Continuing our top down design process, what are the mechanics of a game about mad science? What is mad science? For the most part, it seems to be about making bizarre, fantastic creations and turning them loose on an unsuspecting world. So you build things, but you also have to build up a lab in order to build bigger and better things. And there we have the core of a strategy game.
However, mad science tends to be rather destructive, and people who play strategy games tend to get not a little frustrated when the economy they spent the last half hour nurturing is demolished in one fell swoop. The game Grave Robbers From Outer Space has this problem. If players take it in stride, the immense sways in fortune can be fun, but it also means the winner is usually the person who put a fist full of character cards down before rolling the credits. Random. Unsatisfying. There are enough mediocre games out there that I swear I will not release such a game. I hope you guys hold me to that.
One tension I want in the game is balancing the needs of winning prestige now against building up for the long haul. And, as stated, it should be easier to build up than tear down, otherwise there will be little reason to build up. It seems logical for the tearing down to be tied to the fighting mechanism, but there is the danger that weakest player (who probably isn't doing too well, which is why he is the weakest) will be picked on and stay there. This is a definite problem in Cities and Knights of Catan. Through the Ages has a military component that (from what I read) is more balanced, so that may be something to look into.
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