One of the things I mentioned in my first post is that I had started to
develop a board game called The Heist. As I was working on it I had decided to
use a mechanic that I enjoy in other games such as Flashpoint: Fire Rescue,
where you move around a location using AP and perform roles as stated on cards.
The issue I found was that I had started with a mechanic and attempted to
create a game around it, this resulted in having created a game more akin to
'The Robbery' rather than 'The Heist'. I scrapped the game and started anew,
with a different focus.
The thing that stood out was when discussing it with friends and online was
that a lot of people were commenting on the great theme and how exciting it
could be to play. No one commented that they were looking forward to playing
the mechanic, not that it wasn't good, but our imaginations don't lend
themselves to playing a mechanic that has been used before.
This was a good sign for me. It meant that I had hit on something that
people wanted to act out as part of the fantasy that is a game*. All I needed
to do was to work out what mechanics best replicated people’s expectations, and
delivered them in an exciting way. As I haven't finished the mock up I'm yet to
see how it goes but I spent a good amount of time thinking about different
mechanics and how they play out. I then compared these to some reference
material to determine what the expectations were and how to deliver this as a
game.
Establish the Expectations
The reference material was easy. Heist movies are a genre of their own.
Why movies? They are pure fantasy and written and produced to be engaging. A
movie has to get people to pay to see it, and then hold their attention through
all distractions. If a game can achieve the same aim, then it should play
well.
For this I developed some criteria for the game:
1. Must follow the classic heist formula.
2. Must not stall or have any long waiting periods.
3. Must provide options for achieving victory.
4. Something or someone must be actively working to prevent the player's
success.
5. Simple elegance in gameplay requires simple elegance in rules.
It seems like a pretty hard list to adhere to, so some of them won’t be
as strong as others. It’s about finding the right balance to make it feel like
a heist.
Tease Out the Mechanics
Stories are usually told in 3 acts, in a nutshell:
Act 1 is the establishment of the characters, their relationships and their
world. It introduces the struggle that they have to face. Act 2 is
the development of the team/protagonist and eventual failure, this is to set up
for the final act. Act 3 is the final challenge. The
team/protagonist works his way back up to triumph (or fail) over adversity. The
final result isn't as important as the character development that occurs
because of it.
A heist film generally looks like this:
- Act 1: ID the Mark. Gather
the team and resources. Conduct initial recon. Develop a plan.
- Act 2: Conduct
detailed recon. Make an attempt. Discover the competition. Realise the
plan doesn't work / someone has taken a critical resource away / get
caught.
- Act 3: Fix the plan / get
the last resource / pull off the heist or get caught properly.
Act 1 gave me two options. Either have it as co-op with each player
having a role or have each player build their own team and work against each
other. The former was how I initially envisioned the game so I am going with
the latter.
I developed a bidding system for character cards in order to allow each
player to fight for resources. This created an economy which I could also use
to have players purchase equipment to provide bonuses. For initial recon
players can buy a look at a security system on the board, then place it back
down without any other players seeing it, or show it to anyone they wish.
This allowed the players to develop their own plan to how they wanted to
attempt the score. They could go in with a lot of muscle and fight their way
through, get some good thieves to sneak in, have a few mechanics to engineer
their way in or buy some conmen for a smooth talking operation.
It also gave insight into how the actual heist should play out. There
needed to be multiple routes in with different types of security along each.
For variety's sake a board with randomised security systems can provide this
quite easily.
Act 2 can be covered by the initial mechanics. Players can bid against
each other and attempt to sabotage their opponents. To conduct detailed recon
players can enter the Mark at any time for further recon or to steal other
items to gain cash. The players will also have other ways to hinder their
opponents which will depend on the resources they already have.
I’m attempting to create a sense that the player isn't just doing the
maths, but fighting for the best outcome and trying to prevent an opponent from
achieving theirs. It also opens up the possibility of creating alliances and
negotiation for trade. Players will have to be aware of what their opponent is
doing, creating interest between turns (point 2).
Act 3 is the conduct of the heist itself.
Players move their team through the building, disarming alarms, picking locks,
conning guards and escaping from dogs. The players can move in at any time, creating
a race in the planning and preparation phases. Players can also work together
by sharing resources or against each other here by placing traps, alerting
guards and all out confrontation.
This will create real time tension and pressure. It is essentially a
card play dungeon crawler where the use of resources and decisions on contingency
plans will affect the outcome. The penalties for failure will range from loss
of characters to ‘arrest’, causing some serious disadvantage.
Conclusion
Working from what people will expect from a heist to finding the
mechanics to deliver it required research into the popular expectation. By
breaking down the story that is told during a heist movie I’ve decided on the
following mechanics:
- A bidding system to recruit characters and purchase resources.
- A randomised board to create options.
- Card/stat based PvP and PvE allows players to work with or against
each other.
- Two integrated phases of preparation and action which creates an ‘open
world’ in which to play.
- Penalties for failure causing set back and re-analysis of the plan.
The only point that isn’t apparent here is point 5: Simple elegance in gameplay requires simple elegance in rules. You’ll
have to wait to see the game before that is explained.
*Although there are many games which have a mundane theme but an
interesting mechanic which draws attention and interest.
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