In my previous design diary post, I outlined my game design process and also shared my goals for Lords of the Under-Mountain.

My current intermediate goals

Here’s a recap of my current goals I’m working on right now:

1. To reinforce the positive feedback loops in the game to make winning the game easier, leading to shorter games, especially when people are playing for the first time

2. Streamline the game by getting rid of some of the pieces and at the same time reinforce the theme in mechanics (actions and features of factions, impact and names of action cards etc.)

How it is going

Before, I had a big challenge with one of the factions, The Trolls. Their standard or special actions, win conditions were not screaming troll to me. I felt I needed to get more of that fantasy theme into them.

I made a few changes and now the trolls spill and vomt acid blood and basically thrive by beng a nuisance to the other players. Meaning they benefit from slaying the units of other factions in battle and from wrecking ther lairs.

I coupled that change with another, previously done streamlining work, where I threw out the abstract resource cubes each faction was collecting in their own ways. I also had strengthened the strengths of each faction in hopes to make the positive feedback loops in the game stronger, asllowing for quicker wins.

How does it look like at the moment

I’ve playtested this new prototype once and the result was positive. I want to do a couople of solo playtests to see if everything is in order before I invite some volunteers to test it for real.

But I’m quietly hopeful and I think I know which levers to pull if there are major imbalances between the factions or if the feedback loops need even more strenghtening.