Paper Prototyping:

I knew my first step in terms of development would be to make a quick and dirty prototype I could conduct rapid testing and iteration cycles with. I knew I would need game pieces for both ships and bubbles of varying sizes so I cut out bits of paper to resemble the pieces I knew I would need. Until this point, I had assumed I would be developing the game using square tiles; as they posed the least technical risk for me having previously only worked on one tile based game. However with my pieces now cut out and placed on my makeshift game board, I realized that the gameplay would feel and look stiff if everything was bound to the cardinal directions. After doing some research into hex tile generation and basic path-finding on tile grids, it seemed like this previously daunting task would be much more doable than I initially thought. I then printed hex grid paper, color coded my pieces blue and pink (the naval commander and straw player respectively), and began testing.

Balance:

Balancing Lactose Wars is the single biggest development hurdle I face; above that of even the technical challenges. With asymmetrical gameplay, each player’s tool kit needs to be equipped with a set of checks and balances that prevent the other player from having an optimal strategy that ensures a win too frequently; in order to preserve a sense of fairness. These checks and balances consist of player resources and abilities that can be used situationally to force the other player to act in a certain way, much like Chess. The resources in Lactose Wars follows a hierarchy of importance with the most critical resources towards the top and the less critical resources towards the bottom. The three primary resources are health, damage, and positioning. By manipulating these three axis I am able to make design decisions that give a stronger sense of fair play.

The element that makes achieving a sense of balance difficult is how intertwined the health, damage, and positioning resources are between units and their abilities. For example if the straw player is aiming to win by drinking all of the milk, each time they spend energy to take a drink action, the stage shrinks as the glass becomes more empty. This makes it easier for the naval commander’s units to get within range to damage the stage, while simultaneously making it easier for the straw to damage multiple ships with bubbles. On paper this seems like it is a simple trade of health for damage, however if there remains a sizeable amount of empty space between ships, the straw player may not be able to actualize this damage. In essence, balance changes for Lactose Wars deal more with the potential of damage, health loss/gain, or unit positioning rather than strictly by the numbers alone. In addition to this, making a change to one of the three core resources may not be as intuitive as simply reducing a health value, and may instead manifest in increasing the amount of energy the straw player can use each turn, for example.

As with most strategy games, if the balance is off the game falls apart and can quickly stop becoming fun. While I would ideally like to make a perfectly balanced game, this likely will not be possible. Instead, I strive to make the game fun to play by making it feel as fair as possible. Continuous testing and iteration are the most crucial aspects in terms of design throughout development as this allows me to gain a deeper understanding of resource management, strategy, and balance systems at play within Lactose Wars.

I conducted a few cursory playtests with the above paper prototype and developed a spreadsheet containing detailed information regarding each naval unit, the straw player’s abilities, and any information about the stage. The spreadsheet was then further developed using a rapid prototyping and iteration approach where I played through the game and made quick changes as issues or questions arose. Below are screenshots of the initial spreadsheet leading into development of the digital prototype. (Click to enlarge)