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This is a series on how to make a game. At the end of this series, you will have a working, playable game. This has been play tested with the PsyX Games team, family, and friends. We look forward to sharing this work and hope you enjoy it. The mechanics of a game is extremely important as it drivers the game towards its conclusion. In luck-based games, the mechanic is usually dice, cards or a spinner. Strategy games usually have pieces that are placed and or moved on a playing area, but can also incorporate luck mechanics for the results of conflict between players, pieces or movement. Does the game have some type of payment system? Many strategy games allow players to improve their position in the game by planning ahead and reaching goals by spending game points or funny money. Creating unique mechanics often defines the game. The game with a tube and sticks that hold up marbles was aptly named Ker-Plunk which fitted images of the sound it made during play. The game with magnetic rocks on a playing field was fittingly dubbed MagnetX. Once you have some idea of the game type and mechanics, at least at a broad level such as strategy or luck, it's time to figure out the game itself. My son and I enjoy playing games, mostly strategy and action games. So for this game, it will involve territory and combat involving ships in space with the mechanics for combat being dice and cards for ship modification and variation for game play. The goal of this game is going to be to eliminate the other players, by capturing their planets and destroying their ships. First to consider is the playing area or board. A pegboard could be used, however, from a hobby shop I have a table sized hex mat; this can represent space where the ships and planets will sit. For planets I’ll print circles the same size as one hex with the planet name inside, these will be used on the hex mat so that players can see where the planets are. For ships, at first, I thought about designing four different space ship sets, but on consideration of moving and handling them I’ve decided that chits that stack would be better. I could buy some, or use Checker pieces, but instead will use pennies, because they stack well, are plentiful and easy to handle. To settle conflicts we are going to use dice because I have plenty of them and it will save time instead of making a spinner or figuring out a different mechanic for combat. Besides ease, dice rolling can be exciting for players. In summary, the components of the game will be a hex mat, pennies, and dice with other parts that I will print on card stock using my PC. Originally, this game was to emphasize ships but after thinking about the game play, decided to move the emphasis on to the planets and territory. I've picked thirty Planet Markers, as previously described, that go on the mat (The Galaxy). I will make a card for each planet that a player will take when he is in control of that planet, a Planet Card (a blank card with the name of the planet on top). Now I have to decide what makes them important in the game? The most obvious conclusion is resources. Each player will need to conquer planets to harvest those resources which in turn will allow the player to make ships, which can be used in offense and defense against other players. Will all the planets be the same? No, I think that’s boring. So I will make them all different. But how, what defines a planet? To keep it simple I will go with two attributes, Size and Type. Size will represent how many Factories the planet can support. Type will determine how productive those buildings will be. Each player will begin with the same Size and Type planet, so I’ll make four Planet Origin Cards. I’ve decided planets will vary in size from 1 to 7 and in type from 1 to 9. So I’ll need to make seven sheets with nine cards each, which will yield me a total of 63 different Planet Info Cards. The Planet Origin Cards should not be the best planet, but I want them to be pretty good. So I’ve decided on each player starting with a Size 6, Type 5 planet. This means that if a player has six Factories on his planet it will pay 30 credits at the beginning of his turn. When a player gets a new planet he will draw a Planet Info Card and that will determine what attributes that new planet has and be placed on top of the Planet Card allowing the name of the planet to show. If another player takes over this planet the Planet Card and Planet Info Card will be moved in front of him, depicting his control of the planet. In addition to I’ll make colored flags so that each player can see on the map which planets are controlled by each player. Stay tuned for the next installment of the series! Al Wenzl PsyX Games
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