Ascension: Masters of Sorcery Physical Board Game

This is the final copy of the Ascension: Masters of Sorcery game! Now in retail physical form!

Print'n'Play Development: Finalization For Digital Rendition

This is the game's box illustration, and from here I'll place up the .pdf to the game itself.

                                                             Download the .pdf Here!

So far, this is the game's final stand in the digital rendition, towards which I am now tasked towards making a physical store shelf copy due soon!

Print and Play Development: Box Illustration, Phase 1

Upon developing thumbnails for the initial box and getting feedback on which would be strong images for the box cover, and from there I developed some color and lighting outlines real quick. Here are five of what all I've developed:

After developing some color theory to it as well, I was later on able to deduce that the light source will be the cube. Colors have yet to be finalized, same with design, however the character pose seems strong enough to entitles a sense of power, directing the viewer to be lower than the wizard, giving the character the ideal of being powerful.

Print and Play Development: Feedback and Adjustments

After a large amount of play testing and time, the game was considered to have a lot of flaws. The mechanics were fine, but since the game was solely reliant on roughly 90% chance, it didn't feel like much was being accomplished. So upon this, I decided to rework the whole game.

All items in the previous game were recycled and reworked, in which case now this newer rendition only has 1 game mode, can still be 2-4 players, and is more focused on using the cube to stay in the game, where players are each focused on overcoming the enemy by defeating them.

The game name also had a change after the overhaul, now dubbed, "Ascension: Mastermind of Sorcery." I felt like this fit the theme far better and was easier to present, in which case also conformed to the new game idea. By re-using the properties from the last game, Calamity Cube, I was able to develop a game more built on resource gathering and using those resources to attack other players, all the while retaining a sense of randomness, yet not overpowering.

Game Development: Rules and Regulations

Calamity Cube, Ver 1.0

“To Adapt Is To Overcome.”

A game by Steven Russell

20-30 minutes, 2-4 players

Battle Goal: Gain the most victory points to win by the end of several rounds!

Coop Goal: Defeat Chaos in his own game, while surviving his treacherous powers!

Battle Story: Several mages of varying factions have come to this chamber of old to acquire power beyond anything anyone has ever seen – the Calamity Cube.

Coop Story: Having witnessed the rebirth of the Calamity Cube and its eldritch creator, Chaos, an order of paladins sends several of their finest to confront and seal away the malicious power.

A card game where players are to manipulate the Calamity Cube to their whims, in an effort to conquer and achieve victory.

Players will have to use the cards they are given to shift the Calamity Cube towards a satisfying direction to get the most out of each round, whether it’s to deal damage to Chaos, or to gain effects to crush others in the next round!

Game Components

Board or map illustration

Card illustration with callouts

Illustration of other pieces

Printing Instructions

Setting up the game

Players are to sit in a circle/square formation with the cube in the middle. Each player must be facing a face on the Cube. A shuffled stack of cards is then placed to the side of the Cube.

Players determine who goes first by rolling a dice. From there, the player with the highest number goes first.

Turn Order

First Phase

Second Phase

Third Phase

End of turn

Check for victory

First Phase

A player will roll a dice, in which case chooses one out of six cards to use for the Cube’s face effects for that round. The round is then started from there.

The cards each have different properties for each face of the Cube, which will be used for the round as the different color face attributes. Negative effects, positive effects, and victory points will be strewn across these varying colors, always changing each round.

Example

Second Phase

The player’s turn begins now. The player will roll a dice, and from there must pick up the amount of cards from the stack of shuffled cards that corresponds to the number rolled. Now the player must remove cards from their current hand to take in the new cards and keep a max hand of 6.

The player’s turn begins by rolling a dice and picking up the amount of cards they roll for. They must integrate these into their current hand, replacing existing ones to keep a hand max of 6 at all times, moving the discarded cards to the bottom of the shuffled stack of cards.

Example

Third Phase

Now the player must play a movement card if they have one, or skip their turn entirely.

Movement cards are cards with directions on them that rotate the Cube in the direction depicted. They can only play a max of one. Skipping the turn allows the player to move onto the next player instantly, and make no moves from there until it’s their turn again.

Example

End of turn

Battle Options: Players can play an event card on an opposing player at the end of their turn by choice, but cannot play another event card until after their next turn.

Coop Options: Players can play an event card to thwart Chaos’ movement of the Cube at the end of their turn by choice, but cannot play another event card until after their next turn.

At the end of each player’s turn, the player to the left goes next.

Check for Victory

Battle Conditions: The player with the most victory points wins the game at the end of all 4 rounds (1 round = 4 turns per player).

Coop Conditions: Upon dealing five negative effects to Chaos, the players win.

Glossary

The Calamity Cube / The Cube : The relic forged by an otherworldly being, said to contain dark powers that expand far beyond anything humans have ever seen.

Chaos :

        The creator of the Calamity Cube, and the composer of madness.

Movement Cards :

        These cards rotate the cube in a certain direction, whether it’s to rotate it once up, down, left, or right.

Event Cards :

        These trigger events, or ghosts from the Calamity Cube. Some ghostly images can help or hinder the player, based on what the effects the card displays.

Strategy tips and design notes

Since the cards are constantly changing, it’s best to plan ahead and put yourself in a position where there’s a good chance that if the cube gets moved, you’ll most likely end on a positive effect. Sometimes skipping your turn is    good! Maybe you need a better hand, you’re waiting for that one event card to show up, or perhaps you’re spectating, quietly calculating to make that one move. Be careful when trying to save cards for certain situations! If you’re not careful, you may roll a high number and have to discard it!

Print and Play Development: Theme and Concept Statement

With every game, there's a theme. Not to be confused with genres, games themes aren't simply called things like racing, turn-based, or anything like that. Those are game genres. Themes include things like Fantasy, Magical, Tribal, Mechanical, Futuristic, and other adjectives for the era or location the game draws ideas and ideology from. After some time, I decided on a theme to take and carry my game, as well as a strong statement to place on the front of the box to make the viewer think and grow interested:

"To adapt is to overcome."

I'm basing the theme of the game on a sort of a Magic and Fantasy theme. This theme can be found in other portrayals such as Lord of the Rings and their broadened use of fantasy. The creature variations of wraiths, orcs, golems, dragons, and the like are very useful and inspirational for this project in terms of reference. The time frame it takes place in also somewhat fits the era I wish for this theme of my game to take place in. Their Ghost Army was what drew me to create a sort of function in the Cube where spirits would be drawn out of it, or go into it.

Another great source of inspiration was the use of the Castlevania series, mainly using monsters from folklore around the world, followed by mythical and fantasy means. All of it revolves around the use of a greater magic that's sweeping the land that of which the series is based upon. Creatures such as Dullahan, Mandragoras, Manticores, and other kinds of creatures exist in this series, which I drew a lot of inspiration from with the creature design.

Finally, I'd like to bring up the Final Fantasy series, that of which is literally a world devoted to a fantasy and magic landscape with the creatures that inhabit it. Everything from the world about it to the characters is all involved in a sense of something out of reality, where technology and magic mix, and monsters can even be a mix between the two as well. Things such as mechanized weapons that come to life, or mana-runned machines that are also half-creatures exist, and my game's main inspiration draw from this was the abstract use of elements (such as the Calamity Cube itself) and the main antagonist, Chaos.

 A good way to sum up all of this is with the line,

"To overcome a destructive god, or to become all-powerful?"

My reasoning for this was because my game has two different ways to play:

• An all out free-for-all player fight where each player is a magician seeking unlimited power from the cube.

• A cooperative game where the players are tasked with sealing the cube away because the creator, Chaos, is to use it to destroy the world.

I'm starting to illustrate some cards for the game, in which the cube creates creatures or events that can be played by players to affect the game. The cube (dubbed for the time, "Calamity Cube") is built from space and time by Chaos himself, allowing players to play cards which illustrate events or ghosts of creatures from the past, present, and future, thus summing up the Fantasy and Magic themes. The time era I'm trying to imagine is near the Medieval Age, but not more than several years perhaps near the Crusades.

Since my game revolves around the use of a six-sided cube with colors on each face, the color palette may seem slightly large due to this small detail. The final color that's a sort of light, ghostly blue is going to be a primary color of the cards.

As the cube generates ghosts of events or creatures, the majority of their illustrations will be done in that color to add to the illusion they're meant to represent.

Cube Rendition (Still In Development)

(Card Illustrations On the Way!)

Print and Play Development: A Second Alternative?

I was considering my theme for the "Calamity Cube" (formerly known as "Chaos Cube" in my last post) towards which I came up with an interesting idea after developing the theme:

What if my game had a SECOND PLAYABLE MODE?

That's right! Not only can players duke it out in a free-for-all competition for power from the great Calamity Cube, but now they can band together in a cooperative function to battle the Cube's power and its creator: Chaos.

Players will still have the ability to move the cube, to create effects, and the like from their cards, but Chaos is now a fifth player. Every end turn for each player, Chaos will shift the cube in a predetermined direction announced at the start of the round. The idea is to get Chaos to get a negative effect in order to damage him. He can only maintain up to five hits, or five rounds fastest to win. Players are only given up to two negative effects before being killed ingame. There's several catches, however:

• Chaos is the top face of the Cube at all times.
• Chaos can only move the cube in one direction once per turn, yet as he gets more and more damaged, he'll attempt to move the cube more than once in multiple directions per turn.
• Example: Starting game Chaos will shift the Cube once to the right at the end of each player's turn. After taking four hits, Chaos will move the Cube four times in any direction at the end of each player's turn.
• The way the direction is determined is by set of cards displaying which level of hits Chaos is on, displaying resistances, movement directions, and the sort.
• For each player dead or not playing, there's a negative effect where they'd be.
• This makes the game go faster, and also more challenging with the more negative effects on the Cube.

This game type can still be played with 2-4 players, as well! I considered it to be something worth bringing up, as it'd add another edge to this game idea.

Print and Play Development: Brainstorming

As I continued to try other games and contemplate some ideas for a new one, I decided to challenge myself with a few questions based on gimmicks. Out of all of them, some proved most interesting, and I'd like to delve deeper into them to make a fun and thrilling game. Here's what all I've collected:

-Dragon Duel Trading Card Game
-Clockwork Shooter Game
-Spaceship Racing Game
-Dungeon Speed Run Game
-Dueling Sports Players
-Chaotic Card Game (Chaos Cube)

• What if my game was based on cards? 
• Can they affect another object in the game?
• A box where depending on where it faces, will give a player a victory point?
• Max hand size?
• Cards only obtainable through dice rolls?
• What if my game was based on players having to make strategic plays as random events occur by method of prediction?
• Dice rolls obtain cards, but the player has to discard some of the options to fit their max hand size.
• What if my game was several rounds?
• Each round governed by several turns being the "time limit?"
• What if my game had gimmicks based on certain actions being made each round?
• Each new round the box's properties change?
• Each face gives or takes away something a player has?
• Certain faces can make players have a smaller or larger hand that round?
• Certain faces can take away victory points or give them?
• Certain faces can give long or short term effects?
• What if my game could involve a dice schematic where it could change a property in the game to add chance?
• The box's aspects could change each round based on which series is rolled each round?
• Each round a series of face aspects on the box that are allocated to a card, where there are multiple cards with different allocations.
• Roll the dice to decide which card of allocations is used that round.
• What if my game was only winnable after a certain amount of something was achieved?
• Victory points?
• What if my game had an overall theme?
• What if my game could force players into situations they'd have to climb out of or take advantage of?
• Box properties?
• Negative aspects?
• Smaller hand size?
• Loss of a turn every other turn?
• Stuck with a certain property to shift the box?
• Can only use cards that have non-box-movement-related properties?
• What if my game was playable from 2-4 players?
• What if my game could allow players to strategize several steps in advance?
• Allow players to see each other's cards at all times?
• What if my game was built on mystery of players and their hands?
• No vision of players' cards?

So there's a bit of a rundown of what all I've considered for a game I have in mind. I did a quick run-through with a friend as the test subject, and the rules make perfect sense after a timed 5 and a half minute description. I then posed several situations in a 2-player rendition of the game after drawing up some quick cards and pulling a dice, in which we both were able to quickly go through three theoretical rounds. Research shows I still need to add more functions for the box faces to even out the negative and positive properties. Need to compile a rulebook.

It's name is still in development, as well as its overall theme, but I feel that progression has been made, and will soon yield fantastic results!

Deconstructing A Print and Play Game: Rock, Paper, Scissors

The game of choice for the next step in developing a Print and Play game was to deconstruct a current one, that of which can be learned and played in thirty minutes. The game of choice was one called Rock, Paper, Scissors, a 2D, discrete game, but don't let the name fool you!

Players play the game in which up to 3 can plarticipate, where each player has 15 hexagon tiles that are double-sided, in which each face will say if it's rock, paper, or scissors. The goal of this game is to attain victory by capturing an opponent's pieces - 3 of 2 kinds more specifically - by outplaying the opponent in strategic measures. To capture an opponent's piece, the player has to surround an opponent's piece with 6 of the opposing type (for instance: one scissors surrounded by 6 rocks). The interesting part is that the player can put him/herself in a bad situation, because their own tiles count as ticks towards capturing the piece, and to add to it, opponent pieces count as two ticks instead of one on the piece they're attacking.

Here, the blue paper can be taken due to it being affected by 2 blue scissors, which is 2 ticks combined, and 2 red scissors, which is 4 ticks combined, amounting to 6 ticks, and the capture of the paper piece for the red player. Even with this example, the player on each turn is given one option out of three: to flip an existing piece they own, to put a new piece on the board, or to shift one of the existing pieces on the board to a new nearby location one space over. The space the game takes place in is infinite. The pieces can extend as far as they want, and are always available to go in any direction the players want to build in.

More specifically, each hexagon piece can be classified as an object, in which case they can be flipped, moved one pace over, or taken off the board. The pieces come in red, blue, and green to show differences in teams, and on each piece is a sign. Rock beats scissors, paper beats rock, and scissors beat paper. Flipping the piece changes its sign, moving the piece over requires it to transform to a different location exactly one space over with a requirement of two adjacent openings on it, and being taken off the board is the piece being captured by the opponent. Since the player is going for capturing opponent pieces in the long run, the player must decide if moving, flipping, or adding new pieces to the board is necessary to play safely while attacking his/her opponents.

Players learn as they play to strategize their plays, considering options of losing or gaining pieces, changing moves and motives, and the manipulation of the environment to fit their needs, contrary to the opponents'. The player is always given the option to add, flip, or move a piece, and by carefully thinking and moving the pieces, they can achieve a goal against their opponents by outwitting them or playing while thinking in advance.

Interestingly enough, the game has a small play of chance involved. When you start the game, your pieces are in a stack, shuffled. As your turn comes around, you play the top hexagon piece in your stack, with the side that was given to you from the start. This really makes you consider your placement, and makes you strategize for plays in the future, as well as can give or take away power from you and your opponent by putting certain pieces on the field to block them, sneak in a card with a good flip option, or bait your opponent into taking for a better outcome.

Overall, the game was surprisingly more in-depth despite the name of it, and it was far more complex than what was anticipated. It kept a good level of fun, speed, and wasn't a rough learning curve at all to overcome. Definitely noteworthy points to keep in mind for this project.

Print'N'Play - Play Testing!

       This year, the class is taking a turn where we're building up to make a print and play game. First off however, is to play test existing games to get a better idea of how to develop a game that is simple to learn, put together, and has a skill cap to learn. One of our main choices to try out was one called Space Junkyard, a game built on the use of proper planning of resources, strategic placement of pieces, and a small bit of luck based on the fact you don't know what pieces are where.

      The game lasted roughly 30 minutes to an hour tops with four players, including the time it took to learn the rules of the game and apply them. The game was interesting enough to keep all of us in it, have a margin of fun and competition, as well as kept a fun compelling look in its art.

    Others games we've tried were games like Micropul, a game built solely on strategic methods of moving things and work around each player to accomplish personal goals, as well as using the others to make moves. Most games either had qualities of either Micropul or Space Junkyard, mainly having a simple learning curve, a skill ceiling to achieve, and a sense of a fun atmosphere to keep players interested. I feel like I have a few ideas in mind for my print and play thanks to this time of play testing.

Freshman Year Retrospect (Some NFSW)

For those uninformed, this year (2013-2014) is my sophomore year. Much has happened in the last year, in which I've taken the initiative to create and save most of my work. Things such as drawing, sculpting, and animations have been developed last year, and I'm hoping to share them on this blog for the time being as a reflective analysis on what I covered last year.


Traditional Animation

TA was a class where we were able to develop multiple frames to make short motion pictures such as walk cycles, bouncing balls, and flour sack movements. This project was a simple characterized walk cycle for a creature or person we had to come up with our selves in a short time, followed by the practice of movement of the arms, legs, and body to display the character's personality and frame.

3D For Game Art

This class was based around our use of concept design and our ability to make those ideas into actual sculptures and be able to create backstories, detail textures, and show material use to develop the characters and landscapes we were assigned. This project is the Grunt Project, to which we were tasked with coming up with a background story, why the grunt is attacking, and what sort of landscape it would be found in. We were also given the work of creating an environment using real-life resources and sculpting/building a diorama.

Figure Drawing

Figure was a class revolving around the study of the human body in an effort to replicate it in terms of form and value. The weight shift, lightness to darkness, and overall sense of balance and action was a key feature in this class, consisting of the use of gesture drawings, renders, and the like. Here's a few examples.

This all is what I've accomplished in my Freshman year. I feel like much has been accomplished within the time I've had last year, and I hope to continue onward with future improvements.

Trailer of Choice

Castlevania has been an ongoing series for more than 25 years now by Konami, and with each game they've developed, they push the envelope just a tad further each time. Whether it's newer gameplay elements, environment expansions, character and animation depth, or even their music and voice acting. The spinoff series, Lords of Shadow, has been a more recent subject in the Castlevania series, and the new upcoming game, Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2, has definitely lived up to the ongoing expectations of Castlevania constantly going on with each game.

The trailer I present is most likely one of my favorite all-time trailers, mainly because of multiple reasons. The trailer shows the scopes of areas, the gigantic landscapes, details in the environments, the animations and effects, as well as the newer difference in sound quality in voice acting as well as ingame music and sound effects as well. I'm also quite interested in how they threw in narrative points without breaking the display of action, footage of gameplay, and the overall expansive and portrayed variety of environments. I must say, I'm overall very interested in this trailer, because it also sells the game itself, displaying the extent of what all the game is capable of in terms of visuals, gameplay, and story.