DECIPHER.com > Star Trek > Expansions > Fractured Time

Third Time's a Charm!

by Mike Girard
Game Studio Developer

I know that there are some of you out there who believe that the design/development process happens like this:

Design: I have a great idea, let's do this and this.
Development: Brilliant! Print it!

I think that I may have oversimplified that a bit, but you get the point. The development process is quite spread out over the course of many weeks. Each card is put through extensive testing both in house and through our remote playtesters. Sometimes there are cards that get cut for one reason or another. Today I am going to talk to you about those cards that may not fit a particular mold or idea behind a set and as a result they may go to what the designers refer to as ... the Cut File.

The Beginnings

The design process starts with a spark of inspiration. Card ideas and affiliation themes are scratched on notepads, jotted down in random Word documents, or whatever media is handy. (In the case of designer Brad DeFruiter, he likes to call and leave a message on his work phone if inspiration strikes at inopportune times.) The set of cards that is handed from Design to Development isn't 100% new material. The designers will go back and comb through the Cut File to find card ideas that may fit a better set or affiliation theme. There are times when a particular designer will pull a card that has been cut for one reason or another and rewrite it, in hopes that it may be clearer and easier to understand. After the design team feels comfortable that they have conveyed what themes and ideas they want to see in the set, the cards head to Development. When the handoff is made, the number of cards that are in the set is greater then what the final set count will be. I have worked on a project where the number of cards handed off was close to 175% of what the final set count would be. This can be both a blessing and a curse. The blessing comes in the fact that Development has the opportunity to be more flexible with card text moving around and cards being cut if there are more than the set allotment. The curse comes when we have to pare the set down before we send it out to remote playtesters so they have some better focus on what specifically to test. Which leads us to our next question, why have these cards been cut in the first place?

Isle of Misfit Card Ideas

When cards are cut from the files, they are not merely tossed off the back balcony never to be heard from again. There is a Cut File that is stored on the server so that the Designers can access those ideas for a future set. The reasons for cutting these cards can be many. A card can be cut because the card text is too powerful and if the Development team can't get the card costed appropriately then it is sent packing. The opposite is also true, if Development can cost a card appropriately and the card's cost is off the chart (either too cheap or too expensive) then it is cut. There are various other reason as well, like a card's text may be out of affiliation boundaries or perhaps the card just doesn't fit the set's mechanics or theme. The specific card I'm going to touch on today falls into a little bit of each of those categories.

None of This Is Real

The card started out in Call to Arms testing as

Strange Hand Tweaker.
Cost – 0
Event
Count the number of cards in your hand, draw an equal number of cards, then place an equal number of random cards from your hand on top of your deck.
Destroy this event.

When this card hit Development, the crew came back with comments that it wasn't desirable enough because of the random element to it. You would pattern your hand a specific way and then if you played this card the patterning would just go down the drain. The other main problem is that randomizing your hand and processing that part of the game mechanic is very time consuming. So it was sent to the Isle.

Necessary Evil design rolled around and the card was resurrected, this time as

None of This Is Real
Cost – 7
Event
Plays in your core. At the start of your turn, you may exchange any number of cards in your hand with an equal number of cards from the top of your deck.
Order – Destroy this event to draw three cards.
Version A

Some additional Design notes were handed down with this version. The Design Intent Document (or DID) stated: "Brought back from earlier cut file. Attempt to add some player level mechanics rather then only character level mechanic." After speaking to Brad about the card specifically, this version was supposed to coincide with the event-heavy theme for Necessary Evil. It was also supposed to provide a player with a high-cost event option because there were options in Necessary Evil that triggered off of the cost of an event in your core and in addition it could be liquidated if the cards that were cycling got into a rut (not enough new cards were being seen). It hit Development and again was met with some constructive criticism. "The carrot is nice, but the cost of the event is too much. Players aren't going to stock this event in hopes that they MAY trigger their other gametext that utilizes the high cost of this event." It was sent back to redesign. Let me tell you something about redesign. Sometimes it takes some communicating between Development and Design to flesh out what exactly the problem with the card text is. There is a high level of trust and burden of proof involved in this process. This time when it was sent back for redesign, it came out looking a little bit different and more in tune with Necessary Evil's main focus, counting of events in core.

None of This is Real
Cost – X
Event
Plays in your core. At the start of each of your turns, if you command more events in your core than an opponent, you may choose any number of cards in your hand and set them aside face down. Draw an equal number of cards, then put the cards you set aside on top of your deck in any order.
Version C

This was more feasible and it counted for itself, so if your opponent didn't bother with the Necessary Evil theme (events in core), then you were able to trigger it with little effort. The problem, it was a bit wordy and when it came down to the last couple weeks of cuts, this card didn't feel like it was enough of a carrot for a player to play with more events in core when there are cards like Crosis and Whispers in the Dark available. Off to the Cut File again with this card.

Fractured Time design began and yet again, this card was pulled out, only this time there was a set theme feel to it. The trigger changed and it felt like pretty much a perfect fit for the set. The final card in the set appears at right.

Until next time, the Game Studio will make sure that every card text has its place in each of the games.

August 19, 2004