Split Fiction is a new game from the studio that made It Takes Two. After playing it with my friend, I really felt that the studio had once again reached the "ceiling of cooperative games".
The protagonists this time are two novelists, one writing science fiction and the other writing fantasy. As a result, they are trapped in a world that mixes their imaginations. The plot setting itself is very novel and the imagination is quite big.
In the game, we have to cooperate to solve puzzles and fight monsters. Sometimes one person controls the flying dragon while the other has to operate the mechanism. There is also a level where we become a giant robot battle, which is very exciting. The overall pace is fast and the gameplay changes a lot. There are new tricks in each level, and you won't get tired of it at all.
The most amazing thing is that it really requires cooperation, unlike some so-called "cooperative" games that can actually be completed by one person. If the communication in this game is really bad, it will be stuck to the point of collapse, but it is precisely because of this that there is a special sense of accomplishment when passing the level.
The style is also very similar to "It Takes Two", but this time the story is more profound, and even reflects on the issue of "creative freedom vs. AI control". It is not only fun to play, but also makes people think.
Game highlights (all the points that I personally think are great):
Super diverse gameplay, no repetition
The mechanism of each level is different, so you don’t get bored at all. In the last second, you are controlling a dragon with your teammates, and in the next second, you two become robots and fight each other. After the fight, you have to use magic or lasers to solve puzzles together. There is really a new gameplay in each level, and the creativity is explosive.
Strong sense of cooperation and clear division of labor
It is not the kind of "playing together" type of cooperation, but it must cooperate and communicate. For example, one person wants to attract monsters, and the other person takes the opportunity to go to the mechanism; sometimes you have to save each other and exchange skills. You will feel: "Without the opponent, I really can't pass the level."
The plot is imaginative and resonant
In addition to being fun, the plot is actually very interesting. It discusses "creative freedom vs AI control", as well as the compromise and cooperation between creators, and the sense of substitution is very strong. Especially when you play to the end, you will have a feeling of "we two completed a novel together", which is particularly complete.
The interaction is very strong and the details are full.
The environment will change according to the characters. For example, the level of the sci-fi author is full of space props, and the level of the fantasy author becomes a magic forest. You can feel that each design is not a template, but "made for you to experience".
The picture and action are polished very smoothly.
The operation is smooth, the cutscenes are also very natural, and there are almost no bugs that break the play. The style continues the soft and dreamy vision of "It Takes Two", but the scene design is richer and more layered.
Suitable for all relationships.
Whether you are a couple, friends, or classmates, as long as you can communicate, argue with each other, and cooperate, you will be super addicted to the game. And many levels will force you to "put yourself in other people's shoes", and you will feel that your feelings have been sublimated after playing (you may also quarrel ).
Project Blog Summary
Throughout the project, I was mainly responsible for the game planner, setting the gameplay rules, role mechanisms, card logic and the overall game process. I was not only responsible for the establishment of the initial concept framework, but also led two rounds of complete mechanism optimization to ensure that the game was both scientific and entertaining. This process greatly trained my ability to think systematically about rule balance, user experience and narrative logic.
Original idea
When the teacher explained the requirements and the group was formed, I wanted to be a game planner because I had rich experience in games. So I started thinking about the game plan as soon as I returned to the room.
My earliest game plan was very large, involving multiple elements such as cards, board games, and RPG. The background of the game is that after the human body obtains food, the organs in the human body will fight each other for glucose. There are a total of 5 characters corresponding to the brain, liver, fat, muscle and heart in the human body. They fight in groups of two at random, and the group that survives to the end wins. Each character gets corresponding glucose in each round. Each character has three skills, which are divided into ordinary skills and special skills according to the amount of glucose consumed.
Each character has different characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, so the health value and glucose consumption of each character's skills and the upper and lower limits of glucose are different. When glucose exceeds the upper limit or falls below the lower limit, it will suffer a lot of damage.
Each character needs to choose his own "upgrade" at the beginning of the game. The upgrade effect is hidden by default before use and will accompany the player throughout the game. The upgrade effects include life-saving, strong attack, and game rule change. They are also divided into active skills and passive skills in terms of casting methods. Each character has several "upgrades" to choose from. For example, the "wandering wizard" represents the brain. In terms of character attributes, it has the ability to control the overall situation, but its health is very fragile and the upper limit of glucose acquisition is also very low, so players must control the amount of glucose they have. Of course, the "upgrade" of the wandering wizard also has two very powerful life-saving skills, "life-saving amulet" and "curse". This causes other players to not dare to attack it easily before guessing the "upgrade" of the wizard, because the "curse" can directly eliminate the player who kills it. How to guess its upgrade? This is very simple, because the characteristic of the wizard is that it can only attack through one player, but the wizard's "upgrade" has a full-map attack range to choose from, so when the wizard starts to attack the players around him, it must be easy to kill. Similar settings are available for each character, and there are also swordsmen who rely on dice to block or bounce back damage. This is a setting similar to "Sekiro". After bouncing back damage, there will be a large bonus and it will also reduce the opponent's posture and reveal flaws.
The liver is an organ that plays a balancing role, but in my game it is a "thief". It cannot directly cause damage to players like the Mage and Swordsman, but needs to observe the players' glucose situation, because its skills can give its own glucose to others or steal others' glucose to itself or another player. This doesn't sound fatal, but if someone's glucose is about to reach the upper limit, it is the window breaker, forcing the player to bear the glucose that he can't bear, causing the glucose limit to break and cause damage. It also has a very powerful big move: eliminate all the glucose of a character, and "upgrade", such as smoke bombs. The character of Fat is a tank. It has a life value that is difficult to break and it has no glucose limit. It increases its glucose by attacking players or resisting attacks. Whenever its glucose accumulates to a certain amount, it will create a glycogen bomb, which carries a certain amount of damage. If it does not create a bomb, it can continue to accumulate glucose to upgrade the bomb until it becomes a destroyer of the entire game board.
The position of the game is also the key. The standard position of the game is a pentagon. The mage can only hit one every other unless it chooses a specific "upgrade". The thief's skills cover the entire map but do not cause direct damage. The swordsman and tank can only attack the people around them, unless they use their own powerful skills. Everyone must choose skills and strategies based on the teammates they draw and the positions of both sides at the beginning of the game. The above is the basic settings and gameplay overview of my initial game.
The team members agreed with my idea, so we worked together to create a minimum viable version of the game.
Each character has a character identity panel, skill card, upgrade card, health panel, glucose panel.At the beginning of the game, you first draw a character card, and then distribute each character's panel.
I also plan to add a virus invasion mode. In this mode, you need to draw an identity card at the beginning of the game, which includes a virus identity. The virus identity has its own special task. In this mode, the virus needs to complete its task without exposing itself. At each stage, you vote to verify the identity. If the verification fails, the voting party will reduce the corresponding health.
But when we started testing, there were a lot of problems. First, the game mechanism was too complicated. We had to constantly check the game rule table during the game. It was also very difficult to calculate blood volume and glucose, which made the players who participated in the test always confused. In addition, there were bugs in many mechanisms and values of the game, resulting in only one "upgrade" being the optimal solution for some combinations, and it was too powerful.
In the process of constantly modifying the values, mechanisms, and rules, we felt very frustrated, so we planned to redo the game before Assignment 1 and start our proposal again.
Cell Race Game Proposal
This is a round-based elimination game for 5 players. In each round, players take turns drawing or playing cards. The most important cards are "bombs" and "pliers". If you draw a bomb but don't have pliers, you will be eliminated. This setting is simple and direct, but it is very tense and strategic, which lays a foundation for our entire game to be easy to understand and spread.
Drawing a card is equivalent to the cell taking in glucose. Drawing a bomb represents an energy crisis (such as oxidative stress). Using pliers is equivalent to enzyme intervention to resolve the crisis. Even if the bomb is successfully dismantled, it will return to the deck, symbolizing that stress may come again. This setting is deliberately incorporated when designing, hoping that players can have a perceptual understanding of how cells process energy while playing the game.
We spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of cells each character should represent and how their skills should simulate the characteristics of real organisms. For example, Wizard is a neuron that can predict cards; Giant is a fat cell that can withstand two explosions but moves slowly; Robber is an immune cell that prioritizes seizing resources in critical moments; and Gambler is a mitochondria, the most "adventurous" energy factory in the cell. This anthropomorphic design not only enhances the character's personality, but also deepens the educational significance of the game.
This document lists in detail all 50 cards we designed, including 2 bombs, 6 pliers, and function cards such as Prophecy, Request, Skip, Shuffle, etc. This part is one of the most frequently debugged contents when I am planning, because the number, strength, and combination of cards directly determine the rhythm and balance of the entire game. In the early days, I was worried that too few bombs would be unexciting, but later we solved this problem through the "bomb recycling mechanism".
Game Objectives
Through exciting card games, players can constantly challenge and survive in the game, and eventually become the "strongest cell". In the whole process, they not only use their brains, but also subtly understand the basic logic of body metabolism. I hope this is a game that can "have fun and learn something", not just entertainment.
Game reference source
The first is "Three Kingdoms Kill", whose identity mechanism and role skill framework we borrowed; the second is "Exploding Cats", whose "bomb + pliers" mechanism directly influenced our core gameplay. My goal at the time was to build an original game with multiple elements of "popular science + strategy + reversal + luck" while retaining the fun of classic cards. Facts have proved that this combination does bring great expansion space and has become the basis for our subsequent two rounds of iterations.In addition, some elements of the game plan I first planned were carried over to this game, such as different character choices and character characteristics.
Summary of feedback and limitations of the game
During the iteration process of the project, we conducted three complete rounds of field tests, covering team members, novice players, and mixed player groups. For me as a planner, each test was a "mechanism stress test" and "user experience verification". I gained a lot of first-hand feedback from it, and also clarified the highlights and shortcomings of our work.
Overall, the game mechanics received positive reviews. Players generally believe that the gameplay is novel and easy to understand, the mechanics are interesting, and the rhythm is tight. As a planner, this is the greatest affirmation for me. The logic of "bomb = energy crisis, pliers = enzyme intervention" that we constructed is very easy for players to substitute into the biological analogy. However, there are also feedbacks pointing out that the triggering of rules in some rounds is more complicated, and novice players have a vague understanding of some cards, which reminds me that I must further streamline the instructions and interface expressions in the later stage.
In our design, the "bomb defusing" mechanism is the absolute core of the entire game - players draw bombs and defuse them with pliers. Although the logic is smooth, it also leads to the risk of "single strategy" in the game. Some players said that the victory or defeat of the game depends too much on who has the pliers, and there is a lack of "non-mainstream" ways to break the game. Therefore, I started to add character stunts and alternative solutions (such as gambler dice defusing bombs, character skill reversal, etc.) in the update, trying to break the "only safe strategy".
The game lacks a reward system that encourages players to take risks. Most people prefer to play conservatively, which made me realize that although we have set up card interactions, we have not established a positive mechanism of "risky behavior = reward". Therefore, I plan to add "hidden achievements", "chain reaction rewards" and "high risk high reward mechanism" in the future.
Although the gameplay seems simple, it still takes some time for new players to understand the whole mechanism. Some players mentioned that "I still don't understand after the rules are explained". I reflected that it was because the card text was not intuitive enough and the character skills were expressed too verbally. Therefore, I plan to redesign the graphical teaching card + quick flow chart so that novices can quickly get started through "illustration + brief explanation" instead of frequently checking the rule page.
Some feedback from the test mentioned that some characters (such as Robber and Giant) have too strong skills or advantages at the beginning, which leads to imbalance in the game and even forms an avalanche effect of "the strong always get stronger". As a planner, this exposed my negligence in the ratio of character strength and mechanism control. In addition, the original setting of "revealing the identity at the beginning" was pointed out to make players target too early and lose the game space. Therefore, we changed it to "reveal the identity when using skills", added hiding and disguise gameplay, and improved the sense of reasoning and game variables.
At present, our settlement method is "surviving to the end is winning", which is easy for players to understand, and the feedback is unanimous that the ending is clear. However, some players feel that luck is too important and want a more "win by skill" experience. Therefore, I am developing an advanced "points victory mechanism", such as weighting according to the number of cards used, the number of opponents repelled, and the frequency of skill triggering, to provide another more complex but fairer victory judgment logic.
Final game design
Our updated Cell Race is no longer a single elimination survival card game, but has been upgraded to a complete system that combines biological mechanisms, round elimination, identity game, and long-term goal control.
We set the game world view with the theme of "glucose metabolism + virus invasion". Players do not play a hero or human role, but various types of "cell roles", such as neurons, fat cells, immune cells, liver cells, mitochondria, etc. - these cells absorb glucose and produce energy every day in the body, while resisting possible metabolic crises or external virus invasions.
In our design, every card draw is equivalent to taking glucose, but not every time it can be metabolized smoothly. Sometimes you draw an "energy crisis" (the "virus invasion body" card in the game). At this time, you must quickly find the "antiviral enzyme" (the original clamp card) to resolve the crisis, otherwise you will be eliminated like apoptosis.
In the updated Cell Race, we have established two core gameplay modes: the first is the "cell survival battle", in which players draw cards, play cards, and survive to become the only winner who has not been eliminated; the second is the "evolution puzzle battle", in which the winner of each round will get a "human puzzle", and the final winner will be the one who accumulates 5 pieces. This design greatly improves the rhythm continuity and goal-driven sense of the game, making the game no longer just an isolated game, but a multi-round cumulative game with more strategic depth.
In terms of basic rules, each player randomly draws a character card, and the identity is initially hidden and only revealed when the skill is activated. In the round, players can choose to play or draw cards, but after drawing a "virus invader" (equivalent to a bomb), they must use "antiviral enzymes" to dismantle it, otherwise they will be eliminated. Players who successfully dismantle the virus need to put the virus card back to one of the top or bottom three cards in the deck. This design symbolizes the continuity of physiological pressure and creates game tension for subsequent players. Each character's skills are closely linked to their corresponding cell identities. For example, mitochondria can gamble their lives by rolling dice, and stem cells can be resurrected after the first explosion, but the number of cards in hand is limited. These settings enhance the logical consistency and fun differences of the game.
The first major change was from "fuzzy concept" to "clear mechanism". We renamed all cards and skills, replacing the original overly abstract terms (such as "Prophecy", "Pass the Buck", "Skip") with terms with metabolic meanings (such as "Energy Forecaster", "Enzymatic Cascade", "Enzyme Inhibition"), making the card mechanism closer to the scientific theme of "glucose metabolism". This round of changes not only enhances the popular science value of the game, but also makes it easier for players to understand the function and operation of each card through the name.
In the first update, we also added the "five organs puzzle mechanism of the human body" as a supplement to the victory path. The original game was only a one-round elimination system, lacking long-term goals and advanced space. After the introduction of the puzzle mechanism, the game was transformed into a multi-round continuous victory control system. The winner of each game gets a puzzle piece, and then faces the challenger as a "guardian". The winner will continue to accumulate puzzle pieces, and finally win by collecting five pieces. This setting increases the sense of hierarchy of the game, and also encourages players to hide their roles, retain tactics, and plan rhythm in multiple rounds of games.
The second change focuses on "from vague understanding to precise use". We have collected a lot of player feedback, such as the unclear distinction between different cards (such as confusion between the ability to see only one and the ability to see three), so we supplemented the card text description and graphical teaching content, and added the setting of "revealing the identity before the skill is triggered" to the role mechanism to enhance the confusion of hidden games and strategies. At the same time, we rebalanced some role skills, especially limiting the role that is too strong at the beginning and increasing the counter-attack space of weak roles, making the overall game experience more fair and varied.
After these two key updates, our game has reached a new level in rhythm control, mechanism depth, role balance, and scientific consistency. What makes me most proud is that we are not simply "making a fun game", but working hard to create a serious game that combines popular science, strategic challenges and multiple rounds of immersion - this is not only a test of my ability as a planner, but also my first step towards "combining education with entertainment".
Game Design Document
This is our final design file with the rules sheet and game cards.
References
Rules of board games
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/18zkb92/we_made_an_opensource_software_of_san_guo_sha_%E4%B8%89%E5%9B%BD%E6%9D%80/?tl=zh-hans
https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/16zkcm0/how_do_you_guys_learn_new_board_game_rules/?tl=zh-hans
https://groups.google.com/g/seattle-chinese-board-game-club-/c/HSmU3E7H-xw?pli=1
Theoretical basis for game settings
"How Cells Obtain Energy from Food" – Chapter from Molecular Biology of the Cell (Alberts et al.)https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK21054/
Harvard University - Science in the News: “Your Body's Energy Currency: How ATP Works”https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/atp-energy-currency-cell/
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/cellular-respiration-and-fermentation
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