Yet, I think the delays are healthy. In the midst of this is the rest of life with all of its demands and needs, so I can't entirely claim the time has been solely spent on improvement. But I am progressing to the best of my abilities, and I humbly appreciate the application of patience.
One of the aspects of the game that has received the largest overhaul is the lane system. Rift is, at its core, a lane-based card battle game. This isn't a new mechanic. In the initial design for the game, which has taken many cues and inspirations from League of Legends, this was translated directly into a fixed five-lane board. I think the core five-lane design is very good and that has not changed. However, the first play tests revealed some common criticisms that needed to be addressed.
Criticism #1: What is this?
The most prevalent criticism came in the form of basic confusion. For those who were already familiar with the game, League of Legends, there was little confusion surrounding the five lane design. However, for everyone else, it just felt... cumbersome. There was obviously a lot of lore and pedigree behind all of these lanes. I managed to translate a sense of that into the game fairly well. However, on the downside, there wasn't really much about the lanes themselves, the rules, the game mechanics, or the overall design which cleared away any legitimate confusion.
At first, all I heard was that the game was too complicated and I needed to reduce the number of lanes to help newcomers digest it more easily. Fair criticism. However, on further thought, I came to the conclusion that this wasn't exactly the nature of the criticism. The bigger problem was one of narrative. The people testing the game wanted to understand the lanes. They wanted a reason to care about the setting. This might seem superfluous on first brush, but when built on a foundation of narrative, many aspects of the game can be much easier to ingest and understand than simply the monolithic "its five lanes because it is five lanes" response I had given so far.
So, the first problem I wanted to address was that the lanes themselves meant little to nothing to players who were not versed in the materials which inspired the game design. I added two elements to the game design to help address this
1) I added a setting icon to each lane. The lanes come from a setting which exists outside the game itself. So, the lanes are visually tied to this and anyone who wants more story can use the setting as a starting point (particularly those who might be more interested in reading than attempting to play a video game {specifically those who don't really play video games})
2) I added a short description to each lane. The intent of the description is to give enough narrative to be engaging to the player. These aren't (and cannot be) complete statements about the locations. They are generalized. Players unfamiliar with the source material won't come up with the same story, but I think that's ok. My goal was just to provide enough for the player to come up with their own story and thus make the lanes meaningful to them in some way.
Criticism #2: Why five lanes?
Managing five lanes while learning a brand new game mechanic isn't unreasonable but I had to ask myself: is it necessary? It really isn't. More lanes add more depth and complexity to the game mechanics. Having five lanes is inherently valuable in the context of the game as an enjoyable game. However, in the context of learning the game or seeking to enjoy a short session, five lanes is an insurmountable hurdle.
I found myself thinking that perhaps I ought to alter core game mechanics to simplify things. But the motivation for altering these mechanics didn't have anything to do with the stability of the game or the strategic value of the mechanics themselves. It was only to pander to the novice. This isn't a bad motivation in every context. I just felt like the existence of five lanes drove the decision more than the mechanics themselves. The game mechanics were possibly very easy to grasp in the context of one lane. So, maybe the problem to address is having the game inextricably tied to a specific number of lanes.
On top of these considerations I've considered Rift to be a good combat system for the RPTCG concept I've been developing for a couple of years now. In those terms, it would be absolutely essential to run the game on a wide variety of lane compositions. So, thinking along these lines, it only makes sense to redesign the game lanes so that they are versatile enough to allow the players to decide how many lanes they want to use for any given game.
This is largely a mechanical consideration at the end. When I designed the original game board, it was five lanes glued together. Since that point, I've decided each lane must be its own game board and these must be able to fit together in some fashion that makes them work as a unified foundation for play.
Criticism #3: Lane identity
When I first designed the lanes for the initial round of play tests, I stole lane identity directly from League of Legends without really considering how this might exacerbate the confusion already addressed in the first criticism. Specifically, the jungle was a confusing place because it was referenced as "the jungle" in the game rules, yet the lanes themselves had different names "Baron" and "Dragon." Furthermore, these names were unlinked from the actions on the lanes themselves. "Baron" had a "red buff" on it while "Dragon" had a "blue buff" on it. The images on those buff cards had nothing to do with a dragon or baron either - they were related to bramblebacks and sentinels. People who play LoL were able to take all of this in without much issue. However, people who were unfamiliar with the game found this conflicting set of information needlessly confusing. Because it was needlessly confusing.
To address these problems, I renamed each lane. They are no longer "Top/Mid/Bot" or "Baron" or "Dragon." Lanes are now identified for gameplay by their lane number. Any lane can be any number. The lane formerly known as "Top" could be the last lane now, depending on how the game is set up.
The name of each lane is now tied to the actions that take place on the lane. "Blue buff" remains the sentinel buff, but it is now located on the sentinel lane, instead of the Dragon lane.
Lanes now have types. Each game is required to have at least one Path lane because path lanes are the lanes which allow access to the enemy base (or "Nexus" in LoL parlance). Games can have any number of other lanes to accompany the core path. I came up with four lane types for this initial version of the game:
1) Path. Path lanes allow access to the enemy base. They are protected on each side by towers (or some other word in the future. Towers seems good enough for now) which must be destroyed before attacks against the base can begin. Winning the game is accomplished by destroying your enemy's base.
2) Jungle. Jungle lanes hold a 1 round buff. To earn this buff, you must have one Champion located in the jungle lane at the end of a round where your opponent has no Champions in that jungle lane. Accomplishing this causes the Champion in the jungle to receive the buff.
3) Quest. Quest lanes contain a neutral monster that your team can fight. The Champion who defeats the monster receives the random quest card associated with that lane. They can then assign this quest to any Champion on your team, who must complete the action detailed on the quest card in order to earn its benefit. There are only two chances to earn quest cards from each quest lane during any given game.
4) Refuge. Refuge lanes are places where Champions can hide to avoid receiving any additional damage. If the lane itself offers healing, then they will be healed, but refuge lanes don't necessarily offer healing. Nobody in a refuge lane can take or receive actions from other Champions while they remain in the refuge lane. Entering a refuge lane locks the Champion in place for the entire round.
Criticism #4: Muddled images
It is incredibly difficult to find high resolution images of the League of Legends game map. I did eventually find one, but not before I created the initial game mat. Though not a pressing issue, the blurry pixelation of the initial lane art only worsened player frustration over other clarity issues. In the redesign, I was able to use much better source material when designing the lanes.
Old lane design:
First redesign:
After reviewing this design (and before printing) it was brought to my attention that the design is a bit difficult to look at. Trying to place the quest card in-lane was troublesome for the card play mechanics and also visually confusing. Additionally, the font glow made reading the description unpleasant. The lane was redesigned again for cleanliness and ease of interaction:
Great post!
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