Last week there were two elements of the new map system that made it seem a bit off. One, selecting a branch to move to diluted the dice power a bit since players could manipulate where they land to be a positive space. Two, gates fully interrupted movement meaning high dice rolls were frequently cut off- reducing dice power and kind of making game flow feel weird.

There was no clean solution to the first problem. Awkward things like having the game roll the dice behind the scenes, querying the user for a branch without telling them exactly how much they rolled were possible, but seemed wrong. Gates had a simpler solution: store how much a player rolled and resume their movement after combat.

The second problem’s solution was implemented and suddenly the game felt about right. Decided the first problem wasn’t worth worrying about anymore, if anything it’s beneficial in that it adds more choice layers to branch selection (ie you might deliberately walk on a negative space just to avoid another player with dangerous abilities).

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At this point it can be said that we now have a definitive prototype version of the game. From here it’s a matter of fleshing out the core gameplay (not actually that much more needed), design and build the actual content/progression of the game (a harrowing proposition of finally having to settle on what the game’s world feel is), and finally polishing the presentation/interface.

It should be relieving, but instead a new tension is starting to arise. Now that we actually know what the game looks like, I have to worry about whether it’s enough. Is this going to have enough content / be replayable enough for people to feel the game is a good value? Are there enough people to build a community around this game to make the multiplayer element actually work? Who does this even appeal to? Can we effectively convey that scenarios are meant to be replayed to see the variations, and aren’t just the content recycling they seem to be?

All stupid questions to be asking this far into development. It is what it is, either it resonates or it doesn’t.