Monster Bash- Monster Sketches

Here're the designs of the monsters for my game I'm currently working on in my game design class. Some of them pay homage to some giant monster movie or video game but the rest are just random design ideas I put together to create an individual monster for the 25 game cards. One or two designs may be missing from here though due to some tweaks I'm making.

Tabletop Game 05- Prototype and Rules

   Monster Bash

“Unleash The Beast and Destroy Your Enemies!”

A game by Caitlin Bernoskie

Game Time: 10-30 minutes.

Number of Players: 2

Goal

        The goal of Monster Bash is to use your team of giant monsters to defeat your opponent’s own and survive by the end of the round. If all of your monsters are defeated before the end of the round you lose!

     Game Components

The game is made up of:

•     20 Monster Cards

•         40 Monster Action Cards

•           2 Play Mat Cards

     Setting up the game

1.    Players will take a play mat card and place it in front of them. It will stay in place for the whole game there.

2.     Players will roll dice to see who gets to choose their cards first. Whoever has the highest roll picks first.

3.    Shuffle the Monster card deck. Both players will then pick 5 random cards from the top of the deck to use for the round. Player who rolled highest will pick first.

4.    Shuffle the Action cards next. After they’re shuffled each player will choose 20 cards randomly from the top of the deck and use these cards for the round. Player who rolled highest will pick first.

5.    After each player has chosen their Monster and Action cards they will then place them accordingly on their Play Mat card. Monster Cards are not placed on the Mat however and they will be put to the side of it instead.

      Card Mechanics

1.    Monster Cards

Each monster card depicts its own unique monster. Every monster card has a Health Point (HP) score and an Action Point (AP) score.

·      Health Points-HPs

-Each monster card has a different HP score. If this score is knocked down to 0 the monster is killed and cannot be played again within the round. It is important for a player to keep track of how much HP their monster loses due to an opponent’s attack.

·      Attack Points- APs

-These points will be used as the amount of power each Action Card a player uses will have. For example if a player uses a Monster card with an AP of 15 then their Action card will be 15 as well.

2.    Action Cards

These cards act as the main action for each player’s active monster card. Their value will always be based on the monster card’s AP unless the Action guard is a Block card. There are 4 possible types of Action cards to use:

- Punch-5-15 points.

- Bite-5-15 points.

- Block- Will defend against any attack during a play. Will not work against any monster card with a special ability.

- Dodge and Fight Back

-Monster dodges any attack and punches back with an attack of equal AP of their opponent. Will not work against a monster card with a special ability.

4.    Monster Cards with Special Abilities

-There will be a small number of monster cards that have special abilities instead of APs. These special abilities can only be used once per round. After using a special ability the monster must resort to using their HPs as their Aps for Action cards until defeated.

      Gameplay

            Now that the game is set up it’s now time to start the battle!

•            Step 1- To start, each player will look at their hand consisting of 5 Monster cards. When they choose a monster they like they must place it in the Monster Containment section on their Play Mat and put the rest of their Monster cards to the side.
•           Step 2- Next, players will randomly choose 1 Action card from their deck. Then at the same time both players will lay down their Action cards for both to see. Depending on what Action card is played a few situations may occur:

- Example 1- Both players place an Attack style Action card like Bite or Punch. If no Monster is defeated in this turn then both players must draw 1 new Action card and play until a monster is defeated.

- Example 2- One player uses a Block Action Card while the other uses a Bite or Punch Action card. The attack will be blocked but both players will resort to choosing 1 card from the Action deck to continue until either is defeated.

- Example 3- Both players use a Block Action card. This causes no effect and players must then continue by choosing 1 card from their Action deck until one of the players’ monsters is defeated.

- Example 3- One player uses a Dodge and Fight Back card while another player uses Block. There is no Attack to dodge so the Dodge and Fight Back action is then rendered useless. Both players have no effect put upon them and they must then choose 1 new card and continue until someone is defeated.

- Example 4- One player uses a Dodge and Fight Back card while the other player uses an Attack action card like Punch or Bite. The first player dodges the attack and will hit back with an attack equal to their opponent’s Aps. If the opponent’s monster is not defeated by this attack though both players must choose 1 new action card and continue until someone is defeated.

- Example 5- One player uses a Monster card with a special ability. This cannot be blocked or dodged by the opponent and their attack is rendered useless unless the ability happens to be Copycat.

• Step 3- If a player’s monster has their HP knocked to 0 then they’ll simply put them to the side and choose a new monster to play with from their remaining 4 Monster cards.
• Step 4- Both players will continue repeating the actions in Step 2 until a player has all 5 of their monsters defeated. When this occurs the game is over and opponent and their monsters left alive are the winners!

      Strategy Tips

•           If you have a monster with a high AP in your hand either save them for later or play them first. You never know, you might just give yourself a good advantage for the beginning of a round.
•          Be smart with your Monster card if it has a special ability. It could be your saving grace in a game or it could give you a disadvantage if it’s one of your only good cards. 
•          Have fun and enjoy yourself! This is meant to be a enjoyable game between both players so don’t get bitter if you happen to lose.

Design Notes

• A good deal of this game was based off of various movies like Godzilla and pacific Rim which use the giant monster fighting idea a great deal.
• Giant Monsters have always been something I’ve enjoyed seeing since I was a child so making a game based off of them was really fun.
•  For gameplay I looked at King of Tokyo, WAR, and Godzilla Kaiju World Wars in terms of how the monsters would battle each other in game.

Tabletop Game 04- Theme and Concept Statement

“ Unleash the Beast and Fight to the Death.”

    My theme will revolve around giant monsters. The game also has a story which will connect to them. The story is simple, two scientists have created giant kaiju creatures. To see which scientists has created the more superior specimens, both scientists, the two players, will use their kaiju to fight against one another to the death. Each player will control a vast array of diverse giant kaiju monsters to fight with from a titanic multi-armed Ape to a Lovecraftian tentacle horror. Players will also have the chance to destroy their opponents monsters through the use of action cards or special abilities that a number of the monsters have.

 Similar Themes:

  Giant monster battles are all over the place in media. Some of the most notable examples being from the movie series, Godzilla. Godzilla films always feature a number of giant monsters, normally called Kaiju which means "strange monster" in Japanese, who fight each other in a city or some area populated by humanity.

 Godzilla vs King Ghidorah

Godzilla vs Space Godzilla

   Other giant monster fighting films include the newly acclaimed movie, Pacific Rim. Pacific Rim follows the same formula as Godzilla with the giant monster showdown but instead includes giant robots controlled by humans.

  There are also many video games and board games which share the giant monster fighting theme as well. Here are some good examples:

Godzilla Destroy All Monsters was a video game where you'd take control of a giant monster and fight a number of others to become the winner, or king of the monsters!

War of the Monsters follows the same formula as Destroy All Monsters. Take control of a variety of monsters and fight for supremacy while destroying everything around you.

 Kaiju Combat

Godzilla Kaiju World Wars is a great board game where you control kaiju and try to take down your opponent's kaiju.

Color Scheme?

  So my game's going to need some prominent colors to keep the visual look of the game and theme together. I have a few ideas for this of course.

For the Kaiju cards maybe some variety of reds, blues and greens might look nice. It'll give them a lively look and the red and green are symbolic colors for ideas like violence or radioactive which fit with the idea of a Kaiju. Also a lot of Kaiju seem to favor these three color sets. It could be because they're symbolic of fire, earth, and water which some kaiju designs are based around.

I was considering that the basic cards should be a sort of earthy tone. The lack of vibrancy wouldn't clash with the lighter colors of the Kaiju cards.

Another idea for an overall color scheme. Very earthy and balanced. Many Kaiju designs include reds, yellows, browns, greens, and blues so this one hits a few of those.

Triad scheme like this would help with differentiating each type of card for the game. Might not offer too many opportunities though when it comes to the Kaiju cards which should have a large selection of colors to choose from.

Another good overall color scheme which could give a lot of good color opportunities if I figure out what should get what in terms of color combination.

Tabletop Game 03- Brainstorming or "Game Ideas So Far"

Now comes the fun part: Brainstorming A Game Idea! I've got a couple ideas so far so here's the low-down. These ideas are set to change so whatever it seen here isn't for certain.

Game Idea 01- Monster Bash

• Genre: Scifi/Fantasy/Fighting
• Overal Idea: Giant monsters have been created by two rivaling mad scientists. Controlling these monsters, the two mad scientists have decided to use them to battle against one another to see who had created the more superior experiments. Shame they couldn't just talk it out over tea or something.
• Goal of Game: Beat the other "mad scientist" by using your monsters to defeat as many of theirs as you can by the end of the game. 
• How many players: 2
• How long should it take to play? 10-15 minutes. 
• Game pieces: 60 individual Monster cards, 2 Mad Scientist cards
• How to start: Players will roll a dice to gain the highest roll. 
• Whoever rolls highest picks their scientist card first. Second player takes the other scientist card.
• The 60 monster cards will then be manually split between the two players so each has 30 monster cards to play with.
• Both players cannot look at their cards until they pick 10 random cards from the top of their deck. Theses cards will be there starting deck to fight with and they can look at them as they please.
• From here the game will be split into 3 rounds, which are 10 battles each, where 10 cards will be drawn for each. The player who's won the most rounds is the overall winner of the game.
• Mechanics, attributes, etc.: 
• The monster cards- These cards are each visually unique with a specified set of attack points listed on them. These attack points will act as the main means of battling the other players monsters. The player whose monster has the highest attack points will win the match.
• Attack points- Each monster card will have an attack point amount listed on it. This point amount will range from 20-65 points. Special monster cards will have an added ability which can be used during a match.
• Abnormals- These are monster cards which have a special ability that may be used to the player's advantage. Such abilities can be as listed:
• Black hole: This monster has the ability to self destruct and create a black hole which sucks an opponent's monster along with it. The opponent will also have to give up an extra monster from their deck as well so it ends as a 1-2 loss for that match.
• Hard shell: This ability allows the monster to survive any attack from the opponent's monster for 1 match. It can be played twice but the second time it is, if the opponent's monster has a higher attack score then it will be defeated.
• Copycat: This ability allows a monster to mimic the attack points of the other opponent's monster. This will result in a double kill as both monsters took each other out with an equal set of power. Loss of 1-1 for both players.
• King of Fear: This ability allows a monster to scare away the opponent's monster and they must choose another monster from their current hand to draw instead. If the monster chosen has a higher attack score than the monster using the fear ability then it wins the match.
• Plague: This ability cause the opponent to lower all their monster's attack points by 10 points each for the entire match.
• Power Up: This ability increases the monsters attack points by 10.
• I'll think of more abilities if I decide to go with this game idea.
• Rules:
• Players cannot look at their cards until they choose their 10 to play for each round.
• If both players place down monster cards which have the same set of attack points then they both destroy their monsters in a 1-1 loss and continue to the next match.
• Both players must play each round until one player has lost all their monster cards. This means that if a player has already used a monster card which has won a match they must be used again.
• A monster card with a special ability can only use that ability once per round. That means if the player uses that monster card and ability once and happens to use that card again due to a lack of cards the ability cannot be used again. One ability usage per round.
• Space: Since it's basically a deck of cards players can begin the game on any surface.

Game Idea 02- Out of the Shadows

• Genre: Fantasy/Horror/Survival
• Overall Idea: The world has been encased by a never ending darkness called The Shadow. You, the player, must make your way through the land and get to the city of Light before you're devoured by the demons within the shadowy mass.
• Goal of the Game: Survive and make it to the city of Light to escape the Shadow to win. If all players die then the game is lost.
• How many players: 2-4
• How long should it take to play? 20-40 minutes
• Game pieces: 4 player cards, Two Dice, 20 recharge tokens, 4 player pieces, 30 events cards
• Space: Players will play on a board with various spaces to land on and a center space for the City of Light. 
• Black spaces- Areas effected by The Shadow. Landing on these spaces will cost a player 1 lantern.
• Blue spaces- These spaces will allow a player to choose one event card.
• City of Light space- If a player lands on this space they survive the game.
• White space- Simple movement space. May also be considered a safe zone.
• Mechanics and others:
• Player cards- Each player card has an illustration of the player's character and 5 lantern icons. These cards will be used to keep track of how much light a player has.
• Lanterns- Every player has five lanterns to use as a light source to fight against and maneuver through the Shadow areas. If a player loses all five lanterns and happens to land on a black space on the board then they die as they have nothing to protect themselves from the darkness.
• Lantern tokens- Each players has 5 lantern tokens. Each token acts a a sort of refuel for 1 lantern if a lantern is used on a black space. Using a lantern token for a lantern will count as 1 turn for the player. 
• Event cards- These cards will either help or hinder a player when they land on a blue space. Events include:
• Receive one spare lantern token
• Shadow attack
• Avoid a black space
• Receive back 1-5 lantern points
• Trap card
• How it starts? Players will roll dice to see who rolls the highest to go first. From there it goes by who has the second highest and so on. All players start at the beginning space on the board. From there every turn a player will roll the dice to move so many spaces.

• Other ideas: Apocalypse survival horror game where the main goal is to keep yourself and the other player alive.
• Fantasy game where you control a dragon and try to destroy as many kingdoms as possible.
• Space invader game where you infiltrate the government and try not to get caught.

Character Sculpt 02- Nymph

Second character sculpt side project I did in Zbrush. Based this design as a sort of scifi/fantasy nymph idea I had not too long ago. I'd love to go back and paint it up when I can.

 Front views.

 Back view. Here you can see the nymph's "pack" better.

Side views. So here it should be visible that the lower set of arms are connected to the pack. My idea with that part was that they were like a pair of pseudo-arms connected to the nymphs body through the pack on its back.