Forest Guardians

Forest Guardians is a tabletop board game that I was the lead designer and content balancer on. For this project I was in charge of designing mechanics, playtesting and balancing.

Win Conditions, Strategies, and Payoffs

Players win by either putting out all of the fire on the board or saving all of the animals. This game is tailored towards the Mastermind type of players as a lot of strategies and team coordination is key. The different win conditions offer a couple of different playstyles. Players can either go all out and try to extinguish the fire, or all out to try and save the animals, or a bit of both. Some trucks in the game can hold a lot of water, and some can hold a lot of animals, and then those in between. If players are trying to put out all of the fire, then choosing the trucks with more water capacity would be the obvious choice. If players are attempting to save all the animals, then they would choose the trucks that support this strategy and can hold lots of animals. The payoff of going all-out water trucks is that players might not be able to pick up animals and drop them off before another animal is surrounded by the flames. The payoff of going all-out animal saving is that players may not have enough water to put out the required fire in order to get to the animals, and then return to a Fire Station. There is then the strategy of being balanced on all fronts which offer the player stability in being able to do a little bit of everything. This is probably the safest strategy as they have trucks to deal with each component.

Balancing Log

For Playtest #2:

Removed ability ‘extinguishing power’ from Truck Stat Card
Removed ‘movement’ stat from Truck Stat Card
- Now only water capacity and animal carrying capacity
Removed the point system of rolling the dice and adding the number on the dice with one of the categories in the Truck Stat Card
Added starting positions on the board for the trucks
Made the number of Large Animal Tokens on the board equal to the number of players
Reworked ‘Fire’ spread system
- There are now 4 symbols on the board, one on each tile, which correspond with a normal card deck of 52.
- At the end of each round, a player draws a card from the deck and places a fire icon on each tile connected to the already existing fire which displays the suit on the drawn card.
- Only one fire will be adjacent to each Large Animal Token at the beginning of a game

For Playtest #3:

For the first game of the playtest - Increased the number of fires around each Large Animal Token at the beginning from one to two
For the second game of the playtest - fire now spreads from the already existing fire to all pieces of the same symbol as the drawn card which are connected to a fire already on the board

For Playtest #4:

Increased the number of Large Animal Tokens so that there is now one more Large Animal Token than there are players on the board at the beginning of the game
Changed the amount of fire on the board to correspond with the number of players
- If there are 3-4 players than there are two fire icons surrounding each Large Animal Token at the beginning of the game
- If there are 5-6 players than there are three fire icons surrounding each Large Animal Token at the beginning of the game

After Playtest #4:

Player count now 3-4 players
Always one more Large Animal Token than there are players on the board
Three fire surrounds each Large Animal Token at the beginning of each game
Dice changed from one D6 to two D4
Starting Location changed to Fire Stations
Players can no longer move and their turn ends if they put out a fire and/or pick up an animal

Final Patch Notes:

Changed so that players can only do one action a turn, that being put out a fire, pick up an animal, or stop at a Fire Station

Post-Mortem

Things That Went Right:

We were able to keep a consistent art bible throughout the entire project.

Even with multiple people working on different components we were able to achieve a consistent art style because we had something to reference. The trucks were the first piece of art completed for the game. Based on the simplistic style of the trucks we were then able to use them as a source of reference for the rest of the components of the game. The game board was the next completed component and it was a milestone and helped out significantly with coming to terms as a group over the art style. This was because we all had input as to what to do for the board which kept everyone on the same page.

Successfully achieved desired emotions and player typology.

After each playtest we came together as a group and looked over the comments. We took the comments and began to adjust the game accordingly while at the same time prioritizing emotions. When we came together as a group to discuss what changes needed to be made, we put a lot of attention towards how it would benefit our player typology of the mastermind type of player, while at the same time keeping the desired emotions of anxiety and exhilaration.

Various communication channels and frequent checks.

As a group, communication was one of the things we did best. In the beginning, the workload expected of each group member was a little overwhelming. Once another member joined, there was a lot more organization and we made good use of communication. This was done by constantly talking with each other over discord and posting the work completed by each member so the rest of the group could give feedback on it. Then after each class, we stayed after for a little bit to discuss as a group what needed to be completed by the next class, who was responsible for what, and if we needed to make any additional changes to the game. By doing this, each member was always clear as to what they needed to get done by the next group meeting.

Things That Went Wrong:

Underestimated time to implement scope.

Overambitious scope.

Because the scope of the game was so large at the beginning, it meant that the creation of other elements of the game were delayed. Because the scope was so large, it led to players being unable to grasp the core system of the game and rules during the first playtest. Since the game had so many systems, it meant that there was much more balancing needed than initially intended. This is because whenever we made a change to one mechanic or system of the game it, in turn, affected another system or mechanic.

Didn’t have enough manpower at the beginning of the project.

At the beginning of the project, the distribution of responsibilities and tasks were overwhelming. Therefore resulting in a poor initial player response. Once I was switched groups to this project I reorganized a lot of things and redefined rules.

Leadership at the beginning was undefined.

Because leadership was undefined at the beginning, there was a lack of communication and each member was performing a task not suited to their skill set. Since there was no one person taking on the leadership role, there was no communication between group members resulting in confusion within the group at the beginning.

Things That Could’ve Been Better:

How our scope could’ve been improved.

Next time, we will adjust the scope much more at the beginning to fit better with the timeline and group skill set. By adjusting the game more according to the timeline, it will result in fewer balancing issues for the group which were run into often during the stages of development of this game.

Changing responsibilities to more suit each member's skill set.

It felt as if there weren’t enough members at the beginning of production resulting in members being overwhelmed with the amount of work. This will be improved next time by ensuring that each member on the team has a designated role that is clear to them. This will result in less confusion among members as to what each member's role and responsibility is.

Defining a leader at the beginning.

Next time, a leader will be defined at the very beginning of production. This will result in having a designated person who is responsible for everyone else in the group and making sure they are staying on track. Having a group leader who is responsible for everyone else staying on task will therefore lead to better organization within the group because members will have explicit responsibilities laid out to them. Having no group leader at the beginning before the first playtest resulted in stress and skills among members not being put to full use.