Developments in Korash - August 2020

The Tribes of Korash alpha is increasingly close to being complete.

The Final Tribes

The last 2 tribes - Chrome Hand & Dust Flag - are in; although, based on recent playtesting, Chrome Hand in their recent incarnation may be touch too efficient. The good news however is that the remaining playtesting for this version will most likely be fine-tuning balance issues such as this. Stuff like adjusting the core rules, the creation or removal of cards & units, and design issues are, it seems, both done and dusted.

(Below: Chrome Hand's 'Crawler'. In retrospect, cost 2 and 3 life was a little bit much...)

The (nearly) Final Rules

The rulebook for this current version (alpha v0.40 - mentioned in the last Developments in Korash) is very nearly the rulebook that the first version will release with (at least in terms of its content - it's is not an especially pretty document, but work on that front is very much at the bottom of the to-do list). All that remain is working out exactly where the players' platforms begin the game at 2 player and beyond; and to a lesser extent, the exact size of the map at various player counts (ie. how many territory cards are placed faced-down at the beginning of the game, in how many rows and columns). More playtesting will begin soon, and will with any luck bring insight and resolution to these issues.

(The v0.40 alpha rulebook can be downloaded here.)

The (nearly?) Final Art

The art is looking good. Honestly, with a substantially larger budget (beyond 'shoestring') there are images I would have altered, or redone entirely, to better match my own vision for particular units. And certainly many could use proper colouration, backgrounds, and the inclusion of additional figures to accurately convey which units represent groups of individuals, as opposed to those units representing just a single individual. But they are, on the whole, perfectly fine to release an early version with. Some images are likely professional and beautiful enough to take into later, more developed version of the game (thanks, Paul).

(Below: One of my favourite art assets, the Dust Flag Wurming Rig by Paul Takahashi)

The (nearly-ish) Final Playtests

There really is no such thing as too much playtesting for a game design, beyond that which stalls it unnecessarily from release. Having said that, playtesting is closing in on it's last goals; the objective of the next playtesting rounds will be to determine specific balance issues, rather than testing whole game mechanic. This last process of tuning the knobs and dials of the balance is for me a lot of fun, and less fraught than testing core rules. A point of cost here or a point of strength there are minor things to change, and focusing on them implies the game's base rules are already in a functional, smooth, coherent state.

In previous versions of the game, for example, it was a touch too easy to use continuous influence-givers (such as territories like 'Broadcast Tower', shown below) to easily sail, uncontested, to an early victory. Now with the costs of such territories increased a tad, hopefully games where a player uncovers super early territories like this, and wins before their opponent's have a real chance to contest them, should be significantly harder to achieve. While a fast game, and being favoured by luck, are both good things (at least as far as the design goals of ToK are concerned), the feeling that an opponent's victory was inevitable from the start is not. There ought to always be the feeling that you could have won, if you'd just altered your strategy.

(Below: 'Broadcast Tower'; one of the offending territories, post-change)

The Next Steps

Playtest. Playtest. Then more playtesting. Finalise any loose ends on this alpha version. Then release as some kind of completed, prototype as both a Print & Play and digital version (via Tabletopia*) to as many forums, competitions, and prospective publishers as I am able. Then while that's baking, probably write some more Korash fiction. There are a few story drafts I have unfinished on my google drive, and I want very much to expand the Korash lore base with more short stories (here's one I prepared earlier).

(*Play the current 0.40 alpha version on Tabletopia here.)

(Below: Some screenshots from recent playtesting rounds)

Onwards, unto September.

- Eskalat (Paddy Boylan)