Ludens Dei
Play as Coders and Colossus to work together and dominate over your opponents for those precious resources.
In a futuristic world called Dei Terrae, Coders invented the Colossus who harness the power of Industrium -- their source of energy found around their land. There different kinds of Industrium reserves which are named by their shapes: Triangle, Plus, Diamond and Cross. Coders then became obsessed with collecting Industrium and taking over the land with their Colossus. However, only the Coders with the strongest Colossus can dominate over the great power of Industrium. Thus, Coders with their partner Colossus battle it out to mark their territory over the precious resource.
Highlights
- Pitched and designed a team strategy full-body dexterity game with physical game mat and cards.
- Co-designed the main mechanics, card ergonomics and effects.
- Wrote a short story for the game's premise and backstory.
Features
The main idea behind for this "tabletop game" was what if we transformed Twister, a mainstream casual family dexterity game, into a more strategy-based dexterity game. Imagine instead of spinning for which limb goes which color, we paired up players inside the mat to a player outside the mat who dictates which limbs go where.
Furthermore, during its conception I was inspired by old Yu-Gi-Oh animes where there are two people battling it out with cards and they summon creatures and tell them if they should be in attack or defense position. I wanted to bring that fantasy to this game and give the similar effect.
It suddenly became a game of brawns and brains. People inside the mat, called Colossus, test their mettle and core strength while people outside the mat, called Coders, think of ways on how to thwart their enemy Colossus and emerge victorious in this team duel.
Short Story
When I took my creative writing subject in college, we were required to create a short story about a game that we wanted to make. It just so happened that I was also taking this game design class and was developing this tabletop game so I went for this.
The storyline was set in a steampunk world where there's massive progress on making huge machines. However, the resources are getting scarce and everyone is fighting for their territory to keep it to themselves. These Coders were harnessing the power of Industrium which can be harvested from the earth like minerals in a mine. Industrium's power is then used to fuel up the Colossus which are nimble giants that guards their reserves.