Honey, I'm Home!

The last post on this blog is dated August of 2008. Following that post, almost no work was done on the game, and we lost interest and moved on. OR SO WE THOUGHT! While cleaning out my file system on my computer this week, I stumbled across our old design files. I texted Gavin and he agreed that the game deserved to be finished. We were so close when we quit to done that it seems almost criminal not to finish.

However, things have changed. It's probably going to almost entirely me (John) doing the finishing touches, though maybe I can rope Gavin or Vincent in as well.  We're a bit older now, having gone off to college, and I've played a good deal more games in between the start of the this design and now. As such, I have a couple large redesigns I'd like to make. This post is intended primarily to go over some of the changes that my redesign is going to bring to Ruin.

Theme:
When we started Ruin, we had designed an elaborate fantasy world, incorporating elements from some of our favorite fiction. Looking back on it, most of our writing and storyline was amateurish and lackluster. As such, I've decided to scrap the fantasy theme for something that has a better connection to the game's central theme of exploration and ancient ruins. Rather than fights between Elves, Goblins, etc., Ruin moving forward will consist of cards representing ancient cultures and their respective mythologies. The cultures I've chosen to focus on for the first batch of Ruin cards (read: for playtesting) are the following:

• Heroic Age Greece / Greek Mythology
• The Maya / Mayan Folklore
• Ancient Egypt
• Norse Mythology / Nordic Folklore
• Shang Dynasty China/ Chinese Mythology

Each of these cultures already has a rich mythology and set of characters, so it should be easy to update our current cards to reflect these changes.  By using identifiable and recognizable figures, the game can tap into the sense people already have of the epic nature of these stories, rather than having to inspire that epic sense through a blurb on the back of the game box. While gameplay mechanics won't be affected by the thematic changes, it will make for an overall more enjoyable gameplay experience.

For reference, I'm making the following moves thematically:
Kaalik -> Eygptian
Kel'Quiroth -> Norse
Goblin -> Mayan
Elves -> Greece
Humans (General) -> China

Graphic Design:
Since going off to college, I've developed a small taste for design (I did the Parthenon graphic above in Illustrator). I'm not great, but I think applying some of my new skills to a redesign of the cardface and the terrain tiles will really improve game quality.

Other graphical changes include an image overlay on Assistant and Explorer cards to signify the culture that they come from.

Gameplay:
In addition to removing a number of mechanics that were complicated and added little to gameplay, such as Goblin Hate, Attachment, and the rules regarding numerical advantage, the game board is going to be made smaller by reducing the number of hexes on each terrain card. This will reduce the number of turns it takes for combat/meaningful interaction to begin.

In addition, terrain will be printed onto cardboard tiles, reducing the setup time to build the map.

More changes are coming, but these are the most major ones, so I thought I'd cover them first. I can't leave you without a little something something, so without further ado:

Oh...that's Archmage Tarode. That's not new at all. Click the spoiler below to reveal the new, re-themed Archmage, along with a preview of the new cardface!

Click to Show Card

Click image for big!

The card redesign isn't in its final form at all, as I just cranked out the graphics really fast in Adobe Illustrator. (The culture background I took my time on, so that isn't likely to change) I do, however, think the redesign offers a significant improvement in readability and functionality. Note that it doesn't have a damage icon. I was thinking about having all attacks deal 1 damage unless otherwise stated on the card. (only 13/68 Assistants deal more than 1 damage, and only 5/29 explorers deal more than 1)

Anyway, that's all for now. Next time, I'll show off a few more redesigns and the backgrounds for the other 4 cultures (and the cultureless background).

-John

Inactive for a long time

This blog has been inactive for a long time. Hopefully that will soon change. The school year has started, which means that it is time for us developers to hit the books instead of designing. However, a quick update on our progress. We are well along on developing a rulebook, and most of the units are in close to their final forms. We will hopefully have a beta test soon. If we do, it'll be held at Great Escape Games on Hurley. Anyway, back to the grind.

-Tyralis
Lead Developer

PS: to any readers directed here from my newly created Facebook, howdy.

Rules Schmules: Terrain

The terrain rules for Ruin are fairly simple. Each player has a pile of 3 Terrain Cards at the beginning of the game. No two of your three cards maybe be the same. Each player shuffles their card and reveals it. The map pictured on it becomes their half of the field. The ruin cards are marked with hexes and color-coded to tell you the terrain type of each hex.

Terrain Types:
In Ruin there are 4 terrain types. Three are the standard terrain; Rock, Forest, and Dirt. The only special terrain type is water.

Dirt: Dirt terrain represents dirt, low grassland, and other non-rocky areas with little foliage. It is generally a neutral terrain for most races, though some excel at it, such as the burrowing Kaalik, attuned from so many years of tunneling.

Forest: Forest terrain can be the literal leaf-green, arboreal forest that comes to mind, but can also just be any overgrown piece of land.

Rock: tough mostly representing craggy and mountainous areas, rock can also be the stone floor of a temple or the streets of a city

Water: Water is usually a small stream or pond, and has special rules attached to it. Only Flying units may move on water terrain. Some units have the Keyword Ability Swimmer, which allows them to move over water terrain as though they had flying. To all other units, water is impassable. Water confers a +0 bonus to attack and a +0 bonus to defense

Walls:
Walls are on the border of select hexes in the game. If a hex is terramorphed, all walls on it still remain in their original position. You cannot move or attack through a wall, though you can move around it.

Blank tiles:
As Ruin maps are symmetrical, at the beginning of the game, there are 4 gaps on the map. Use a random method such as dice rolls or flipping a coin. The player that wins chooses to either go first, or place terrain in these 4 spots. Whichever player does not go first places the terrain. In games 2 and 3 of best 2 of 3 matches, the loser of the previous game receives the choice. Walls may not be placed. The tiles may not be water tiles, only Forest, Rock, or Dirt.


Terrain Cards:
a sample terrain card looks like this. The ? Hexes denote where the coin-flip tiles are placed. The A is where your opponents artifact is placed. The R is the return where your artifact must go, and the space where your units spawn into the map. The gray is rock, the green is forest, the brown is dirt, and the blue is water. The places where the border between hexes is a thick white line denotes a wall.