Showing posts with label indiedev. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indiedev. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
The Music of VoZ
We have recently been adding our music from Visions of Zosimos onto our YouTube channel for everyone to enjoy. Our amazing award winning Sound Designers are doing fantastic job composing music that truly contributes to the overall atmosphere of our game . Enjoy some of our soundtracks below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel to stay tuned for more of the Music of VoZ!
Saturday, May 23, 2015
How We Test and Improve Game Design
Here at Forever Interactive, we believe strongly that evidence of what works is infinitely better than decisions made purely on gut reactions and instinct. To that end, the Design team is constantly trying out new ways to revise the game, to make it even better in the end. If a change is deemed necessary, we embrace it, even late in development. Our resource system is a perfect example of this.
For quite a long time, the resources in Visions of Zosimos worked as follows: your resources were determined by which cards you chose when creating your Homunculus, and they remained largely unchanged for the length of a match. Thanks to our Flux system, those resources shifted as cards were cast, attacks were made, etc. All seemed well- our card costs seemed appropriate, people could cast their cards. However, a member of our Marketing team brought up a major flaw with this system. Drawing upon his years of experience as a player of Magic: The Gathering, he proceeded to point out that while we had resources, there was no resource management. That may seem like a subtle distinction, but it is important. Managing resources is a layer of strategy that was both intended from the beginning, but a core appeal for the type of player we want to play our game. As it stands, the player rarely has to even consider their resources, much less strategically manage them. This team member went on to explain a full revamp he had in mind.
The suggestion was a big shift, but radically changed how we would give resources to the player. First, the Homunculus would start with a very low number of dice at the beginning, gaining a die to the pool of the player's choice every round during the Transfer phase. This would allow the player to adapt to the match not only based on their deck composition, but based on what they had in their hand and what the opponent was doing. Additionally, card costs would need to be altered considerably to allow play to continue; the current ones were much to high to fit with the suggested model. Finally, Elemental Dice were to be removed- in their current state, they serve as an extra complication the player does not need, and a crutch that helps enable the kind of play we've been seeing — ignoring resources in favor of simply casting everything you can, every round.
The next step was to test it out, which took us roughly two weeks. After several matches with the updated rules, several things became apparent. First, the initial numbers for the Homunculus were too low, and the resources trickling in too slowly. We'd made the Homunculus incredibly vulnerable and fragile to boot- it essentially shut down the game entirely. After some tweaks, the numbers were less dramatically low, but we discovered that our lowered costs were creating the same problem we had before; we could play out our entire hands every round with impunity. By sheer dumb luck, our original costs worked perfectly within the new system, forcing players to consider their choices when building their forces during a match. The last tweak was to gaining new resources- one die per round was simply too slow. After some trial and error, we settled on giving the player two dice each turn, but restricting them to placing the new dice in separate pools (Body, Mind, or Soul). After the first five rounds, the player would receive no further dice automatically.
Our final step, believe it or not, was more testing. The difference, however, was in whom the players were. Up until this point, our testing had been strictly in-house. After getting a set of rules we felt worked, we took the paper prototype on the road. Not only did we try out the new rules with players familiar with the old system, but also brand new players. Surprisingly, the new system was universally preferred over our current rules. Armed with this new information, it was an easy decision to approve, and this new resource system is now in the backlog to be implemented into the full game.
So, to sum up the new rules — Materia cards will determine what abilities and Life Points your Homunculus has, not its dice pools. Every Homunculus will start with 2 dice in both attack and defense of all three pools, for a total of 12 dice. For the first 5 rounds, the player will be given 2 dice to distribute to separate pools as they choose, prior to being able to transfer dice as normal. Finally, Elemental Dice will no longer be used. With these changes, the game has its intended layers of strategy-deck construction, resource management, and battlefield tactics.
- Dave Brown, Lead Game Designer
For quite a long time, the resources in Visions of Zosimos worked as follows: your resources were determined by which cards you chose when creating your Homunculus, and they remained largely unchanged for the length of a match. Thanks to our Flux system, those resources shifted as cards were cast, attacks were made, etc. All seemed well- our card costs seemed appropriate, people could cast their cards. However, a member of our Marketing team brought up a major flaw with this system. Drawing upon his years of experience as a player of Magic: The Gathering, he proceeded to point out that while we had resources, there was no resource management. That may seem like a subtle distinction, but it is important. Managing resources is a layer of strategy that was both intended from the beginning, but a core appeal for the type of player we want to play our game. As it stands, the player rarely has to even consider their resources, much less strategically manage them. This team member went on to explain a full revamp he had in mind.
The suggestion was a big shift, but radically changed how we would give resources to the player. First, the Homunculus would start with a very low number of dice at the beginning, gaining a die to the pool of the player's choice every round during the Transfer phase. This would allow the player to adapt to the match not only based on their deck composition, but based on what they had in their hand and what the opponent was doing. Additionally, card costs would need to be altered considerably to allow play to continue; the current ones were much to high to fit with the suggested model. Finally, Elemental Dice were to be removed- in their current state, they serve as an extra complication the player does not need, and a crutch that helps enable the kind of play we've been seeing — ignoring resources in favor of simply casting everything you can, every round.
The next step was to test it out, which took us roughly two weeks. After several matches with the updated rules, several things became apparent. First, the initial numbers for the Homunculus were too low, and the resources trickling in too slowly. We'd made the Homunculus incredibly vulnerable and fragile to boot- it essentially shut down the game entirely. After some tweaks, the numbers were less dramatically low, but we discovered that our lowered costs were creating the same problem we had before; we could play out our entire hands every round with impunity. By sheer dumb luck, our original costs worked perfectly within the new system, forcing players to consider their choices when building their forces during a match. The last tweak was to gaining new resources- one die per round was simply too slow. After some trial and error, we settled on giving the player two dice each turn, but restricting them to placing the new dice in separate pools (Body, Mind, or Soul). After the first five rounds, the player would receive no further dice automatically.
Our final step, believe it or not, was more testing. The difference, however, was in whom the players were. Up until this point, our testing had been strictly in-house. After getting a set of rules we felt worked, we took the paper prototype on the road. Not only did we try out the new rules with players familiar with the old system, but also brand new players. Surprisingly, the new system was universally preferred over our current rules. Armed with this new information, it was an easy decision to approve, and this new resource system is now in the backlog to be implemented into the full game.
So, to sum up the new rules — Materia cards will determine what abilities and Life Points your Homunculus has, not its dice pools. Every Homunculus will start with 2 dice in both attack and defense of all three pools, for a total of 12 dice. For the first 5 rounds, the player will be given 2 dice to distribute to separate pools as they choose, prior to being able to transfer dice as normal. Finally, Elemental Dice will no longer be used. With these changes, the game has its intended layers of strategy-deck construction, resource management, and battlefield tactics.
- Dave Brown, Lead Game Designer
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Just Hours Left To Still Become a VoZ Backer!
We are currently only hours away from till our campaign comes to an end! Don't miss out on your chance to become an exclusive backer and earn some really epic VoZ rewards! Did you miss our most recent updates? No worries, just click on any of the links below!
Project Update #25 - Homunculus Lab Showcase
Project Update #26 - The Future Lobby System
Project Update #27 - The Future Raid Game Mode
We would like to thank each and every backer for their amazing support throughout our campaign! We could not have done it with out you all!
The Forever Interactive Development Team
Project Update #25 - Homunculus Lab Showcase
Project Update #26 - The Future Lobby System
Project Update #27 - The Future Raid Game Mode
We would like to thank each and every backer for their amazing support throughout our campaign! We could not have done it with out you all!
The Forever Interactive Development Team
Sunday, April 26, 2015
The VoZ Kickstarter Countdown!
The development team here at Forever Interactive would like to personally thank each and everyone of you who has backing us on our Kickstarter campaign. Whether it was sharing or retweeting a post, or it was actually backing our project, we just want to let you know that we appreciate you for your support!
In case you missed our most recent Kickstarter updates...
- We recently had added a new tier onto our Kickstarter! Our Immortal+ Local level tier grants you and a guest access to our pre-launch dev party!
- Check out the Immortal+ Local Level tier HERE.
- Project Update #14: Quest 2 is still looking for a winner! Want to be the first person to receive a redemption code for the Damned Soul to use as a minion in game?
- Find out how to win by going HERE.
- To reach 3k on our campaign, we introduced a drawing for all Kickstarter Backers. We broke our 3k mark just yesterday! Three lucky winners were awarded a FREE VoZ Digital Booster Box ($100 value).
- Find out who the winners are by going HERE.
- Want to download some really cool VoZ wallpapers?
- Click HERE to go to our Project Update #17 of our Kickstarter for the link to download the high quality wallpapers!
- As of today we are currently sitting at 41 backers, and are 90% of the way funded! We couldn't of done it with out the wonderful support of our friends, family, and our players!
Keep spreading the word of VoZ as there is only 7 more days to become a backer and earn some really cool in game exclusive rewards!
Thank you and stay tuned in for more!
The Forever Interactive Development Team
"Visions of Zosimos"
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Kickstarter Tiers
Check out our Kickstarter Tiers with this amazing graph that explains all the different rewards that are offered! Only 10 days left to back us for a chance to earn exclusive VoZ Backer Rewards! :)
Brand New Players Guide for Kickstarter!
We are proud to announce that we have released our new Kickstarter Edition Players Guide of Visions of Zosimos and that we are 72% of the way funded on Kickstarter! Check out some images from the Player Guide below, or go to the link HERE to download the PDF Player Guide file.
Monday, April 6, 2015
Unlock the Grigori Outcast!
Hello loyal VoZ Students!!!
As many of you may know, we are currently in the midst of a heated Kickstarter campaign and we need your help! We got two donations yesterday, but we are want to keep the velocity going…. so we are offering a very special reward to the first two people to donate at the Soothsayer level or higher. If you are one of these lucky people, you will be receiving a redemption code to unlock the Grigori Outcast as a playable minion, that you can redeem shortly after the release of the game at GenCon 2015.
http://kck.st/1IaCLLp
This offer is only available until 11:59 pm (cst) today and is only valid for one Grigori Outcast redemption per donator.
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