Pixel art, industrial design, concept sketches.

I’ve been running ideas through my head on how to work the debt system in The Salvage, and I’ve also had board games on the brain a lot at the same time.  So the other day I decided to use a tabletop concept to help me work out ideas on distilling game mechanics down to simple systems that a player can grasp easily and keep track of in their head.

The idea I’ve sketched above is not the complete concept, but it’s a basic game idea.  It plays as a sort of solitaire board game.  A grid of cards are placed face down, and the player moves their avatar through the grid, revealing neighboring tiles and uncovering what is hidden within the tile they currently occupy.  The player has several types of tokens at his/her disposal that afford special abilities, but must be ‘leased’ from the game’s bank.  Having more tokens at the player’s disposal protects them against hazards, but increases the debt-load, thereby increasing the long-term risk of the treasure haul not being able to cover the cost of the debt.

My goal is to work out a simple game based on a risk vs reward mechanic, with the debt as an additional vector for pressure.  The debt acts a bit like a hidden enemy.

I still have a few ideas to sketch out on paper, but I think I’ll try to print and assemble this concept as a working board game prototype.  I think it will help me work out game mechanics better than mulling them over in my sleep.