In Last Chance Saloon, there are four main card types. One such type are known as the '1st Place Cards', '2nd Place Cards' and '3rd Place Cards'.
Their function is, simply, to grant a player a better sense of achievement for winning the game. The cards act similarly to an alternative cutscene in a video game where, if a player goes a certain route through the game, they will be shown a cutscene corresponding to the way they played. This method is nothing new and has been practised for years, especially in video games with a lot of story, character development and lore. Two such examples are Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption II and Lionhead Studio's Fable II. In Red Dead Redemption II, a lot of the gameplay experience revolves around the morality the player chooses for Arthur Morgan. If they play Arthur as a morally good character, a lot more sunshine will be prevalent, camera angles are generally wider and music will sound more upbeat. If they play him as a morally bad character, these aspects are reduced with closer, more 'downward, looking up' camera angles, sinister music and crows cawing in the distance. The cutscenes between these two alignments vary dramatically as well, but I won't say why so as not to spoil the experience for anyone.
In Fable II, bad actions are met with negative responses from the people of Albion, and vice versa. Your character's appearance also adjusts itself to your moral alignment, with outstandingly 'good' players having clear skin and a shining halo. 'Evil' players get stuck with red or green eyes, cracked and scorched skin and, if they are evil enough, even horns tearing their way through the scalp with congealed blood running down their hairline.
Some cutscenes are so special that they only show after a player has done a very difficult task, such as getting 100% completion on a game. The whole point of these aspects is to grant the player more immersion, experience and reward when playing the game. Since my game is much more static, I needed to come up with another way of conveying achievement to my players.
That is what these cards are for.
On the finalised design, the front of these cards will have displayed on them (from top to bottom) the position that the player came in, the character's name, and a block of flavoured text detailing what happened to that character after either coming first, second or third.
Last Chance Saloon is a game steeped in a lot of carefully planned story and character design. Since the backstories for all six characters are the heart and soul of the game, the text on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place cards will adhere strongly to these. This means that if, for example, the Cavalry sergeant comes first, the flavoured text on his 1st place card will detail how he managed to leave the army once and for all, and set up a thriving ranch to live out the rest of his life on. This is the best possible outcome for that character, according to his backstory. The same will be done for all six characters, as well as 2nd place and 3rd place cards. These cards are an important addition to the game for a few reasons:
They enhance the storytelling and lore for both the characters and for the players
They grant players a better sense of achievement for winning the game, similar to the way a cutscene does in a video game
They have the potential to make players more curious about the character they're playing as, as well as developing curiosity for the American frontier
This method has also been practised in the board and card games Mysterium and Betrayal at House on the Hill, where the players handbook reveals more of the story. However, I did not take inspiration from these two games on this subject.
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