DESIGN DIARY - 11.21.00

The Journey

Several design elements have traveled a great distance during the evolution of the Jedi Knights gameplay. Some of them made it thus far without flinching, while others have been deeply affected by the ever-changing vistas that line the Product Development expressway.

"For me," begins Tom, "the big change was when we popped out of the Young Jedi deployment system." The very first version of Jedi Knights, which was essentially a Young Jedi clone in classic Star Wars garb, used the Young Jedi deployment system (on every turn, a player has six "bars" - deploy points - that he or she can spend to put cards in play). Now, deployment in Jedi Knights depends on what Force Card is played, which not only affects the deployment phase but the way the entire turn is played out.
Yes, this paragraph does feel like there should be another sentence here explaining in detail what Force Cards are. But that sentence is currently on its lunch break. Could you please call back at another time?

The turn structure is another game feature that took the evolutionary road. For a while Jedi Knights oscillated between three, six and nine turn phases, before Product Development finally decided on six. I think.
"It was a matter of finding clear labels that people would easily understand," continues Tom. So while the various phases of a turn switched places and legally changed their names, the basic turn structure remained the same.

The starship battle system is a particularly interesting example of a gameplay element that picked up bits and pieces on the road and made itself into something different, something more. Back when Jedi Knights was still supposed to be Young Jedi à la classic Star Wars, new starship battle rules were developed to accommodate the very important role starships play in episodes IV, V and VI. But when it was decided that Jedi Knights would have its own game engine and that everything would be designed from scratch, the starship battles rules were scrapped - for Jedi Knights, at least. "They worked very well so I stole them for Young Jedi," admits Chuck. Which means that the starship battle rules our Young Jedi players have discovered with Duel of the Fates were originally designed for the first incarnation of Jedi Knights.
When it came time again to design a starship battle system for Jedi Knights proper, Chuck suggested using the same rules they had put in place for the character battle system; but most people thought it couldn't work. "Then I was asked to write the rules for starship battles," recalls Chuck, "and so I did." When Chuck was done, everyone agreed that the rules really worked. "They were the same as the character battle rules," Chuck laughs.
However the starship battle rules were not done evolving. Chuck's first draft functioned well but did not offer as much interaction between combat in space and combat on the ground as was desired. Although PD took care of tightening some of the nuts, another group stepped in to offer assistance. "That last step of the tweaking process was really playtester-driven," says Tom. "They made gametext suggestions that really tied the two battle systems together."

A group of cards called "tactics" and "strategies" also evolved to become something else. The tactics functioned very much like interrupts in Star Wars CCG or Battle cards in Young Jedi, while strategies echoed the Effect cards of Star Wars CCG. Then the pair became "tactics" and "plans," before fusing to form a unique category under the label "events." "It was just a matter of making cards fit comfortably in the timing structure," explains Tom. So instead of having two different types of cards with different rules for playing them, players will deal with one type - events - and each card within that group will specify its own timing for card-playing purposes.

Then there are the "bases" (headquarters for each deck), which later adopted the "stockpiles" designation, and only recently became "reserves." Apparently, this should be the final label. "We were simply hunting for a good term," Chuck says. "Now we can say 'Put Luke in reserve' instead of 'Put Luke under your base' and so on. We're very happy with this new term. A lot of the development of any game consists in looking for the right terms. It's almost like inventing a language."


Many other gameplay elements have journeyed beyond the veil and emerged transformed on the other side. But whatever paths those concepts and ideas found themselves upon, they're all ending their journey together in the same place - version 20.5 of the rules.
"And counting," says Chuck.

Francis K. Lalumiere
The Juggler