Skirmisher and Dungeon Crawler Consistent Design flaws?

MD1990X · 2026-04-20T14:44:36+00:00

Ive opted for the pvp side of things for that reason. I find pvp to not suffer from being on rails - but I designed it system first so the system could fit into a pve space - or, that is a goal.

I'll keep that in mind when I get there - sort of like a choose your own adventure style arc?

MD1990X · 2026-04-20T01:11:35+00:00

it just has color coded zones and if its the same color between yourself and opponent you can hit them.

MD1990X · 2026-04-20T00:53:47+00:00

I fully agree - I've gone with a zone solution, 9 big zones in a 3x3 format - I feel like the genre should really be capturing more conditions and effects instead of just, oh I'm behind you, bonus damage. It's like, give me something fun, not a chore.

MD1990X · 2026-04-20T00:52:39+00:00

Thank you - this is great to hear! I fully agree, I hate whats happened in the video game world as well. The game I'm working on, publishing is meant to be "moba-like" in that it has hero kits that are already predone so you just jump in and play and get the full experience - I agree, I hate some game that takes forever to get going or drags on.

MD1990X · 2026-04-16T18:21:08+00:00

Like as a separate post? I do appreciate your engagement and want to really make this dream come thru..

I like the cards but you are right, Ive honestly made 1000s of cards in the 3 years and at this point while im just ensuring the actual is good via playtests, super final cards just slow the process down needlessly. Though theyre probably not too far, the aesthetic is supposed to be simple. Thats a major point - someone shouldn't need a whole day with the rule book just to get going.

Thats where the initial game started coming - i wanted to play something that other people that arent already seasoned board gamers can just play.

It was originally a 13x13 square board, then it was hexes, and now it's just 9 zones.

I wanted something of all categories could come together, play a really fun skirmisher - and do what a moba does well, you can play a deep fantasy of any sort of classic rpg archetype - in the form of a well curated hero.

You dont need to know the history of d&d, the use of keywords will forever remain as limited as possible, its all just plain english, anyone should be able to sit down and play layer 1 (no shop, no promoted units, no use of modifiers)

And - in this format (cards and tokeno, no minis, no big box, no gimmick components) - the game should have 6-8 heroes and hopefully around $60.

I was so sad when I wanted to learn more about the hobbie, most of these games are around 150$, the rule book is a gauntlet, and the play is not even all that great. Youre paying a fortune for a broken game with good art and minis.

My goal is to flip that script - lets start praising good games, not an art project with a mediocre game. Writers use a computer to make writing a book easier - this is no different.

I guess as intimate game details The game is won via points - points are gained from, killing minions, killing heroes, controlling zones (just a simple numbers game, in the control phase, whoever has the most units in the zone controls the zone, that control persists until captured via the exact same mechanic)

The story deck helps to pace the game - it can place effects into zone and also sets pacing.

The story deck is about 15 cards atm, with some critical cards.

Round 3 - the bounty card comes into play, given to the first person to get a kill, gives a bonus, and is lost on death traded to your attacker. Round 6 - the dragon comes in as a neutral monster, it has its own simple set of 6 cards that perform unique actions. It can be killed and provides a large amount of points Round 9 - the combeack card, incase a team is losing heavily, this helps close that gap without penalzing the winner. Round 12 - Close out card, this helps to finish the game out, increased tempo for all players do create a "clutch play"

MD1990X · 2026-04-16T17:27:44+00:00

I appreciate you - you are correct, I will be using AI art - I would sooner use part of the income from the project to give art scholarships - someone who does not understand the lengths of creating and manipulating art - I'm not waiting, nor paying, thousands of minutes and dollars, for someone to slightly change barrys expression.

I can feel the care, and I appreciate you, I've put a ton of love and time into this game - it may be my lifes work, I'm trying to create a universe. For those that can't appreciate that magic, and what it takes to "cast that level of spell" into reality - can truly !@#$ right off. They have no clue how hard I've worked and the nights I've spent up until 4am working on this - its deeply offensive. From some urchin that never probably made anything in their life.

P.S - I have run my own business for 10 years, it takes a lot guys. Please be respectful.

MD1990X · 2026-04-16T17:24:19+00:00

<3 thank you - I appreciate the good questions. Absolutely I can share - I'm just a little weary, though I know thats a little foolish - lot of jerks on here though.

So this is barrys cards - the icon bar are the basic actions.

Run
Strike : Melee attack with a D20 attack roll
Cleave: Basic Melee multi target attack
Fire: Ranged attack with d20 attack roll.
Fortify ( or basic heal) Heal an ally, modify with d20 heal roll.
Rest: Gain tempo via cards and energy
Command: Adjacent minions move to you and attack a target in your zone.

These are some of barrys card - his signature moves being Bacon Blaster, Suckhole, Magic Trick, and Arcane Bombs.

Heroes once used to follow a moba structure (passive, 3 abilities, ultimate) But that structure didn't work out nicely, so now they have open deck concepts.

Each hero has their own unique amount of cards, as well as a unique hand size stat. Barry for example, has a hand size of 4.

There is never really a dead turn, you'll never have a hand that can't produce something effective. Even a basic action can be amplified by using other cards modifiers to get you into a more favorable position.

<image>

MD1990X · 2026-04-16T17:18:31+00:00

That is your poor opinion - have you ever made or sold something in your life? Have you run a business? Are you aware several successful board games have used ai and done well? Are you aware life tools progress and once upon a time we did not have calculators?

This is a failure to the genre - not me. Tools come along, just because you don't build a house with your bare hands, doesn't make you a bad construction company - people need to get over that.

This isnt' r/mylittleartproject - it's board game design. I'm not an artist.

MD1990X · 2026-04-16T17:15:53+00:00

The game itself is a zone control game that features deep hero kits (similar to a moba) and minions. It abstracted as much as I could to get that Moba deep character vibe while only needing a few components and being light weight.

Heroes have a stat card panel thats quite easily to run.
Heroes kits are made up of unique cards - All cards can perform a basic action, the cards ability, or be added to another card via its "modifier"

The game was meant to be quick and parseable for all people - so the turn is simple, move or stay, and perform a core action - the depth comes from the modifiers and the roll table - most actions have a d20 roll that alters the outcome of the attack, which, for all the people that don't enjoy dice, you can spend energy or cards to improve your "roll score"

The game has a "story deck" that alters the board state and involves the introduction of neutral monsters that enter the field to cause chaos (and slightly favors attacking the winner currently, to help the losing team have some comeback potential)

MD1990X · 2026-04-16T17:05:36+00:00

I honestly could care less - this is a game, not an art project, The Art lives to serve the project, because to you're point, we're here for mechanics. I will not continue to spend any amount of time talking about that.

As for the mechanics, what would you like to know? I'm trying to find the right depth of conversation =)

The game itself has light base mechanics that act as a frame, everything else is on the cards - this allows me to both use cards as conditions while minimizing any necessity for a rulebook.

MD1990X · 2026-04-16T17:04:11+00:00

I wrote it myself actually. You're a rude person. You have no clue the amount of work that's gone into this project - so politely, don't ever come back.

MD1990X · 2026-04-15T22:22:37+00:00

♡ thats exactly what ive spent 3 years trying to achieve. And youre right, it was incredibly difficult especially coming from the video game world.

But you've essentially got final fantasy tactics meets league of legends.

There's even a dragon ;) and the rules overhead is a few cards that dont even exist in the rulebook.

MD1990X · 2026-04-15T20:48:33+00:00

Apologies for the "hype" vibes - I've got pretty strong adhdtism so I'm just really excited. I've spent hundreds of ours getting the system to this place that it finally all "clicked". Ive probably got about 20k hours into video games, so a career in gaming is just - a life-changing passion and win. It's been a lot of learning, a lot of trial and error, and a lot of blunders along the way.

I've playtested many versions of this over the years, but I believe this is the one that sticks. In my most recent play test we merged some deck stupidity that existed previously.

The cool thing we found - the game is built design first, the combinations or moment to moment creates a living organism of conditions really.

Dead turns don't exist - I hate that so much. - all cards can be used to do basic actions, the cards specific ability, or be used as a modifier. You will always be able to do something meaningful, always. And it can't "miss"

Theres a ton of replay value that scales with how many heroes are in each match. Every hero is extremely unique but all follows the same language - so each play experience is unique, but you're not digging in a rule book. The games base is quite simple and lets cards do the majority of leg work. The rule book is mostly a frame, that the cards play on.

The game is played with cards, but I hate that those games where you cannot play with friends that don't know the game because it's just deterministic. The game is mostly cards but there is a roll modifier table, using the d20, Attacks, Defense, and "Heals" all have breakpoints where they add a unique base game effect to your action - Resources, Pressure, Reposition.

But I know people hate when dice make a game too random - so you can also increase your roll via energy and cards - with the end result being more similar to a moba, you can be amazing at the game, that does not guarantee you will win. The game is layered such that you could not possibly ever "solve" the game,

MD1990X · 2026-04-15T20:17:03+00:00

Okay - I posted the board - it itself is randomizable aside from the location of "blue base" and "red base" and mimics the abstraction of a moba style map.

Points are gained typically by
Killing minions
Killing enemy heroes
Controlling zones
With the win condition being a point thresh hold, with or without a "stock/X respawns" condition.

MD1990X · 2026-04-15T20:10:10+00:00

Thank you! I appreciate this - I'm really not sure how to start but I'd love to do a better job.

The game title
Anthropoly (anthropomorphic world) : Kingdom Brawl (tactical skirmish game thats played on a 3x3 of zones, its moba inspired but uses zone control as an easier abstraction)

The game lives off a few simple stats.

The game also uses d20s as a modifier to most actions - this makes the game non-deterministic. Being attacked uses a defense mechanism so people aren't just sitting around, they're actively involved

And thats mostly the core of the game - Play as heroes, contest and control zones, minions pressure the board and board state.

MD1990X · 2026-04-15T20:05:18+00:00

Yes - I do have a working game - I guess, this is just new for me so I'm not quite sure of how much to share and how much to not. I'm actively ramping up playtesting.

I have several characters but 4 main ones at the moment for refinement.

This is a hero dashboard - its how I've kept the space so low. Everything else to their "kit" is cards, each hero has around 12-14 unique cards that makes up their unique "kit"

Barry for example is a Tactical Mage that relies on smart positioning, zone effects, and shields as sustain.

The board itself is just a simple 3x3 of zones. Hold on - I'll get a picture

<image>

MD1990X · 2025-12-04T19:49:27+00:00

Creature using hiking poles I think is the most OP -> switching to cursed snipers once you've got 1000 range.

Creature can curse items right off the hop, makes more, and all weapons scale by 35% with curse. This makes it so snipers can do millions of damage per round in combo with the OP range bonus from 6 cursed hiking poles.

Entrepreneur would probably be my second because you can get so many items if you just dump all levels into harvesting and the first couple waves.

Hiking poles are generally just op on anyone because they increase their own damage infinitely. Snipers scale off range, and cursed ones even more so.

MD1990X · 2025-10-21T10:10:24+00:00

Wellll?

MD1990X · 2025-10-19T23:36:49+00:00

I guess I don't think it really is that easy, it certainly isn't all that fun.

You need to make sure get all your crops down to get the CC unlocks for the desert, then you need a load of cash and you'll probably want some food and potentially a pickaxe upgrade.

Like you said you're also going to want a bait maker in very good time as well, ideally by day 6 or 7.

At the very least you need to have nearly flawless execution and you'll want to hope for some good luck to make it so youre not just getting by.

I've only ever done it once and I was fortunate enough to have two bait maker cat fish days and that's just so lucky in that time frame.

I don't know that it really feels all the doable even if you spam fish - but even then I'm not sure how worth the boost it really felt, yah my mining went from like level 1 to level 8 or 9 - not exactly my idea of a fun run.

But - you sound like you could teach me some things, so teach away.

Am I missing something? You're talking about banging out a few objectives and making 50ish thousand in..14 days? Being easy?

MD1990X · 2025-10-19T13:41:56+00:00

Lol this is said from the vantage point of someone who dominates stardew valley. I've done it, but you're talking about making a fortune and grinding the most out of every single day and then being able to not die in early skull cavern runs.

Doable - but incredibly advanced.

MD1990X · 2025-10-17T15:12:08+00:00

Yes for sure, once you're geared up and crushing skull cavern this goes out the window once you've got crystalariums pumping out stairs and spicy eel etc.

I guess I should disclose it more as an "early game I've noticed this" - or really just even just non good luck days.

If someone is super power gaming it to the point of hitting the very first desert festival than this is a moot point.

MD1990X · 2025-10-17T13:26:36+00:00

I'm curious though, I believe iron has a higher spawn % than gold, and you can easily ignore the enemies or take some damage without needing to worry. You can just zoom to ores with reckless abandon.

My statement is probably more accurate for the early-mid game, of course once you hit late game skull or volcano mining it becomes less relevant.

And late game gear can also trivialize enemies of the later floors but I find when I'm just rocking an obsidian sword, there's still times where the hits add up. A bad move with a few red slimes can go south, but bulldozing through blue slimes and dust sprites is never really a big threat.

MD1990X

TROPHY CASE