An old estimation trick I use when finding happy-mediums in numbers is to go back and fourth by whole number extremes instead of guesstimating where it is exactly and hitting it. Go one way in a mild extreme, then the other way in a lesser extreme, then back and forth closing the gap until I get to where I need.

Game design doesn’t quite fit this method, though somehow I’m doing so anyway without trying. Exactly 12 days ago, M.E.C.H.A. was too punishing and basically unwinnable. 3 days ago the game was too easy and the players won without breaking a sweat. Now, the game is once again too punishing. It’s annoying, but at least the changes I’ve been making are enough to swing the pendulum in the direction I’m intending.

With a new version complete, M.E.C.H.A. v4.5, I had a playtest with my good friend Nick, a video game designer and developer with ample board game experience. We played a 2 player game but with notable changes:

The Tummy Track and Kaiju Threat Cards

When the Kaiju passes through Citizens, he eats them, adding the Citizen cubes to the Tummy Track. It has 12 spaces – on the 6th, 8th, and 10th place on the track, there is a Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 symbol respectively.

Examples of Threat Cards are “Draw +1 Kaiju Card in the Kaiju Phase” or “When the Kaiju Moves, he moves +1 Space” or “At the end of the Kaiju Phase, add +1 Citizen Cube to the Kaiju Track.

The previous version had the Kaiju feel not scary at all. I loved the idea of the Kaiju track and figured adding Threat Cards would make him feel stronger as the game went on.

Single Crisis Meter

Each Region no longer has its own Crisis Track, there is instead 1 Crisis Meter with 6 Spaces. When a Kaiju steps on a space with Citizens, the Crisis Meter goes up by 1. If the players rescue Citizens, the Crisis Meter goes down by 1. If the meter ever reaches 6, the players lose.

This change was made as I felt that adding a Tummy Track made there be too many tracks to keep track off. I don’t want the game to feel fiddly.

Reduced Target Cards

The Target Deck is now 3 Mecha Hangar Cards, 1 Nearest Building Card, and 1 Most Citizens Card. This was in response to a playtester stating the Kaiju felt too “distracted.”

Start with 2 workers, with a maximum of 3

This change was to address having so many workers that moving them wasn’t needed. In the previous version, I had 4 workers just camp out at the actions I needed.

Using the Medbay as an Action

When the Kaiju steps on a worker it gets sent to the Medbay. In order to retrieve your worker, it is a worker action to move from Medbay to the Airship. This change was in response to my previous playtest being too easy, and was a suggestion from a playtester. To be honest, I was very worried about this. This felt like it can be much too punishing, but it’s worth testing.

Kaiju Card draw is number of players plus 1

This change was to further make the Kaiju scarier. With a 2 player game, the Kaiju is doing 3 card actions each phase.

How it went

We lost in about 30 minutes, not counting teach time, via the Crisis Meter reaching 6. Having 2 workers was very punishing, and poor Nick had his workers stepped on by the Kaiju twice, making it so he only had 1 action for about a third of our game. He had exactly 1 resource draw, and it was a freaking Civilian.

“The most powerful thing the Kaiju does is Move.”

A quote from Nick that I do want players to feel, but I’m not sure in the way that he meant. A monster the size of a building walking in the city should be devastating. We got to 1 threat card, which was “Draw an extra Kaiju Card during the Kaiju Phase.” This made the Kaiju fast. In fact, the Kaiju was too fast and too furious. He was so fast, it felt like there was no way in hell we can catch up. I think going back to drawing a Kaiju card per player can help ease this.

“I wanted to save more people, but I couldn’t because my workers are too slow!”

Nick liked the idea of saving people, and said that was his favorite part of the game. He even liked the idea of drawing citizens from the bag since it represented finding someone in the rubble. His main issue was that the workers weren’t effective enough to make a difference.

Right now, the actions each worker can take are:
– Place in the City (public board) from the Airship (player board)
– Move in the City by 1. Each Worker can carry 1 Citizen.
– Recall a worker back to the Airship from the City.
– Heal a worker from the Medbay and bring it back to the Airship

Since the workers cannot be Placed and Move, Nick felt that it was very restricting since the Kaiju was moving so much. People were getting squished the moment he got a worker on the City. Currently, there are a few Schematic cards that can let you do this, but since you start the game with none, you cannot do so in the first turn of the game.

This made me wonder about starting the game with Schematic Cards. Since most Schematics are one-time effects, this can allow some opening combos out the gate. This will definitely be in my next playtest.

“The game’s win con seemed a bit too hard for 2 players with 2 workers.”

I love this idea, and will playtest it the next time I play with 2 players.

Final Thoughts

I need to now slow the Kaiju down

Going back to Kaiju Cards draws being 1 per player might do the trick – but we’ll see since I also added the Tummy Track and Threat Cards this playtest. I’ll be playtesting solo tomorrow so I’m not sure how that will go with just drawing 1 – I may need to adjust this for a solo playtest but we’ll see.

A “Medbay Action” is too punishing

As expected, not getting the City benefit due to a worker being on stepped on was enough punishment. Losing a whole other turn after the fact by having to use a worker action to move from the Medbay to the Airship felt really bad, as you are now effectively losing 2 turns from that worker.

Increase the Crisis Meter

It was set at 6 for this playtest. I’m going to try how 10 feels tomorrow, but my gut tells me thats too high. The art of finding a happy-medium?

Start with Schemtaics Cards

There should be some cool combos and game plans from the get go, as well as make the player feel cooler earlier in the game.

I will try these adjusted changes tomorrow. There are now 34 days left until Design Day.

This weeks game design goals:
– Reduce overall game difficulty via adjustments to Kaiju actions, Threat Deck, and Crisis Meter
– Make a v4.6 based on adjustments above
– Schedule and have 3 playtests, 1 being solo
– Blog about those Playtest’s findings
– Design and Print a v4.7 based on findings from this weeks playtest.
– Keep excited about Design Day without freaking myself out