when
reading some lines, so I believe it was an acceptable job.
Package
really stands out
I spent a long time making a polymer clay coated box to
package my cards. The box has a “seal” in the front, which hides a magnet so it
will remain closed until someone tries to open it. I made it that way so the
package itself also enhance dramatic element: you feel like you are opening a
seal and you don’t know what is inside the box, and it was so easy to open that
you feel like the seal will break at any time to release the demon inside.
There is also a 3D demon eye on the back of the box. I thought about making it
in the front but then the suggestion would be too obvious and people will think
it is about killing demons. So I put it in the back: it is something you have
to look for to find out, yet it is so unsettling that you will not forget it
once you see it.
What went
wrong
Scale of
the project was too big
I had to make about 40 cards for every draft of the game
,and I kept redoing every card set rather than balancing them. I managed to
finish the project, but the lack of time means I could not found playtesters
when I needed to, and the final game is very loosely balanced on one game that
I played with my friend the day before it is due. I started out ambitious but
ended up very frustrated with the project because there was just too many
things to take care of and too many elements to tune. Some elements was nicely
tuned but others were not well thought out and was there because scrapping it
would take too much effort so I could only try “improve” it in a smaller scale.
Planning is always important, and I think one crazy last
week is enough for me to understand the limitation of my ability.
The “Loved
One” cards felt unnecessary
I wanted player to have a “loved one” card that the other
side can take away, so the rage makes more sense plot wise, and the betrayed
side really feel like they lost everything. The “Loved One” card would also
grow based on the player’s power, and gives player new power then they grow.
However, because the balancing gets too complicated, I removed the growing
concept, along with the most of the flavor text that makes player knows more
about their “Loved One”. Now the “Loved One” is just a card that offers passive
aura. Player will still be able to steal that card from the other side, but
without the emotion connection and growth, the stealing was not as dramatic as
I expected.
There was also another gimmick I did: on the play board, the
“Loved One” will be placed on the button left corner, and there is a line about
how it’s closest to your heart. I like the gimmick, but with the removal of the
emotional connection, it feels rather obvious and forced.
If I could do it again, I will probably give player one
“update card” they can stack on their “loved one” after defeating the boss for
each era. It would be good from both a fantasy game standpoint and a character
growth standpoint. I still need to think about how to show the character growth
through stacking cards though.
Inclusive
design did not make the character unique
When first designing, I had 3 characters for players to
choose from: a king who fights for his kingdom, a warrior who fights to protect
people, and a mother who fights for her child. Since the character’s identity
had nothing to do with gameplay and there seemed to be too much text, I took it
out and made players only able to choose from two “loved one” card: a sick
daughter or a weak lover. I was afraid to describe a female “weak lover” or a
mother who fights for her daughter because it was not inclusive enough, but
having just “a daughter” and “a lover” really destroy the emotional connection
and makes the player character less powerful.
I would probably still add in the character description if I
am to do the game again, but it should be mixed with the “Loved One”
description and show some interaction between the two.
Innovation
ruined production quality
I soaked the cards in lemon juice and baked them in oven to
achieve a brownish “old” texture, then used a font and color that is very hard
to read on flavor text when printing cards. I thought it would make the cards
look old, and makes the flavor text something that player have to pay attention
to discover so it won’t interfere with normal gameplay. However, the flavor
text turned out so hard to read that even if you pay attention, you have to try
very hard to read it. Also, the paper smells like cookies, which might be a
good thing for a fun game, but does not fit my theme at all. Now I realized I
have to be very careful if I want to do something new for a final product
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