Tag: Overview

The Making of the Resident Evil: Deckbuilding Game [Part 3]

February 11th, 2011 · · Resident Evil DBG 3 comments - Tags:

The Fun Part

Buckling down and creating the Character effects was the best part of the entire design process for me. I know that I wanted Characters to focus on Weapon types for the first set, but I also wanted a few that weren’t bottle-necked into certain Weapon types. Fun fact for readers: Character’s initially had 4 levels of effects, then 1, then back up to 2 as you see them now.

One of the primary issues with many DBGs today is the lack of player interaction. Many found themselves mindlessly mulling about, buying what they needed and praying their “god deck” was better than yours. Enter Rebecca and the Grenade effect. Rebecca was always the happy go lucky Character of the series and seemed dimwitted at times. She seemed willing to help at any occasion, even if that help was a detriment to you. The Grenade is a little more obvious in its application and ability to deal splash damage to anyone near you, but to also provide early damage to those who do not wish to invest in the higher end bullet cards (Krauser, Leon).

For a Character that can literally finger flick someone into a wall, or cause a roided out Chris Redfield to wince in pain over hitting his chin (Bruce Campbell must be jealous), or the celerity to make other Characters unable to even touch him, Wesker was somebody that was the all encompassing evil magnet of the series, and should be reflected as such. Although his power was not reflected, his speed and ability to corner other Characters into dangerous situations was reflected. His first ability was a design choice to push a Character to Explore the Mansion, even when it was not in their best interest to do so. His ability to force others to Explore was more reminiscent of his RE1 self, where he was the captain of S.T.A.R.S. and representative of his speed post Infection ala RE5. In design, I attempted to fill as many of the roles I could without sacrificing efficiency.

The End…?

With a great many card ideas dying to the design grinder, and a few more escaping the grinder after being thrown in (Reload), Resident Evil has given us a franchise with limitless possibilities and even more combinations to work with. Some plans for the future include poison, expanding upon Mercenary mode, Outbreak, and even delving into possibly having guest Characters like we know Capcom loves to do. I know I would personally love a Frank West crossover Character. How do you play Resident Evil? What are you most looking forward to? Remember to steer clear of the Infected hordes everyone, the horror has only begun….

The Making of the Resident Evil: Deckbuilding Game [Part 2]

February 4th, 2011 · · Resident Evil DBG 2 comments - Tags:

The Ground Floor

Once the foundation grout was set and I had a chance to jump up and down on it to test it’s efficacy, it was time to work on the ground floor. This is where the players start, the bare bones of the game that need to exist in order for every game to begin and end properly. This manifests in the 6 basic resource piles in the game, but also shows in other ways. The Uroboros Aheri began here, as well as the Rocket Launcher. A win condition was still needed at this point, and we wrestled with simply having whomever defeated the Uroboros Aheri (which was Willbirkin Stage 5 for the longest time) win the game. The gaping issue with this was that all your kills past getting your level 2 ability made no difference in the game. The win condition was quickly changed to how you see it now, leaving Aheri a definite game ender, but also functioning as an integral piece to winning, much like the Queen in a Chess game.

The Rocket Launcher is a much different story. After watching the initial gameplay between others in the office (and sweating bullets the whole time), I came to the conclusion that the
game has no inevitability. The game can go on indefinitely, with no guaranteed ending.

The Rocket Launcher in the Resident Evil franchise has always been the “One and Done” Weapon. Shoulder it up, fire away, and anything remotely near the explosion was toasted into a charred pile of flesh. Also requiring no bullets, this made the Rocket Launcher the ideal inevitability engine for the game, and was quickly slotted into the Mansion.

After the above was set, it was time to set the low points of the game. This includes the smaller Infected you see (Bui Kichwa to Zombie (Male)), the smaller Resource Area cards (anything costing 0 to 30), and the starting deck. The starting deck became a staple the second it was implemented, and was never questioned. One of the very few things that started in the beginning and stuck through to the end, your starting deck was very literal to the game as well, with players starting with roughly the same inventory they began with in RE1.

The Ceiling…?

How can a House go from the floor to the ceiling and completely ignore the walls? By setting the high point before the middle, you can set just how high the crescendo of the game rings, and  ramp up to the crescendo much more easily. This is the fun stage of the design. This is where you want to aim to give your players the hardest time you can. This is where game designers such as Tomonobu Itagaki (Ninja Gaiden) and Hidetaka Miyazaki (Demon’s Souls) feel most comfortable at. This is the stage where the “lieutenant” of the Mansion was created, the Nemesis. I had always wanted him to be the guy that smashes through the wall, wreaking all kinds of havoc and typically killing off 1-2 players, and although many of the people testing groaned whenever he appeared, this was the exact reaction that I had been looking for.

This is also where the super weapon idea was first introduced. I found that I had to give players a reason to want to dig through the Weapon piles, besides just going for the Longbow (started as the Flamethrower) or the Magnum. The super weapons accomplished this to some extent, providing players with excitement at every buy, and had the added benefit of making players pay attention to what was in the Resource area at all times. The Gatling Gun was also added into the Mansion at this point, allowing for a Super Weapon in the Mansion aside from the Rocket Launcher.

Obviously the Longbow and Magnum were added in at this point as well. Player’s needed a way to deal massive damage should their Character build not go through as planned, or if they simply wanted to have a generic deck. The Magnum, although primarily sequestered to Barry, fit perfectly as a high end Weapon that had a great rate of return for the ammunition you put into it. The Flamethrower/Longbow was created specifically with the future in mind, but to also allow players to trash all their bullets that are useless late in the game and get the most leg out of each draw.

The Walls

Around this time is when we fill in all the gaps in between. Every card that you see facilitates a needed design element, from the minor trash ability of Ominous Battle, to the game overclocking ability of Item Management.

Around this time, Justin, one of the testers, had figured out that Shotguns were the ultimate “I win” button. In many games he would take out 60-70% of the Mansion before many others had gained their 2nd level effects. This is how the Yellow Herbs came about. Not only did I need a way to manipulate Health values, but I also needed a way to slow him down. Yellow Herbs are only found in the Resident Evil universe, and cannot be bought. Filling the slot nicely, I also added in the Gatling Gun Majini, penalizing players who play all their bullets without having the damage to back it up, and the Hunter, giving players a reason to think twice before buying a card into an empty Discard Pile before Exploring. Although this didn’t slow down the “Shotgun roll” immensely, it slowed it down enough to allow other players to catch back up.

Do you agree or disagree with the logic so far? Tell us what you think!


The Making of the Resident Evil: Deckbuilding Game [Part 1]

January 21st, 2011 · · Resident Evil DBG No comments - Tags:

In many ways, my first encounter with Resident Evil was akin to a child set loose in a toy store, only the toys were replaced with guns and the store personnel were replaced by the zombies. I fondly remember avoiding the initial boss, Yawn, because I heard it was a gigantic snake and that it poisoned you. Much like Indiana Jones, my fondness for snakes was not of the positive caliber. I had read a walkthrough for the game cover to cover at least thirty times: while other kids were bringing The Boxcar Children or Goosebumps, I was reading a periodical provided Resident Evil walkthrough.

When the time came to finally get my hands on the beast, I was…. Not ready. What is said on paper and what was done in action was vastly different. Many times was I killed off when a Hunter’s somewhat random chance to instantly kill me struck (Easter egg for all you oldschoolers: Infinite Health cheats don’t matter either!). The game had me slackjaw all the way until the end. Serving as my initial jump into the non-platformer realm, Resident Evil left a lifelong impression on me.

Fast forward to 2010, on our humble third floor space. We were looking for a new type of product to fill the shelves with. Many different ideas were thrown around, until someone brought up the idea of Resident Evil. I have never been “that guy” that comes up with the initial idea to get that proverbial ball rolling, but once I had heard the two words synonymous with my childhood, my eyes lit up like it was suddenly Christmas time. Before a sentence was even uttered, my hand was in the air, and suddenly I was the child in the “classroom” who was begging to answer the question “Who will handle this”.

The Foundation

My game design philosophy is that building every game is like building a home, though it’s a little awkward how game homes are built. You start with the foundation, or the ground, by creating the basic game mechanics for how the game will naturally flow and function. No amount of glitter or gold will hide problems in this area of your home. Much like a real dwelling acts, if an earthquake was to strike a building with a poor foundation, the entire structure would come tumbling down like it was built on glass. Based on this philosophy, I initially played solo games to test the foundation to make sure it actually worked and was flexible enough for what I wanted to do in the future. The RE:DBG brings much to the table for the Deckbuilding game scene, but I needed a foundation that could handle any wacky designs I wanted to do.

Many of the cards you see in the set today began at this stage and stuck through to the very end. Cards like “Mansion Foyer”, “The Merchant”, “Escape from the Dead City” and “Shattered Memories” had their start here. Shattered Memories in particular changed a great deal from this stage to the very end, starting with trashing 2 from your hand, to 2 from the discard, to 1 from the discard, and finally to how you see it today. The other three cards, while basic in their design, facilitated the basic necessities needed to get the game to an early alpha testing stage: draw power, buy power, and action chains.

Stay tuned next week as we go over how to continue building your “design house” properly. Until then, don’t get Infected!

Character Profile: Jack Krauser

December 16th, 2010 · · Other Blogs, Resident Evil DBG 10 comments - Tags: ,

The goal of every player in the Resident Evil [Deck Building Game] is to create the perfect deck to deal with any problem that they may face in the Mansion (Deck). Each character in the game has a different way of achieving that goal. Today we will look at jack Krauser. This particular character is very specialized at his methods of fighting the Infected. Not all characters are as card specific as this one is but there really isn’t anything forcing a player to have to use the effects/theme of their character. With that said, let’s look at this character and what his goal is assuming you will be taking advantage of his effect.

The first thing that you as the player should think about is “What do I want my perfect deck/hand to look like?” Since Jack loves him some knives let’s image the best possible hand that we could have for Jack and then simply build towards that goal. First imagine him holding a hand of 5 knives, that isn’t too difficult to accomplish but what does that give us? Without taking anything else into account that gives us 25 Damage. 25 Damage isn’t horrible and will kill just over 50% of the deck. 25 Damage won’t cut it in the long run though, that is where Jack’s 2nd effect comes into play. Once you get him to level 2, that 25 Damage shoots up to 50 Damage. 50 Damage is nothing to laugh about and will defeat about 75-80% of the Mansion Deck.

Now how do we get from 50 Damage to 90 Damage so we can take out the Boss? Let’s look through the action cards for that. Deadly Aim for instance will take that 50 Damage to 80 Damage (assuming that you now have only 4 knives + Deadly Aim). 80 Damage is good but still won’t get you the 90 Damage needed. I have obviously ignored effects that let you draw because there are too  any combinations of cards to figure out what you can and can’t play, so this assumes that you either can draw the needed cards with whatever combinations of +Draw and +Action effects you were able to gain. An easy solution to this problem is the Survival Knife, with that in hand plus 3 knives and the Deadly Aim we now get to 100 Damage (Survival Knife/Combat Knife/Combat Knife/Combat Knife/ Deadly Aim). So you now have achieved your goal of 90+ Damage.

The hope is that you have tailored your Inventory to contain effects that help you obtain this hand on a relatively consistent basis.  You use the Gold you have to obtain the cards that you need then once you have those, you should start Trashing your Ammo as your shiny knives won’t need any Ammo. Once you have the basics setup, start hacking away at the Infected. The best part is by using Jack’s first effect to gain Combat and Survival knives without having to spend a dime.

Hope you enjoyed the Article and let me know which Character would you like to hear about next!

Resident Evil DBG: “What Kind of Player Are You?”

December 8th, 2010 · · Resident Evil DBG No comments - Tags: ,

Some of you have already had a chance to play the Resident Evil DBG, but many more of you will have had that opportunity after December 3rd 2010, when the game was officially released. Once you learn to play the game, which you can do now by watching our flash tutorial, you will get to choose or be assigned your character and will start to play the game. As you begin to play you will start to figure out what kind of player you will be. Will you be the aggressive go getter that will start swinging at those Infected creatures with whatever weapon you can get your hands on, be it a gun or a knife? Or will you stay out of sight until you’ve got that perfect setup of weapons and ammunition so as not to run into some monstrous Infected that you can’t handle? Let’s weigh the pros and cons of these two types of players and I would guess most players will land somewhere between the two.

I am generally the cautious player, as those that have played with me will attest to. I like to stay behind, gather my resources and set up the perfect deck before I start hacking away at my enemy. I like to stay cool and collected until I’m ready to strike. At times this leads to my friends gaining the upper hand on me because they have had some success by the time I’m ready to strike, and they have collected enough Commendations to use their character’s effects. This will put me at a disadvantage at first, but with a strong deck and some well thought out plans I should be able to catch up and even jump to the lead in a short time. This is where the trickiness of it all occurs. Waiting will usually cause the Mansion to have lost some of its weaker Infected to the other players which means I’ll likely be facing a stronger breed of Infected. Additionally, I will have to get a few kills before I can get the Commendations needed to activate my Character’s effects. This type of play style is not for everyone and waiting to attack will not guarantee a perfect deck, because it still requires a decent amount of planning and strategy to succeed with no actual proof of perfection besides the hope of consecutive successful kills. Finally, make sure to watch out for the effects of the other player’s Characters, because sometimes they will have the ability to tamper with your strategy.

Now for a brief look at the aggressive player and their advantages. The obvious disadvantage of this type of player is that you can get more then you bargained for and flip up a massive Infected dude that will cause some damage to your Character. That being said, usually some planning and Herbs can alleviate the pain but may also slow you down a bit. The advantages however are huge and awesome, like flipping into the Gatling Gun or the Rocket Launcher, which will make killing a lot easier.  These two weapons will be added to your discard pile when flipped and then make their way into your deck. Once you have either of them in hand, killing will be a breeze. Another great card to flip into is an Herb, which will permanently raise your Health and heal you a bit. Some Infected have a little added bonus of providing the person that defeats them with an effect to sabotage another player. These bonus effects are a great way to slow down the player that is ahead, or if you are ahead, slow down the player in 2nd to hold your lead. Finally, achieving your Character’s effect by obtaining the required Commendations before the slower players will keep you going strong and possible give you what you need to start killing off the bigger Infected or sabotaging your competition even further.


Most players will probably be a little of each of the described players, but whichever you may normally be, I definitely recommend you take a risk and try playing as both of the described types at least once so you can really find the best combination to win every game. Just remember, it doesn’t matter how you decide to play, as long as you’re having fun and killing some Infected goodness.