What I had originally planned to be a two player game quickly turned into a 4 player game because no one wanted to sit there and watch two people play so right away the stakes were raised and I was thrown out of my comfort zone for my game. Immediately after getting multiple turns into the game the entire group we had formed came to the immediate conclusion that there wasn't enough player interaction as people moved around the board since there were currently no mechanics for directly interacting with other players.
But to backstep a bit the game itself is based off of cars street racing across the board to the finish line and along the way, players (drivers) can run into multiple types of positive and negative aspects of street racing that can either help or hurt their chance respectively of crossing the finish line first. Things like snow, rain, cops, traffic, and road construction are some of the different kinds of obstacles that players can run into. Additionally, there are squares on the board for free road and drafting, both which help the player advance extra spaces across the board for free. Each of these "events" are scattered throughout the board in a manner which is as random as possible. The initial board size was 32 squares.
One die is rolled in order to determine how far each player moves during their turn and is also used when deciding chance events. Chance events are basically events that require a bit of luck in order to make it through the square without any negative side effects. But they also can be positive as well, depending on the roll. They add a deeper dimension to the game by allowing players to benefit or gain from them on a pure random chance which helps to keep the game fair, simple, and fun. Currently the two chance events are spike strips and the cops. The spike strips require a low roll in order to dodge the spike strips and the cops require a high roll in order to out run them. Makes sense and is easily explainable. They also add a bit of fun to the game as I've noticed. The initial values for spike strips were: roll 1-4, +0 to your next roll. roll 5-6, -2 to your next roll. The logic behind this being that if you're going too fast, you can't dodge the spike strips in time and you hit them, slowing you down. Cops are the opposite mechanic where if you roll 1-3, you get -2 to your next roll as the cops caught you for going too slow. If you roll 4-6, you get +2 to your next roll because the cops inspired you to drive faster in order to get away and it paid off! Both are gambling events essentially.
For now I'll list all the INITIAL squares and their values:
Free road: move one square ahead
Drafting: move two squares ahead
Construction: -3 next roll
Snow: -2 next roll
Rain: -1 next roll
Cops: 1-3, -2 : 4-6, +2 next roll
Spike Strips: 1-4, -0 : 5-6, -2 next roll
Traffic: -2 next roll
Each of these different scenarios are scattered across the game board in a random (and yet hopefully balanced) manner. Players share the same lane which keeps the odds of hitting positive or negative squares the same for both players. Originally I had planned to do a dual lane game where players can switch between lanes and the two lanes are unique but couldn't figure out how to make the mechanic itself of multiple lanes significant enough in order to justify the extra work it would've required so for now there's only one lane and one set of obstacles or bonuses in the way of the racers and the finish line.
That's the basis of the game so now let's get back to the game and prototyping analysis:
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Prototyping Round 1 in class: While racing around the board with random chance due to dice rolls was indeed fun for a bit, the lack of player interaction really hindered the long-term playability of the game. After meeting and strategizing for 30 minutes or so the group came up with a new mechanic where if two players land on the same square, then they can challenge each other to a drag race where the winner will move ahead and the loser will fall behind.
This made the game way more fun and players were constantly challenging each other to drag races in order to get ahead but this new mechanic was moving people across the board at a greater rate than I had initially planned which lead to the need to expand the board. Unfortunately, it being a simple paper prototype, was not easily expandable to have a bigger board so we came to the conclusion to race around the board twice! Bingo! And that's it. In just over an hour we had significantly redesigned a two player all-chance game of moving across a board to incorporate: risk taking, 4 players, and a longer game. The total number of squares moved across was now 64. The next prototype will have an expanded board to fit all 64 squares.
I learned a significant amount during the initial paper prototyping session and the biggest lesson was that you never really know what's going to happen when you throw your game at a group of people, even one as simple enough to fit onto a piece of standard paper.
Borrowed monopoly pieces and the beginnings of the +/- tracking board and drag race mechanic
Anonymous testers doing all the hard work for me and helping me revise the drag race mechanic!
Anonymous testers vehemently agreeing on how good my game is
I won the first round. Clearly balanced game right?
The dice-rolling app I selected from Google Play which supports rolling from 1-6 and 1-3
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Prototyping Round 1.5 at home:
After playing for a while I realized I wanted two solid player-to-player interactions built into the game: one when two people pass each other on the game board and one when two or more people end up on the same square as these are the only two ways I could fit driving mechanics into a board-style game.
I will work more on coming up with a new "passing" mechanic and introduce it at the next play session in class;
Prototyping round 2: current play progress
Prototyping round 2: showing +/- overall player tracker and current chance events balance
Prototyping round 2: the left side of the board
Prototyping round 2: the right side of the board showing also the symbol table
Prototyping round 2: the evolution of the drag race and passing maneuvers balancing rules spread across 3 sticky notes
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Paper Prototyping Round 2 in class:
FOLLOW UP: As required by the teacher of the class I must do another paper prototyping session and I'm glad because there are a couple things I need to address: I don't like the exact mechanics in terms of +/- for some of the chance events, as well as the mechanics behind drag racing. I really do like the idea of direct player to player interaction but it needs more polish. This is obvious to me because something that's supposed to be a gamble (which drag racing is supposed to be) shouldn't be taken at every opportunity by the player, as it's a gamble. If it's being taken at every possible opportunity then it's not enough of a gamble. Which lead me to paper prototyping round 2:
New Mechanics:
Side roads: +3 to next roll
Bigger board: Prevents people from being "lapped"
Passing: should give MUCH more player interaction
Revised old mechanics:
Free road: +1 to next roll
Drafting: +2 to next roll
Construction: -3 next roll
Snow: -2 next roll
Rain: -1 next roll
Cops: 1-3, -2 : 4-6, +2 next roll
Spike Strips: 1-3, -0 : 4-6, -2 next roll
Traffic: -2 next roll
So now, the first new mechanic: Passing! When passing another player, the passing player may elect to roll the dice from 1-6 if the player being passed agrees. Then the player being passed rolls the dice from 1-6 as well. The winner gets +2 to their next roll for successfully drafting the other player while racing. The loser gets -2 to their next roll.
Last new mechanic: Side streets! Landing on a square with the side streets icon will grant +3 to the player's next roll.
Revised mechanic: Drag race! When two players land on the same square, a drag race may be initiated. Both players must agree to the drag race. Both players will roll the dice from 1-6 and the loser gets -3 to their next roll and the winner gets +3 to their next roll.
Revised mechanic: Free road and drafting now give +1 and +2 to the next roll respectively instead of moving the player ahead a set number of spaces immediately. This makes it easier to balance the board so people aren't "pushed" onto bad squares from good squares and also makes them more in line, mechanic wise, with the new side streets mechanic.
I wanted to emphasize that under no circumstances does someone lose their turn to play. That's just not fun. And even if -3 to your roll there's still a 50% that you move down the board at least one square which is good because you're at least making progress.
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Wrap up: The game is coming along great! The 3 paper prototyping sessions were a ton of fun and it was cool to try and think of new mechanics for the players to enjoy. The passing and drag racing went really well and I feel the game now sticks to a core set of mechanics which are pretty balanced. All-in-all I think it's starting to shape into a fun chance game with a lot of emphasis on dice rolling.
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