PROJECT & PORTFOLIO IV

Game Review Worksheet

 

Reviewer Introduction

Trident

Producer – Matt Burkett

Story Writer – Richard Dalm

Art Lead – Hunter Evans

Mechanics Lead – Harvey Hill

 

 

 

 

Game Introduction

 

Team Trident is reviewing Lights of Hope. The team who made the game is team Inspiration Manifestation. This game is a fantasy style strategy board game. In the game, two players take control of imprisoned soldiers inside Pandora’s Box. The players compete for Lights of Hope that act as the keys to exit Pandora’s Box. There is conflict, movement and, above all, strategy elements to win the game. Only one player may exit Pandora’s Box.

Story

 

Lights of Hope takes place in a world warped by chaos where Immortals and their Pawns are trapped within Pandora’s Box. Pandora opened Pandora’s Box and unleashed the horrors inside trying to acquire the Light of Hope within. Mortals were granted the fruits of everlasting life. They used their gift to gain power over land with supremacy and dominance. The power enveloped all mortals and brought wakes of devastation on the world. With the gift of immortality, armies were built to gain control over the world. However, the Immortals became imprisoned inside Pandora’s Box for abusing the power given to them from the box. They now have to escape by collecting the Lights of Hope and using them to exit Pandora’s Box.

 

The concepts of the story merge with the game idea with slight inconsistencies. While there are immortal beings the players play as, there are only two immortals at one time. The rest of the beings that are trapped inside the box were not given immortality and still die while in combat. These beings are known as Pawns; they act as foot soldiers for the combat in the game. Pawns collect Lights of Hope for the Immortals to escape Pandora’s Box. Why Pawns cannot escape isn’t explained. Pawns are mere tools for the Immortals to use in order to rescue themselves.

 

Lights of Hope is very competitive. Players make their way across a battlefield in order to gain Lights of Hope before their opponents do. They will battle one-on-one by initiating combat with their Pawns, halting Immortal movement progression, or winning the game entirely. Players struggle against time as well in order to gain the upper hand quickly.

 

The rhythm of the game involves strategic planning and tactical placement. Players must seek to gain recourses as quickly as possible or fall behind. Their Pawns have an exact movement style they must adhere to in order to move across the battlefield. Players will need judgement, quick planning, and sharp intuition to stay on top of their opponent’s strategies and tactics.

Scope

 

Lights of Hope includes the following game pieces in order to play the game:

• One 22×26 Square Game Board

• 5 Immortal Cards

• 72 Tier-1 Pawns

  • 36 Orange Tier-1 Pawns

  • 36 Purple Tier-1 Pawns

• 36 Tier-2 Pawns

  • 18 Orange Tier-2 Pawns

  • 18 Purple Tier- 2 Pawns

• 24 Tier-3 Pawns

  • 12 Orange Tier-3 Pawns

  • 12 Purple Tier-3 Pawns

• 2 Immortal Pawns

  • One Orange Immortal Pawn

  • One Purple Immortal Pawn

• 5 Lights of Hope Tokens

• 25 Essence Tokens

• 30 Damage Counters

• One eight-sided die

• One twelve-sided die

• One twenty-sided die

• 11 Era Cards

• 2 Ability Gauge Sheets

  • One sheet per player

• One Era Gauge Sheet

• A note pad and a pencil

 

Not all the pieces included with the game will be used in the game. Certain aspects of the game can be accomplished more easily with specific game pieces rather than utilizing all pieces. Players will not need to use all of their Pawn tokens in order to play the game entirely. Players can avoid complications with game pieces if they wish to remain as simple as possible as well.

 

This game’s intended audience is devout strategy and competitive gamers. The structure of this game is similar to that of Chess and the game Risk in terms of strategy. When playing Lights of Hope, players will need to think carefully and plan their moves in advance in order to achieve victory. Player’s must also consider their opponent’s strategy as gameplay continues forward. The competitive element pits two players against one another for the same resources on the game board. The player with the most resources will dominate gameplay.

 

Since Lights of Hope is strictly a two player game, the average game length is between two and six hours. Games vary drastically due to the Era mechanic, which relies on a roll of the 1d20 at the end of each player’s turn and resets the game assets, including the Light of Hope. This means that the amount of player turns between eras can vary between 3 and 50 turns. The length of a player’s turn also increases as players collects more pawns for gameplay as players may move each of their pawns on the board before ending their turn. There are also considerations for minor implementations such as abilities, game asset replacement and the functions of colored tiles – which all change at the start of each new era.

Game Theory

 

• Symmetry – Lights of Hope is an asymmetric game where players select their own way of play. The Immortal cards, Pawn selection and movement are all something players choose. The game is set up differently each play because players are presented with multiple options in many aspects of the game setup and the game.

 

• Play Style – This game is a non-cooperative game because players are constantly competing over essences, pawn control and ownership of Lights of Hope. The game does not allow the opportunity for players to act cooperatively during gameplay.

 

• Summation – This game is a non-zero-sum game, in which players can gain resources independently of the player, such as essences. The basis of all resources are first-come-first-serve and have a limited amount of time on the board before they are removed.

 

• Perfect/Imperfect Information – Lights of Hope is a perfect information game. Players are granted access to all of their opponent’s information at all times during the game. The only imperfect information the game offers is the ability to view the next Era card in the deck to whichever player possesses The Onmyoji Immortal card, an ability that offers the player no distinct advantage over their opponent.

Goals & Rewards

 

• Obtaining the Lights of Hope – Obtaining Lights of Hope is the main focus for players to achieve in the game. Lights of Hope appear on the game board in a random location. Once the Light of Hope is on the board, the light only lasts on that location until a new Era has dawned, or a player has collected the light and returned it to their kingdom. The Light of Hope must be returned to the kingdom before the end of the era. Once a player collects three Lights of Hope, they are rewarded by gaining control of their Immortal on the game board to exit Pandora’s Box in the middle of the board.

• Collecting Essence – Similar to how Lights of Hope function, Essence is gathered from select locations on the game board. They spawn randomly and remain on the board until they are gathered by a player or a new Era begins. Once the Essence is collected, players may immediately reserve them and use them to purchase additional pawns for gameplay, or to gain an extra die roll on their Ability Gauge during their turn. This may reward the player with a distinct advantage over their opponent.

• Exiting Pandora’s Box – After gaining control over their Immortal, players must traverse their Immortal across the game board to the exit. Once a player reaches the exit with their Immortal, they are rewarded with victory.

 

When a player has obtained three Lights of Hope, they have met the end game winning condition. Players will then race toward the exit of the battlefield in order to escape Pandora’s Box. Once the player exits the box, the game is complete and finishes with the player that exits as the winner.

Mechanics

 

The biggest problem with the starting conditions of the game is that there are no further starting conditions written beyond the length of the starting era or that players may spawn pawns with essence at the beginning of the game. Players must look around all sections of the document and piece together the starting information. Compiling all setup rules into a Game Setup section would help to clear up any confusion.

 

The turn sequence section needs a bit of work to make the context easier to follow. The first problem when reading the turn sequence is that there is no definition to the order of the turn sequence between rolling the Ability die at the beginning of the turn and the Era die at the end. Players are given bullet points of all things that happen in a turn for a player. Additional information on action limitations and action order during gameplay could assist with clarity.

 

Most of the content within the turn sequence is broken-up sections of what a player can do and what a player will have. At the end of the turn sequence players roll the Era die and play continues to the next player. The Mechanics section says that the first Era ends after 30 years. However, in the turn sequence ending turn conditions, the number of years changes to 32, providing contradictory information.

 

The mechanics are fairly complex. The player has many elements to focus on during the game. The player must keep track of what ability is active, their ability gauge, the era gauge and what function colored terrain squares possess from turn to turn and era to era. Additionally, because the player is able to move up to 12 Pawns during their turn, the length of time a player’s turn can take increases for each Pawn they control.

 

• Movement – During gameplay, each player moves their selected Pawns or Immortal game pieces. The Pawns a player controls have designated movement patterns based on what type of Pawn they have purchased. There are three movement types between all Pawns – straight movement, an “L” formation movement, or diagonal movement on the game board. Movement is also determined by the tier of the Pawn. The higher the tier, the less spaces that Pawn can move. The game board is expansive and moving a pawn across the board takes time. This slows gameplay. Tier 1 pawns have a distinct advantage in winning the game as the game relies heavily on resource collection.

• Pawns – There are three types of Pawns in Lights of Hope. They range from three separate tiers all having strength at some margin. Tiered Pawns function like a number system. The greater the number, the greater the damage output or health they contain. A problem that consists within the Pawn Tier system is the damage amount during combat. Once combat happens between the two player’s Pawns, counters are set on top of Tier Pawns. Pawns that are lower than the Tier they are facing are removed instantly. However, the Pawn that lives stays on the game board and receives a damage counter to represent their new health. There are no further details that tell players if the Pawn remains at their original tier level while receiving a damage counter or not. If the pawn receives more damage during a turn, then they receive a damage counter again or are completely removed. The next problem of damaged tier pawns is constantly moving a game piece and remembering to move the counters with the pawn. If you have multiple pawns with different damage counters spread across the board between both players. The struggle begins because players will need to wait until the next Era for their pieces to regain full health.

• Combat – The combat system may be used whenever two opposing Pawns are adjacent to one another. The active player’s Pawns must also have an additional movement in order to attack their opponent’s Pawn. Not requiring an additional movement to attack a Pawn could shorten the length of a game and keep players more engaged.

• Era Gauge – The Era Gauge acts as the round timer and resets each time it has reached 50 years, starting a new Era. Players roll the twenty-sided die in order to progress the year count for the current Era. This mechanic has the possibility to significantly increase or decrease the duration of a round and resets the Light of Hope. This makes the possibility of returning the Light before the next era random making the overall game duration unpredictable.

• Terrain Spaces – Across the game board are colored tiled spaces. There are three different colors used on select tiles. These colors are red, blue, and green and all of them correlate and function differently depending on the Era Card drawn. Players must frequently reference the Era card when deciding to place a Pawn on a colored tile. A player may avoid using a colored tile altogether to avoid having to reference the instructions.

• Immortal Abilities – Each player picks an Immortal to play at the start of the game. The Immortals all have different abilities that may be used once the player’s Ability Gauge is charged. Each Immortal has three different abilities that cycle in order at the beginning of each era. The player is not provided with a way to track their active ability and must decide how to do so on their own. Some ability descriptions could use additional clarification.

• Lights of Hope – Lights of Hope are the goal of the game. There are twelve unique spaces on the board where the Light of Hope can spawn determined by a twelve-sided die. Because the Lights of Hope can be placed on either the left or right side of the board, players often find themselves in constant conflict. The instructions had two inconsistencies with the Light of Hope. Two references require the player to collect just one Light and one reference requires three Lights. The instructions additionally do not state whether a Light of Hope in a player’s possession is taken away and reset at the beginning of each Era if the player has not made it back to their kingdom with it.

• Essences – Essences spawn after the Light of Hope gets placed on either of the twelve locations. Era Cards determine how many Essences will be placed on the board. Players roll the twelve-sided die to determine which spaces Essences are placed on after rolling to place the Light of Hope. This is the exact same way players would set up Lights of Hope. If the number location is already occupied, players re-roll the die until the Essence can be placed. This is a pretty straight forward mechanic for players to understand and complete.

• Era Cards – Era Cards are drawn when the previous Era reaches 50 years. However, the Setup Era is the only Era in the game sequence that has an Era less than 50 and in which no Era Cards are drawn. The First Era begins with the drawing of Era Cards and places the Light of Hope and Essences around the board. Additionally, players gain their first Ability and all the colored tiles have actions that players must be aware of while moving their Pawns. Keeping track of the function of color tiles from Era to Era can become confusing.

 

There are many different dominant strategies found in Lights of Hope. The first dominant strategy is the movement of the Pawns. While players can select the Pawn of their choice, the fastest and most reliable Pawn is the tier 1 diagonal Pawn. Diagonal Pawns can traverse to locations quickly in one turn rather than the straight Pawns which may take two turns. Using the diagonal dominant strategy, players gain Essence to purchase additional Pawns quickly. Because Tier-1 Pawns are the cheapest and fastest, players can make an army of these pawns. Once a player has all Tier-1 Pawns, they will undoubtedly move more often than using the other tiered pawns. Another dominant strategy a player can utilize is to stay on either the left or right of the game board. This is because the areas where Lights of Hope and Essence spawn are on the sides of the board. Players will not move very much towards one another because all they need to do is wait for a Light of Hope to spawn. Because the movement speed of the player is so crucial, it is always more beneficial to purchase tier 1 Pawns.

 

Player Turn Length Metric

 

Time per Turns (in minutes)

Round #Orange PlayerPurple PlayerTotal

11.981.573.55

25.825.5711.38

33.572.035.6

41.672.384.05

52.281.43.68

61.381.753.13

71.421.332.75

83.851.455.3

93.53.777.27

101.282.834.12

111.671.673.33

122.632.324.95

131.721.53.22

141.62.13.7

154.675.059.72

161.43.374.77

171.52.033.53

181.61.382.98

191.13.554.65

202.331.383.72

211.931.53.43

222.052.034.08

231.574.56.07

244.674.178.83

251.51.332.83

262.381.383.77

271.780.52.28

 

This graph shows the averages between both players turns in minutes. As seen on the table, the longest times are shown in the beginning, middle, and end of the game. This illustrates that players take longer to decide what their choices are before the game gets going or ends.

 

Roll #:1d20 ROLL:Era Year Count:Turns per Era:

155

238

31321

41940

519595

655

71217

8825

9833

101447

116536

1211

1389

142029

151241

1611525

1755

181621

19324

20731

211041

2220616

2377

24411

25617

26219

 

 

This chart tracks how many turns were in each era and shows on which turn the era ended and how many total turns were in a game.

 

Start PositionWins

Orange12

Purple2

 

This graph shows the difference in wins based on the player’s starting position. This shows a distinct bias towards to player on the orange side of the board, which suggests an imbalance in the board design.

 

ImmortalSelections

Alchemist12

Beast2

Cyborg10

Onmyoji4

Warlord2

 

This chart shows the difference in Immortal selection. This means there is a significant imbalance in the appeal of the Immortals and their abilities. The Alchemist and Cyborg have some of the most broadly applicable and simple abilities. Whereas Immortals such as the Beast and Warlord have powers that are more limited in scope and convoluted.

 

 

ImmortalsWins

Alchemist8

Beast0

Cyborg2

Onmyoji4

Warlord0

 

 

This chart shows the number of wins by Immortal. This shows a distinct difference based on the selected Immortal, with the Alchemist being by far the most successful immortal in play.

Feedback

1. The random nature of the era length makes it impossible to accurately gauge the play time. This makes it a difficult process to not just playtest, but also to convince others to try. To resolve this, make a standard length of turns per Era, or reduce the variability in the die used. (3d6 for instance would be close to 1d20, with results of 3-18. However, it is weighted towards an average result of 10.5 instead of the 1d20 having an equal chance at each result.)

2. The boards asymmetrical nature renders what appears to be an advantage to orange. Giving them extra access to the special squares. A mirrored board design is recommended so that both sides have equal access to the special squares.

3. The points where essences and shards of light can spawn as seemingly randomly placed in the wings and far apart. This discourages conflict between the two players. Instead focusing on a central location for the shards of light and leaving the extremities for essences would provoke players into engaging in battle more often.

4. Between the era age, locations for resources, and ability gauge there are three different dice used and a lot of randomization. Adding set numbers for era length, and alternative ways to increase the ability gauge, such as certain color spaces could reduce the randomness and increase the ability to strategize. Perhaps different color spaces in each era generate ability points, making them potentially a viable target as well as the resource locations.

5. The map is large, you could increase the intensity and speed of the game by reducing the size and forcing the players into more combat.

 

Lights of Hope’s core movement and use of pawns resembles the game of Chess. The asymmetric feeling would appeal to players that enjoy strategy games and a mixture of different events. However, the length is very unappealing to the modern casual adult audience as their time is limited to play games. To that end, there seems to be a strong focus towards serious wargamers. Wargamers enjoy games like Risk because the game offers much thought and time to complete. Which Lights of Hope fits this criterion very well. Lights of Hope would be a great game commercially for strong strategy game players, but would suffer immensely being a causal board game to play on the spare time.

Grade

C – The game was playable, but had a lot of layout and/or balance issues, or just wasn’t very engaging or entertaining. You may have had to extrapolate on or clarify some important rules.