Glyph Developer Journal: 12/5 [Retrospect] - Ults & Buying Items
Today marks the first official post about Glyph changes as I design and test the game (as well as a few ideas that could be incorporated into the game at some point). These first few posts will be retrospects, as all my notes have accumulated on a large .doc file (or scraps of paper in the middle of playtests) over the months. I decided it would be fun to make some of these notes public, so fans of the game could see how it progressed. Luckily, I had the foresight to date my notes, so the chronology is [mostly] accurate.
Today's post is fitting because it is the first time I used the word "glyph" to reference the dice icons as well as suggest I incorporate glyph into the name. While the concept of the game had been bouncing around my head since early last summer (2015), it wasn't until August that I realized this idea for a hero-based combat game kept creeping up--each time a new mechanic or feature wanting to take shape.
The next few months (Aug-Dec) consisted of melding the various flashes of ideas into a cohesive game concept. It was on this date, December 12th, that the flood gates seemed to open and pieces started fitting together.
A few notable changes/breakthroughs:
- Champions having one "ultimate" ability that is very powerful, but is the most complex combo to activate. While most other ability is possible to combo through starting dice, these ultimates require more dice than what players start with. The idea behind this is to require the Champion to advance in the game for a few rounds before these powerful combos come into play.
- Energy can [also] be spent to recruit active dice. 2 dice per energy spent.
- Wealth icons are used to draw cards. One card drawn per [Wealth Glyph], drawn as free action at end of Champion activation.
- Card purchasing fleshed out. Purchasing cards will require consuming various dice [most often gold dice]. Consumed dice are removed from the Champion's pool. This will require a mechanic to make earning dice somewhat easy, to prevent stalling in game. (Retrospect Note: One of my favorite mechanics of the game is strategic use of a Champion's dice. Do you hoard your dice for combos, or sacrifice them for a more powerful item?)
- The five glyphs/icons are organized: sword [War], shield [Defense], lightning bolt [Power], coin [Wealth], spiral [Arcane].
