Help me take html5 to the next level

[Jean-guy Leconte]

Hi guys, I have been on this forum a while now and I am final ready to contribute and wow do I have a big one.

 

My project is large in scope and requires someone with vision and skill that won't give up and will see the big picture.

 

My goal is to create a new gaming engine that will be used to skin multiple player collectible card games. 

 

First let's talk about why I want to build this project. I have designed several games from initial idea to final completion. Some of these games had success and were able to make enough money to sustain themselves but facebook's changes pretty much killed the virality and those games died out.

 

Here is a quick list of games I worked on:

Derby Challenge (offline) - Multiplayer horse racing game where you edit your horse and race. 

Cartel kingdom (offline) - Farmville clone focused on selling drugs where you plan, harvest and sell drugs.

Sports book boost (offline) - Sports Betting game where you bet with friends on real sports but for play money

Mafia Warfare - Mafia themed multiplayer collectible card game where you collect cards, grow their strength, evolve them.

Mastermind.li - Online risk clone where you play online vs up to 8 people and try to take over the world map.

Webslingers.ws - Multiplayer collectible card game where you draw your own cards and try to control different cities. 

 

My role in all of these projects was to not just come up with the ideas but develop each part of the process and actually work out how to make it fun and profitable.

 

I am looking for a new technical partner that will help realize my new project. This person should be technically sound in html5 and understand how to create multi-player synchronous games. The framework used isn't too important to me as long as its HTML5. 

 

Here is what I bring to the table:

I have learned from all of my mistakes and failures, but I am dedicated to be successful (

I will create the blueprint for the project and manage the different parts

I will define the core loops and how they will be used to make the fun through work / reward cycling

I will define the meta game to ensure that there is a proper long term goal to the game that will push people along pre-planned tasks and goals that will always give them something to do.

I will define the monetization strategy and determine how best to make money with the game

I will define the email auto response campaign to promote virality and earn new players

 

The biggest challenge when it comes to collectible card games are the following

Art - I have access to over 1500 cards in 3 sizes already pre done and ready to be used for the first game

Marketing - I have worked online marketing for over 10 years and know what it takes to get users for testing and grow a game through virality.

users - I have a db of 105k collectible card players that can be emailed to start off the game.

 

What about money!

I know that most of your are thinking, I don't want to do this because there is no money involved. I am a believer the best projects are the ones where dedication is the most important cost. I am father of 5 children (aged 5 to 12), I work 50 hrs a week on a major website but I know that I will spend at least 40 hrs a week on this project or more for as long as it takes to get it done. 

 

Let's talk equity

There will be a payoff to this project and sharing the wealth will be fun, I am offering 20% of the business to the lucky guy that decides to work with me. Here is why I am offering 20%, I am keeping 40% for me, 20% will go to the guy that owns the cards, 20% will be sold to raise money once we have a product that is decent product. 

 

Why collectible card games

Collectible card games are great because they offer great ways to sell digital products, they are a know product and most guys now have played, pokemon, yugioh or magic. The market for collectible card games is gigantic and there is always room for a new player. Here are some examples from kickstarter - 

Shift -  - raised $21k with a goal of $7k

War of Omens -  - Raised $32, goal of $30k

Element Soul CCG -  Raised - $938, goal of $400

HEX MMO -  raised $2.2M goal of $300k

SHINKUKAN -  raised $20k goal $20k

Eminence -  Raised £52k, Goal £50k

Faëria -  Raised $94k, Goal $70k

Moby Dick -  - Raised $102k, goal $25k

Alteil Horizons -  Raised $59k, goal $40k

 

Now the goal isn't to start with a kickstarter campaign right away but to develop a project that will be worthy to be financed through a kickstarter after it has reached beta.

 

Let's finaly talk about the game

the engine for that I aim to create will allow us to build a battle engine for collectible card games of all kinds. It will be divided into two parts. One the meta game, this part is what needs to be done and how the game can be won. the meta game is key to pushing players along and giving them a clear goal. Part two, the battle. The battle will be quick and done fast. In mafia warfare we developed an engine that allowed us to play through a whole battle in less than 20 seconds. We copied this system from one of Zynga's old game called warstorm. Fast battle allow us to ensure that gameplay sessions can be as short or long as the user decides.

 

So what's your choice ?

Well if you have read through all of this then most likely I have gotten your attention and you want to know more. The important part to consider is this, if you are truly interested but not decicated than I know I won't be able to work with you, I work only with those that see the goal as not a task but something to dedicate yourself to. I have been living and breathing this new project and I want my partner to also have this level of dedication. The success of this project will depend only on dedication and hard work, nothing can stop a dedicated and positive person. 

 

If you made your choice then contact me today and let's get started !

[Jean-guy Leconte]

Here are some additional details as to the development plan I envision.

 

Phase 1 - Building the meta game

Create a copy of the basic game dopewars - https://github.com/cnavrides/dopeWars

This game has everything needed to keep players going forever, there are some edits needed to make it truly interesting so I would start here

Building into the new dopewrs game a phase to represent movement between cities. In the original version movement was instant. First change would be to make this based on time and show a progress bar.

Add secondary buildings to each city. These building will be required to ensure longer gameplay and to have city development potential. The building will also host the different items that users can buy and improvements that can be made.

Add step by step supply demand mechanic. This mechanic will control prices better than a random variable. Having a generation of items by city will also create an atmosphere where prices will seem much more real as demand or supply increases. 

Add goals and mission dynamic where users will need to get X item for Y city. This dynamic will be based on supply and demand. Having this type of dynamic structure will create organic missions and will lessen the amount of true mission creation.

At this point this would be a light economic simulation that should be fun enough for those inclined to play this type of game, I wouldn't see this type of game being released massively but with the economic engine running we could start working on the second phase which is the collectible card game itself

 

Phase 2 - Collectible card game

There are some basic tools that are requires for all collectible card games, these are tools I learned by creating games and make things much easier to do in the long terms

- Card scoring simulation. Scoring cards and balancing is one of the hardest possible things I have done. The amount of arguments and actual fights that go into this can't be underscored. A system has to be created that will build card variations easily based on certain parameters. I have a true scoring system already built but it's in excel.

- Card design. Design might seem easy but placing the right variable in the right place is never easy. There is only a certain amount of data that can be placed before overload sets in. I have a design that worked well that I can share.

- Card creating script. Once scoring variations are built a simple card creation script should be built to manage all of the different variations. Card creation is a visual process and without this you have to imagine how it looks. This isn't something too difficult to build, I have several examples already done.

- Deck creation system. At this phase we are getting into the true design phase. Deck creation is one of these things that is extremely important to get right. Without the right UI functions here, creation can become tedious, imagine going through 400 cards to find the right ones for a specific mission. This isn't fun and has to be made easy for the users. I have done this a few times already and know how to do it.

- Battle system. No matter what the game the battle portion is crucial. Determining what happens in which phase can make or break a design. I learned a lot from my last experience, we had abilities that were broken, tons of OP cards, timing that would get out of sync and many more issues. It took a long time to get these fixed up and when we did it was amazing. I have a good model for a battle system that I want to recreate. I believe it works because it passes the train stop test. This is the test in which you try to commit one action in a 60 second period. If a person can load up the game, play one battle and then go about their business the short term loop is strong enough to lead to mid and long term play. Users these days don't play long gaming sessions, but once they do its our job to reward them accordingly. Time is money!

 

ps ... This is a pretty short outline of each of the steps and not a full description. Each of these steps will need to be defined specifically and exactly to ensure the specs are right.

[Jean-guy Leconte]

Still no responses, but that's ok. I am going to continue defining the plan here. Whenever your inspiration hits the points where you feel that idea is strong enough lets talk.

 

 

Phase 3 - Merging the two parts to create something real

During this phase we will start merging the meta and battle parts to create a full game.

- Introducing the concept of traveling: While going from one city to the other, we need the user to "travel". Traveling is the main driver of action and is very important to get right. I had several different ideas on how to create traveling, I thought about making a map and letting users drive/walk through it, or maybe a grid view but in the end I decided it's better to go old school and show an animated sprite of some kind and a progress bar to visually see how far you are form your destination

- Introduction of questions: Question is a concept that I saw in the game FTL. This concept allows us to introduce a lot of different elements of morality that can affect a player in many different ways. Questions are pretty simple we offer the user a choice and depending on what he chooses we offer an event. Most of the questions will lead to battles but some can reward or penalize users directly

 

Phase 4 - taking it to the next level

- Missions and setting the goals: Now that most of the elements are together, it's time to start building a real game. Games are based on missions and goals. During phase 1 we will have built the supply and demand dynamics, this is extremely important because it will drive missions. To ensure that players always have something to do, we will set daily missions that can be achieve based on supply/demand. Users will be asked to get item x for city y because the demand for the item is higher than the supply. Once the supply is met that mission will be fulfilled. While this seems simple, it will require complex calculations depending on the number of cities and number of raw items and number refined items. A great example of this is the game capitalism, this game had a lot of complex features but in its core it was a game about supply chains. Now i know supply chains aren't sexy but their mechanism is important because it never ends.

- Answering the big question ... Why play the game: Every story needs a protagonist and a villain. Villains are extremely important and there always has to be a main one that the protagonist will try to defeat. It's also important to note that while the goal is to defeat the villain, it doesn't necessarily mean the game is over if the villain is defeated. How many times have Tom and Jerry fought? How many times did Mario beat king Koopa, it doesn't matter he always stole the princess back again and the story repeats. Missions and goals are important to define medium term loops but the end goal has to be clear to the user at all times. The player needs to know he is playing the game to reach one specific goal and when he does reach that goal the rewards have to be proportionate to the effort undertaken.

[Jean-guy Leconte]

So far so good, I have lot's of great information up and I am going to continue to post here almost like a game diary. Might have to create a blog to host this instead. Anyone that has ideas or suggestions please don't hesitate to chime in.

 

Here I go with today's update.

 

Phase 5 - Recap of where we stand and some additional detail

At this stage we have the following things completed and should be working:

Meta game based on trading resources

Collectible card base functionality including, card scoring, card creation, deck creation, battle system

We have merged the Meta and battle system through the usage of travelling

We have added some intrigue and possible long term play by adding questions

We have defined what the user in game through missions and goals

we have brought in a final goal by introducing a villain.

 

Today I will go over some of the details of the previous issues covered. First let's work on the meta game. In the game dopewars, players can buy and sell the following: Cocaine, Heroin, Acid, Weed, Speed, and Ludes. That's 6 different items; each of these has a range of prices. I believe that while 6 items is good for a game like dopewars, it just won't do for a truly engrossing MMO. A great example of depth is EVE online, in EVE I believe that there are over 40 different items that can be traded at different levels of refinement. Players never have to actually trade anything but commerce is at the core of many of the activities in the game. I believe that looking at true commerce we can easily determine the items to trade and their prices

Farms that grow: Cocoa, Coconut, Corn, Cotton, Flax Fiber, Grapes, Lemon, Rubber, Strawberry, Sugar, Tobacco, Wheat

Farms that raise: Chicken, Cows, Pigs, Sheep

Chicken can produce: Eggs, Chicken breasts

Cows can produce: Beef, Milk, Leather

Pigs can produce: Pork meat, Leather

Sheep can produce: Lamb chops, Leather, Wool

Mines that offer: (Al) Aluminum, © Carbon, (Au) Gold, (fe) Iron, (Si) Silica, (Ag) Silver

This now allows us to define the types of items that will create these resources, farms and mines. Now that we have this information we can sprinkle them around to the different cities and create an ecosystem.

 

For the ecosystem here is what i envision. It's always about one thing, supply and demand. For each city we have to determine a base need for each of the different possible items (natural or refined) once this base level is defined, we determine what is being produced. This will let us know which needs are met and how much need to be imported. From there everything will be priced based on the % of demand met. The prices of each item will have min/max ranges so that things don't go crazy but it is possible that as demand rises prices go up. From there missions will be created that will be offered to all players and they will travel around the map moving items from point A to B.

[Jean-guy Leconte]

Phase 6 - Can we really simulate everything ? Oh yes we can !

A true simulation has to be based on assumptions. While we can try to simulate life we are clearly lacking in resources and variables to do a great job at it. What we can simulate though are broad strokes based on clear assumptions and add some variance and randomness to add spice and action! Let's go back to the city and see how we can move from abstraction into greater details. I want to give a huge shout out here to Trevor Chan the creator of Capitalism 2, he truly inspired me. 

 

Let's start first with the city. The city object will include the following high level assumptions. 

 

A city has the following:

 

Citizens - these are the people that live in the city, we will assume that 10% of them are children and can't work and the rest are old enough to work. We won't differentiate between teenagers and adults just to not have to define education. This is something we might look for in the future but for now it's easier to make it simpler. Growth rate in citizens can be positive depending on employment rates, to better stimulate the game this can be affected by events in the game.

 

Employment rate - this is the amount of people in the city that are currently working. To better simulate it's important to include a base level, this base level will include all support jobs that aren't related directly to the firms created by players and non players.  Each city can have different base levels. 

 

Avg Wages level - This can be represented either by an abstract (low, mid, high) or by numbers specifically. Wage levels will affect how much citizens can spend on products in the city. We use averages because again we don't want to simulate each citizen one by one. Avg wages will also affect monthly firm costs.

 

Spending level - Spending level is the amount of money that citizens are spending on goods and services in the city. Spending levels are separated from wages to better simulate buying behavior.

[mentuat]

This really is quite the epic game concept!

[Jean-guy Leconte]

Before I forget, please excuse my spelling mistakes, I write this while working and sometimes I go a bit too fast to make sure I get all of my ideas down.

 

Phase 7 - Now we are getting dirty dirty in details

Before I move on I forgot to define one more constant which is -

Land value per acre: The basic measure will be an acre and the smallest division will be quarter acres. The value of 1 acre will is a composite factor of spending level, employment rate and avg wages. By combining the 3 we can get a nice number that will determine the costs. Farm and mining land will be valued at one tenth the normal price per acre to simulate the fact that most land for farming will be outside cities. 

 

Money is the benchmark that most games use and this one too. But to make money you have to create businesses, in this game we will call them firms. One very important thing to remember is that this is a vertical production game where each firm can produce something that can be sold but it can also be refined, manufactured, or repackaged. The types of firms I propose are the followings:

 

Farms - Farming is the base of many industries and in this game it will be also. Farms can produce two types of products livestock’s or crops. The types of items created by farms I have already defined in phase 5. In this simulation, let's not worry about climates, in terms of crops and consider only how long a crop will take to harvest and the amount of the product that can be generated depending on the farms size. For livestock we will consider the amount of time it takes to reproduce and the amount of livestock that will be generated. Balancing the output of farms is going to be tricky but its part of the challenge. The cost of farms will be the initial cost of the land and the amount of workers needed to cover the item produced. Amount of workers will be determined by the size of the farm.

summary

Farm types: livestock or crops

Farm attributes: size, workers, output

 

Mines - mines are similar to farms in the sense that produce different types of items. I have defined these items in phase 5. Again we won't worry too much about the realities of mining for copper in a city and just simulate it. A mines value will be dependent on the amount of ore that can be retrieved from it and the quality of this ore. As a side note finding where to mine is as important as mining itself. Not all players will have access to this information and to find it they will need to work. Each type of ore will have a different amount that can be mined per day.

summary

Mine types: ore

Mine attributes: size, workers, output, ore quality, ore amount

 

Oil wells - Oil is extremely important to modern life and we can't bypass it. Oil will be one of those super expensive products that players will aspire to produce because with it they can make plastics. The location of Oil wells like mines will be secret and will need to be found by players. An oil wells value will be based on the quality of oil and the reserves. The amount of oil that can be taken from the ground will be dependent on the number of workers.

summary

Oil well: offshore, well

Oil well attributes: size, workers, output, oil quality, oil amount

[Jean-guy Leconte]

Phase 8 - It's raining details (firms part 2)

 

In Phase 7 I focused on firms located outside of the cities, in this update I will focus on the firms inside the cities.

 

I thought about it long and hard and decided that while it might not be a favorite of mine we can also add logging camps as firms. The reason is that wood is important and can be used in many different ways. This will give those players that don't want to farm the option to have something else if they haven't found the location of a mine or well.

 

Logging camps - Logging camps will function in a similar way to mines but they will be available to all players. The amount of wood that can be extracted per day from the camp will depend on the amount of workers on the job. The value of the logging camp will be determined by the quality and amounts of wood available.

logging camp types: wood

logging camp attributes: size, workers, output, wood quality, wood amount.

 

Let's move on to building in the cities

 

Warehouses - Warehouses will be important to ensure that items have somewhere to go. Users will be allowed to create warehouses in case they want to store items and stock up on them. Warehouses will generate orders of specific items that users will want to put in them. Players will be allowed to sell from their warehouses to factories but not directly to the public. The number of items a warehouse can contact will depend on slots. Slots will be given out by size. to simplifying things all warehouse can hold any item. Items located in a warehouse will be available to all of the players factories or retail stores in the city. When users return with items from outside of the city they will decide if they will send them to the warehouse or to the factory itself.

Warehouse attributes: size, slots, workers, item ordered, if selling to others,

 

Factory - Factories will be the engine of the game and will requires lots of capital to get started. Their goal is to take a raw material and turn it into something else. Players will define when creating factories what they want to produce, from there we will determine what they need and if it is available in the current city. Factories will first look to local warehouses to fill their needs. If the items they need aren't located in any of their factories they will need to find it from external sources or buy it on the open market. Purchase orders on the open market will create demand which will spur missions for users to get these items.

 

Important concepts -

As i write these definitions for firms I am skipping ahead a lot to deeper game concepts, to make sure they are understood lets briefly examine them here. I will go into more details later one.

 

First - Players are teamsters. The player’s role is to move items around, really that's pretty much it. They are glorified truckers braving unsafe roads because no one else can.

 

Second - The goal isn't to create the best economic sim, but the goal is to give as much as possible depth to the background events to ensure that players don't feel like they are just battling cards.

 

Third - The open market will be controlled by us. At the beginning a lot of the games activities will need to be controlled by the shadow hand of the open market ruled by the evil mega corporation called [insert evil mega corporation name here]. This will created the perfect villain because it will be a shadow entity that all players will interact with from the start.

 

Next up I will cover - Retail stores, residential buildings, and commercial buildings.

[Jean-guy Leconte]

I spoke to several good friends of mine about this project and to a man they are all excited and know it's going to be awesome but ... they believe that while I am doing good work here, I am not being focused enough on the actual game play vs the overall view of the game. I didn't post yesterday because I had to take a step back and understand the goal I want to achieve. I have reviewed my goals and I am now convinced that once this game is built it will work because its a proven model and I know how to market it.

 

Today let's talk about core gaming concept rather then details. I'm also for the first time adding screenshots of the previous game and some card art.

 

Single player mode - PVE

This mode is very important because I have learned that players do not want to lose ever! To ensure no player can lose we introduce PvE where the player will receive a mission and will go through it for a purpose. PvE will follow a simple story that will be prompted at specific times to move the story along. Players will need to complete specific numbers of missions in cities to earn the ability to move to the next city and from there they will receive new missions from that city. Cards will be limited by different factions to ensure that players will need to rebuild up new cards. Using this method players will earn as much soft currency and the started cards as needed.

 

Multi player Mode - PvP 

PvP will be handle through two modes, arena battles and tournaments. Arena's battles are ladder style battles where players will fight others with similar Arena rankings as them. To enter a tournament player will have to have certain requirements in terms of levels. There will be a cost to enter the tournament. In the arena there will be no rules in terms of decks and the only thing that will matter is winning. Arena battles will last set time periods - weekly/monthly and the top players at the end of the time period will win prizes including cards, currency and items. Arena battles are simple you win you get a level you lose you lose a level. If you win 5 matches in a row you get a bonus level. To ensure continuous participation a certain number of matches will be required before qualifying.

 

Tournaments will be different and shorter. Tournaments will have stricter rules of battles in terms of which cards can be used. Tournaments will use points system TBD. In tournaments player will pay an entry fee  which will be pooled and divided among the winners. Player will need to play a certain number of matches to qualify to win prizes to ensure guys don't win 5-6 games then camp. Another way to remove campers is to reduce points for each minute not playing. Tournaments will last between 30-60-90 minutes.

 

Core Elements 

 

Simplicity

 

The battle system is the most important part of the game and we will make it as simple as possible. During draw phase players will choose between two options and have less then 5 seconds to decide. Once the card is selected everything else is automated and the user will not have any other choices to make. The game will run very fast because of this. Card decks will be limited to 8 cards to ensure that battles are even shorter.

 

Complexity

 

The complexity will come from the different abilities and counter abilities that can be played. This merged with the depth of the meta game where players will boost or evolve cards, buy new packs and create deck variations, set up HQ's in different cities, start off as simple hawlers and move into business for themselves, set up their own factories, create gangs and finally fight gang wars vs other players. All of this depth is what will keep committed users players

 

Card consumption

 

Boosting and Evolving are critical to this game to ensure that all players have the ability to create the cards that they truly want. Here is an example of how I did it in Mafia warfare the same can be done for Modern Gangsters

 

http://screencast.com/t/GyA6aYoLhuu - boost menu

http://screencast.com/t/YXy7nWYMz - max boosted card

http://screencast.com/t/dG38rJDNOZvq - evolution

 

The goal of boosting is to allow us to continue to give weak cards and them meaning something, by sacrificing weak cards to boost others and then merging two version of one card to create a stronger version players will have the ability in there hands to build whatever they want. 

 

Card Packs

 

There’s three ways player gets new cards. As mentioned the initial way is by grinding the PvE Mode and earning one card at a time. The second way is by purchasing card packs and that’s where the monetization seriously kicks in. And the third way is trading with friends players, which is major incentive to get playing friends in the game. At first I was against player trading because of the potential fraud aspects but truly the benefits outweigh those players that might try to farm and dump. 

 

Mechanics involved here are:

Casino style 

- Players purchase packs to get a chance to win Rare or Super Rare cards

- Players can't directly buy the best cards and have to grow them through evolution

 

Collection mechanism

- Even if you get two of the same cards it's still good because you can grow that card into something strong

- If you get cards you might not want you want use it as boosting fuel for others.

 

Doing this enables us to limit the choices in terms of packs which forces players to buy more. Example screen from Mafia Warfare - http://screencast.com/t/d9ci7BNeY

 

Double Energy Mechanics

 

I haven't spoken about this before but energy is going to be very important in this game. The first of which we will call fuel to allow the user to travel through the map, this fuel mechanism is simple to understand. The second is in terms of the other types of battles related to PvP. Limiting the number of battles in the arena will force users to either buy more or risk losing their rankings.

 

Energy mechanics in card games are pretty sweet because they enables fast progress in the beginning and slows the progress down once player is hooked. This is because in the beginning players max energy levels are very low and thus quickly replenished, but as the game progresses players max energy level will grow and so will the time it takes for energy to be replenished. Slowing down progression is the best way to drive monetization.

 

The HQ and user items

 

Deeper into the game players will need to set up their HQ in different cities to receive additional bonuses and items. These items of couse will be at the mercy of enemies who will try to steal them away. Players will need to protect them using defense decks in a PvE style battle. If the enemy player beats your defense deck they will be able to steal away some of your items. This is similar to clash of clans mechanism. Players will of course try to protect their HQ and boost it's defenses up. The HQ defenses will be it's HP value, the most the player spends the more they will get. Also the higher the defense level the more cards will be able to defend the HQ. It's possible to defend with up to 24 cards while the enemy will attack with 8. This lobsided type battle will be a great challenge to player and make actually winning difficult but very enjoyable if they make it. There will be a cost involved in attacking anyone, one or more of your cards might "defect" to the other side. Losing cards is something that no one will ever want and this will ensure that only the truly brave attack the top HQ's

 

Events

 

Limited time events are extremely important to mometization and to keep the game's momentum going. Promotions like this one - http://prntscr.com/50tl9w allowed us to almost have triple profit days while they ran. We created 8 limited edition one time only cards which didn't have anything special apart form the art. These cards became tremendous status symbols and were hot sellers on the trading/aution market.

 

To truly spice things up we added themed missions to accompany events. These events were time based and lasted only a few days. Players were encouraged to complete there missions to get the limited time cards associated. Levels in events are much harder than normal missions and special card packs and energy boosters are a must. Players that couldn't or wouldn't finish missions often simply purchased the cards outright. 

 

Gangs

 

The final piece of the puzzle to create deeper gameplay is social pressure and for this we will have gangs. For those seeking for a deeper meaning and higher rewards gangs are the way to go. Once in gangs player starts working towards a common cause and can interact with other members of the gang. Players' status in a gang is based on how much soft currency they tithe to the gang. By donating soft currency to the gang players also increase the size of the gang. By being a member of gang players receive various bonuses (special cards that can't be purchase otherwise, access to goods and maps for finding special items) and gets to battle it out in Gang wars.

 

Game background

 

Loading screen

Card Info Screen

[Jean-guy Leconte]

Today I wanted to go into more details regarding the battle system.

 

When I started looking at designing a CCG one of the first things I wanted to do was to shorten battle while keeping them tactical and fun. We decided to go with a system where players were asked to make only one decision and this decision had only two choice. On top of that we added a timer to create some stress and add pressure. 

 

To get an idea of the game play we came up with, here is a typical battle as recorded by one of our players - 

 

What's important to notice here is that the players actions are simple, and the gameplay if fluid. As the player rises in levels and gains more cards, new abilities present themselves that complicate the game.

 

The battle system is set up in the following way

 

Player 1 - Draw Phase - player selects a card

Player 1 - Pre battle Phase - Time is moved and abilities are calculated as needed

Player 1 - Battle phase - Player 1's cards attack and their battle phase abilities are activated

Player 1 - After battle phase - If abilities lasted only during battle phase they are removed

Player 1 - End turn - Control is passed to Player 2 which starts in Draw phase

 

Each turn is sequential and there is a slight advantage to the player that goes first, we decided to add a "rock paper scissors" mechanism before PvP battles to make things more fair and players accepted it. 

 

The player that kills all of the opponents cards or reduces his total morale score to 0 wins.

 

With mafia warfare we served several millions battles and through this amount we learned that it works pretty well.