In 2023, I created a small, self-published board game called Escape from Rotter Mansion. I created 10 copies for backers and had so much fun making the game that I decided to give it another go in 2024.
When I pitched the game to buyers, all I knew was that whatever game I created, it would have a windup monster as the randomizer. This time, I planned on selling 20 copies of the game and got 21 backers! I also posted regular updates for the game's backers so they could chime in on the process. Here they are:
GAME UPDATE #1: This is the first of several regular updates on the windup monster game I am designing.
I've been wanting to make a game using a windup toy for awhile now. My younger brother owned two windup games in his youth - one was a bowling game (Strolling Bowling) and sumo fighting game (Sumo Smash). These were both very charming games but pretty simple. They were "fire and forget" games that didn't give the player any agency. I knew that whatever I wanted to design, it had to be more than that.
In the past, I had also played with the idea of using windup teeth for a game. But I never quite found the right design for it. They are pretty creepy however!
Recently (and I honestly don't remember how) I found myself in possession of a windup monster (Godzilla? A Dinosaur? A Crocodile?) and I found him to be a very charming looking fellow.
I discovered that you could buy this windup monster in bulk, making it much more cost-effective and desirable for publishing a game. So, I took the plunge and bought several of these monsters with the intention of creating a game around them. Having a lot of these monsters was a bit overwhelming!
The real challenge was understanding how the windup monster worked. If they were to be the randomizer in my game, I had to figure out how they moved when wound and released.
I ran several tests, charting the monster's erratic movements. To see how far they can travel on a single "wind" and how their path deviated during movement, so that way I could look for predictable patterns. The chart I made might look like multicolored abstract art but it helped me make a few decisions about how the game should work.
GAME UPDATE #2: I will be posting regular updates on the windup monster game I am designing.
Designing a thematic game is all about player expectation. If I say "I'm designing a game with a windup giant monster" the player (and customer) is going to have certain expectations about it: breaking buildings, stomping on people, wrecking a city, etc.
As a designer, it is up to me to create something that matches those expectations otherwise the player is going to be disappointed. So, in order to do this, I had to come up with a design idea based around those expectations.
I came up with four.
A peek into my process: Before I figure out what components I need, I usually draw out what I'll need and how it might be used. I literally have 50 notebooks filled with this kind of stuff (although not all of it is as prettily colored as these are - I knew I'd be showing these to you) and I find it extremely helpful when working out the basics of a game design.
Counting down the designs: The fourth idea was about the monster stepping on little people. I looked to one of my favorite games for inspiration: Survive: Escape from Atlantis. In this design, players control several little people who are fleeing from a central space to the edges of the board. The monster would be placed on one of eight spots (which would be rolled using a d8) and would march in, squishing anyone who got in his way. There were two problems with this design: one, too much output randomness (randomness that occurs between the player's decision and the outcome) and the design was almost exactly like a previously published game Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur... which one of the readers of my previous post pointed out to me. Since I have no desire to reinvent a previously published game, so #4 was right out.
#3 was about the monster leaving a trail of destruction. Players would mark out their buildings on a grid map with dry-erase markers, then they would select a play a card to determine where the monster walked. If the monster walked over their building, it would be destroyed, and the monster would leave fiery debris in its wake, making those spaces unbuildable until the player extinguished them. The whole idea was a little too much as a dry-erase game board wouldn't fold up inside the size box I wanted to make the game (believe it or not, the box is one of the most expensive components to a game!) and I'd have to include dry erase pens - which I never really liked because they dry out too quickly and then have to be replaced. Also, the debris tiles could be subject to sliding around if the board gets bumped. So #3 is not the design to go with.
#2 has some of the same ideas as #3, but the building are little papercraft buildings. Which would look great, but I have no idea how to make these things for even a small run of games. I'm sure there's someone out there that could figure this out, but when the windup monster would bump into them, they would just get pushed around - not a very exciting spectacle I was hoping for. This design also featured little fleeing people and debris tokens and it just started to feel a little too complicated for the level of game I was shooting for. Plus, I was just blatantly copying the gameplay of Fearsome Floors. This gets #2 taken off the list.
Don't you hate it when you come up with the best idea first? That's what happened here. Players expect the windup monster to knock over buildings, let's give them what they want. The little blocks can be stacked - which can be fun on its own - but also knocked over which is fun! Add to that, players can "bet" on which buildings get knocked over by buying insurance, so that makes getting a building knocked over a "good thing" rather than a penalty. There is still plenty of work to be done with this design, but out of the four, it's the strongest and I think will be the most fun.
GAME UPDATE #3: Now, on to some practical tests. If this monster is going to knock over buildings, we have to figure out what the buildings are made out of. I had to test several types of components to determine what would work best. It's a very scientific process. Believe me.
A. I first tried standard (16 mm) dice. What I like about dice is that the player might be able to "spin" down the number to represent the integrity (damage) of the building. However, when the windup monster ran into a short tower of dice (3 high), he failed to knock it over, and only ended up pushing it a short distance. Plus, the building the dice created seemed too tall compared to the monster. These weren't the results I wanted, so on to the next one...
B. Next up are smaller (12 mm) dice. These got knocked over when the monster collided with it, but it only knocked the top dice off of the building stack. It wasn't the full collapse I was hoping for. While I'm tempted to use dice because I like the number idea, I'm concerned that it might be too complicated for a game about a windup monster. I definitely don't want to use wooden dice because I dislike the feel of them. Instead, let's see what results I can get from the other types of components...
C. This time I used plastic cubes, about 10 mm large, to create the building stack. These cubes were fun to stack and ended up creating a building that was a little uncertain, which I found appealing. When the monster collided with the building stack, the cubes knocked over and scattered pretty well, giving satisfactory results. So far, I like these the best. However, before I decide to pick a winner, let's give a few more materials a try.
D. These are wooden cubes, also 10 mm big. I don't know if there is a significant price difference between wooden cubes and plastic ones, but when the monster collided with the wooden cubes, they were less inclined to scatter and fall the way I wanted them to do. I'm torn, wooden components are "classier" but I want them to do what I want them to do. No one said this would be easy! On to the last one...
E. These yellow wooden cubes are about 8 mm large. They fell over and scattered nicely when the monster collided into them, but they might be just too small. The building created, even at four cubes high, just didn't look in scale with the monster. They are also rather difficult to handle (at least for me and my big sausage fingers - although having neuropathy right now doesn't help either) which I don't like.
It's either going to come down to C or D. I think I need to do a few more tests to determine which component I eventually go with.
GAME UPDATE #4: Did I say this update was about rules? Yeah well, more testing has to come first. Rules are gonna have to wait.
Testing started with a standard 18x18 game board… but it was too darn big for the windup monster. I decided to go with a smaller board instead.
I taped together two sheets of paper to create a 12” by 11” board. (It will probably be 12x12 in the final game) which seemed to be the right size for the game board.
I make a test board with several circles on it to get an idea of how the windup monster would move around. I played with a few ideas of different layouts of the board but decided to bite the bullet and draw out a map of Tokyo.
I created a simplified map of Tokyo and ran about a dozen tests to see how the windup monster would move around it.
Then I placed some “buildings” on the map to see how the monster would knock them around as well as how many buildings could fit on the map.
Finally, I had to determine which way the monster needed to be initially pointed in order to maximize its movement path. Once I determined this, I ran several tests to prove them out. I decided to keep the “spawn points” on the outskirts of the map to minimize players knocking over their buildings on the map.
I also played with the idea that certain prefectures were more in danger than others so I color coded them based on their proximity to the kaiju spawn points. I may or may not keep this idea in the final game
GAME UPDATE #5: As you saw last time, I was doing tests on a map of Tokyo and was quite pleased with the results. First,
I had to redraw the map from my original layout which I had marked with
colors indicating the "threat level" of the provinces. Then I scanned
the map into the Photoshop and made a few tweaks.
Then I played around with the colors - I wanted to make sure that they were all color-blind friendly, so I consulted the interwebs and found a chart to help me.
Then I started coloring the provinces. I thought about them being close "zones" but given how I want the properties to be distributed amongst the players and how I want players to have properties on different parts of the map, I decided to change the color layout. You'll see how this comes into play in the next post.
And as for the rules, I started them! But it's a little slow going as I make choices and then change my mind or look at other ways of having the game work.
GAME UPDATE #6: I've been drawing a lot of cards lately in preparation for play testing the game. I know that it's a lot of work that will probably get tossed out, but you never know - maybe everything will work perfectly the first time!
What I do know is that your response to my card art (and that "outline" of the game that I previously showed of) was so positive that I decided that I will be drawing all of the art for the game, including the rule book. Plus it will keep me on budget for the final game.
First up is the map of Tokyo (not final art). Notice the different colored sections on the map. These are zones that the player will be able to build their buildings, using custom building cubes, on. Players start with a couple of these rent cards (and a couple of building cubes to build with), but the rest will be purchased during the course of the game.
The players will receive "rent" based on the height of their buildings (up to four cubes high) on their turn. The goal is to make more money than the other players. I'm still sorting out how money will be
represented in the game. Metal coins are great, but they might be too expensive. I have to price it out.
The player can also spend their money to buy insurance on their buildings, based on the height of their building. If the monster causes a building on the colored zone to fall, the player collects. This is a one-time per card event, the spent insurance card is placed back into the market for others to purchase.
See those circles on the map? Those eventually will have numbers on them. On each turn, the "first player" who has the monster (the monster is passed around the table in a clockwise manner) choose a card from their hand of 1-8 - the numbers correspond to a location where the wound-up monster is place and released. Players can strategize whether to unleash destruction on others or on themself to profit from the insurance. (The number card is discarded after it is used - each player gets one shot of using a number during the game)
However, another player can choose to play their "army" card, which shifts the monster to the left or right space - target player's choice - which becomes the new spot to where the monster is released. Again, this is a one-time use, so use it wisely. (I'm considering this card may be a market card too, rather than a freebie - it might be too powerful to make it a free card.)
Finally, we have the sushi cards, which players can also buy in the market. If you complete a set of 3 sushi cards, you will earn money at the end of the game. The costs and rewards of these cards will have to be tested to make sure they are "worth it" to the player... or that they may be too powerful.
The cards will define most of the game play, but there are a couple of extra factors that I need to play test. I don't want to ruin the surprise of them... yet.
Meanwhile, I'm talking to Panda about creating the building components. I have a quote, but I want to see if they can make a sample. I'm always excited about this part of the process. I hope that this look at the game is getting you excited for it; I know that I am!
GAME UPDATE #7: After creating the game’s money, I think that I have all of the core game components ready and assembled!
It is here that a game design goes from a beautiful idea to a fail-able reality. I will first play the game solo to see if it is “doing what I want it to do” and get the first pass of the rules down on paper.
Then, it will be ready for others to playtest and break it. It is in this play-break-fix-play cycle (iterative design) that the game improves and edge cases are found and addressed. I hate this part of the process, but it must be done.
Keep in mind that almost everything you see here (apart from the windup monster) is placeholder.
GAME UPDATE #8: Solo play testing! Playing a game by yourself is an... interesting... experience. You have to pretend like you are two totally different players - each with their own motivations and strategies.
Fortunately, there isn't too much hidden information in the game - mainly choosing a card to determine the path of destruction you are going to make the windup monster take. But even those results can be... unpredictable!
The biggest changes to the prototype that needed to be made was to the economy of the different cards - rent, insurance payout and sushi - all were over-priced, leading to some very skewed end game results. I believe the first game was 24 to 63!! Not good!
The numbers were corrected and the economy might still need to be adjusted with further play testing, but for now, the end results are now pretty close to each other.
I've played the game a half dozen times and it's "doing what I want it to do" which is all I can hope for from a prototype at this stage. Hopefully, it holds up to human testing!
The other learning was that the paper map didn't take kindly to being folded in half. The crease that remained affected both the cube towers standing up and the movement of the windup monster. The map will most likely be cloth in the final product to prevent this from happening.
As for the rule book, the rules continue to be tweaked as I test. I'll be writing the first draft of the rule book soon, so I can get everything down on paper and not forget what they are!
GAME UPDATE #8.5: The title
So, I’ve been concerned about the placeholder title: “Oh No! There goes Tokyo”. The title is taken from a line from the Blue Oyster Cult song “Godzilla”. I like that it’s similar to “King of Tokyo” but I’ve been concerned that it might be thought of as racist.
I’m not looking to offend any one. I haven’t come up with a better title for the game yet. Am I being too sensitive? Am I worrying about nothing? If you are a backer, chime in with what you think. If I do a two-sided map, the second side will be LA because A) its where I live and B ) the sushi cards would still work.
GAME UPDATE #9: Does Thickness Matter?
I took the prototype out for playtesting and folded the map in half because I didn’t have room for it flat in my bag.
That was a mistake as it created a crease that actually impacted the movement of the windup monster.
This leads me to the conclusion that I need a board that stays flat - either a gameboard or a cloth mat … the direction I’m leaning towards.
However, there are many types of cloth and I was curious if the thickness of the mat mattered. So I made two mat, one from regular paper and the other from a heavier lb stock to see if there was any difference .
Other than the windup acting crazy and only walking in tight circles, there didn’t appear to be much of a difference between the two.
Good to know.
GAME UPDATE #10: Cuuuuubes!!!
“Oh No! There Goes Tokyo!” will come with cubes. How many? I don’t know. Probably a lot of them.
I bought a tub of centimeter cubes for playtesting next weekend. It’s not like I don’t already have lots of cubes in my house, but they weren’t the RIGHT cubes. They weren’t what I needed: Plastic. Colorful. There are a lot of them in that container and I had to organize them all by color because of my OCD or I’m a Dracula or something.
I have to say, I like the way they look on the map. The colors all look happy and fun as they await their destruction - although the final game will have “special” custom cubes - more on that revelation later.
The real question is “how many cubes does a player need?” I want to make sure there are enough for the players to build some tall buildings in the game but not so many that there are lots of left overs. That’s what the playtesting next weekend will find out.
The anticipation is killing me!
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