Board Game Design Document
Short Description
It's a game design document made for study purposes, on a board game with four players....
Description
TRIBAL TURMOIL Game Design Document Designed by Max Valk (140005) and Ivan Yanchev (140276) at NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment.
Table of Contents Game Design Document.......................................................................................................0 I.
Creative vision................................................................................................................3 1. Game Description..........................................................................................................3 a. Game concept............................................................................................................3 b.
Aesthetics concept (creative vision).......................................................................3
2. Target Audience.............................................................................................................3 3. Design Goals.................................................................................................................3
II.
a.
Declaration of Intent................................................................................................3
b.
Declaration Sheet Revisited...................................................................................4
Game Play Overview......................................................................................................4 1. Objectives of the game..................................................................................................4 2. Game Elements overview..............................................................................................5 a. The Board...................................................................................................................5 b.
Prey.........................................................................................................................5
c. Player units.................................................................................................................5 d.
Favor of the Gods and Hunting Tricks effect cards................................................6
e.
Turns, Seasons and Years......................................................................................7
3. Game Phases................................................................................................................8 a. Setting Up...................................................................................................................8 b.
Pre-hunting phase (Meltdown)..............................................................................10
c. Hunting phase (The Hunting Season)......................................................................11 d.
Post-hunting phase (Freeze-over)........................................................................17
e.
Winning and Failure conditions.............................................................................17
4. Game Flow overview...................................................................................................18 a. Flowcharts................................................................................................................18 ........................................................................................................................................18 5. Player interaction and Emergent behavior..................................................................20 a. Cooperation and Rivalry...........................................................................................20
b.
The End-Game Conflict........................................................................................21
c. Meta-game...............................................................................................................22 d.
Strategy and Meta-strategy..................................................................................22
e.
Politics...................................................................................................................22
6. What’s in the box?.......................................................................................................23 III. Art design......................................................................................................................23 1. General direction.........................................................................................................23 2. Board design................................................................................................................23 3. Card design.................................................................................................................25 4. Unit chips design.........................................................................................................26 5. Other game objects.....................................................................................................26 Turn counter...................................................................................................................26 Rule sheet......................................................................................................................27 Game box.......................................................................................................................27 Materials.........................................................................................................................27 IV.
Detailed descriptions................................................................................................29
The Board in detail.............................................................................................................29 Shape of the field...........................................................................................................30 Movement on the field....................................................................................................32 Resources on the board.................................................................................................32 Player units........................................................................................................................33 Huntsmen.......................................................................................................................33 Warriors..........................................................................................................................33 Hunting and Combat..........................................................................................................34 Hunting...........................................................................................................................34 Combat...........................................................................................................................36 Food Division..................................................................................................................36 Favour of the Gods cards...............................................................................................37 Hunting Trick Cards........................................................................................................40 V. VI.
Target audience and Market position.........................................................................43 References and Sources...........................................................................................44
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I.
Creative vision 1.
Game Description
a. Game concept
Tribal Turmoil is a 4-player board game, where participants take the roles of tribe chieftains in an ongoing, stone-age, tribal conflict. Set in an unforgiving ice-age landscape, Tribal Turmoil is fundamentally a game about survival of the fittest. Players aim to survive periodic winter seasons, by hunting to collect food and staying at safe shelters. Hunting animals often require bigger hunting packs and in order to collect food, players will often be inclined to cooperate. When the catch is abundant, through diplomacy and strategy, players can indirectly influence the course of the game.
b. Aesthetics concept (creative vision) Hunting prey is scarce in the frozen lands and every bit of food is fiercely contested between the fractured, tribal populations of humans. Through any means available, be it cooperation, betrayal or “divine favor”, human tribes battle to survive the hardships of stone-age life. With populations on the verge of demise, there is no place for weakness in the unforgiving reality of Tribal Turmoil. It is a time where adroit leadership dictates ones position in the food chain. A time, where the politically adept and the ruthless prevail.
2.
Target Audience
3.
Design Goals
A game that requires strategic insight, betrayal and harsh competition we found to be best suited for those of the age 13 and up. Furthermore, we aim at boys due to the willingness to compete generally found in them. In section VI, these conclusions will be backed by research and scientific papers.
a. Declaration of Intent
The original intent, with which the old declaration sheet was made with, was making the concept design more interesting and fixing the issues it had. These 2 ideas remain the same for our final version. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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b. Declaration Sheet Revisited
The declaration sheet that was written in an earlier stage does not fit our current concept anymore. The original analysis of the concept still stands, however our design goals have changed over time. Instead of trying to patch a lot of flaws in the original concept, we tried to find a way of still keeping the idea of the original game intact while starting from the very core of the idea. Goal and Winning condition: As we do not work with the theme of ticks anymore, the statements mentioned about making the winning condition make sense in the life of a tick. Since we changed theme this no longer applies. Strategy Emphasis and Emergence: The goals set here remain the same for the final product, that is to put more focus on player agency and allowing for emergent gameplay. Player Interaction: This goal remains the same as it was in the Concept Design Document, shifting the focus on player interaction. Game Board Changes: The idea of reworking the board was there in an early stage and also stays true for our final version.
II. 1.
Game Play Overview Objectives of the game
The main goal of the game is as follows: Be the last one standing. To this, one must grow their own tribe and combat other players. This main goal fits in thematically, because in the times of the stone-age, resources such as food were scarce and tribes would often fight wars over who owned what ground. Mechanically we chose for this goal, as a race to a certain state made progress clear. It was also needed to discourage forming permanent groups on the board, as only 1 player can win, therefore forcing players to betray each other.
2.
Game Elements overview
a. The Board
The playing field of the game is represented on the board by a grid of hexagons, called for clarity - “tiles”. Its dimensions are 9 by 9 tiles. Each tile has 4 positions, which player’s units can occupy. On the game board there are also: NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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Colored tiles in the four corners, representing tribe their camp territory. They are safe zones for the respective tribe their units, during freeze-over (winter) seasons. “Prey” tiles, with pictures of three species of animals on them – Boar, Deer and Mammoth. “Shrine” tiles in-between player camps, which award players effect cards for a price.
For more information on the game board, go to the Detailed Descriptions section.
b. Prey
The prey tiles are representative of animal species that stone-age hunters are known to have hunted. Players can perform a hunt action when adjacent to a prey tile, which will reward them food. Players may also co-operate while hunting. When given prey tile is depleted, the hexagonal chip covering it is removed. There are three species of prey in Tribal Turmoil and they differ in 3 aspects: -
Hunters required to catch them Food reward for catching them Number available each season
Boar Deer Mammot h
Requires huntsmen: 2 4 8
Rewards food(total): 2 6 16
Units on the board: 8 4 1
c. Player units
Player units are one of the means by which players influence what happens on the board directly. Players can move their respective units, each at a rate of 1 tile per turn. That is to say every unit they commands can move once per turn, at a maximum distance of one tile. There are two unit types in Tribal Turmoil – hunters and warriors. -
Hunters have the ability to hunt prey, rewarding players with food, which helps them sustain through the winter. They also can place offerings at the four shrines on
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the board to acquire Favor of the God’s effect card to the player. Generally hunters can’t fight other player’s units, unless under special circumstances that are presented in the detailed description of the unit, here. (page) -
Warriors have the ability to fight other player’s units. If a warrior fights another player’s hunter, the hunter is removed from the board. If a warrior fights another player’s warrior, there is 4/6 chance they will win the battle, and remove the opponent’s warrior unit off the board. Warriors cannot hunt animals, nor place offerings at shrines. They can, however, disrupt hunts. This is further explained in the detailed descriptions section, here. (page) Warriors can also take shelter on shrine tiles (provided that they are obtained), allowing them to survive the freeze-over outside of camp space, but they cost the player twice as much to sustain (4 food per warrior unit)
Hunter and Warrior units differ in their function, but not in other aspects:
Hunter units Movement per turn 1 tile Food required for winter 2 food season Food required to spawn unit 4 food
Warrior units 1 tile 2 food
4 food For more information on player units, go to the Detailed Descriptions section.
d. Favor of the Gods and Hunting Tricks effect cards
There are two types of cards in Tribal Turmoil – Favor of the Gods cards and Hunting Tricks cards. These are acquired through different means, and abide by different usage rules.
Favor of the Gods cards: -
-
Favor of the God’s cards have powerful effects, which can help the player using them, in various ways. There are one-time effects that benefit the player instantly, or “buff” effects that last throughout the rest of the year. Players receive one Favor of the Gods card at the beginning of each year, and are also able to place offerings at the shrines located on the sides of the game board, which will award them additional Favor of the Gods cards. Favor of the Gods cards can be played at any point during the game year, as long as the player plays the card on his own turn.
Favor of the Gods cards are further explained in the Detailed Descriptions section, here.
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Hunting Tricks cards -
Hunting trick’s cards are lesser effects that players can activate when hunting alone or with other players. They may have effects that are beneficial for the participants in the hunt, or they can be beneficial only for one of the participating parties. Players receive 3 Hunting Tricks cards at the beginning of each year. Hunting Tricks cards can only be activated by players participating in a given hunt, and not by anyone that is not participating in that same hunt session. They can only target the hunt the player is engaging in, units in that hunt, the reward that hunt earns the player etc.
Hunting Tricks cards are further explained in the Detailed Descriptions section, here. (page)
Hunting Tricks cards Can be played: Only during hunt, only by
Favor of the Gods cards
players participating in that hunt session. At the beginning of the Two Hunting Tricks cards.
each year, players get:
If multiple players hunted
Players can also acquire: successfully together, all
players that did get 1 card. Plyers can have a 4 Hunting Tricks cards at maximum of: their disposal, at any given time.
At any time of the year, as long as it’s played on the player’s own turn. One Favor of the Gods card. A total of 4 Favor of the Gods cards by placing food offerings on shrine tiles. 3 Favor of the Gods cards at their disposal, at any given time.
e. Turns, Seasons and Years.
In Tribal Turmoil, time is divided in Years, Seasons and Turns. The game is based on yearly cycle, consistent with the ice-age cycles of meltdowns and freeze-overs.
One year consists of three seasons -
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Meltdown – Players receive their Favor of the Gods and Hunting Tricks cards, and choose the hunting tricks (up to 3) that they wish to use this year. They also decide if they want to produce any units with the surplus of food they eventually have left from last year’s hunt. All animals that were hunted in the previous year are returned to the board. Hunting season – Consists of 15 turns, during which players can move their units on the board, perform hunts, place offerings in the shrines, collaborate or attack each other. All effect cards are played only during the hunting season.
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Freeze-over – When the last of the 15 turns of the hunting season is over, freezeover begins. Any unit left outside the safe zones is removed from the board. Any card effect expires with the beginning of this phase. Players sustain their units through the freeze-over season, by paying the food rations. If the food a player have is unsufficient, players remove units of their choosing from the board, until their food is sufficient to support their troops.
Here is a diagram showing how a single year-cycle is structured: • Players receive 1 Favor of the Gods and two Hunting Tricks cards. Meltdown • With any surplus food, players can decide to spawn aditional units. • Players have to choose which hunting tricks they want to use during this year (up to 3), and set them aside. • Players play 15 turns each, during which they are active on the gamefield. • They also interact with each other, play effect cards, cooperate or backstab each other. • Any units outside of sheltered zones die and are removed from the board. • Players "pay" for their units. If they haven't aquired enough food, they must choose which units to remove from the board.
Hunting season Freezeover
3.
Game Phases
a. Setting Up
Setting up the game is quick and easy. -
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-
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Tribal Turmoil is a four player game, so it requires all four players to attend and participate in the game. It is possible to play with less, but the experience is suffering from it. Players gather around a table or any flat surface that is comfortable for them to play on. They place the game board on the flat, leveled surface (parallel to the ground), with the playfield facing upwards. They all choose their own colour, which is verbally agreed on. After that they place the “prey chips” on their respective positions on the board (8 boar, 4 deer and 1 mammoth chips), along with the “Shrine chips” (four identical chips on the four sides of the board). Players then place the effect cards at their designated positions, next to the playfield.
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Favor of the Gods cards are placed on the purple rectangle with “Favor of the Gods” Hunting Tricks cards are placed on the brown rectangle with “Hunting Tricks” text on it. After that players place the 6-sided die close to the board, where it can be seen by anyone and they set the Turn Counter position to “Meltdown” Finally, the players place three hunter pawns on their respective colored fields (Red pawns are placed on the red hexagon with “P4” written on it) (Yellow pawns are placed on the Yellow hexagon with “P3” written on it) (Blue pawns are placed on the Blue hexagon with “P2” written on it) (Green pawns are placed on the Green hexagon with “P1” written on it)
Which of the 4 spots inside the hexagon does not matter. -
Right after this, the starting player is picked. The red & blue players play a game of rock-paper-scissors with each other, as do the yellow & green players. After this, the players who won the rock-paper-scissors
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game play it again, against each other. The winner of this match will choose who will start first. The game is initiated by Player 1 (or P1 on the board), as he takes the first turn. After their turn ends, the turn will be given to Player 2 (P2) and for the rest of the game the turns are set this way – P1 to P2 to P3 to P4, or clockwise rotation. After this setup has commenced, the game will go through 3 main phases. These 3 main phases are described below in sequence Discard piles are zones next to the field, where cards that have been played go. They will be put there face-up, meaning the side with text facing up. There are 2 discard zones: 1 For ‘Hunting Tricks’ cards and 1 for ‘Favour of the Gods’ cards. As soon as a stack of cards (the pile that is face down from which you draw ‘Hunting Trick’ or ‘Favour of the Gods’ cards from) is empty, the discard pile gets shuffled and will be placed where the stack of cards that it is replacing used to be, face down. Note that only the cards in the ‘Favour of the Gods’ discard pile may be shuffled and used to replace the ‘Favour of the Gods’ stack, while only the cards in the ‘Hunting Trick’ discard pile may be shuffled and used to replace the ‘Hunting Trick’ stack.
b. Pre-hunting phase (Meltdown)
The Meltdown season/phase symbolizes the period when the snows recede and huntergatherers of the stone-age could leave their shelters to renew the main hunting season. This was the time when our ancestors used to prepare their tools and set out in the wilds to find new hunting grounds, to trace herds of prey and gain information. Likewise, in Tribal Turmoil this is a period of preparation, where players get to decide what units they are going to place on the board using surplus food, as already mentioned above (page). Surpluses of food are only possible after the first year of the game (the first set of three phases), since players start the game with 0 food in the first Meltdown phase. If a player decides to place units on the board, he can only do that on the designated tile marked the text P1/2/3/4. That naturally limits them to spawn up to 4 units per year (or less when the spots are already occupied by other units). The Meltdown phase is simultaneous, which means that all players do it at once and this phase ends as soon as all players agree that they are ready to move to the next phase. Players will draw 3 cards from the ‘Hunting Trick’ pile, and 1 from the ‘Favour of the Gods’ pile. They will be able to use the drawn cards at any point consistent with the rules, explained here(page), unless they decide to discard any of them, or reach the limit of cards which can be held by a player at any given time.
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Once the player draw their Hunting Tricks and Favor of the Gods cards, they must put them in front of themselves, facing down, so that other players can see what type of cards and how many of them the given player has, but can’t see or read their effects. The player may pick up the card whenever they want though and reveal it only to themselves. Once players have drawn their cards and each of them consent to begin the next phase, Phase 2 – The Hunting Season – begins. Here’s a flowchart showing the actions that will be performed by each player during the Meltdown phase: • If the player has a surplus of food, they may decide to purchase/spawn units on the board. • They may choose to spawn any combination of Hunter and Warrior units. • After dealing with the units, players then draw the effect cards. • The player draws 3 Hunting Tricks cards and 1 Favor of the Gods card. • They then decide if they want to discard any of their drawn cards, or in case they have more cards than allowed, they have to discard cards. • After each and every player indicates that they're ready to proceed, the next phase - The Hunting Phase - commences.
Units Cards Proceed
For more information on the Meltdown phase, go to the Detailed Descriptions section, here. For more information on effect cards and their usage, go to the Detailed Descriptions, here.
c. Hunting phase (The Hunting Season)
The Hunting Season (phase) takes place after the Meltdown season is over. In the Hunting Season players take on the tasks of navigating their units on the board, participating in solo or co-op hunts (with other players) to gather food, they place offerings at the Shrines for Favor of the Gods cards, and they generally interact with the objects on the board and with each other. This is also the time when players can play their effect cards, as described in the Detailed Descriptions section.
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For the purpose of clarity, the Hunting Phase is separated and explained in component parts. The following are general explanations. The in-depth explanations can be found in the Detailed Descriptions section.
Duration of the phase and turn order.
The Hunting Phase consists of 15 turn cycles. Players change their turns in an ordered manner, as follows: Player one (P1 – green) stars first, then player two (P2 – yellow), then player three (P3 – red), then player four (P4 – blue), then after that it’s P1’s turn again.
P1
P2
P3
P4
P1
P2
P3
P4
…where P1 > P2 > P3 > P4 is one turn cycle. This order dictates a clockwise rotation in turn, which is easier for the players to track. The player who has the turn will be referred to as the ‘active player’. After all four players have played their 15 turns, the Freeze-over phase begins, upon any unit that isn’t on its respective “shelter” tiles is removed from the board.
One Hunting Phase Player turn This section describes one player’s turn. A player their turn is subdivided into separate steps:
Movement The active player may (meaning they are not obliged to) move every pawn they control once during their turn. The pawns move individually, and can move to any neighbouring hexagon that isn’t already occupied by 4 units, or an animal/shrine that is still on the board, i.e. not acquired.
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Below are illustrated the movement limitations:
A unit that is ‘hunting’ or ‘fighting’ (described later) will have to skip their movement phase. After the unit is on a tile adjacent to its target, it can initiate an event. That event may be: -
Hunt – the player’s hunters initiates a hunt event on a target animal. Attack – the player’s warrior initiates an attack event on target enemy unit. (further explained in the Detailed Descriptions section.) Place offering – the player’s hunter initiate an offering event on a target shrine.
Shrine offerings Units may sacrifice food in order to earn a ‘Favour of the Gods’ card. To do this, the active player must have a unit adjacent to a forest shrine that was not used this year (meaning the “Shrine chip” is still present at the tile). A unit cannot move and initiate an offering in the same turn, meaning that a unit can initiate the offering only if it has been on the adjacent (to the shrine) tile in the previous turn. In other words: if a unit moves next to a shrine in turn 3, it can initiate the offering in turn 4, and will get the Favor of the Gods card in reward, at turn 5. Initiating the offering renders the unit unmovable for the turn. Shrine offerings work the same way “hunting” does. If the offering is completed successfully (and it can be interrupted by others players warrior attacking), the hunter pawn that initiated the offering is then moved on the shrine tile, and NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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the chip that covers it is removed from the board. When the chip is removed, the tile underneath is treated as a regular tile, until the year ends. (which is also valid for hunting) The offering itself costs the player initiating it 4 food, and if interrupted, the player loses it. If another player has also a unit adjacent to the temple, they may compete for the card. This means that when the active player decides to offer food for a reward, another player may also do so. That player then also has to pay 4 food. However, only 1 card can be gained per shrine per year. When players contest for the card, they roll a D6, and based on the results one of them acquires the Favor of the Gods card, while the others lose their food offerings.(4 food each) Here is a diagram displaying the process of offering: A hunter unit initiates an offering
Uncontested ?
Contested ?
The player receives a card on the next turn.
Another player competing for the card ?
Warrior attacking ?
Both players give 4 food.
The hunter is removed from the board. The player loses the food offered
They roll a die
The winner gets the card.
Playing ‘Favour of the Gods’ cards The active player may play one ‘Favour of the Gods’ cards per turn. When a card is played, it is revealed to all other players. If its effect is persistent, the card must remain in front of the player, face up, until the end of the current year cycle. That ensures other players can view and read the card’s effects at any time. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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A player that has a card placed before him, face up, near the playfield is in essence stating that this card effect is currently active. If the effect only occurs once, it is moved to the ‘Favour of the Gods’ discard pile after the effect is carried out. If the target of a card is invalid (for example, a card that can only target a player with 3 or more units targets a player with 2 or less units, basically invalid means not meeting the conditions on the card), the card gets moved to the ‘Favour of the Gods’ discard pile instead. When the year-cycle is over all ‘Favour of the Gods’ cards that are in the discard pile are returned to the ‘Favour of the Gods’ deck pile, and the deck is shuffeled.
‘Hunting’ When one of the active player’s hunting units is next to an animal tile (A boar, deer or mammoth tile), that unit can initiate a hunt. To do so, some conditions must be met: Every unit that will participate in the hunt, under the active player’s control, should not have moved in the current turn. If any unit did move in the current turn, then the hunt can’t be initiated. The active player needs to send the correct amount of hunters into the hunt: For a boar, they need to send 2 huntsmen to hunt, for a deer 4 and for a mammoth 8. Every unit that the active player will send in the hunt this way needs to be adjacent to the animal that is being hunted, and will be rendered unmovable for 1 turn. A unit cannot move and initiate a hunt in the same turn, meaning that a unit can initiate the hunt only if it has been on the adjacent (to the “prey”) tile in the previous turn. In other words: if a unit moves next to an animal in turn 3, it can initiate the hunt in turn 4, and will get a set amount of food in reward, at turn 5. Initiating a hunt renders the unit unmovable for the turn.
The active player may also choose to work together with other tribes to reach the needed amount of hunters to take down certain animals. If so, they may invite other players to participate in the hunt. Other players may give their verbal consent, but are not obliged by it and can act as they please. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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For these units that are not under the player’s control the following rules apply: - These units must be adjacent to what the active player wants to hunt. (In the same way the player’s own units must be present on an adjacent tile before starting the hunt) - The player controlling them must accept an invitation the hunt. If (s)he refuses to hunt together, pawns of that player cannot hunt with the active player’s pawns. All the pawns which are participating in the hunt may not move for the duration of the hunt, regardless of their owner. To indicate that they are participating, place these pawns on the edge between the hexagon that they are standing on and the hexagon that the animal is on. The units that are placed like this are still considered to be in their old positions. When the hunt ends one unit of every player (of their choosing) that participated will be moved on the (now empty) animal tile while the other units remain on their hexagons, after the “prey chip” has been removed from the board. The hunt is completed when: -
The player that initiated on the previous turn, starts his next turn. In other words, if the yellow player (P2) initiated a hunt in turn 4, the hunt is completed on the yellow player’s turn in turn 5.
The hunt is not completed when: - Certain cards that are played. These cards will specify that the hunt failed. When a hunt fails, no player will gain a reward for this hunt and the animal flees. This means that the hexagon with the animal on it still will be removed. - If one of the hunters participating in the hunt is killed by another player’s warrior, the hunt fails, the prey escapes and the players participating in the hunt do not get rewarded. Reward: If a hunt is considered to be successful, the player that hunted will be awarded with X amount of food tokens, where X is tied to the type of animal hunted: 2 for a boar, 6 for a deer and 16 for the mammoth. If multiple players participated in a hunt, the amount of food will be divided over everyone who participated in the hunt. With 2 players working together, the reward becomes 1 per player for the boar, 3 per player for the deer and 8 per player for the mammoth. If three players are cooperating in a hunt, the division of food is as follows: First, divide the total food reward number through the amount of participants. Then, every player gets the whole number in food tokens. The leftovers will be distributed afterwards via die-rolls. If four players are cooperating, use the same method as described above. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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The food reward and division is discussed in-depth in the Detailed Descriptions section. If a hunt on a deer or mammoth ends successfully, each participating player draws a ‘Hunting Trick’ card. They may add this to their set aside cards, but only if the number of set aside cards is less than 3. They also may add it to their hand, provided that their hand is less than 6 cards big. If both the hand is full and the set aside cards, that player does not draw a card instead. During hunt, players that are participating can decide to play Hunting tricks cards. This is further explained below, and looked at in-depth in the Detailed Descriptions section, here (page).
Playing ‘Hunting Tricks’ cars After a hunt is initiated, players may decide to play ‘Hunting Trick’ cards. These cards can only be played by a player who has at least 1 unit participating in the hunt that the card targets. The active player may play as many of these cards as (s)he has during this phase. Others may also play as many hunting tricks as they prefer in this phase, provided that they meet the same conditions as described for the active player above. Card effects will be carried out in the reverse order of play, meaning that the card that gets played last will also be carried out first. When a card gets played, it is revealed to all players. The effect then is carried out and finally, after that has been done the card moves to the ‘Hunting Trick’ discard pile. If one of these card effects make a target invalid, the card with the invalid effect is moved to the ‘Hunting Trick’ discard pile. An invalid target means that something the card was referring to no longer applies. An example of this would be stealing food from a player who just was knocked out of the game. When the effect of a hunting trick card has been carried out, it moves to the ‘Hunting Trick’ discard pile.
Combat Players can choose to engage in combat with other units on the board. To engage in combat, players need a warrior unit that is adjacent to a unit from another player. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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If a warrior pawn engages in combat with a hunter pawn from another player, remove the hunter pawn from the board. If a hunter pawn is engaged in a hunt, and a warrior pawn attack it, the hunt is interrupted, thus regarded as unsuccessful. This means that the attacked unit is removed from the board and the hunt will not reward any of the participating players with food. Additionally, the animal that was being hunted is removed from the board as well. If a warrior pawn engages in combat with another warrior pawn, roll a six-sided die. If the result is 1, 2, 3 or 4, remove the attacked pawn. If the result is 5 or 6, the attacking pawn gets removed instead.
d. Post-hunting phase (Freeze-over)
When all 15 turn cycles have passed, the Freeze-over begins. In in this phase, all the units not on their respective ‘Safe shelters’ or ‘camp space’ will be removed from the board (die). This is effectively the winter season in Tribal Turmoil. Prey is very scarce and the temperatures drop. A good tribe chieftain knows that preparation for the winter is essential and will store their food supplies, so his people can survive and see another Meltdown. For every unit in their shelters, players have to pay 2 food tokens. When a player can’t pay for all their units, that player has to remove enough of their units from the board, so they have a sufficient amount of food left for the remaining pawns. The players themselves decide which units to remove from the board. The Freeze-over phase is simultaneous, which means that all players do it at once and this phase ends as soon as all players agree. After the Freeze-over is over, the year has passed! The next year starts with a Meltdown phase and the cycle is repeated.
e. Winning and Failure conditions
A player wins once all the other players have been eliminated (reached the fail state) from play. A player with no units, at any point in the game, loses. Please do mind that the reverse stack rule applies here for card effects. Say that 1 player played a card which killed the last unit of Player A. However, player A. plays a card in response that grants him 2 units. Because of the rule that the last card resolves first, that player will gain 2 units first, then lose 1, keeping that player in the game. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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Whenever a player reaches the failure state, all his food chips are but aside along with the other chips that are not in play, and all his/her cards will be moved to their respective discard piles. If for some reason simultaneous reaching of the failure condition is reached by the last players, the game becomes a draw.
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4.
Game Flow overview
a. Flowcharts
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5.
Player interaction and Emergent behavior
a. Cooperation and Rivalry
Cooperation and Rivalry are what Tribal Turmoil is all about. Due to its nature as a multi-player board game, where players strategize and play against each other, Tribal Turmoil is a naturally competitive environment. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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Rivalry is a main element of gameplay in Tribal Turmoil, as in the end only one player can win the game. Given that, even the strongest cooperation must, at some point, turn into a rivalry. In play sessions (play tested), the observed player behavior indicates that even first-time players are quickly adapting to the end-game conflict. This means that they are more willing to swap alliances over the course of the game, and would prefer to work either alone, or with someone they don’t recognize as a direct threat to them. The four-player structure and the possibility of cooperation creates a multi-faceted model of rivalry. This creates a fairly complex system of rivalries between the players, where they have to carefully tailor their strategy and behavior, in order to gain maximum benefit. Players have to pick and choose who they cooperate, and there are a lot of factors that influence that decision. Some of them are: -
Board positioning – the other players, the prey, the shrines etc. The other players’ current situation – who is ahead, who is behind. Who has effect cards that might be negative What is the political landscape – which players are clearly in conflict, which players are prone to “backstab” you, because of their position etc. Personality of players – can you predict how a player will behave? Other factors that vary depending on the players
Play sessions also show (play tested), that players are very prone to weaving complex machinations in order to indirectly influence the board and undermine their prime rivals. With all players trying to manipulate each other, a peculiar system of “underwater currents” (meaning schemes and manipulations) emerges. This creates an engaging experience on multiple levels: -
-
-
It is strategically challenging, thus rewards people searching for this sort of challenge. The play sessions (testing) show, that executing strategies and completing plans is very rewarding for players, especially when playing with other people. It’s a social experience, thus rewards people who enjoy social experiences. The game itself can be viewed as a social experiment. During play-testing sessions, players expressed the opinion that the game is very political. They found that aspect of the game to be very enjoyable, so we emphasized on that aspect of the game. It’s a political game, because it has the basic ingredients that facilitate this sort of human behavior: limited resources that everybody wants; social medium, being a board game; facilitates strategic thinking and measured behavior.
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b. The End-Game Conflict
“Only one player can win” is what we refer to as End-game conflict. It’s a simple rule but essential for Tribal Turmoil. This rule allows the game to function the wait it does, because it defines the goal of the player – namely, to defeat all other players. The end-game conflict dictates the quick-changing nature of the game, and provides a strong negative feedback loop, where players naturally try to “slow down” the player that is furthest ahead, by cooperating with each other or simply by focusing their efforts on him/her. The end-game conflict also allows for greater variety in the viable strategies. For example, a player can decide to save food in the early phases of the game, in order to avoid negative focus on him/herself, while planning on how to expand in the later stages of the game. This approach will save him/her the food that would otherwise be used to sustain their units, already spawned on the board.
c. Meta-game
Beyond the play-field, there is another level of play that Tribal Turmoil aims to reach. The meta-game is the player strategies, actions or methods which transcend the prescribed ruleset of the game. Players may use external factors to affect the game. They may: -
Lie and manipulate each other. Bond with each other, form strong allegiances. Irritate or Intimidate each other. Apply all sorts of psychological approaches to sway each other’s actions in a wanted direction, etc.
d. Strategy and Meta-strategy
Tribal Turmoil is heavily based on strategy. While there are random elements, success in the game is mainly dependent on one’s ability to analyze patterns, plan ahead and make correct decisions. The game board is symmetrical, along with all the elements in the game. This places players at even footings at the beginning of a play session. The game-play itself is increasingly complex and adroit players will further differentiate themselves as the game goes into later stages. There are limits to the complexity and depth of gameplay, however. The range of possibilities on the play-field, while big, isn’t infinite. It’s arguable that there is an optimum strategy that turn out dominant in some fashion, when we’re looking just at the playfield and the board.
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Tribal Turmoil, however, includes another group of aspects that are hinted at in the previous section. The socio-political aspect of the game increases the gameplay depth immensely. Players do have to juggle between managing their playfield strategies with their political schemes. The importance of the two isn’t easily weighted and between them, they allow the cunning players to use a multitude of tools in their favor.
e. Politics
Politics is central to human behavior. “Politics is the practice and theory of influencing other people on a global, civic or individual level” – Wiki This behavior has likely been around before humans first began to verbally communicate, and is highly engaging for most individuals. It is in fact something that each and every person begins to practice even at an early age, so intrinsically connected with our life. This seems to be the main reason why the play-testers seemed to enjoy the political aspect of the game, and it’s the reason why people can’t get enough of political talks and drama. All the game elements are directed towards interaction between the players, and most of them have strategic facets. To ensure player start interacting as soon as possible, we’ve set the starting units to be mandatory – 3 hunter units. Boars require 2 hunters, but more importantly deer require 4 hunters, which means that in the first year cycle players can hunt deer or the mammoth only through cooperation. Even at first play-through (tested) players were able to recognize the opportunities they are provided with, through the combination of positioning, cooperation and effect cards. Since it’s so natural for humans to put effort into controlling their surroundings, political metagame emerges naturally.
6.
What’s in the box?
Tribal Turmoil comes with a game board, a D6, 8 boar hexagons, 4 deer hexagons, 1 mammoth hexagons 15 blue hunters, 15 blue warriors, 15 red hunters, 15 red warriors, 15 yellow hunters, 15 yellow warriors, 15 green warriors, 15 green hunters, 100 food tokens, 1 Season turn slider, 46 ‘Favour of the Gods’ cards and 58 ‘Hunting Trick’ cards.
III. 1.
Art design General direction
The artistic design of the game will be consistent with the theme of the game. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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It should be indicative of: -
The time period of the game, namely the last ice-age 10 000 - 12 000 BCE. The characteristic landscape and climate of the period. The fauna, or more specifically, the prey that used to be available for stone-age (iceage) hunter-gatherers.
It should be semi-realistic. In other words, the elements of the game board should be drawn in a semi-realistic manner, rather than cartoony or in any way unrealistic.
2.
Board design
The board design, will follow the general art direction of being semi-realistic. On the board (playfield) there will be: -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
(conceptual representation below)
Background displaying the landscape. A mixture of green, brown, and white. It will display the earth’s surface at the point of meltdown, so there will be leftover of snow, as well as bare soil and grass. More characteristic elements, such as trees, shrubs and others will be displayed as well to give it a more complete look. In the four corners of the board, there must be an area that is surrounded by clearly visible fence or border, and there must be a color indication for each player (P1 – green, P2 – yellow, P3 – red and P4 – blue). The overall design is shown below. A hexagon grid, with dimensions 9 by 9, drawn with black line (1 mm thick). The grid will be positioned centrally to the board, and the background landscape will be drawn within the boundaries Eight Boar tiles, with boar drawings (semi-realistic), with lowered opacity and a capital letter B in the middle of the hexagonal tile. It is to clearly be different from the boar “prey chips”, so they are easily differentiated. Four Deer tiles, with deer drawings (semi-realistic), with lowered opacity and a capital letter D in the middle of the hexagonal tile. It is to clearly be different from the deer “prey chips”, so they are easily differentiated. One Mammoth tile, with a mammoth drawing (semi-realistic), with lowered opacity and a capital letter M in the middle of the hexagonal tile. It is to clearly be different from the mammoth “prey chips”, so they are easily differentiated. Four Shrine tiles, with a symbol drawn on it, with lowered opacity in the middle of a hexagonal tile. It is to be clearly different from “shrine chips”, so they are easily differentiated. Each and every hexagonal tile will have four circles, indicating the positions that player pawns can occupy. They are to be slightly darker than the background, so they can be seen, but are not too intrusive.
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3.
Card design
The cards design is to be consistent with the overall art design, meaning semi-realistic and clean. There are two types of effect cards in Tribal Turmoil – Hunting Tricks and Favor of the Gods cars. They are to be easily differentiated from each other, both from the front and the back. The front-sides of the two types of cards will differ color-wise, as well as contents. -
The front-side of Favor of the Gods cards are going to be colored in the purple color palette. The front-side of Hunting Tricks cards are going to be colored in the brown (or siena) color palette.
The back-sides of the two must also have different colors, which also differentiate from the colours of the 4 players. Favor of the Gods card have a back-side that is colored in a purple color palette. Hunting Trucks cards have a back-side that is colored in a purple color palette. There should also be a clear indication on the front of the type of the card, this is achieved with colour (the same colour as on the back of the card). NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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To make the cards more appealing they can have a small-sized icon for each different effect. Here’s a design outline for the cards:
Front side of the cards
4.
Back side of the Hunting Tricks cards
Unit chips design
The unit chips are hexagonal chips, which the players can remove when they exhaust a resource in the game – prey and shrines. They are to have a picture representing what is on the tile beneath them: -
Boar hex chips for boars, deer for deer, etc. Shrine hex chips for the four shrines on the sides of the playfield.
The drawings on the chips are the same as the ones on the board tiles corresponding to them. The chips themselves don’t have the circles indicating pawn positions, because players can’t move their pawns over prey or shrines, unless they are acquired, and the chips removed.
5.
Other game objects
Turn counter The turn counter is a tool that helps the players keep track of the turn system in the game. Since there are 15 turns in each hunting phase, it can be difficult to count them, and thus irritating for the players. The turn counter is very simple. It consists of a 5cm by 20cm board and a chip. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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The board is separated in (from bottom to top): Meltdown; Turn 1,2,3…; Freezeover. The chip is placed on the current phase/turn of the game by player 1 (P1), each time he begins his turn. This is a conceptual representation of the Turn counter:
Rule sheet In the game box, there will be a rule sheet that encompasses all the rules of the game. It is to be well illustrated with diagrams and graphic examples of the game, which will allow players to easily understand the rules of the game.
Game box The game box (cover) will be illustrated according to the general artistic direction, with semi-realistic paintings describing the life of an ice-age hunter gatherer. It is to be a box with dimensions 22x42x6 (cm) where the game board will be folded once through the middle (from 40x40 to 20x40), so the square becomes a rectangle. On the top panel (front) of the box, there will be an illustration. In the middle of it, the name of the game will be written with big letters “TRIBAL TURMOIL”. The age recommendation will be placed in the bottom-right corner. On the bottom panel (back) there will be a description of the game, along with photos that show what’s in the box.
Materials The elements of the board game will be manufactured from the following materials: Game-board: - Front side made of 0.3mm thick paper with a polymer coating against water. - Back side made of 2.0mm chip-board, providing enough robustness. Dice – one, plastic, six-sided. Hexagonal chip-tiles: -
Prey and shrine hex-tiles will be made of chip-board with front side mate of polymer paper with the respective markings of animals on them.
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Player unit figurines: -
Warrior figurines made of plastic Hunter figurines made of plastic
Food tokens: -
Carton tokens for food, easily reproducible if lost.
Effect cards: -
Effect cards have a body of carton or thick paper that provides robust structure. Effect cards are also covered in a polymer layer to protect them from water.
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IV.
Detailed descriptions
The detailed descriptions section consists of the thorough information on features of the game. It is intended to provide information with the highest level of detail, when such sort of information is needed. Each topic addressed in this section is previously addressed somewhere in this document, which a lesser degree of detail for the sake of time-saving. It is best to use this section to extend one’s knowledge on certain topic they wish to further investigate. This section is not structured in a way to facilitate easy readthrough. *Quotes are from other sections are presented in tilted (italic) text style, and with green font color.
The Board in detail. The playing field of the game is represented on the board by a grid of hexagons, called for clarity - “tiles”. Its dimensions are 9 by 9 tiles. Each tile have 4 positions, which player’s units can occupy. Although the field appears to be somewhat rectangle-shaped, it is symmetric in every direction. This means, that it takes equal amount of turns for each player to get to other players (they are equally spaced from each other) as well as all the game objectives.
Shape of the field Players that are sitting opposite to each other, that is to say on two opposite corners of the board (example: P1 and P3), are further apart from each other, than from other players. This is a property of the square, where D = 1,41 x A, where “A” is the length of the side of the square and “D” is the length of the diagonal. This is apparent on the board as well. For example: P1 and P2 are 9 hexagons away from each other (the side), as well as P1 and P4. P1 and P3 are 13 hexagons away from each other (the diagonal), which is roughly equal to 9 x 1,41. This affects the dynamics of the game, as it is slightly harder for players in opposite corners to interact. The Freeze-over season and the limitation presented by it, namely that players have to bring back their hunters at their camps before the 15 th of an year cycle is over, reinforces this separation. Here’s a map of the furthest tiles, which P1’s hunters can reach and still be able to get back to the safety of their shelter in time, before the Freeze-over kills them. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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Legend: With bright red in the bottom left corner is highlighted the player’s (P1) camp space. Green-colored tiles is where P1 can move somewhat freely and be able to get back on time before the Freeze-over. Pink-colored tiles is where the player can go, participate in a hunt, and then be able to get back in time before the Freeze-over. Light-red-colored tiles is where the player can reach, but will have to turn back around right away, if he is to surrvive the Freeze-over with his hunters.
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Bright red tiles (on the top part of the board) are the only 2 locations where the player’s return to his camp is dependent on the prey along the way to have been hunt down, so he can pass through them as if they are normal tiles. su
Movement on the field Players move from hex-tile to hex-tile (hexagonal tile). The pawn position indicators are unrelated to movement. They are just an indicator of the maximal amount of units one tile can contain. Players are allowed to move their units however they decide to, with the exceptions of: -
Players cannot move their units over resource tiles (prey and shrines), unless the particular resource tile has been depleted, or in other words acquired. Players cannot move their units beyond the boundaries of another player’s camp. This is to say, they can’t go into another players camp.
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-
-
Players cannot have their hunter and warrior units on the same tile. Hunters and Warriors are always sitting on different tiles and may only share tiles on the player their base tiles. Players cannot place more than four units on a single tile. There are no exceptions!
Resources on the board The resources on the board are represented by prey and shrine tiles. These resources are symmetrically placed on the board, so every player is equally distanced from them. Every player has the same options. In a table, below, is presented information regarding the resources, their value and accessibility. It is important to note, that the values of distance are relative to the closest player on the board.
Boar Deer Mammoth Shrine
Distance from the player: 3 tiles 5 tiles 6 tiles 4 tiles
Produces:
Required units:
2 food 6 food 16 food 1 FoG card
2 units 4 units 8 units 1 unit
Total amount available: 8 4 1 4
Gain ratios: (effectiveness) 1:1 (100%) 1:1,5 (150%) 1:2 (200%)
Player units Player units are the means by which players influence what happens on the board directly. Players can move their respective units, each at a rate of 1 tile per turn. That is to say every unit they commands can move once per turn, at a maximum distance of one tile. There are two unit types in Tribal Turmoil – hunters and warriors.
Hunter units Movement per turn 1 tile Food required for winter 2 food season Food required to spawn unit 4 food
Warrior units 1 tile 2 food 4 food
Huntsmen Hunters are one of the two types a units players can control. Here is a list of statements that define the role of the hunter unit. -
Only hunters can interact with the resources on the board. Hunters can hunt prey awarding the player food. One player’s hunters can co-operate with other player’s hunters. Players can use Hunting Tricks cards only against hunter units, and not against warrior units (in case a warrior disrupts a hunt)
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-
Huntsmen are defenseless against warrior units, unless the Favor of the Gods card “Divine Bloodlust” is used, in which case other rules apply. These can be seen here(page).
Warriors Warriors are one of the two types a units players can control. Here is a list of statements that define the role of the hunter unit. -
-
Warriors can attack other player’s units and remove them from the board (kill them). Warriors can disrupt hunts. This happens if a hunt is initiated, and the warrior unit is adjacent to the prey tile where the hunt is carried out. In order to disrupt the hunt, a warrior must kill a unit that is participating. Warriors cannot hunt animals, nor place offerings at shrines. Warriors can be sheltered in shrines. That is to say that they can survive the freezeover in shrines. This comes at the cost of doubling the food cost to sustain the warrior units outside of camp space. In other words, instead of costing two food to sustain, the will cost 4 food if it’s stationed at a shrine through the Freeze-over phase. Note that at max 2 warriors can reside in a shrine at a time. A unit that is outside a shrine cannot attack the unit that is in there, as it is a holy ground and therefore not a place where units may fight on. Which means it works on a first come first serve basis. These 2 warriors must be from the same player.
Hunting and Combat Hunting and Combat are the two main aspects of the Hunting season phase. Players can use their warriors and hunters in their respective manners. Here is explained exactly how they work.
Hunting ‘Hunting’
When one of the active player’s hunting units is next to an animal tile (A boar, deer or mammoth tile), that unit can initiate a hunt. To do so, some conditions must be met: Every unit that will participate in the hunt, under the active player’s control, should not have moved in this turn their movement phase. If any unit did move this turn that is controlled by the active player, then the hunt can’t be initiated. The active player needs to send the correct amount of hunters into the hunt: For a boar, they need to send 2 huntsmen to hunt, for a deer 4 and for a mammoth 8. Every unit that the active player will send in the hunt this way needs to be adjacent to the NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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animal that is being hunted, and will be rendered unmovable for 1 turn. A unit cannot move and initiate a hunt in the same turn, meaning that a unit can initiate the hunt only if it has been on the adjacent (to the “prey”) tile in the previous turn. In other words: if a unit moves next to an animal in turn 3, it can initiate the hunt in turn 4, and will get a set amount of food in reward, at turn 5. Initiating a hunt renders the unit unmovable for the turn.
The active player may also choose to work together with other tribes to reach the needed amount of hunters to take down certain animals. If so, they may invite other players to participate in the hunt. Other players may give their verbal consent, but are not obliged by it and can act as they please. For these units that are not under the player’s control the following rules apply: - These units must be adjacent to what the active player wants to hunt. (In the same way the player’s own units must be present on an adjacent tile before starting the hunt) - The player controlling them must accept an invitation the hunt. If (s)he refuses to hunt together, pawns of that player cannot hunt with the active player’s pawns. All the pawns which are participating in the hunt may not move for the duration of the hunt, regardless of their owner. To indicate that they are participating, place these pawns on the edge between the hexagon that they are standing on and the hexagon that the animal is on. The units that are placed like this are still considered to be in their old positions. When the hunt ends they will be moved on the (now empty) animal tile, after the “prey chip” has been removed from the board. The hunt is completed when: -
The player that initiated on the previous turn, starts his next turn. In other words, if the yellow player (P2) initiated a hunt in turn 4, the hunt is completed on the yellow player’s turn in turn 5.
The hunt is not completed when: - Certain cards that are played. These cards will specify that the hunt failed. When a hunt fails, no player will gain a reward for this hunt and the animal flees. This means that the hexagon with the animal on it still will be removed. - If one of the hunters participating in the hunt is killed by another player’s warrior, the hunt fails, the prey escapes and the players participating in the hunt do not get rewarded.
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Reward: If a hunt is considered to be successful, the player that hunted will be awarded with X amount of food tokens, where X is tied to the type of animal hunted: 2 for a boar, 6 for a deer and 16 for the mammoth, as shown here. If multiple players participated in a hunt, the amount of food will be divided over everyone who participated in the hunt. With 2 players working together, the reward becomes 1 per player for the boar, 3 per player for the deer and 8 per player for the mammoth. If three players are cooperating in a hunt, the division of food is as follows: First, divide the total food reward number through the amount of participants. Then, every player gets the whole number in food tokens. The leftovers will be distributed afterwards via die-rolls. During hunt, players that are participating can decide to play Hunting tricks cards. This is further explained below, and looked at in-depth in the Detailed Descriptions section, here (page).
Combat ‘Combat’ Combat can only be initiated under the following conditions: - The attacker must be a warrior OR a hunter under the influence of the ‘Divine Bloodlust (Favour of the Gods) card’. - The attacked unit must be on an adjacent OR on the same hexagon as the attacker. - It is the turn AND combat phase of the attacker. The damage of combat, and how it is calculated, is as follows: Roll a die where is needed (see table below). Look up the situation and outcome below.
Warrior is attacked Warrior attacks 1,2,3 or 4 means that the
Hunter is attacked
attacked warrior gets removed. 5 or 6 means that the attacking warrior gets removed. Hunter attacks (Under 1,2 or 3 means that the the influence of ‘Divine attacked warrior gets removed.
Bloodlust’)
4,5, or 6 means that the attacking hunter gets removed.
No die-roll is needed. Remove the hunter from the board. 1 or 2 means that the attacked hunter is removed. 3,4,5, or 6 means that nothing happens.
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Food Division If multiple players participated in a hunt, the amount of food will be divided over everyone who participated in the hunt. With 2 players working together, the reward becomes 1 per player for the boar, 3 per player for the deer and 8 per player for the mammoth. If three players are cooperating in a hunt, the division of food is as follows: First, divide the total food reward number through the amount of participants. Then, every player gets the whole number in food tokens. The leftovers will be distributed afterwards via die-rolls. If four players are cooperating, use the same method as described above.
Boar
Deer
Mammoth
Hunt alone 2 food Hunt with 1 other 1 food per player player
6 food 3 food per player
16 food 8 food per player
Hunt with 2 other At maximum 2 players players can hunt a
2 food per player
5 food per player, plus 1 food as leftovers (see dierolls) 4 food per player.
boar.
Hunt with 4 At maximum 2 players players can hunt a boar.
1 food per player, plus 2 food as leftovers (see dierolls)
Die-rolls
When there are leftovers (which is the case when 4 players hunt a deer or 3 hunt a mammoth), a die will be rolled to determine who gets the leftover food. All leftover food goes to the winner of the die roll. With 3 players, the die-roll distribution is as follows:
Player 1 Die roll is 1 or 2 Wins Die roll is 3 or 4 Die roll is 5 or 6
Player 2
Player 3
Wins Wins
Please do note that these player numbers are not related to the numbers on the actual board, but rather used here to show that they are different players. Player 4 can also hunt NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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together with 2 other players. Each player picks their set of numbers (which has to be verbally agreed upon, if that does not happen the assignment of the numbers happen clockwise). For 4 players, the die-roll distribution is as follows:
Player 1 Die roll is 1 Wins Die roll is 2 Die roll is 3 Die roll is 4 Die roll is 5 or Die gets 6 re-rolled
Player 2
Player 3
Player 4
Wins Wins Die gets re-rolled
Die gets re-rolled
Wins Die gets re-rolled
Favour of the Gods cards Below, all the ‘Favour of the Gods’ cards are described in detail, which is to say their effect and the amount of that particular card included. These cards often contain effects that will help the player who casts the card, but can also sometimes be used to harm others. When a card says target, the player who plays that card may pick the target as long as it is a valid target. If there are no valid targets, the card will directly go to the discard pile if it was played. A valid target is every target of the type described on the card. Please do note that a player may at maximum have 3 Favour of the Gods cards in their hand. If they have more, they have to discard cards (move cards to the favour of the gods discard pile) until the number of cards that player has is 3.
Divine Strength For the rest of this year, when you start a hunt, you can do so with 1 player less than is originally needed. Number of this card included: 2
Divine Luck For the rest of this year, if you hunt, you have a 50% chance of gaining 2 food extra from a hunt (roll a D6 after a successful hunt, if the number is lower than 4, add 2 food extra to the food you earn from this hunt). NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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Number of this card included: 2
Divine Wisdom For the rest of this year, if a unit you control dies, draw 1 Divine Wisdom card. Do this only if this effect did not happen before. If it did, move this card to the ‘Favour of the Gods’ discard pile instead. Number of this card included: 2
Divine Protection For the rest of this year, if a unit would die, roll a D6. If you roll a 1 or a 2, that unit doesn’t die instead. This card has no effect during freezeover. Number of this card included: 2
Divine Bloodlust For the rest of the year, hunter units can fight as if they were warrior units. However, when these hunters attack other hunters, roll a D6. If you roll 1 or 2, the attacked hunter dies. If you roll a 3, 4, 5 or 6, nothing happens. When fighting a warrior, if you roll a 1, 2 or a 3, the attacked warrior dies. If you roll a 4, 5 or 6, the hunter dies instead. Number of this card included: 2
God’s Gif Gain 1 hunter unit or 1 warrior unit. This card may only be played when you have 2 open spaces on your camp tile. Mercy of the gods: If you control less than 3 units, Gain 2 hunters or 2 warriors instead. Number of this card included: 4
Holy Gif Gain 6 food. Mercy of the gods: If you control less than 3 units, gain 8 food instead. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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Number of this card included: 8
Wrath of the Gods Destroy a unit of 1 tribe with at least 4 tribe members in it. Number of this card included: 4
Magic Quicksand Freeze all units on target hexagon. (They may not move until the player who played this card takes their turn again). Number of this card included: 4
Holy Thef Steal 2 food from a player with more than 6 food. Mercy of the gods: If you control less than 3 units, steal 4 food instead from a player with more than 6 food. Number of this card included: 4
Gif of Nature Put all hunted animals back on the board. Number of this card included: 4
Swif Feet-Boost Target Unit may move 3 spaces this turn. Number of this card included: 4 Please note that if this card targets a unit that has been under the influences of a card that limits the movement of a unit (such as Magic Quicksand), this card will take priority over it, meaning that the unit may now move.
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Swif Team-Boost Units on target hexagon may move 2 spaces this turn, instead of 1. Number of this card included: 4 Please note that if this card targets a unit that has been under the influences of a card that limits the movement of a unit (such as Magic Quicksand), this card will take priority over it, meaning that the unit may now move.
Hunting Trick Cards These are cards that one can use to manipulate a hunt. It can make it more favourable for you or/and you can obstruct the player(s) you are working together with. They may only target (affect) hunts in which you have at least 1 hunter participating in and thus may only be played when you hunt. Note that there are 2 zones in which a player can own the card. Their inventory and the cards set aside. During the meltdown phase, players get to choose up to 3 cards to set aside to use during the main (hunting) phase. Only these cards may be played by players during the hunting phase. Cards that are set aside that remain at the end of the year and that have not been played move to the discard pile. To set aside a card, remove it from your inventory/hand and place it face down on the table. Only the player who put the card face down may check the card to read what it does, the other players may not check this. It is forbidden to show a card you have set aside to your opponents. In the hand or inventory, a player may have at maximum 6 different ‘Hunting Trick’ cards. If a player has more, he must discard cards (move ‘Hunting Trick’ cards from his inventory/hand to the ‘Hunting Trick’ discard pile) until that player has 6 cards in their hand. Below here is a list of all the cards that exist of this kind:
Quick feet This hunt ends successfully immediately! Number of this card included: 8
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Backstab Kill target unit from another player involved in this hunt. Remove it from the board. The hunt fails for all players involved. Number of this card included: 4
Yoink! At the end of the hunt, you will gain the amount of food another player earns and the amount of food your earned yourself. They will not gain any food from this hunt. Number of this card included: 4
Silent Betrayal Select another player who is hunting together with you. Kill 1 of his units that is in a hunt with you at the end of the hunt (The hunt will not fail because of this). Number of this card included: 4
Watchful eye You may only play this card when some player you are hunting with also played a ‘Hunting Trick’. The hunting trick that was played by that player does not resolve (The effect that that card describes, will not take effect. The card is moved to the ‘Hunting Trick’ discard pile instead). Number of this card included: 6
Holy Protection You may only play this card when some player you are hunting with also played a ‘Hunting Trick’. The hunting trick that was played by that player does not resolve (The effect that that card describes, will not take effect. The card is moved to the ‘Hunting Trick’ discard pile instead). That player of whom the card didn’t resolve, removes one of their units that was in this hunt. NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
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Number of this card included: 2
Preparations Target hunt you are participating in gains you 2 extra food if it ends successfully. Number of this card included: 8
Shared Blessing All players in target hunt gain 2 more food if this hunt ends successfully. Number of this card included: 8
Stray Arrow Roll a D6. If the result is a 1, 2 or 3, remove target unit from a hunt you are participating in from the board. Nothing happens if the result is a 4, 5 or 6. Number of this card included: 6
Rivalry If this hunt succeeds, roll a D6. If the number that comes up is higher than 3, all the food that is earned by other players this particular hunt is given to you instead. If it is a 1,2 or 3, everyone gets their food as normal. Number of this card included: 8 Here is a table that lists all the cards and how common they are: (number of cards “A”/total number of cards in the pile) Hunting tricks cards
Quick Feet Backstab Yoink! Silent Betrayal
Number and % of all the HT cards 8 (14%) 4 (7%) 4 (7%) 4 (7%)
Favor of the Gods cards
Divine Strenght Divine Luck Divine Wisdom Divine Protection
NHTV Academy of Digital Entertainment Group 8 Game Development - Year 1 140005 January 2015 Ivan Yanchev - 140276
Number and % of all FoG cards 2 (5%) 2 (5%) 2 (5%) 2 (5%) Design and Production Max Valk -
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Watchful eye Holy Protection Perparations Shared Blessing Stray Arrow Rivalry
4 (7%) 2 (4%) 8 (14%) 8 (14%) 6 (11%) 8 (14%)
Total amount:
56 cards
V.
Divine Bloodlust God’s Gift Holy Gift Wrath of the Gods Magic Quicksand Holy Theft Gift of Nature Swift-feet boost Total amount:
2 (5%) 8 (19%) 4 (10%) 4 (10%) 4 (10%) 4 (10%) 4 (10%) 4 (10%) 42 cards
Target audience and Market position
For 12 year olds, the average time someone from this age range can focus lies around 36 to 60 minutes. Our game takes place in about 60 minutes or less, making it a good fit. [1] Please note that this is not the maximum amount of time a 12 year old can play. The players can choose to refocus their attention. This renewing is of attention is why children can watch long movies, as long as the movie (or in this case activity) interests them. [8] Our game focusses on somewhat long gameplay (a playtime of around 60 minutes). The game Settlers of Catan has a play-time of about 75 minutes with an age range of 10 and up. This game also features strategic components, similar to Tribal Turmoil. Furthermore, this game uses tactical insight, planning, strategy and lying. Due to these traits of our game, we believe that the game is best suited for the age range of 11 and up. This is because the capability to solve problems by thinking about it will develop in children around this age.[2] This is also called inferential reasoning, which is the ability to think about things that are not experienced by that person and draw conclusions from this thinking. In children, this development stage is also referred to as the formal operational stage. Knowing the difference between what someone is saying and what that person actually means is a skill gained by children around the age of 7 to 12, so we can trust that our players will fully understand that lying could give them a tactical advantage. This is described as Self-reflective/second-person and reciprocal perspective-taking. This means that the child is aware of the fact that there is a difference between someone’s appearance/the emotions they show and their inner self. This is also the age in which it becomes possible for children to try and take the viewpoint of someone else, thus allowing them to try and predict the outcome of a situation that someone else would like. [3]
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In this age-group of children age 7 to 12 is also the period in which strategic thinking develops, as partially described above with the switching of view-points. Children in this age range (and especially the older ones) were able to identify focal points in games that they played in a study, suggesting that they could take into account what the other player would do and how this would benefit them both. These choices are the most consistent in elder players, suggesting that they had a strategy for the situations with which they were presented with. Also worth mentioning is that the highest risk strategy (maximaxi) that came with the highest reward, was picked less than the focal point. [4] The ability to properly work together also does not form until children are around 10 or 11 years of age. This is also the time in which they can deal with being defeated properly.[5][7] Since our game has a great emphasis on competition (although our game has cooperation components, but they are only the means to an end), our game would be more suited to be marketed towards boys. To paraphrase an article: Boys are much more prone to compete than girls and this gap between the sexes arises around the age of 3 to 4. This gap remains persistent throughout child and adulthood. [6] Tribal Turmoil also requires that the players do some simple maths. The skills needed to do these operations will be learned at the beginning of their adolescent stage, as they master ordering and sequencing events. [7] What can be concluded from the following researches is that our game would be best suited for males age 12 and up. This is due to the fact that we know that by this age, children should possess the proper skills that are described above.
VI.
References and Sources
[1]: Attention Deficit Disorder (Short Attention Span), Fort Carson MEDDAC (2000) http://evans.amedd.army.mil/peds/pdf/add.pdf [2]: McLeod, S. A. (2010). Formal Operational Stage. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/formaloperational.html [3]: Deception: Perspectives on human and Nonhuman Deceit (1986), published by the State University of New York https://books.google.nl/books?hl=nl&lr=&id=eHV_8YC_NL0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA271&dq=children+lying&ots= 77uYNg7HfO&sig=0bywefLoQaHyz51tPohs1PZBgZM#v=onepage&q=children%20lying&f=false Chapter 16, figure 16-1: Selman’s Levels of Social Perspective-taking. [4]: Theory of Mind in the Social Sciences: An Experiment On Strategic Thinking in Children (2012) http://www.academia.edu/3536591/Theory_of_Mind_in_the_Social_Sciences_An_Experiment_On_Strategic_ Thinking_in_Children Chapter 6. [5]: Children & Competition, North California State University (1993)
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https://elo.nhtv.nl/CMS/_STUDYROUTE_FOLDERS/19/01.%20IGAD%20-%20Year%201/20142015/9422/2014-2015%20-%20FGA1.LU2-03%20Ludology%202/59296F2B-AC27-44BA-98739D65896D4E22/9313d5e3/LU2%20-%20Children%20and%20Competition.pdf [6]: Gender differences in competition emerge early in life, University of Innsbruck (2010-2014, working papers) http://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/73530/1/744077281.pdf Chapter 6. [7]: Childhood Years ages six through twelve, published by NC state university (2004) http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/fcs/pdfs/fcs465.pdf [8]: Dianne Dukette; David Cornish (2009). The Essential 20: Twenty Components of an Excellent Health Care Team. RoseDog Books. pp. 72–73. ISBN 1-4349-9555-0. [9]: History: The ultimate visual guide to events that shaped the history, year by year. Dorling Kindersley Limited (2011); Human Origins – Dr. Fiona Coward, Dr. Jane McIntosh. ISBN 987-1-4953-6712-7 [10] Gra
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