MetaGame: Design Vs. Development (5/7/2004)

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MetaGame: Design Vs. Development (5/7/2004)

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05/07/2004, 19:44

Typhon

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MetaGame: Design Vs. Development (5/7/2004)

"Design from Top to Bottom

While working on the creation of the Vs. System, we had many design goals. Some concerned organized play (or how the game performs in a tournament setting), such as knowing we wanted the game to be draftable and playable from just a few packs. Another goal was to make sure the game engine would be robust enough to support (at least) ten years of expansions. One of the biggest goals was to make sure the game felt like superheroes and villains slugging it out (possibly with the fate of the world hanging in the balance).

This goal really had two parts:

One, we had to make sure the engine itself felt like superhero combat. For example, we wanted characters to directly attack other characters. A hero should point at a villain, shout out something like “That’s all for you!” and then rush over and clobber him.

Sure, sometimes a character can attack a player directly—if that player has no characters or all of his or her characters are stunned. Mechanically, the game needs this rule because without it, a player who never played a character could never be attacked. Thematically, I like to think of this as the characters obstructing the opposing player’s ideology. If I have a villain attack a player, the villain’s really robbing a bank or causing random destruction because there are no heroes around to stop him. If it’s a hero attacking a player, that hero’s policing the area to make sure there are no villains around. This line of thinking is basically my imagination filling in the blanks to make flavor fit function. More on this later.

A second goal we had (and continue to have) in trying to make the game simulate super battles was to make sure characters in the game felt like their comic book counterparts. Which brings me to the main point of this article: top-down design. "

...

Read the rest at MetaGame.com

05/08/2004, 16:57

imported_Bizarro #98

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The Bizarro Review: Awesomeness.

Well, now that I've gotten a good night's sleep, it's time to show you everything that makes this article the best one ever.

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Originally posted by Danny Mandel
Flavor vs. Function

All this time, I've been looking at this game the wrong way. There were so many characters where I found myself asking "How does that mechanic represent that character?" Now I realize that I'm supposed to be looking at it from the other way around! It makes this game so much easier to understand.

Quote

Originally posted by Danny Mandel
Some Characters Have Too Many Powers

As much as they bother me, variants are important. Ultimately, their purpose is not to give popular characters a ton of cards to cash in on their Q rating. Their purpose is to keep fans from complaining (which is always a good thing).

Quote

Originally posted by Danny Mandel
One of the great things about the version mechanic in the Vs. engine is that we can make several different incarnations of the same hero or villain, each one highlighting a different power or aspect of that character.

Does this mean that over the course of DC's VS life span, we can expect to see heat vision and freeze breath versions of Superman, telepathic and shape-shifter versions Martain Manhunter, and a Wonder Woman who can talk to animals? Crazy.

Quote

Originally posted by Danny Mandel
Some Characters Have The Same Powers as Other Characters

Here's another Superman issue. Alot of Superman's buddies and even enemies have the exact same powers as him. I can't help but wonder how they'll make Superman, Supergirl, the Cyborg, and Phantom Zone Criminals different.

Quote

Originally posted by Danny Mandel
However, there are still a ton of characters whose shtick is simply, “I’m big and strong. Ha ha! Look at me!”

Ah, the bricks. VS, unlike Heroclix, has done a great job making bricks different. However, there's still plenty of bricks left to go. Let's hope they can keep it up.

Quote

Originally posted by Danny Mandel
Characters' Relative Power Levels

I hope they don't get too carried away with this. Remember, in comics, anybody can beat anybody.

Quote

Originally posted by Danny Mandel
Sure, it may seem a little wonky that one Wolverine has three times the ATK and costs 4 more resource points than another, but keep in mind, in a comic a character’s power level often fluctuates depending on who’s writing.

Magneto can control anything metal (including the metal in a person’s blood—again depending on who’s writing the comic)

Oh, I guess you knew that.

Quote

Originally posted by Danny Mandel
It may seem that I often portray developers as evil. That’s because they are.

This gives a whole new meaning to the term necessary evil. Nothing but love for the developers. They make card games tolerable.

Quote

Originally posted by Danny Mandel
Often, a character’s stat or power will be right on the border of a break point. Let’s say there’s a character whose only power is create a force field around himself. Let’s say he’s in the 2-cost slot and his power is to activate to give himself +2 DEF. Should we make his ATK/DEF 2/2 or 2/3? If this character were somebody really cool, there’s good chance he would have gotten the extra D. Unfortunately for him, his name is Unus.

And it's official folks. Unus gets no love. As it should be.

05/08/2004, 19:53

imported_imported_cyke

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this aritcle was the shiznit!

i am always intrigued by what goes on behind the doors of game design, to see how some of my favorites and not so favorite charachter are incorperated into such a great egnine

05/09/2004, 02:01

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If this character were somebody really cool, there’s good chance he would have gotten the extra D. Unfortunately for him, his name is Unus.

Now that's funny! :D

05/11/2004, 17:22

Dimout

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"Dear God! What is that THING?!?"

The great pirate Roberts

"The Princess Bride"

05/11/2004, 17:26

imported_Bizarro #98

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Maybe.

That's what I thought at first, too. But Danny's article clearly says "Dead God".

05/11/2004, 20:31

Dimout

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Ah, O.k. I read it wrong I guess... But it was a great movie. :)

05/11/2004, 23:18

danielm

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Sure looks like a typo to me.
Why would anyone say "Dead god"?

I mean, that just HAS to be from the Princess Bride.

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