I didn't get a lot done in the past few days, but I made some important progress today, mostly relating to the game UI and engine structure.
I think I finally have a reasonably solid understanding of what the 'minigame' part of the game will entail and how that will be implemented. It's still highly theoretical, given that I won't have a working prototype of the game running until at least Saturday, which is alarming because the design I'm planning is also highly experimental and may require quite a lot of iteration to get right.
Current plan: I really need to finish off basically all of the engine work tomorrow (drawing stuff, handling inputs, handling game state). Then I need game mechanics and test content implemented by Saturday night, leaving Sunday for scripting the actual game, and Monday for polishing. That could happen. That will happen. Yes.
Assorted notes (mostly for my own benefit tomorrow):
- Although minigames are based on board games, I've ditched the idea of using dice or having multiple tokens / resource markers per player.
- Minigame game state involves only two things: (1) which tile players are on, and (2) what cards each player has in their hand.
- Each "board game" has a specific visual theme and consists of one board and one set of cards. Boards and cards can be mixed and matched to create minigame mashups.
- Every card has one to three stats listed on it (with the number of stats fixed in a given set of cards) and may additionally have one associated categorical value (e.g.: red, green, blue). The labels for these stats given on the cards don't actually matter, they're purely for flavor and are overruled by "house rules" which map stats to some combination of movement, attack (used to hinder another player), and support (used to help another player).
- A minigame ruleset consists of: a rule specifying how many cards to draw per turn, a rule specifying the minimum and maximum number of cards in the players hand at the end of a turn, a rule specifying how to translate played and discarded cards into movement/attack/support points, a rule specifying when how attack/support abilities work (can only use when on same tile as another player OR targets closest player OR choose any player within $var tiles OR pick anyone), a rule specifying what attack/support points do (move opponent, force card discard/pickup/swap), and finally a rule that defines the goal of the minigame (reach a tile, collect a certain number of cards, discard all cards, obtain a certain stat total in held cards, etc).
- Note to self: see notes.txt.