Developer Diary: Lost In Space

Wow, it's been a looooong time since I posted. I guess I just got out of the habit of it, what with everything that's been going on. And it has been a very eventful year. New job, family issues, health issues, and tons of distractions. The amount of time and energy I've put into designing has suffered quite a bit.

But I haven't actually stopped designing. Slowed, definitely, but not stopped. Nebula wants to be made, and that I occasionally get pings from various people asking me about the status of the game just proves that. This is what I've been up to all this time:

• The idea of a tech 'tree' really took off. I went through a bunch of iterations of it, trying out various layouts, adjusting the amount of complexity, seeing if I could make it more interesting and appealing. And you know what I learned? Simpler is better. While adding a tech tree was the correct solution to bring together all of the various disconnected elements of the game, it also shouldn't overshadow the main point of the game, which is repair ship -> get stuff. The most successful iteration of the tech tree so far is where I pared it down to just three independent lanes, shown above. No track prerequisites or unlocks.
• The number of currencies in the game jumping from two up to four was not a positive change. Originally I had cubes and energy, and then I added command points and tech points specifically for interacting with the tech tree. (Tech points gave you new abilities, and command points determined how often you could use those abilities). Yeah... no. Keep it simple, stupid. So, command points went out the window. And, while tech points are still there, there is no more hoarding of them, no more counter you slide around to track how much you have. Tech points now must be applied as soon as you get them, just like any other track icon. (The only difference is that you can choose which track to put them towards.) Instead of command points, the tech tracks now have single-use 'buttons' that you can 'press' (by crossing them off) to activate their abilities. Much less fiddly.
• To add more variety to multiple playthroughs of the game, I felt it necessary to add three additional variables. First, each player gets a couple of free tech points on one of the tracks. Second, each player gets one 'skill', which is a once-per-round ability mechanically similar to the single use abilities on the tech tree. There are four such skills in the game. And third, there are now 'objectives', which basically make ship sections of a particular color or colors more valuable; these bonuses apply equally to all players. All three of these variables are randomized at the beginning of the game in a pre-game 'round', where players draw three random cubes from the bag and must decide which cube to apply to which variable.
• The main sheet is now separated into two halves. This accomplishes two things: it allows me to print the ship layouts separately from the tracks (less redundancy on the sheets), and it establishes a 'standard' size of the sheets in the game. By doing so, I was also able to squeeze the tech tree onto a sheet of the same size. So, three sheets, all the same size, equals three pads of sheets all the same size in the final product. The box might end up a little taller than expected for a game of this type, but what it gains in height it easily sheds in width and length. The overall volume of the shipped box should be quite a bit smaller when I'm done.
• Even though they might look similar, the ship layouts have been completely rebuilt. I realized that some of the creative limitations I had been placing on my ship designs were unnecessary when I made one ship that broke the mold, so to speak. (The Aaraka ship is short, extremely wide, and utterly flat; no crawlspaces at all.) With that boost in design space, I went back and rebuilt two of the older ships, and I'm currently taking a close look at the others to try to decide if I should rebuild them as well with some new ideas or just scrap them entirely and try something else.
• I'm at the point where the game's mechanics are stable enough that I'm starting to incorporate rule guides in the components. The ship tracks sheet calls out the four phases of each turn. The energy tracker has a small symbol guide built into it. Ships that have a unique mechanic now have a callout stating what the mechanic does, rather than forcing the players to read the rulebook for each special rule I build into the ship layouts. Even something as simple as the single-use buttons, with the mechanic that you must cross out the ability to use it, which gives an immediate visual cue that you can't use it again. I'm currently on the lookout for other ways in which the game can help you play it, because I know that it's not a simple game. (The mechanics individually aren't particularly difficult, but there are a lot of them to keep track of.)

And that's just the major stuff I can think of right now. I've made a bunch of other little tweaks and balance changes, and I'm sure I'll make a lot more before I'm done. But overall, Nebula is in great shape.

The only problem right now is that I'm in a bit of a lull. Since the mechanics are solid, the next step is to get in a lot more playtests, see if I can tease out any remaining balance issues. I know I'll never get the balance perfect, but I'm trying to at least expose any large problems. As of right now, I think the various ship layouts might not be balanced against each other. For example, I've noticed the Terran ship often scores pretty high, but I don't know if that's a consequence of the point values being too high, or the ship being too easy to play well, or maybe just dumb luck. (It is still a random and write game, after all.) My day job has been pretty draining lately and it makes it difficult to muster up the energy I need to do playtesting in the evenings or on the weekend. Still, I'll get there eventually.

And, I'm also hoping I'll find the energy to keep doing these posts. Ten months is an unacceptably long time to go between status updates. :)