![]() Enough unique mechanisms to stand its ground as a standalone game, and to have enough reason for you to play it over the others when in the mood. An example of this is the dice placement core mechanism, and the area majority scoring both of which are in every episode with slight modifications and twists.Ģ. “Signature” mechanisms of the series that are present in every episode, but also evolve over time (something to make players feel “at home” in each subsequent game). Our design goal for each game was to have a healthy mix of two types of mechanisms:ġ. So, four stories - four games! We wanted each one to be playable as a standalone game, but also to include a campaign mode where the outcome of each episode influences the next. Unraveling the mystery of the island (which I’m not going to spoil yet :) ) and reaching the epic conclusion. Settling in for the “long run”, establishing a functioning society and learning to coexist with the dinosaurs (as described above) Ĥ. Starting to grow the secured settlement into a city and setting out to explore the island ģ. Leaving the safety of the ship and trying to establish a foothold on the island while being constantly threatened by the dinosaurs Ģ. We identified four episodes in the story of our stranded survivors.ġ. ![]() And the crazy idea was to make a game for each generation to actually tell you these stories, eventually leading to the setting of the game we had. The generations faced different challenges in establishing their presence on the island and they all had different stories. In this concept, the people in our game were the descendants of the original shipwreck survivors, several generations down the line. This realization inspired me to present something to the team I initially dismissed as “too ambitious”: the episodic concept. Initially we wanted to do a simplified tutorial version with slightly different artwork on some of the components, but we soon realized that, both mechanically and thematically, the tutorial game should have been at least something unique. It soon became obvious that we were unable to just “let it go” (as usual :) ), so we started throwing around ideas for a solution. In addition, the game was (and still is) pretty complex with a lot going on, and it certainly could have benefitted from some sort of mechanical lead-up or tutorial. After all, the setting suggested that the survivors have been here for a long time, and it would be great to know what happened over those years. Yet, there was one thing that felt a little strange: even though each game played quite differently, resulting in various little stories each time, they always felt like the conclusionof another, much longer (and very exciting!) story. But the Adventures (previously Raids) needed some work: we really wanted them to feel risky and exciting but with sufficient player agency over the outcome - and, obviously, we also wanted to include the dinosaurs! Overall, the new theme was a pretty good fit from the get go: the Assembly mechanism (a periodic scoring that rewards area majority in the settlement’s various districts), simulated the power struggles you would expect in a situation like this quite well, and the dice placement/dice influence was a great representation of you, an aspiring leader, trying to sway the ship’s best specialists to your cause. The whole team was excited for our newly found “shipwrecked survivors on a mysterious dinosaur island” theme, but obviously such a radical deviation from the original “vikings” theme required us to tweak (and even redesign) some of the core game’s mechanisms. Let me take you back to the first days of 2017. ![]() ![]() To continue where we left off, today’s piece is about how the theme influenced our existing mechanisms, how it eventually led to the episodic concept - and exactly what that is. In my previous blog post (available here if you missed it), I reminisced a little on the very beginning of the Perseverance project and the journey of finding the theme we have today.
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