Progress on Bastion (the Dungeon Crawler!)

I might be stretched too thin. Waaaays too thin. But when the hype hits, it's really bad not to follow it. On top of that: partner's abroad, and some days can have unexpected interactions that bring you down several notches, to the point that creativity ...just vanishes. On the bright side--- that's the perfect day for a blog post!

While working through the Third Wave campaign stretchgoals for Full Spectrum Dominance, and trying to figure out the design of the spaceships for Overdrive (thanks to the immense help from Brennan Massicotte), I'm testing and testing again for the scifi dungeon crawler project that has now taken the name of Full Spectrum Bastion (or just Bastion).

Also a big thank you to Taha Yeasi for doing three quick illustrations for me - really helps to set a tone for the game!

The Game Concept

Most of the basic blocks for the game are in last month's post - not much changed, the core spirit is pretty much the same. However, after several test iterations (both on Tabletop Simulator with Pawl Boracchi and in person with Feo, that's his hand) many little things got fleshed out. There's plenty to improve, but the current rules are already fun and fast!

The current setup is still made out of two A5 rooms (about 15x20 cm each), a few doors and side alcoves, and then cards. Just cards.

Decks, Decks, Decks!

Right now the game is definitely card heavy. Since it has no dice, no ruler, no grid, few models, I don't think that's a problem per se, but it still offers a direction for improvement and weight-shedding.

Players have each a deck of 17 cards: 9 default cards (there are three decks for those), and 8 cards that are unique to the chosen character. This way each character can be printed as a standard sheet of paper (8 cards + character recap), and more characters can be added in the future!

Combat is also resolved with a deck - draw a certain amount of cards (more is better for the player, always) and pick the one you want to effect. Hitting a stronger enemy means fewer cards, and being HIT from a stronger enemy means fewer cards as well - but there's often a choice between effects and damages!

The rest of the cards are split between equip and upgrades - because the game is a roguelike at heart! Every level of a mission your deck will change a bit, adding or removing cards from it, and the gameplay follows accordingly.

Miniatures?

I'm making no secret that the design of this game is partially dictated by my desire to offer a fully 3D printable experience. Table, Miniatures, terrain.

No 3D printable cards, although it would be fun.

In this context, being able to have characters with unique looks and specific cards really helps with my creative bursts: a new model - a new set of cards, a new character for the game! All of this without having to commit to a whole range of models for a large-scale wargame.

Graphic Design, my Nemesys!

I'm aware that my graphic design skills are "just enough", but for this one I'd really like to nail down the layout for the many kinds of cards. I'm still torn on the actual style for the components (will it be hand drawn? rendered? flat?) but in any case nailing down a good positioning of the card text really helps moving things forward.

I've been talking both to friends and with fellow designers in the Rules of Carnage Discord, and things are moving forward.

Something cool I'm experimenting with are 3D layouts - using Plasticity really speeds up the process a LOT, and from a quick model...

...to a Blender setup...

...to an editable card, the steps are fast and i can iterate on layouts within tens of minutes, with a "final" look, although maybe not the one I want for this game.

Is it done? Not even remotely so.

But things are moving foward, and it's exciting. Even in gloomy days where the industry seems to stink and I have no drive to create, the potential directions of this little project really help me to keep going. :3

Jack