#2 - Plans So Far/What I've Started

I had a vague idea that I wanted to do a game based around a graveyard, maybe within the last year. I started writing down ideas for inscriptions and last words as I thought of them, making a small collection.  One was "Here lies the problem". This gave me the idea of subtle clues or logic that would lead the protagonist to the next headstone. In this case (semi-spoilers) the 'problem' will involve using the birth and date year ranges to get the clue to where to proceed.

Excited by this idea, I've built a few things to work off of:

STORY- The goal is to tell the story via the cards, and to connect and justify the theme and actions the character is  performing.

This section has some details that might turn out to be spoilers.

Most of my games have a backbone of a story I want to tell. I decided early on that the game would loosely be about my wife, or in dedication, as mentioned in my Inspiration post.

Not long ago, My wife left her keys in the car's ignition at the parking garage by her work all day. We always joke that she can't remember things, but this time it hit her different.  My grandma had Alzheimers, and the thought of memory loss happening to my wife was not a good one. The ideas about the game were swirling in my mind, and the thought of her wandering around the graveyard looking for me was darn sad, but compelling, and unfortunately... not impossible.

In current plans, the story is not told outright. In the rules, in the set up section, you find paper in your pocket showing the grid of numbered graves (plain, blank with no details other than the number scheme) and an arrow pointing at the first grave. This gives a connection as to why you know where to start, the numbers of the graves, and also lets you set up the cards in order. Looking at the first grave sparks a memory, a feeling that you follow from grave to grave.

In terms of gameplay, you make a guess and reveal from an answer key. If it is incorrect, make a tally, and subtract from the score total at the end of the game. You always progress to the revealed, correct number. 

Other details are revealed through little notes, inferred in inscription text, and visual elements. The last card might have a little capstone of text to wrap things up. 

PUZZLES AND CONNECTIONS - A basic idea of how gameplay should progress. I've made the notes for the first (roughly 20) connections.

As one might expect, my goal is to start with easy puzzles, and for them to get more difficult/involve different types of thinking as one progresses. 

There are lots of games that do this successfully. Some start with a playing tutorial, with button prompts for the basic controls - Think of a platformer video game that tells you left stick -> to move, until you hit a small cliff, and then prompt is the button used to jump. Then the next step of complexity might be running, then a running jump for more distance. This lets players ease in to the world, and let's complex systems build on top of these foundations.

Another game that came to mind was 'Papers, Please!', where immigrants moving between the borders of  imaginary, war-torn eastern block countries. The player is the officer in the border patrol checkpoint, checking various information on passports and work visas, cross checking information. It starts simple, like matching pictures and provinces of origin, but then adds more and more complex information you have to match to determine if you should let them pass.

For this game, the first few puzzle candidates were easy to determine, since they would involve the basic elements of the card- The Name, Birth and Death years, the Quote/Inscription on the placard, grave style (generic/rounded stone, mausoleum, sarcophagus, ground placard, etc). Then additional visual elements, such as flowers, vases, visitors, etc. Aside from just more things to look at, more loose/less obvious connections, or where you have to logically discern between and rule out two ore more options adds complexity. 

One thing to avoid is to make the leaps too large/not logical. People will likely give up and guess at the next grave, and if they say "How was I supposed to know that?" then I might have gone too far. 

• Going off of how I wanted to go through the puzzles, I started looking at on some basic visual elements; Grave stone types, inscription layouts, once again, very basic planning (lots of Google images). My wife said she'd go to a graveyard with me for some very official research.
• I decided I wanted to write about the process. In one way to keep myself accountable , but also for the reasons mentioned in the Inspiration post. All in all, aside from the snippets of inscriptions/last words I was writing down, I've probably had the game on my mind for about two weeks, with probably only 4-5 hours in dedicated time outside of writing blog posts.

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I'm pasting this here, instead of deleting it entirely. Here is my original post of goals that I put on the main project page:

A Design Journey Blog for a  Solo , Puzzle card game.

I've never made  a game where I documented my process for others to see. 

Creation Objective:

Cards are layed in a numbered, grid pattern. Follow clues in card text or visual elements to visit graves in a particular order. There is not win or lose, only a score total at the end. 

Solo

Medium to Long play time (So far, players have gone through it within 1.5-3 hours).

Starting the prototype at ~30 cards, will add if/when I can/need. (It ended up being 35!)

Only a page or two of rules! (It ended up being 3!)

In this format, the game would be a one shot. It intrigues me to think that it could be layed out on a table like a jig saw puzzle, where you could work on it over the course of a few days. (So far, my players have all completed the game in one sitting.)