Space Command Paper Prototype
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​Processes
  • Test the prototype in stages starting with the basic systems in order to balance the base stats of each ship.
  • Used a hoard scenario to stress test player strategies and balance enemy and player ship stats.
  • Take notes during play tests and make changes accordingly. Play test often.
Goals
  • To be able to play a demo that features all of Space Command's core mechanics in paper form.
  • Balance mechanics in the game to make sure the game is challenging, but still fun. 
  • Get a good idea of how some of the interactions need to be visualized and programmed before having to iterate in engine.  

Preparing for the Game

How to Play
1. Print out hex grid or create a 6 X 11 hex grid.
2. Print out ship pieces to fit the game board and cut them out.
3. One player uses the enemy ships while the other plays with the player ships.
4. Before the game begins, the player chooses which crew to use in their ships - The game scenario dictates crew size. This is an advanced optional feature 
1. ​Player 1 starts first. 
2. They choose a ship and select an action. Ships can use abilities and perform actions (moving, turning, and shooting) as long as they have the AP. 
3. The player can end their turn at any time, but they must end the turn if all of their ships are out of AP.
4. The enemy player takes their turn. When they end their turn, player player 1 turn starts again with their ship's AP restored. 
5. A ship is destroyed and removed from the board when their hull reaches 0.
6. The player and enemy player keep taking turns until the player has won or lost the scenario.

Ship Interactions

​1. Moving - moving forward costs 2 AP, backwards costs 3 AP. Turning costs 1 AP.
2. Shooting - player can shoot from any of the 6 cardinal directions up to 6 tiles away. The player uses a 6 sided die to calculate hit percentage. Shooting a target adjacent to a ship needs a dice roll of 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 to land a hit. When a target is 6 tiles away, only a 6 will land a hit. 
3. Laser Attacks - laser attacks deal damage to shields and are only 10% effective against hulls. AP cost depends on the firing ship. 
4. Ballistic Attacks - ballistic attacks deal damage to hulls and are only 10% effective against shields. AP cost depends on the firing ship. 
5. Plasma Attacks - plasma attacks splits and deals even damage to shields and hulls. For example, a 10 damage plasma attack deals 5 damage to shields and 5 damage to hulls. 

Understanding Card Information

Player Ship Cards
​Each ship has unique stats that make them better than other ships in certain situations and worse in others. For example, the Defense Craft has the most hit points out of all the other ships, but has limited movement and attack due to its low AP. The image below highlights the stats each ship has and why the information is important for the player to know. Enemy crew cards display the same information.
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  1. Ship Name: Tells the player the name of the craft so that they can easily differentiate it between other crafts. In the game, sprites also help to differentiate ships by using sprites of different ship shapes, sizes, and colors.
  2. Shields: Each ship has unique shield values. This number indicates how much damage a ship can take before its shields reach zero. If a ship has no shields, then their hull becomes vulnerable.
  3. Hull: Each ship has unique hull values as well. This number indicates how much damage a ship can take before it dies. If a ship’s hull reaches zero, it blows up and can no longer take any actions for the remainder of the game.
  4. AP: Players use Action Points to move or rotate the ship, use weapons, or use abilities. The Defense Craft has the lowest AP while the Support Craft has the most. Once a ship reaches zero AP during a turn, it cannot take any more actions and the player cannot interact with it.
  5. Weapon and Shield/Hull Effectiveness: Each ship has unique values that determine the damage output of the ship’s weapons as well as how much damage the ship takes damage.
    1. Weapon Effectiveness: The red percentage values represent the weapon effectiveness from that ship’ side. In the example to the right, the Defense Craft deals 60% less damage shooting from the front or back than shooting from its sides (its weapons systems are only 40% effective from the front and rear sides). The attack craft has 10% stronger attacks from the front but cannot fire from its rear,
    2. Shield/Hull Effectiveness: The blue percentage values represent shield/hull effectiveness. All ships are weak towards the stern of the ship (where the engines are located). In the example to the upper right, the Defense Craft takes more damage from its bow (front). The tradeoff is that it takes 10% less damage when it receives a hit from the sides.
  6. Laser Attack: Each ship is equipped with lasers that deal damage to shields. Laser attacks on the hull of a ship results in an attack with 90% less effectiveness. Laser attacks cost AP, which differs from ship to ship. In the example to the right, Attack Crafts deal 10 shield damage or 1 hull damage at the cost of 1 AP.
  7. Ballistic Attack: Each craft is equipped with ballistic cannons that deal damage to hull. Ballistic attacks on shields result in an attack with 90% less effectiveness. Ballistic attacks cost AP, just like laser attacks. In the example, Attack Crafts must spend 1 AP to shoot its ballistic cannons, but it deals 9 hull damage or 1 shield damage.
  8. Abilities: Each ship has two ability slots. Ship abilities come from equipped crew members. Some abilities are passive, but most cost AP. AP cost of abilities is something the player should consider when populating their ships with crew members.
  9. Crew Slot: Each ship has four crew slots where players can equip a maximum of 4 crew members to. There are four types of crew members (Captain, Navigator, Engineer, and Weapons officer). Each ship can equip only one crew member of a certain type (ie. A ship cannot contain more than more engineer). A ship does not need a full crew to operate, however all ships gain a bonus ability if it is fully manned. Each crew member boosts the ship’s stat in a way unique to that crew member. In addition, crew members can add abilities to the ship (maximum of two), which allows the player to diversify their ship arrangements to best fit their strategy.
  10. Full Crew Bonus: A fully manned ship contains no free crew ship slots. This unlocks a special ship ability that the player can use during combat. Sometimes this ability is passive (like the Defense Craft example above) or can be an ability that cost AP to use during gameplay. Not all missions allow the player to have enough crewmembers to fill all the crew slots of every ship. The player must choose, which ship’s bonus ability is worth having. ​
Crew Cards
Each ship can have up to four crew members equipped to it. Every crew member boosts the stats of the ship or can add an ability to the ship (up to two abilities). There are four types of crew members (Captain, Engineer, Navigator, and Weapons Officer). Ships cannot equip crew members of the same type. This means that a player cannot equip more than one captain or more than one engineer, etc.
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Each crew member has a ship that they prefer to be a crew member of. Players can equip crew members to ships they do not prefer, but by equipping a crew member to a ship that they do prefer, allows the player to equip the crew member’s special ability to the ship. For example, equipping a Support Ship Navigator to an Attack Craft grants the Attack Craft passive stat boosts, but players will not be able to use that Navigator's ability on the Attack Craft. 
  1. Crew Member Type: Crew members are either Captains (C), Engineers (E), Navigators (N), or Weapons Officers (W). This is so players can differentiate between crew member types. Crew members affect stats and add abilities to the ship related to their type.
    - Captains: Captains enhance systems of the ship based on the ships class.
    - Engineers: Affect stats such as AP cost as well has hull/ shield effectiveness.
    - Navigators: Affects the movement of the craft making some ships move with less AP or or allow ships to blink (teleport).
    - Weapons Officers: Affect damage output on certain weapons. Some officers can even add new weapon systems as abilities or enhance pre-existing systems.
  2. Crew Ability: Each crew member has a unique ability that they can offer to the ship they are proficient with. For example, an Engineer from the Attack Craft has the Stabilizer ability when equipped to an Attack Craft, but cannot use this ability on any other craft. Most abilities cost AP but some, like the Attack Craft's Stabilizer ability gained from an Engineer, is passive.
  3. Passives: When a crew member is equipped in a non-ability slot, their passive enhances the ship's stats. Equipping a crew member to an ability slot disables that crew member’s passive, but the craft gains an additional ability instead. A crew member’s passive can be used to enhance the stats of a ship they are not proficient with as well. 

Scenarios

Scenarios determine how many ships and crew members the player can use during the scenario. Some scenarios have scripted events that force the player to dynamically adjust their strategy. Here are the two scenarios I have tested with the paper prototype: 
​1. Hoard - Player choose any combination of ships up to three. There is no limit to crew members. Enemy starts with 3 ships and a new random ship spawns every two turns on their side of the map. Scenario ends when the player loses or wipes all the enemy ships off the map. Player ships start on the left edge of the map and enemy ship start on the right edge. 
2. Mission 1 - Player must use 1 attack, 1 defender, and 1 support ship. Players can use 8 crew members. Enemy starts with 1 attack, 1 defender, 1 support, and 1 missile ship. Full crew bonus disallowed. Scenario ends when player destroys all the enemy ships or loses. Player ships start on the left edge of the map and enemy ship start on the right edge. 

Scenarios to try:
1. Ambush - Same setup as Mission 1, except the player is allowed to use their full crew bonus. The twist in this scenario is that the player is ambushed by two more random enemies after destroying at least one of the enemies ships after ending a turn. The enemy starts off with 1 attack, 1 defender, 1 support, and 1 missile ship. Scenario ends when the player destroys all the enemy ships or loses. Player ships start on the right edge of the map and enemy ship start on the left edge. Enemies spawn from the player side of the map. 
2. Escape - Player can use any combination of three ships and can use 10 crew members. Enemy starts with 2 attack, 2 defender, 2 support, and 2 missile ships. The player's ships start in the center of the map adjacent to each other. The enemy ships surround the player ships. The player's goal is to get a ship to either the left side or right side of the map and survive a full turn. 

Paper Prototype Mini Postmortem 

​What Went Well
​What Went Wrong
What I Learned
  • Ship stats were fairly well balanced and needed only minor tweaks.
  • Play test feedback really highlighted areas in my systems that were confusing and broken such as plasma damage. Initially plasma was a loose idea with many abilities and attacks calculating damage differently. I changed it so the player can expect the same type of damage every time they saw the plasma attack. 
  • The paper prototype contains math that slows down game play as players calculate damage. This lead to a couple of problems
    • Players seemed bored and I couldn't tell if the game play bored them or having to do math. 
    • Play tests took a long time and it was hard to balance the time it took to complete the paper prototype vs. the time I hoped players would spend in the actual game. 
  • Lack of repeat players. Space Command is a game about strategy and often players chose poor strategies and lose. I would have liked players to play multiple times in order to come up with better strategies to win. 
  • Editing and changing value on the paper prototype was a bit of a time sink when I had to change the values in Photoshop and then reprint new ship / crew cards. 
  • Play tests are crucial to paper prototypes especially when the game has not been fully implemented yet. 
  • Playtests highlighted flaws in the design for me to think about and improve. The initial concept of plasma damage was confusing so I took the time to focus it so that it was more straightforward and consitant. 
  • The paper prototype made developing the game in engine incredibly easy. I was able to set up every system in blueprint so that designers could easily tweak ship stats when play testing the game. 
  • Although the paper prototype was nice to have when coming up with the concept of the game, it became cumbersome and tedius to test the game. I think I would have received more play test feedback if I had started working to create the game sooner.