Major Update + Character Art news

Howdy Partners,

Let's get right to it. I've made some significant changes to the main 6 elements and I'm going to explain why in this article.

By now you know I boast a lot about High Moon being "pure strategy", therefore it's very important to me that the games mechanics be as perfect as possible with the most strategic gameplay it can have. I find flaws from time to time. This doesn't mean my previous versions didn't work and weren't fun, they definitely were!

I'd like to explain two principles I design by to help you understand why I've made changes. "Good, Better, Best" and "One bullet in the chamber".

"Good, Better, Best"

Designing a game can be extremely difficult, especially a game that needs to be near perfect in terms of the mechanics. There are SO many variables to consider and options to choose. Sometimes you make decisions because they are fun, sometimes you make decisions because they make sense with the story, etc. Often times there are good decisions to make, then some are better, and some are best! The good decisions are the easiest to come to. The "best" ones require the most time to figure/work out, and usually are only discovered through a great deal of testing. This is why all developers constantly refine their games and offer updates/patches.

This last change I've made to the game is what I consider to be the "best" option. Prior I was sitting at "better" which had taken me 8 months to get to. This last month I've achieved the best option, it irons out any gameplay kinks I had, rounds out functions of each card, perfects the core game and fleshes out strategic options.

"One bullet in the chamber"

I do not think many developers will agree with the design philosophy, and many simply don't need to. I do however. It's more of an analogy really. When designing, I imagine I'm in a shoot out, my assailant has many rounds left in their gun, and I only have 1 bullet left in the chamber. I've got to make it count or I'm finished! I've got good cover for now, but time is running out and I have to make a move.

The assailant is my audience, those I want to buy the game. They are critical, hard to please and short attention spans (this is a general statement for the sake of the analogy, I don't mean to say my actual audience is so harsh). My one bullet is my game. I've got one chance to make it what my audience wants, but I've only got so much time to be able to make my game before I have to release it and move on (can't work for free forever!). If I "miss" with my one bullet, my game dev life is over! (obviously not forever, but for awhile until I can afford to develop more).

Therefore I have to try and make the "best" "shot" in the time I have.

Well I'm happy to say I think I'm ready to take my best shot.

THE CHANGES

So just what are these changes and why are they significant? Many of them have been made so that each card's offense and defensive abilities are extremely useful and work in the core game without any extra power cards (power cards are more of an expansion to the basic game to add depth, customization and new strategies, but not necessary to have an extremely fun time playing High Moon). Also, the changes will promote using any element as an opening attack (previously most people played earth/air/fire/water/ice as an opening offense. lightning was never used. Now each element can be very effective if used as your opening attack.

Another major change is that each offense now does a standard 2 damage instead of one. Therefore if you amplify an attack it does 4 damage. This allows players to feel more powerful, and helps the game progress much quicker. Each decision is has a more "life or death" feel.

ICE

Ice no longer causes your foe to "lose a turn". It now causes your opponent's next "offense" to do 1 less damage (resulting in 0 in most cases).

Why? Well losing a turn is not very fun. It was somewhat messy when it came to air shields reflecting elements, which in theory could result in a double loss of turns if done correctly. I didn't like that as it throws the flow of the game off. Not much, but enough that I didn't like it. Much like chess, I want each player to have a turn, no double turns. Can you imagine how easy it would be to check mate someone if you could move twice in a row?

The new -1 damage effect allows for some interesting strategies. Ways to negate damage that you otherwise couldn't, or motivate the actions of your opponent. There are too many strategic advantages and nuances to this new rule that I can't explain here. Play the game and try it out!

LIGHTNING

Lightning's previous effects related directly to "powers" so in essence they were useless if you weren't using powers that duel. I didn't like that. I wanted you to be able to play the core game and not feel like anything was missing. Maybe that's a bad marketing strategy?

Lightning offense now randomly disables an element or power. The attacker must choose which they are trying to disable (elements or powers) and then randomly draw one of those cards.

Lightning defense is totally different. It re-activates your last discarded card. This has so many strategic nuances and usefulness I won't go into it. It's been great in my play tests.

FIRE

Fire's defense effects now not only enable a random element, but also a power. The player with choose when they want to activate a random power or element.

Why? Because of the changes made to lightning I need to add the ability to enable a power to a different card. Fire just fit the bill.

AIR

Air's offense now randomly disables either Air or Earth. Previously there was no way to target these elements specifically to disable them, now among all the cards, there is a way to target each specific element (well a 50/50 chance which changes to a 100% chance as elements are used). Air use to disable any random element, but that ability was moved to lightning.

WATER

Water now randomly disables fire OR lightning. Previously it only disabled fire.

NEW PRINT AND PLAY CARDS + REVISED RULEBOOK

Over the past two weeks I've had over 170 downloads of the free print-and-play version of High Moon. That's awesome! Thank you everyone for showing interest.

I've uploaded a new PnP version of the game with the recent changes to cards. This version also has 4 different color sets of the elements (red, blue, purple, green) so you can have 4 Player Posse duels or 3+ player deathmatches. There will be no more alterations to the PnP version of the game. As far as 'm concerned, the game is finished. All that's left is to create a few pieces of promotional art, and finish the pixel art characters for the Darkness.

This PnP version will be available until 2 weeks before the Kickstarter Date (My aim is to launch in March. Depends on how quickly I can get test versions of the game from thegamecrafter.com)

The rulebook has been revised. It should be much clearer to navigate.

This version of the game is considered the "Basic" edition. There will be 3 editions launched on kickstarter soon. They are as follows:

High Moon: Basic
Features the 6 standard elements. Comes in a poker tuck box with a rule booklet.

(6 red element cards, 6 blue element cards, 6 purple element cards, 6 green element cards, tuck box, rule booklet)

High Moon: Standard
Features both demons and cowboy characters, as well as “"Darkness"” and “"Elementalist"” element cards. Comes in a poker tuck box with no rulebook or dice (rulebook free online).

(6 "Elementalist" character cards, 6 "Darkness" character cards, 6 red element cards, 6 blue element cards, 6 purple element cards, 6 green element cards, 30 power cards, tuck box).

High Moon: Collector’s Edition
Features both demons and cowboy characters, as well as “"Darkness"” and “"Elementalist"” element cards. Comes in a nice box with a pretty rulebook and a 6 sided die. Also has a signed copy of the “Forgotten West” artwork (to be created).

(6 character cards, 6 red "Elementalist" element cards, 6 blue "Elementalist" element cards, 30 power cards, small pro box, rulebook, 6 sided die).

FINALIZED ELEMENTALIST CHARACTER ART!