Klondike is digital dice-board adventure game where you step into the boots of a prospector during the late 19th-century Gold Rush, inspired by the works of Jack London
Key features:
- competitive spirit
- resource management
- no battles
- random events
Game design docs: https://ims.cr5.space/app/p/ZX63EBoX/klondaik-en/a/n/gdd-about
Digging into Klondike Outline - Days 8-14
In this series of posts, we'll continue to share the development process of a turn-based game set during the Gold Rush era and the tools we use to help us along the way. For those who missed it, the game will be a digital version of a tabletop adventure game with random events, a competitive spirit, and an emphasis on strict resource management (should you spend resources and time healing a teammate now, or risk it and try to reach the nearest village?).
Our concept is beginning to stabilize, and we're preparing to release a demo to test the game's core mechanics. But as often happens, if we don't write down what we want to see in this demo to paper, inspiration and imagination can drift off into working out unnecessary details.
This is where the planning section in IMS Creators comes in handy, allowing you to specify which parts of your concept should be implemented and by what deadline.
This way, you can create a comprehensive work plan, which you can then use as a task source for your team. IMS Creators will automatically calculate the percentage of planned work that is ready for a specific stage.
To create the plan, we created sections in our concept listing equipment cards (player abilities and items) and mechanics that need to be implemented for the demo.
We created a separate Type for equipment cards, which we will later expand by adding attributes such as activation cost, applied effect, and so on. This will allow us to export the card database from IMS Creators in the future and use it as a kind of "admin panel" for the game.
For mechanics, we used the built-in "Game Mechanics" type. Essentially, it's just a text document with a completion tracking function. Moreover, if you add a checklist to this document, IMS Creators will automatically calculate the percentage of completion.
You can attach tasks from the Kanban board (or create new ones) to the checklist items. Once the task is completed, the checklist item is automatically completed, and the completion of that mechanic, and then the entire stage where it's attached, is automatically recalculated.
And to avoid any misreading in the game design document, we pasted a synchronized copy from another file where the mechanic was already described into this mechanics file. This way, if the text changes there, it will be updated here as well.
Completion can be tracked in the same way in "Game Objects." For us, these are currently our "Equipment Cards." We could also create a checklist in their basic type, for example, where we would note whether we've already drawn the image for the card, programmed the logic, etc.
Then, we would have an individual work plan for each card. But for now, this is unnecessary for our demo; it will come in handy later 😊
All of this will help us stay on track and prioritize the tasks that will bring us closer to the coveted 100% of the demo stage.
What have we done in the prototype since last time?
- We've improved the display and handling of equipment cards.
- Players are now marked with flags on the map. We've implemented a minimal animation of their movement.
- We've added a display of the player's allies and their stats.
- We've refined the movement logic: now blocking and dangerous cells stop the player.
- We've implemented scouting, sorting gears, and card refill mechanics.
Digging deeper into Klondike - Days 3-7
After collecting feedback, communicating inter-team and inter-self, we realized we needed to adjust our concept. We needed to make mission progression less random and more manageable.
The game is now more about managing resources in a limited environment than a dice simulator. However, risk hasn't been eliminated – we still want to create a sense of adventure, and in adventures, something always goes wrong. What changed in the concept?
- We introduced a new resource, Luck, which allows you to reroll any die rolled. This is a very rare resource that makes risk manageable. Should you reroll the die to avoid injury at the beginning of the journey? Or save it for the final sprint at the end of the track to overtake your opponents? It's up to you to decide and build your game strategy.
- We've clarified the rules for different types of cells. For example, dangerous cells now block you only if you decide to move at random and haven't scouted the tile. We've also added guaranteed positive cells, such as the Source and the Settlement – they will be visible on the map in advance, allowing you to plan your route accordingly.
- We've refined the mechanics of equipment cards (now action cards). Building the right deck is now an integral part of the game.
- We've added more tactical actions that players can perform on their turn, and we've refined other details.
The refined concept can be viewed at this link: https://ims.cr5.space/app/p/ZX63EBoX/klondaik-en/a/5e5767ad-b0f0-4336-846e-ac66f4b9d706
The development of a concept is a natural process. To avoid fear of making changes to the concept, IMS Creators (https://ims.cr5.space) features a file revision history. Here you can always revert back.
And to keep your colleagues from guessing what's changed in the game design document, IMS Creators marks modified files and blocks.
A list of all changes can also be tracked in a special "Changes" section.
This way, you and your team will always be aware of what exactly has changed in the game design document.
But we weren't just working on the concept. Our simple prototype continues to grow:
- We've refined map generation; cell types are now assigned so that it's reasonable to take not only shortcuts but also detours to replenish supplies.
- We've improved the generation and display of player cards.
- We've added walking bots (the most basic kind).
We'll continue to build the prototype, taking into account the refined mechanics.
We're starting a series of posts about how IMS Creators helps, using a real-world development example.
The game starts with an idea that can be easily and visually represented in our Game Design editor.
So, imagine the late 19th century, the gold rush. You're playing the role of a gold prospector, eager to stake his claim to the most gold-bearing fields and become a legend in the Yukon. It will be a dice board game-like experience, without combat, but with a competitive spirit, resource management, and random events (imagine Pathway or FTL, where the developers created a global map but forgot to implement the combat...)
We've divided the editor into separate sections:
- Description of core gameplay
- Description of lobby activities
This is what the idea looks like at the beginning of development.
https://ims.cr5.space/app/p/ZX63EBoX/klondaik-en
We'll follow the entire process from the conception of an idea and its evolution to the game's release, and how IMS Creators will help you along the way.