Game Design #110: Hidden "Overhead"

I've been busy making MDF terrain. But it isn't a 'fun' project - it's overhead.

Overhead - I've discussed it before - is what you need to play the game. A quick recap:

It can be mental overhead - the requirement to memorize many special rules or complex rule interactions.

It can be time - maybe spent building terrain for example *cough* cough* - or just model requirements - painting 300 rank-and-flank Napoleonics is more onerous than a 10 man skirmish warband. 

It always surprises me when there is some random indie game that requires 100 minis per side. I mean - that's a massive investment in time/money... and you're probably making both armies yourself or relying on one mate...

It can be financial. I'd love to play Adeptus Titanicus but... ....half a $1000 to dip my toe in? Or Necromunda - hundreds of dollars of rulebooks before I even buy a single mini?

It could be space - the game needs a 6x4 table vs a 3x3; or you need to store bespoke terrain.

'Overhead' is my term for the combined cost/barrier to entry. What do you need - mental effort, time, or finances - to start playing?

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What prompted this recent interest in 'overhead' was the game Zone Raiders.

It's not a bad game. It's actually very good - probably the best game I bought in 2023 - it's motivated me to finally get into my MDF terrain pile. It's like a less dense, simpler Infinity with a proper Necromunda-style campaign, set in a very strong background reminiscent of the anime Blame. Nothing new, but sensible modern game design, with great atmosphere. I recommend it!

It has a very strong atmosphere/vibes and background (theme) but no major unique gameplay hook (thing)     .....unless it is the giant artificial space habitat itself - the terrain, immunocytes and constructs that roam it; and natural (or rather unnatural) hazards.

Traversing the terrain is very important - most of your faction can leap, wallrun or grapple/zipline. Weapons are pretty lethal to exposed targets. 

So terrain is important to gameplay.

The background and gameplay is tied to the terrain. Necromunda Matrioshka is a planet sized megastructure with hundred of layers - some levels are hundreds of kilometers deep. Decayed, labyrinthine ruins. Skyscraper sized automatons that rearrange the landscape without apparent purpose. Strange machines pulse with exotic nano emissions. Unchecked automated factories run wild, spewing noxious emissions or vital supplies. Immunocyctes (cyborgs) prowl the ruins and relentlessly hunt down sapient life - like the megastructures' immune system. 

Terrain is very important to atmosphere and background.

Zone Raiders can (and encourages you) to use any random Infinity/Necromunda/40K/sci fi models you have lying around - easy. And you only need a half dozen to a dozen minis. So the mini time/painting cost is low. It's rules are consistent - not super simple, but simpler than Necromunda and Infinity - to which it will likely be compared. So mental cost is average. So far, pretty low overhead.....

....but it's terrain overhead is high.

Missions require: 9 scavenge tokens. 5 objective nodes. 5 cyborg generators. A railcarrier. A nano fabricator. 5 sentry nodes. 4 chemical/thermal hazards, and a radiation hazard.

There is lots of special terrain. Radiation, thermal, and nano hazard clouds. 4 supply caches. 4 data nodes. 2 sentry nodes. A neural scorcher. A nano fabricator. A biomedical reconstructor. A cyro chamber. Quantum anomalies. Scanner towers. 

.....that's a shitton of rather specific scatter terrain you may not feel like making, even if you already have a truckload of Necromunda/Kill Team terrain lying around.  

In addition there are more mundane terrain items; ducts, jump plates, forcefields, explosive containers, ziplines and lift platforms - which you still might not own.

In addition, to represent NPC enemies that may spawn (aka part of the terrain) you need a behemoth (mega cyborg/robot); a half dozen harvesters (normal sized) and half a dozen or so reapers (flying cyborgs). Not everyone owns flying insect cyborgs. So the terrain itself requires more models you need to own and paint.

Infinity is famously demanding for terrain crowded tables - but it's not as specifically demanding as Zone Raiders.  I can use my middle eastern 28mm for Infinity. I don't need to paint special terrain spawned cyborgs or specifically make cyro chambers. The heavy emphasis on leaping, ziplines and wall-running demands verticality as well as line of sight blockers. It requires more specialized terrain than Necromunda or Infinity without the name brand of either.

TL:DR .....So what was the point of this post?

Most indie games rely on interesting background and atmosphere to make a splash. 

Zone Raider's has great atmosphere and background (the star is the megastructure itself) - usually the biggest drawcard for a game; but in this case the cool background may also be its biggest barrier/overhead in the form of specific terrain (besides $90 postage for a physical rulebook but I digress). 

The background may be the barrier as well as the drawcard. 

A more generic, universal ruleset using 40K/Infinity weapons and gear; and allowing a wider range of terrain - rather than being so narrowly focussed on Blame! megacity universe - might have had it be more widely adopted (I don't see much online about it at all).

If you are designing a game - not only do you need to consider making others want to play your game....

...but also what what would prevent others playing your game?

....and, like Zone Raiders - is it an integral part of your game? 

Example: I made a Hot Wheels racing game for my son a while back. What's the biggest overhead here? In this case - not terrain. Or cost (everyone has Hot Wheels lying about). Probably making the templates, as I explained the rules to him in a few minutes and he easily grasped how to play so it wasn't mental effort/complexity.