Global Intervention – Development
6 mins
Game Concepts
When we started development on the espionage game we had a basic idea that we wanted players to be able to know information about events that were going to take place without them knowing some information. The major issue was how to do this and how would the system work. On a device it could easily be done with variables altering and weighting events and a whole host of other techniques. We had to work out a way of doing this but in an environment which required prescribed events while also giving a method for players to find out some information. We did many iterations of this technique and struggled to figure out a system. We ended up scrapping some techniques such as having tokens that allowed the player to use these to see a card out of the next three. We tried having different system again and again and we weren’t happy with the results. We decided to instead have a global hand, by this it is meant that there was a set of cards that became active in play as the rest would remain inactive. The active cards could then be used as a pool which could be manipulated by the players. This was closer to what we wanted but didn’t really work well. We then developed a system of using the pool and allowing each player to take turns and look at a card at a time. This gave the players a goal to work towards which had a chance of being the same as another, this gave the game extra depth and allowed for more complex behaviour to emerge without limiting other features and rules.
As this was going on we also developed the system of resources which expanded to allow for four tokens overall which started from a single basic resource which was used to buy everything. By adding more, it allowed for supply issues for each player which encouraged interaction between players in the sense of trade and allowed for more interesting events. We also used this system coupled with a modifier to encourage movement as early playtesting showed that movement was really needed except for completing cases. This added an extra level of depth by making the route players take vary more so and required more thinking. This actually made moving your players have a more intresting and tactical side to it which is really useful for making a game engaging. Especially if it has a meaningful impact on the game (such as the amount of resources the player will have).
Early on when we started development we didn’t have a method of completing the game but knew the aim would be to take down a large terrorist organization. We didn’t have any idea on how this would work but knew the cases would help work towards this. This is when we started to develop different levels of the cases: minor, major and crises. The minor and major cases are developed around collecting credits (this is the only way to get them) which gives the incentive to complete them. With credits the players can buy spies to build up the strength of their organization slowely or dive these into working towards the victory condition. The cases are coupled by having a certain amount of failed cases causing the crises. Crises have a major effect on the game by costing a lot to solve, being win conditions and counts towards defeat. This works great as a system as it gives the situation a high stake feeling which is what we wanted to convny. This is why we added the defeat mechanic as it add more drama and urgency.
A lot of this game was developed in an iterative state which meant we found issues through playing and developed methods and system to deal with these in a quick and adaptive state. It allowed us to remove and change system to see what effect they had. One thing we didn’t account for which was especially highlighted by the iterative process was that players would tend to compete over the same cases. This meant that we need a system to deal with this. We originally tried a rasing system but this just morphed into people just driving the price up as high as possible and lacked any skill. We decided in the end to replace this with a method of betting in secret. This meant there was more skill involved as the player was force to give a value to the case. They also had to think about the consequences of what would happen if the other player got it. This meant there was a lot of complexity around such a simple system. This highlighted a certain set of feelings within the game that we wanted the player to feel; which was feeling intelligent and powerful which both go hand in hand in this sort of setting.
Something that came apparent through playtesting was the lack of control the players who wanted the crises to take place, they could only just sit back and wait. We then added in the option to sabotage which was implemented the same way as betting system but adding the choice for the player not to solve the case. This gave the players who were at a later stage more control over the outcome of a phase but also came at a high cost meaning it had a good side effect of balancing.
In the end we had a simplistic system for playing a complex game with plenty of grey choices for the player to make. I feel the game may struggle under plenty of replays as there may be a specific meta that becomes apparent but this can only be found after a longer life span of the game. This could also be addressed quite easily by adding some more variations (such as different missions or more things to spend credits on/ ways to lose spies) or balancing. However, this is all theory so in regards to what is known about the game currently it seems to be well polished in regards to its’ systems and complements lots of play styles making it appeal to a wider audience. It is also easily understandable in the way it plays from my own and teams experience of explaining and testing the game. These are all good qualities within a game. The game genre is what we are calling a pre-emptive strategy game which sums up the game really well as you are having to plan quite a few turns ahead while also adapting on the go. This captures the core parts of what we believe being a spy is like in the modern day.
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