Game System Analysis 1 – DUST
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Intro The first week of our current game design course, Advanced Game Design, we were tasked with playing a board game of our choice and, once played a minimum of 3 sessions, analyse it and figure out it’s underlying game system. We chose, without reading anything about it prior, a game called DUST. DUST is a competitive strategy game played on a map of the earth. The map has connected, circled land or sea areas scattered over it. Some of these areas also count as so called ”power sources”. There are also six bigger circles, representing capitals. At first glance, one might get the impression that this is version of the classical ”Risk”, but indeed, looks can be deceiving. The Best Once you learn all the rules (and sometimes make up your own to make up for loss of rules in certain scenarios), it’s really quite intriguing and keeps you interested (and scared) throughout the whole session. The entire concept of the tides being able to switch so quickly keeps you on your toes and invested all the time. The Worst Confusing rules. Many uncovered exceptions. During our first session, we were really confused, and even discarded certain parts of it as stupid and ”in the way”; things which we later realized were the strongest parts of it. First time players who don’t ”have” to play it more than once might be scared off. The rounds can sometimes also take very long, since even if you have a plan in mind, it can and probably will have to be altered once it’s finally your turn. This creates lots of deadtime. The Game System DUST can be played by a minimum of two players, all the way up to six. Depending on the amount of players, the game is adapted accordingly to make sure that the difficulty stays balanced. For example, given a play session of six players, to win, one player has to reach a minimum of 30 so called ”Victory Points” (I’ll get into these later). If however there are only four players, the minimum is raised to 40. To begin with I will be basing this on a six player session. Setup Phase The game starts with each player being given 6 cards. Out of these, he/she picks one and places it face down on the table. Then, all players reveal their chose at the same time. This is also done at the starts of every new round as well. Cards The game has a set of 45 cards, made of 11 are unique ones. These all have special powers that can be used to turn the game in your favor. They also determine:
Since a new card is chosen every round, the player can use these very strategically to plan how he/she wishes to act at that point. For example, there were times when I chose to go last one round, produce as much units as I could, and then make sure that I was first the next round to, once again produce a lot of units, giving me a much bigger army to defend my areas! Also, this removes the problem in many games where you always know who you are after and before. So it eliminates repetitive situations. Moreover, they can be used in different phases of the game, to drastically change it in your favor, using their individual special abilities. For example, one card (if used at the beginning of combat, prior to die roll) allows you to roll twice the amount of dice for all plane units used in that fight. Another one allows you to take all your Mechs (on of the land units) and drop them anywhere on the map, thus allowing for some really interesting situations where one player can really hinder another player. Next, in the newly determined order of execution, each player places one Tank (the lowest of all units) on landmarks (including power sources) until the entire game board is filled. Units Each player has a large amount of units at his/her disposal. Each of these has a set of three factors which determines it’s value and role; COST, COMBAT and TACTICAL SUPREMACY.
Some of these also has special abilities. For example Submarines can travel in the water, and also work as a transport between continents for land units. Bomber planes can also move to any friendly or unoccupied land area, even if not connected. Lastly, each player places three production centers on three of his/her landmarks. These work as spawn points for new units. Each players turn is comprised of 3 different phases. Production Phase During this phase, the player is allowed to produce new units (or buy new cards, although he/she can have a maximum of 5 cards on hand). The amount allowed to be created is based on the players production points. These are determined as following:
Each Production Center is allowed to spawn a maximum of 5 units per turn, so the more Production Centers owned (each powered by a power source), the more the player can produce. Movement Phase Next, the player is allowed to move his/her troops according to the value given on the chosen card. For each point, the player can advance as many units as possible as far as he/she can via his/her own or allied, connected land areas. The player can also travel via friendly submarines, but each switch between land/sea costs one movement point. It’s important to note however, that if you choose to move all troops from one area (and don’t leave any units) you lose it and it becomes freely claimable by other players. Combat Phase Finally, the player can attack other players. He/she can do so either by attacking areas adjacent or via Submarines (amphibious attack). Similar to the movement, if the player chooses to attack with all units, if he/she either wins or loses entirely (don’t retreat) that area becomes unoccupied. At start of combat, the combined Tactical Supremacy of all of a player’s units determine which player attacks first (if both players have the same, the one defending goes first). Dice The game uses special dice, with 4 blanks and two hits, leaving a 1/3 chance of hitting per die. The player attacking throws the combined amount of dice from all his/her attacking units. If one or more dice hit, the corresponding amount of units from the opponents troop is removed, starting with the weakest. As an effect of this, the opponent (who is now going to attack) has less dice to throw than he originally had. This is why tactical supremacy is REALLY important during this phase. If unlucky, the one without it doesn’t even get to attack at all, given that his/her attacking units have all been destroyed. Victory Point Phase At the end of each round (when each player has executed all of his/her individual phases), it’s time to count the current score for everyone. You see, the point of the game is NOT to have the the biggest army, nor to control certain entire continents, but rather to spread out as much as possible, take as many special areas as possible (power sources and capitals) and then HOLD them as well as you can. During this phase, every power source and capital gives one Victory Point, moving you closer to the finish-line each time! You also get points for certain supremacies. For example, the player with the most amount of land or sea areas get land and sea supremacy respectively, thus giving that player an extra Victory Point. The same goes for the player with the most amount of Production Centers.
The most interesting part I’m inclined to say that this would be the addition of the cards. Firstly, they are highly strategical, and are essentially the core of how each player plans his/her turn. Additionally, they also have to power to turn the tides completely. The simple fact that the cards you have on hand are hidden from the other players, allow you to make up some really intricate plans, as well as plan for unforeseen or unwanted attacks. The inclusion of the die rolls is an interesting part of it as well, giving each fight a random element. This means that even if you’re attacking with a huge army, and play cards to support you, you could technically still lose if unlucky!
Target Audience The target audience chosen (the one on the box), is set at anyone from 12 years and above. This seems rather accurate, as there is a lot to keep in mind and take into consideration, especially if there are six people playing. There are loads of units, 11 different cards to keep track of (what they do AND when you can use them, for some of which you have to be ready for the occasion), and many different parties to take into consideration for your plans. Much like chess (and other war based strategy games), you also have to maintain a steady, long-term plan and be able to quickly change your short-terms to support this.
How does it all fit together? Although we had a very slow start, the first session taking over 5 hours to play, as we got more into it, we learned the virtues of the game and came to appreciate it’s complexity. The art, both on the cover but also on the cards and the game board, fit the style of the game as well as it’s complexity and theme. |