In the last blog we looked at the high-level re-imagining of Biomes. Biomes was no longer the game I was trying to design so I reoriented my work around the essential experience. This resulted in a new macro-loop and micro-loop of gameplay. Once again, I decided the easiest way to prototype these loops was to design a new set of board game rules to test out these loops. Last time I said that we would look at how these two loops were expressed through the mechanics of Biomes 5.0. However, before we can get to that we must first take a look at what a supporting mechanic is, understand that discovery is a supporting mechanic, and take a look at the new supporting mechanic of cards.
Supporting Mechanics
What is a supporting mechanic? I am defining a supporting mechanic as a game mechanic which has little to no value in and of itself but gains value in the presence of other mechanics. Consider an inventory management system such as the one in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. In this mechanic players can rearrange their inventory to carry more items. The mechanic is interesting because gives players a way to interact with their inventory. But if the player is simply moving around blank items, say cans of coffee or rocks, they do not care to interact with that mechanic. Only when the player has something of value to store, such as guns and ammo, does the mechanic have any value. In fact, it is the value of what is being stored that gives value to the inventory mechanic. Therefore, a supporting mechanic is a mechanic that is likely boring or useless by itself but becomes fun and useful in the presence of other mechanics which it supports.
Discovery is a Supporting Mechanic
The playtests of Biomes 4.0 – 4.3 revealed two important lessons regarding discovery in Biomes. The first lesson is that discovery is a supporting mechanic. Discovery in general, and exploration in particular, provide players with little direct value. When players explore a tile with nothing on it, or if every tile is the same, then the exploration has no value. Only when the tiles are mechanically different by giving players opportunities to perform other actions does the exploration have any value. Therefore, discovery is an inherently supporting mechanic.
This leads into the second lesson: the quests in Biomes 4.0 – 4.3 did not synergize with discovery. Since Biomes is about discovery, the primary mechanic needs to synergize with and reinforce discovery. This means the primary mechanic should include discovery and/or encourage discovery in some way. In Biomes 4.0 quests were the primary mechanic of the game, giving value to all of the other mechanics in the game. However, the way the quests were designed did not synergize with or encourage discovery. This was evidenced by the fact that discovery ceased, both of exploring new tiles and searching for secrets, once all of the quests had been found. In order for Biomes 5.0 to succeed in delivering on the essential experience of discovery either quests, or another primary mechanic, will need to synergize with discovery.
Adding a new Supporting Mechanic – Cards
Assuming that the primary mechanic is designed to synergize with discovery we can still do more to reinforce discovery in Biomes. In particular, we can add another supporting mechanic that supports discovery. Doing this essentially elevates the importance of discovery and gives it more value to players. This is where the two gameplay loops begin to come into play. The micro-loop is about resource gathering, building, and exploring/questing/escaping. This structure already supports discovery. In this case, exploration is supported by the mechanics of resource gathering and building. The goal then becomes how to best design the gameplay mechanics of resource gathering, and perhaps building, to support discovery mechanically in addition to structurally.
Rather than reinventing the wheel I decided to consult other cooperative games such as Shadows Over Camelot, Battlestar Galactica, and Pandemic to find a strong supporting mechanic. What do all of these games have in common? They all feature cards which players draw each turn. These cards take on two flavors in each game, cards which help the player by giving them tools to win and cards which hurt the players by making the game harder to win.
In these games I observed that the cards were a supporting mechanic. The drawing of cards did not have value without the quests of Shadows, the skill checks of Battlestar, or the cities of Pandemic. With these observations in mind I decided that cards could be a great supporting mechanic for discovery. In particular, resource gathering via card collection could be the supporting mechanic I was seeking. As an added benefit I could also use cards as the basis of a new danger system for Biomes.
Next Time
Now that we have looked at the supporting mechanics of Biomes we are ready to take a look at the individual mechanics of the game. In the next blog we will take a look at several game mechanics and how they relate to and simulate the two core gameplay loops of the new Biomes.