Game Design Draft Document #1

Alvin here. Just to elaborate upon our idea. I might have changed some names of things and added other things here and there. Let me know what you think. This idea is mainly aimed at boys rather than girls, hence robots to attract them. At any rate I'm not how sure we can cater to girls with the recycling theme we have anyway. Recycling and junks aren't exactly flowers and rainbows.

Story:
People have polluted the world beyond hope and it is now a planet of rubbish. It is your mission to turn the world green again! Can you clean it up better than everybody else?

Tokens:
- Junk Cards
> Metal
> Glass
> Plastic

- Robot Cards
> Soldier
> Farmer
> Builder
> Collector

- Upgrade Cards
> Armour
> Power

- Building Cards
> Factory
> Garden
> Farm
> Recycling Center
[Note: Can have more if you have any good ideas.]

- Card Board per player, contains:
> Number of space squares
> Recycled goods space

Game Rules/Mechanics:

-Starting
> Players start with an empty board
> At the start of their turn they may draw a single junk card
> Junk cards occupy board space.
[Note: How junk cards occupy board space is up for debate. Either one space may contain a certain number of junk cards or all of one kind of junk card]

-Robots
> When a player has enough junk during their turn, they may build one robot
> Robots cannot be used on the turn they are built
> Robots may be upgraded on the turn they are built
> When a robot is built, draw a robot card and put the junk cards needed to build it underneath it

[Note: Robots either take up no space or may take up space on the board. Or we can have a separate robot space.]

-Using Robots
> Soldier robots may attack other robots. When you do so, target robot is destroyed. Remove the robot from game and take one junk card underneath it. The remaining junk cards go to the owner of the destroyed robot.
> Farmer robots may create gardens or farms. Farmer robots are used up in creating a farm, the reasoning being that it has to go maintain it.
> Builder robots enable you to build a factory or recycling center.
> Collector robots let you draw an additional junk card.

-Upgrading Robots
> Players may upgrade a single robot per turn
> You can upgrade a robot the turn it is built
> You may not use a robot on the turn it is upgraded
> You may not upgrade a robot that has taken an action
> Armour allows a robot to withstand a single attack. Instead of being destroyed, the armour card is discarded when the robot is attacked. You regain the junk card used to make the armour.
> Power increases how well the robot performs. Collectors may collect two junk cards. Builders may build two buildings. Farmers are worth more when building gardens or farms. Soldiers do not have a power upgrade.

[Note: Armour balances the soldier robot. The power upgrade is to make the upgrading mechanic a bit more meaningful. I think this complicates things though so we might want to think of another way to balance the soldier robot instead of having upgrade mechanics.]

-Buildings
> The Factory enables the player to build more than one robot per turn.
> The Recycling Center allows the player to recycle junk. Recycled junk goes into the recycled goods space. This is related to scoring.
> Gardens and Farms are used for scoring.

-Ending, Scoring and Winning
> The game ends when all the junk cards are used up or if somebody managed to fill all their spaces with buildings
> Players receive points based on the number of recycled goods cards they have.
> Players receive additional points based on the number of gardens and farms they have.

Issues:

x Soldier Robot Problems
> A player can build sufficient soldier robots at the start and just destroy whatever the other players build, stopping them from doing anything.

o Soldier Robot Solutions
> The armour upgrade can prevent this but I'm not sure how well.
> We can either limit the number of robots players can build. Maybe have a separate robot space. That way you have to balance offense and productivity.
> We can remove upgrades and use a shield robot instead.
> Soldier robots can reduce your points at the end of the game.


x Complexity
> I think the game has gotten pretty complex. Might be too much for 7-9 year olds.
> I could be wrong. Maybe we need to observe some test subjects to see what they are really capable of.

o Complexity Solutions
> Remove robot upgrade mechanics, balance soldier in a different way.
> Remove farmer, let builder do everything. Makes less sense though.


x Name
> Game needs a name.
o Name Solutions
> Recycle Wars (sounds kinda lame and has a violent connotation to it)
> Green World (name kinda gives the wrong image I reckon)
> World Clean-Up

Additional Ideas:

-Different Robot System
> Instead of robot classes, we have plain robots and we build arms for them. Then we have a fancy card that slots into other cards, or have a big card with transparent bits which you can slot cards into. Sounds cool but will probably complicate things too much. Something to think about.

-Mission Cards
> Risk style mission cards to add re-playability.

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Final Note:
That is all for now. Hopefully this is good enough to give everybody a clear idea of how the game is going to work. This doesn't have to be the game we make in the end, but this is what we have right now so lets work with it. If anybody can come up with another idea, mention it and we can discuss it and see if it is better.