Building Economies - Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design - page 219

Players gain the following possible actions during a turn:
n Build Raider. Pay one energy to build a raider in any station. Place the energy
token on top of the station to represent the raider.
n Raid. Raiders can be used to steal resources from another player, but only if they
are in range. Raiders can target any enemy station within the length of the long side
of a playing card. When raiding, the active player rolls a die. If the number is lower
than or equal to the number of resources (ice and ore) that are currently stored in
the target player's station, the raid is successful, and the acting player can take one
substance token from the target station and place it on the raider's own station. The
player then rolls the die again. If the number rolled is lower than or equal to the num-
ber of resources (ice and ore) on his own station, the raider is destroyed. A raider can
be used only once per turn, but multiple raids can be launched from a single station
on successive turns.
desiGn challenGe
Find out whether the rules for raiders work and have the intended effect.
desiGn challenGe
create mechanics that allow players to defend against raids.
Summary
We examined games that, rather than providing the player with an economy,
permit her to build her own. These can be single-player games or multiplayer com-
petitive ones . A key quality of economy-building games is that they offer the player
building blocks—often such things as buildings and roads—that let the player set up
economic relationships of her own design. We examined two such games in some
detail so that you could learn from their design: Caesar III, a single-player game, and
Lunar Colony, a multiplayer game of our own. We showed how, with some very sim-
ple building blocks, Lunar Colony creates a “land rush” for resources. We illustrated
how a designer could add some improvements for the game to make it richer and
more exciting, and we suggested ways to create a sense of progression in the game
using scripted events.
The next chapter delves further into the question of progression and shows how
game mechanics interact with level design and storytelling.