For this update, I just wanted to give some background information on Riposte!
The Mechanics
When I began this, I knew I was making a sword-fighting game, but the earliest cards were just labeled "A, B, C, D, etc." I wanted to start with the mechanisms before tying the cards to actual moves. From my first concept, I knew I wanted something fully symmetrical with simultaneous play, where each move limited your next.
When I began this, I knew I was making a sword-fighting game, but the earliest cards were just labeled "A, B, C, D, etc." I wanted to start with the mechanisms before tying the cards to actual moves. From my first concept, I knew I wanted something fully symmetrical, with simultaneous play, where each move limited your next.
I worked out which cards could "follow" others and which cards could score a hit on which others. This took some fenangaling, and a few rules:
No two cards can score on each other.
The cards that follow any given card cannot score on the same cards.
No two cards can have the same "follows."
No two cards can have the same "hits."
Each card needs to appear an equal number of times in both "hits" and "follows."
Nothing scores against Parry, and Parry scores against nothing.
I never found a formula to simplify this process, but I did build a spreadsheet that validated each rule. After a lot of brute-force rearranging, I got everything roughly aligned. At this point, the base mechanics worked and had the potential to be fun. From there, it was a matter of playtesting, realizing I'd made a mistake, and doing it again. This was surprisingly more difficult than I had imagined, but I eventually got it right.
I tried a few different numbers of "hits" and "follows" listed and settled on each card "hitting" two others and having three cards that can follow it. The math just worked out, and it was fun to play. For a while, I also toyed with special effects on the cards, but I cut them out (leaving only Parry) when I realized they were becoming too difficult for players to manage on top of the base gameplay.
The Theme
After getting a functional version of the game, I started trying to tie the generic cards to different "moves." I'm not a fencer, so I had to do some research while designing Riposte! I looked at both modern fencing and historical swordplay to develop the moves listed on the cards. The final list ended up being:
Lunge
Thrust
Stop-Thrust
Flèche
Riposte
Feint
Corpse-a-Corpse
Jump
Parry
From what I can tell, modern fencing doesn't really break maneuvers down in this way, but much of this terminology remains in the vocabulary. I wanted words that were distinct from one another, had a chance of scoring, and could be represented well in art.
The Art
In our first meeting with A. Giroux, we discussed Riposte! having a style reminiscent of 18th-century fencing manuals, while Cell Block 18 would have sort of a mid-century mystery novel vibe. After seeing samples in both styles, we loved the more modern look for Riposte!
It wasn't until we started working on the art that we got the idea to have the cards mirrored so the fencers face one another. In retrospect, this seems obvious. In retrospect, it seems obvious. The sideways layout game later as well. In early tests, some players mixed up which cards a move "hits" and which ones can follow it. We put the following cards on the bottom so they are oriented up while the card is in your hand. The "hits" are on the side, so they are ready parallel to the fencer. This means you form a map of the bout as you play cards one after another.
Personally, I think Alisha's art looks fantastic on these cards. The colors are clear, the poses are distinct, and the graphic design is very user-friendly.
That's all for now. We'll talk about Cell Block 18 in the next update.
