This product features something pretty exciting too, OUR NEW CARD BORDER! We’ve been hard at work updating the look for System Gate and this is a massive upgrade across the board. The goal with this border was to solve some of the frequent problems and complaints with the previous one.
In addition, this product is part of the previous fan card submissions. The creators of these cards are Emil L. and Devon Harman. The rest of the fan card submissions will be released in FS02.
Now for a bit of the sad news, at this time I am not sure when FS02 will be properly released. We are experiencing some production delays on that product specifically and in the company as a whole. Speedrobo Games is currently going through some expansion and working with other creators and companies. This has resulted in some growing pains. These issues have impacted FS02 the most, and I apologize for the wait on that product.
Regardless, 2024 is going to be a very exciting year for System Gate! The overhaul of the card borders is just the start.
There was a cross over fighting game that I used to really enjoy in my youth. One thing that game did was that it added in characters from upcoming games for that platform. It was dumb, but in a cool way. I always wanted to do something like that, so I did.
Releasing with BT08 is the FUTURE FLASH PROMO PACK! This will be the promo pack sent out to participating store locations to use as prizes during this sets release window.
This pack will be featuring 6 all new cards that all feature characters form UPCOMING SPEEDROBO GAMES!!!
As always, please check play.speedrobogames.com to see upcoming events from our amazing store partners to learn when you can get your hands on this promo pack. Ask your local game store if they are participating and registered at play.speedrobogames.com!
Hey there card folk, Speedrobo here. In today’s Dev Log I’m going to talk about one of the challenges I have faced when designing and playtesting this game. It was something I did not anticipate as I come from the realm of CCGs.
TWO PLAYER VS FOUR PLAYER.
The game, even though I didn’t realize it, was designed and balanced around having all four players playing at the same time. This would mean that each playstyle, single rush, team combo, player control, and Putin control would all be featured. Each player kept the others in check as both control and rushdown battled it out. Four player games have always been super fun and dynamic.
The problems arose when the game was taken to 2 player. Originally, the two player game play worked exactly the same as 4 players. Each player would choose a Dinosaur Team and deploy their three pieces. Issues started to be shown almost instantly. If one player choose a control team and the other player choose an aggressive one, the non-control player would just get bullied the whole game. With no other players to spread out the abuse, it was a matter of fact. If both players choose an aggressive team, nothing could stop players from just chomping Putin, and the game became luck of the draw on where Putin would move and who would get the win. This was much less fun than the four player variant.
The first thing we tried was having Putin draw 2 cards at the end of each turn. This helped somewhat, but still had the issue of the potential lack or domination of the control players.
The current solution is that in a two player game, players will choose and control 2 dinosaur teams. This essentially gives the same balance as the four player game with the all 4 play-styles being represented and Putin moving the correct amount.
I’ll keep y’all up to date on the progress of the two player format. Rules are still in adjustment as the game is still being developed.
Don’t forget to follow our kickstarter! Thank you!
Hey there Card Folk! In today’s Dev Log, I want to talk about the Stegosaurus elements of the game. They’ve been pretty tricky to get right, and I want to share the process.
The Stegos being movable obstructions that both players and Putin could interact with was another very early idea from “Torch”. It was one that I really liked and so did our art director Aneta (@LadyAnimeNet). I love the little hats she gave them!
From a gameplay standpoint, getting the Stegos to feel right has been a challenge. They need to be intractable, but still hinder player mobility. Putin needs to be able to move them too, but in a way that’s easy to understand and won’t result in the dreaded “legal phase”.
To begin, let’s talk about the Putin side of the equation. Initially, Putin could move through his Stegos and only had one card that interacted with them, “Fearless Leader”.
This initial set up wasn’t very good. Putin was far too mobile and was hard to corner. In addition, it felt like the Stegos didn’t do a great job of protecting Putin when he would just waltz away from them at the drop of a hat. Also, the lack of interactivity with the Stegos meant that more often than not, those game pieces wouldn’t do anything to impact the game.
To try and solve this, we then made it so that Putin couldn’t move through his Stegos, but sadly this brought in new issues. A single instance of “Fearless Leader” would make it so that Putin would totally freeze in place, unable to move. This removed one of the core things that makes the game fun, Putin’s random movement. So, it was even worse.
In the end, I think we found a compromise. Putin’s North, South, East, and West movement cards can now hop over Stegos, but the rest of his movement can’t. This brings in the best of both worlds! I’ll keep you posted on how this version turns out with more playtesting, but so far results are positive.
As for players, I put in options to allow for players to move the Stegos around. However, most of those options were not strong enough to be impactful. Most of them would only move a Stego and not a dinosaur. This left the cards feeling boring and un-fun as the player wasn’t moving THEIR pieces around. This was an easy fix!
As it stands, I am feeling much better about how the Stegos play into the game and so are the testers. I’ll keep you posted if anything more changes about this element of the game.
If you want to follow the game’s development and release, please check out our kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1557798155/eat-putin-comedic-board-game
Hey there Cardfolk, Speedrobo here. Over the next few weeks I’ll be talking about the development of our new board game, “Eat Putin!” It’s a comedic board game where players take control of time traveling dinosaurs on a mission to eat Putin and save the future. In these articles, I’ll describe the thought process that goes into developing a game like this.
The initial play mechanics were presented to me by the game’s producer, “Torch”. He said that he wanted the game to be about players moving around a game map trying to chase down Putin. To me, this instantly made me know what the core game mechanics would involve. I knew to invoke that feeling I would need to make pieces that players could move. I would also need to make a piece for Putin that the game itself could automatically move. Therefore, going with a grid and using cardinal directions was the obvious method that would be easy for players of all skill levels to pick up on.
The earliest prototype game map
I also knew from the outset that Putin’s movement would have to be determined by a deck of cards. At the end of each turn, simply flip over the top card and move Putin as the card describes. This allows for random movement that is clear and easy to execute, while allowing for other more interesting effects. Dice could have been used for movement, but then the interesting effects would not be able to be applied in the Putin deck. Of course, special die faces or number combination rules could have been created. However, if I did go this route it would hurt the game’s ease of learning as it’s more terms, rules, and symbols for players to learn and memorize. Going the card route I feel is the best choice.
An example of a Putin card that does more than just movement.
The next order of business in the core design was figuring out how players would move. If Putin was going to use a deck of cards, why shouldn’t the players? This would make things consistent across the game. In addition, this allows me to play into my design strengths. This is my first time designing a board game like this, as my experience lies in the realm of card games. Originally, I had a central player deck that all players drew from. However, “Torch” recommended that I make a deck for each unique dinosaur faction and implement a distinct playstyle for each team of agents. Once again, this helped me play to my game design strengths.
I settled on these playstyles for the factions due to how the game’s core mechanics worked. As with all games, I wanted a mix of playstyles so that players could take advantage of the mechanics they found interesting. Therefore, I wanted one movement based team that focused on team movement, one movement based team that focused on solo movement, one team that focused on controlling the movement of other players, and one team that focused on controlling the movement of Putin.
That’s all for this Dev Log. I plan to be writing more in the future. In the next one, I will go over the early card design and the changes that we have made due to play testing feedback. Hopefully the next article will give insight into how I listen to and adjust games around player feedback.
Thanks! And don’t forget to check out our pre-launch page on Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1557798155/eat-putin-comedic-board-game
