HSV - Game Jam | Devpost

Example of board layout

Inspiration

We took inspiration from various games, both physical and virtual. 'Mettaton's Maze' from Undertale provided inspiration for the different coloured tiles having set rules tied to them. 'Forbidden Desert' inspired us to include a moving board mechanic, etc.

What it does

The game consists of a random 5x5 board which the players will have to navigate to escape The Danger Zone. Players navigate the board using cards that correspond to different coloured tiles.

How we built it

First we used some scrap cardboard to make a prototype. Initially we only had 35 tiles, 5 of each colour, that we used to compose the board from. We attempted to choose colours that would not disadvantage anyone who suffered from colourblindess. Once we decided on colours and numbers of tiles and cards, we remade the tiles and playable cards using white card and felt pens. We used meeples from other playable games whilst we tested it out.

Challenges we ran into

The game does struggle with balancing issues. A lot of the mechanics involve luck, and whilst we adapted the current in-game mechanics to maximise playability if a player runs into a bad stroke of luck, not everything could be resolved with the current design.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The game has a relatively fun ruleset! We had a lot of fun coming up with some of the rarer card's abilities and the overall ruleset. We did our best to include references to various aspects of pop-culture.

What we learned

The importance of balance. The importance of having access to a guillotine. The importance of not leaving designing a game to the last 3 days of the competition.

What's next for HSV - Game Jam

We have decided on a new core game mechanic that would fix a lot of balancing issues and would elevate the gameplay, however within the current time frame we decided it would be unwise to haphazardly implement. There are other minor game mechanics we would like to add, though those are not as important. We have discussed adding an alternative gamemode that we would use to implement all our 'chaotic' ideas that don't fit the current vision of the main gameplay. There are also plans to make HSV into an online game.