I have been working on-and-off with this game, now called Hamster Valley, since 2017. There have been several pivots during the years. I am going to write a historic overview that describe how the design have evolved. However, in this first Design Diary I want to focus on what I have been working on the last couple of weeks.
I recently decided to have Hamster Valley as my main focus for now. I also decided set more ambitious goals for the game, since I will now devote a lot of time and energy on Hamster Valley. Before I had the idea to make this a print-on-demand game on The Game Crafter. This meant simple, small components that could fit in a small game box. Now, unconstrained by the limited components I had before, I am redesigning many game components. I have also made several bigger changes to the rules.
Please note that all images are work in progress as part of a prototype.
Re-evaluating what is important
I started this pivot by critically evaluating what is most important in the game. This is what I came up with:
- The rush to get enough food and points before winter arrives or before someone ends the game.
- Memorable stories to tell each other from the fights for territory. Feeling of being through an adventure together.
- Compete against the other hamsters to get the magical Items you need.
- Enough strategic depth to intrigue experienced gamers, but still easy to teach to an inexperienced gamer. If necessary, with the help of a Family mode.
- Making your hamster more powerful by improving your tableau, as the game progresses.
- Differentiated ways to get points, while still keeping the Food collection a main source of points.
- Beautiful and functional components that works well with the theme and the mechanics of the game.
Main changes and the reasons why
A big and beautiful game board
Created a proper game board with the four regular territories and the Temple territory in the middle. Now the cards that belong to each territory actually can fit within that area on the game board. This give the players a better overview of what actions are available in each territory.
Reason: Beautiful and functional components that works well with the theme and the mechanics of the game. Reduce complexity.
Bye bye energy deck – Welcome energy dice!
Energy dice instead of the energy cards deck. The strength cards deck is also replaced by custom dice. This eliminated the last remnants of deck building from the game – which I believe is a good thing. Hamster Valley is now a tableau building game at its core, while the dice add excitement and some healthy uncertainty.
Reason: Beautiful and functional components that works well with the theme and the mechanics of the game. Memorable stories to tell each other from the fights for territory. Making your hamster more powerful by improving your tableau, as the game progresses.
Merge two resources into one (bye bye Exhaustion)
Merged the two resources Focus and Exhaustion into one resource – only Focus. This also allowed me to completely remove the (quite complicated) mechanics for generating Focus from your Food cards.
Reason: Reduce complexity.
Burrow expansion changes
Simplified rules for expanding your Burrow. 1 Material = 1 space for Food cards in Burrow. For a maximum of 4 cards in Burrow.
Reason: Reduce complexity.
Control over territories
Implement a mechanic that allows players to gain control over the regular territories. Control of a territory will let you get the Item cheaper. Each territory you control also give you one bonus re-roll of the energy dice each turn.
Reason: Memorable stories to tell each other from the fights for territory. Compete against the other hamsters to get the magical Items you need. Making your hamster more powerful by improving your tableau. Strategic depth.
The Temple cat as a common enemy
The Temple cat is now a common enemy, that can be defeated together. This is made possible by introducing “armor” for the cat, which means it requires three successful attacks to defeat the cat. It could be the same player that attacks all three times, but more often it will be a combined effort. Every successful attack still give the attacker a personal reward. But there is also a collective reward that is distributed to every player when the cat is defeated.
Reason: Memorable stories to tell each other from the fights. Feeling of being through an adventure together. Strategic depth.
New bigger player mats
Redesigned the player mats with the hamsters. Now with much bigger dimensions. This allows for a much clearer and more coherent design. The layout and graphical elements on the player mat will intuitively show the card limit for both the Pouch and the Burrow. This was one of the main challenges with the old player mat design.
Reason: Beautiful and functional components that works well with the theme and the mechanics of the game. Reduce complexity and rules that are easy to explain.
What I will be working on next
The focus next week will be to update my old mod at Tabletop Simulator and get some playtesting going!
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