Brewtality
Pitch: Compete to reach the goal of brewing the ultimate potion, with the help of number cards and special cards with unique abilities. Strategically predict your opponent's next move and foil their plans by spoiling their potion. In this symmetrical information game.
Roles: Co-creator, responsibilities were game design, playtesting and the rule book.
Summary: Alchemy is a passion project that I've been working on alongside my friend who is an illustrator. Alchemy is a competitive math game. Use number cards from -5 to 5 to reach either -11 or 11. This game feature multiple relic cards, with each having a unique effect. Play cards on the opponents' potion to foil their plans while trying to win yourself.
Design Philosophy:
Goal
To have a game that is easy to pick up but hard to master. While teaching quick math arithmetic.
Simple but flexible card rules
The way I achieved this in the design is by first having a limited amount of special cards that are all simple in nature but have flexible usability. Such as the bomb which can discard any card from the game, or the swap card that allows the player to swap cards around between any cauldron.
Symmetrical Information
Having information laid out symmetrically like chess allows new players to see what the opponent is capable of. While skilled player can predict future moves from the opponent. Resulting in a game of trying to find the sneakiest way win
Math as the core
Having math as the core of the game allows most players to have at least a base amount of knowledge when interacting with the game. While keeping skill high, as the quicker you can do math, the more you can predict and plan.
Progress: After multiple tests and iterations, we are very happy with the state of our game, as far as the game is played. The rule book and art are still under review, and changes based on feedback are currently in the works. Next up we have to work on the marketing, package design and distribution. We plan on creating a Kickstarter to gauge interest and build an audience. There are plenty of ideas for expansion and special edition cards in the works.
The core of the design is getting to 11 or -11 early, but while testing we found that being able to win in just 2 turns was incredibly hard to for the other player to anticipate. So we ensured that this game required at least 3 turns of play before anyone could win.