Sinners!
Last week we started a little tour around Circles of Wrath and its lovely denizens. Time for the second round!
Chain effect
The horny (as in: corneous) fella below is the Acolyte of Wrath. Ace up his sleeve is the Chain effect. What it does, you ask? Well, usually when you throw a card on a stela, the stela launches its written effect or two and turns around, indicating the turn is over (nomen omen). But if the written effect is the Chain, a neighboring stela is now triggered as well – it launches its written effect or two and turns around.
The what now? It’s TWO stelas that hit me at once? Is that even legal? Oh, yes, I’m afraid so. That’s a lively example of a lovely design concept called Everything OP.
Everything OP
The oldest design concept in the world comes from the oldest game: chess. Chess philosophy assumes all elements to be like a math equation: simple, elegant, and perfectly balanced. Eons later, some unsung heroes of design said something on the lines of: “screw it, let’s try the exact opposite of that”. That’s how Everything OP concept was born.
It stands for “everything is overpowered” and it’s especially effective in roguelike games. You learn the basics and they’re pretty much all “chessy”. Then, when you’re finally starting to get the gist of it, this new rule suddenly kicks the chair and turns all game mechanics around.
It sounds like madness from a dry design perspective, but it allows for neverending series of OMG moments when this new monster does WHAT NOW? and you think you can’t possibly win, but suddenly a new card comes to play that can do WHAT AGAIN? and now you’re on top (if you figure out how to combo it properly, of course).
And that’s the game feel we’re striving for!
Stay tuned for the next monday update and if you have any questions or feedback: let us know on Discord!
