Hello all!
Today, I'm going to talk about the evolution of Fortune Avenue's design and the solutions I've found to improve the game experience, notably by managing frustration and adding interesting new mechanics.
In the early stages of development, I focused on the game design of Fortune Avenue, a board game inspired by Monopoly but with a personal touch. One of the first challenges I faced was to limit the randomness inherent in the game, as randomness can often lead to frustrating situations, especially when one player is clearly losing.
Let's imagine a game with three players. After 20 minutes, one player already has 20 hotels, another has 15, and you only have three small caravans. Barring a monumental stroke of luck, it's almost certain that you're going to lose. And while you're waiting for that inevitable defeat, the pleasure of playing disappears, both for you and for the other players waiting for the game to move on.
To address this problem, I initially thought of a timer system that would limit the length of a game. However, this could be perceived as unfair to players who have a chance of getting back on track. Unfairness creates frustration, so I dismissed the idea.
I then looked at a way of shortening the frustration with a sudden-death system. I considered several solutions, including the idea of rigging the dice to finish off players in difficulty, but finally opted for a more dynamic and fun approach: the pursuing banker.
Here's how it works: as soon as a player falls below the $100,000 mark, a banker appears and starts chasing him. The player then has five rolls of the dice to get back over $100,000, or he's kicked off the board. The banker then pursues the next poorest player if he too is under $100,000. This keeps the waiting time to a minimum and adds a fun, stressful animation for the struggling player.
To keep the other players from getting bored, I've introduced an elimination bonus. When a player eliminates another, he earns a substantial bonus, making each action meaningful and engaging for all players.
On the development front, now that the prototype is ready, I'm focusing on getting the demo ready. Currently, I'm working on 3D modeling with Blender to create the game's tokens. In the prototype, there was only one token, a white bear. For the demo, I modeled several tokens: a boat, a pawn, a shoe, a van, a little dog, a scooter, a goose, a top hat, a penguin, a pig and a suitcase. That's 11 tokens, each with five animations, for a total of 55 animations to create.
It's a time-consuming process, especially as I often go back to improve the animations. The idea is to prepare an ultra-polished demo for the next Steam Next Fest. However, it's likely that I'll postpone Fortune Avenue's participation until the next festival to allow the necessary time.
To fine-tune the demo, I'll be organizing playtests this summer and gathering your feedback to improve the gaming experience. In the meantime, you can wishlist Fortune Avenue on Steam.
Take care.
Xavier aka Binogure