Week 2: Refining the Rules

Our mock-up tiles in all their glory.

Through play-testing our game, we'd come up with a set of basic rules that would give us a template to work with. These rules were made after we found that some games were over too quickly, while one game lasted for as long as 90 minutes! We decided that each player would start with 2 random tiles in their hand, which would be kept face down. When a player had their turn, they would roll and place a tile when they reached the edge of the tile they currently stood on. Each tile contained 9 squares and varied with the paths they had drawn onto them. As for the Cards, we figured that rather than the traditional method of picking a card up when a certain space is landed on, we figured we'd sacrifice two of the movement numbers on the dice for card numbers. We first tried a 5 and 6, but found that the game moved at a much better pace when it was 1 or 6. The cards consisted of "Rotate a Tile", "Back to Start", "Miss a Turn", "Exchange Tiles", "Go to Landmark" and "Switch Places". After our long play-test, we came to the conclusion that the "Miss a Turn" and "Back to Start" cards made the game drag on much longer than needed, and gave some players a very small chance of making a comeback. As previously mentioned, the "Go to Landmark" cards involved moving to a special tile on the board, if it was placed down already. There were 4 Landmarks, a Fox, a Shrine, a Fallen Warrior and a Boar. We juggled the idea of either being able to hold onto a certain amount of Cards, just like the tiles, or having to use them straight away. We found, for the flow of the game and added excitement, that all players must use a Card as soon as they draw it from the deck. This was a good way to play as it made getting a Card a worrying factor, since the outcome could be good or bad.

After getting some basic rules down, we decided to add another key element (literally) into the game. We thought that rather than have every player rushing to the middle, we'd make it so that in order to gain access to the Victory space, a Key must be collected from a space on the board and taken successfully to the middle of the board. 

BATTLE!!

This idea also brought forth the concept of battling, in which players who met on the same space would have to do battle in order to stay in the spot they were on and/or to keep hold of the Key (if applicable). Battles begun by one player passing through another's occupied spot. The player that was already on the space in question would be defending against the player that had landed on their space. If the attacker won the battle, the defender was sent back to their home space. If the defender was successful, the attacker was knocked back to the space next to the occupied one. The winner of these battles would be determined by a roll of the dice, with the highest number being the winner.


To add a little extra spice on top of that, we added an ability system for the characters;

• The Thief has the ability to pass by an enemy unnoticed using his/her illusive skills, avoiding all combat and stealing the Key (if applicable).

• The Archer has the capability to attack one square away from the opponent using their trusty bow and arrow.

• The Mage is a spell caster, and has ability to use magic to power up his/her strikes. It grants them a +1 bonus to all their attacks.

• The Knight has a broad shield/armour and has seen many battles. Honing his/her survival instincts, he/she can read their opponent's every move. This character has a +1 bonus in defence.

These were the final abilities we gave to the characters, after testing a few others which seemed too over-powering and some which didn't seem to do anything at all.


We began play-testing the game with these refined rules in place, and found that it was a much better experience. We did, however, change the Key from being collected on a pre-determined tile to the player with the highest starting roll claimed the Key and moved first. We also made the Victory tile rotatable, so that the journey to the middle wouldn't be so easy for the Key holder.


During this process, we came up with several ideas for a name for our game. These included Pathfinder,  Key Chase, Path to Victory and Key to Victory. We eventually settled with the last one, as it said in brief exactly what our game was about. Now, to get everything set in stone!