3. Initial Brainstorming
• God / Gods theme / functionality
• Epic scale (God of War, etc.)
• Folklore
• Economy/ Resource management
• Influences:
– Age of Empires
– From Dust
– Celtic Village (mini-game)
– Risk
– Celtic folklore & art (Tuatha de Danann, knot-work, etc.)
– Anno Games
5. Game Mechanics
.
• 2-6 players
• 5 turns per era, 2 eras
• Players choose a civilization / identity & starting region
– Druid, Sage, Bard
• Each player throws a dice to decide the starting player: highest roll wins. Turn
rotation is clock-wise
• Main Goal
– Every 5 rounds, each player has to gather enough resources to progress to the
new Era
– At the beginning of each new era all the players have to pay the era’s
progression target
– A new era allows placement of more buildings & a refresh of building cards’
hand
– If a player cannot afford to progress, they are out of the game
6. Game Mechanics
Each turn is divided into five phases:
• Draw Building Card: The player can draw a card from the Building Deck only by
paying 3 Knowledge resources
• Pay Maintenance on Buildings: The player will have to pay the maintenance for all
the buildings he/she placed into his/her region.
• Gathering Resources: The player will gather the resources he/she planned to
produce by placing buildings into his/her counties.
• Draw Event Card: The player has to draw a card from Event’s Deck and follow the
instructions described on it.
• Production Plan: During this phase the player has to plan his/her income by placing
and/or changing a building into the available counties. Placing strategy will be based
on his/her needs.
7. Game Mechanics
Buildings Event Cards
- Farm, - Vintage - Cataclysm
- Distillery, Year - Fanaticism
- Secluded Monastery, - Mysticism - Great
- Offering Altar, - Robbery Feast
- School, - Discovery - Advanced
- Famine Research
- Mystic Circle
- Explosion - Peace
- War
8. Game Mechanics
• Civilizations have certain • Resources (Wealth, Knowledge &
inherent bonuses Faith)
– Must be spent to maintain
buildings and progress to
next era
– Bard (Distillery and Farm
maintenance is free) – Each player will start with 5
units of each resource type
– Druid (Offering Altar and (i.e.: 5 Wealth, 5 Knowledge
Secluded Monastery and 5 Faith)
maintenance is free) – Knowledge: pay 3 to draw
– Sage (School and Mystic another building card
Circle maintenance is free) – Wealth: pay 5 to place a
– Players draw building cards building into a county
– Faith: pay 5 to draw another
event card
– Resources are useful trading
goods, they can be spent to
maintain buildings and they
will let the player to go
forward into the game
9. Initial Playtests & Findings
• Balancing resource production & cost • Imagining different board layouts &
of era progression functions
• Finding a meaningful way to • Eventually removing the idea of a
integrate the 3 resources ‘board’ completely
• Finding ways of forcing the player to • Discussing design direction, art style
spend their resources (creating a & possible stories
challenge)
• Designing a challenging but
achievable goal within each era
• Weighing up the effects of the event
cards on the players’ chances of
survival
• Massively cutting the game length (8
eras - 2 eras)
