Design Background and Upcoming Streams
almost 2 years ago
– Sat, May 28, 2022 at 03:48:05 AM
Hello everyone!
First, I just want to say thank you for all of your support. We've been working on this project for a long time, and it is tremendously validating to see the response.
Today, I wanted to take a little time to share with you some pieces I've written about the history of the design. Like our previous projects, I have been sharing design diaries on Board Game Geek over the past couple of months which talk quite a bit about the game. I started by introducing the design in this post. I got into more specifics in the second post about the game's origins, which covered the earliest history of the design and told the story of some of the things the studio has been up to since we finished Oath. It also gave me an excuse to share a picture of the big pile of books that inspired some of the game's worldbuilding.
After that, it was time to get into the mechanical weeds. I first wrote about the game's trick-taking action system. This post explains a bit about the mechanical context of the games and why I thought the conventions of trick-taking games were appropriate. For the next post, I switched gears and talked about the game's narrative design. Specifically, I wrote a lot about how the game uses time to tell its stories and how it differs from Root and Oath. I also talk a bit about one of my favorite old CRPGs, The Magic Candle.
With that background in hand, we then moved on to the subject of asymmetry and the game's special power design. Though Arcs starts players off with a very symmetrical footing, player positions diverge pretty quickly. From there, we were primed to talk about combat design! In what has now become a bit of a tradition, Arcs went through tons of different combat systems before I found one that I was happy with. I talk about the process of finding the right way to do battle in this post. This post in particular is a real treat if you'd like to see some zany discarded ideas.
Finally, in my post from last week, I wrote about a subject which we generally don't talk about too much, product design. In this piece, I covered the conversations that led to the decision to split the campaign off from the core game and some of the considerations that we have to think about to make sure the game is viable in the long-term.
And if somehow you still have not had your fill of Arcs, we've got a lot more in store.
Our Staff Live Play series kicks off tomorrow!
We’ll be taking Arcs through a full campaign, three games, on consecutive Thursdays. Game #1 lifts off at 2PM CDT on Twitch! https://www.twitch.tv/ledergamesmedia
(VOD will be available on Twitch for 14 days, and look for the upload to our YouTube channel next week!)
The live plays keep on coming!
Tune in tonight at 7PM CDT to watch Beneeta_K, with guests Sam (Lord of the Board) and Tim Chuon play Arcs on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/beneeta_k
And be sure to keep an eye out for all of our upcoming streams:
Questions and/or need Support?
Please email us at [email protected] for any questions or assistance. Please do not use the Kickstarter messaging system to contact us.
