Wanna know how to play SWARM? Inspiration and design process in making my board game included. Prinz Gan Tech X

1. optimize | upgrade | capture

2. Welcome to the SWARM
Magic is lost…
Governments are collapsing…
Humanity is on the verge of extinction…
All will bow down to the SWARM...
You will too.

3. But you are lucky...
The SWARM has taken pity on you. You have
been provided with an authentic SWARM
Battle Module. Arm yourself with copies of our
basic insekt model and conquer the battlefield
to prove yourself worthy against others we
have taken ‘pity’ on.

4. OPTIMIZE
⬣ Replace your deck with new
commands
⬣ Use credits to swap your basic
commands with more powerful ones
⬣ Unlock your robot’s true potential.

5. UPGRADE
⬣ Save up credits for permanent
upgrades to strengthen your units.
⬣ Give yourself the advantage whether
or not you or the initializer.

6. CAPTURE
⬣ Control the center point and don’t
give it up!
⬣ Switch to a defensive strategy and
stop your opponents from pushing
you off the center stage.

7. MECHANICS

8. Battle - Only the smart will live
Card Mechanics some cards have special effects to them.
Or
Cards may have different effects you may choose from.
Choose the option as you reveal the card
Build
Make new units to use in the battlefield.
Delete
Be forced to remove a card from your deck just to use the powerful cards

9. Tiles - symbols have meaning
Spawn Tile
Build new tokens here
Cannot be damaged in the spawn
tile
Normal Tile
The Basic field tile.
Objective Tile
This tile grants whoever controls it
for an entire turn, one time token.

10. Initializer - control the fate
All players draw until they have five cards.
Initializer does the following movements.
Buys cards. Others follow. If he does not, noone buys cards.
Move units. Others follow.
Select the number of cards to be played.
Play selected amount of cards.
The next player is declared as an initializer for the next turn.

11. Turn Order - Move and Grow
Generally speaking, the turn is as follows
1. Move
Players get the chance to move
their pieces in the desired order.
2. Buy
If the initializer allows it, he may
buy new cards using tokens.
He may also spend 2 coins to
remove cards.
3. Fight
Use the desired amount of cards
against the initializer.
The Initializer’s actions take
precedence.

12. Win Condition - earn your victory
Build up your time tokens.
Earn time tokens by keeping a token
on the point for an entire turn.
Gather 3 time tokens and you win.

13. SETUP

14. Setup (Command) - know the battle field
Give each player two credits
Provide each player with a standard deck
Shuffle and place all facing down
All players draw five cards
Set a rotation (Clockwise/ Counter)
Decide the first initializer.

15. Setup (Command) - know the battle field
Technique
⬣ Board movement
and defensive cards
⬣ Use them to lock
your position and to
alter your opponent’s
plans.
⬣ Number indicates
innate defense.
Offense
⬣ Attack and conquer
⬣ Use them to disable
your opponent’s
units.
⬣ Number indicates
innate strength.

16. Choose your playground
Set a token at a set of designated spawn tiles.
Initializer begins the game.
Setup (Field) - know the battle field

17. Your task
Bring this battle module around with you.
Find 2-6 others you yourself might seem worthy of our pity.
Initiate the battle module and see who truly is worthy of the SWARM.
Keep the honor we have given you.
Or fall and lose all hope.

19. ...

20. What is this place?

21. Like an old
memory...

22. Who… am I?

23. Prinz Romeo O. Gan
I am Prinz Gan. I like playing games. Video games. Card games. Board games.
It’s always been an interest of mine to make games too. And with tech giving me the
chance to do just that, here I am. Making a board game.
It started off with a biiiiig dream of making a nice board game I could play with my
friends and family. And that dream stayed even with the stress of school work getting
in the way.

24. I took a lot of inspiration from games such
as Star realms and Slay the Spire where
you build the deck on the go. Hearthstone
has been a long time faveorite game of
mine where the card design of my game
has been laregly based on.

25. The territory control aspect of my game was based
on First Person Shooter games I found where in
you had to keep your team in an area for a certain
amount of time to win. If the enemy takes it, you
lose the point and you have to reclaim the area in
order to win. If not, the opponent wins.

26. Original idea
I wanted to make a class
based RPG type game. All
seeking treasure found at
the center of the forest.

27. Board
The board was supposed to be a cool, multi platformed board. The problem was,
‘pushing’ people down a hill was hard to dictate with this shape. So I moved to a more
traditional (albeit boring) hexagon based board later on. Pieces were also a big concern.

28. BOARDEVOLUTION
Hexagons. Space issue is gone. Movement is easier to understand.
The direction of attack is clearer, thus falling back is easier to
implement as well. Also gave way to a ‘ranged’ attack feature. Bases
are well defined.
The board was supposed to look like a hill. I had visions of a multi
platformed board and you can push people down the hill with attacks.
Your cards let you move around and you would have a base on the
outskirts of the board. My problem with this board is it is very hard to
‘attack’ and to move around. Also, the space becoming smaller each
step was a problem for how I would make the peices.

29. Tokens/ Pieces
Tokens were more of a thematic problem. As much as I wanted to push for the RPG
based tokens, I couldn’t satisfy myself with my own handwork. As for the insects I had
two reasons. If i refused to do the faction based cards, I needed some more neutral
units. Similar, small but distinct from others. Thus insects. Also insects are easy to draw.

30. TOKEN EVOLUTION
Wanting the fantasy RPG theme I excitedly drew up some tokens
that I could use for the actual game. But i was setting myself up for
failure if I planned on making more artwork (I am bad at drawing)
Let’s go to a lazy route. And find insects on the internet. Why
insects? King of the hill. Anthill. I don’t know. It just pulled me to use
insects instead of humans.
I didn’t want to just take from the internet. So I drew my own insects.
But again… I’m bad at drawing.
I instead used the more ‘computer guy’ side of me and made line art
on inkscape. They turned out well enough. Why a hexagon? At this
point the board was changed to a hexagon, so it just seemed to
make sense to make the pieces fit the shape.

31. Cards
The cards went through a lot of revisions. Variations in how they were played and what
kind of cards existed.

32. CARD EVOLUTION
The original set had certain Faction cards. Cards more powerful
when you match it’s faction. My problem was how to implement
factions in the game. I had a LOT of complicated solutions. I wanted
to simplify things.
Then I started a more neutral setting. Simplified things to ‘move’,
‘attack’ and ‘defend’ which would then be governed like a deck of
playing cards. This method was toooooo luck based.
Everyone has equal footing (at the start) They had a deck of the
same cards and then I introduced a shop where you can buy better
cards to put in your deck.

33. Complicated growth
The initial game design evolved one part after another. The rules. The board. The
pieces. The cards. Then backwards. And forwards.

34. Play testing
(I don’t have photos of me play testing with people however here are their general
comments with each iteration of the game.)
Level 1
Tested it with my sister. Crude rules. Hard to play. Too much
going on. The board didn’t seem all that helpful. A lot of space
on the board wasn’t used at all.
+ Drawings are nice, good effort
- Cards were too complicated
- Wasted Space

35. Level 2
Tested it with my classmates. Still very a crude game. Still a lot
of wasted space. The cards were very unfair in this style
because it was heavily influenced by having a larger numbers.
Card suits dictating the action also made it really difficult to do
things like move because you didn’t draw a movement card.
- Cards were too luck based
- Wasted Space
- It was hard to do anything sometimes.
Level 3
More testing with classmates. Tested with a teacher as well.
Wasted Space. I really should fix that. The cards are better
balanced. The tokens are cute. Introduced a shop of cards.
+ Woo better drawings.
+ Cards were understandable and smooth.
- The board was still hard to work with.
- Wasted Space

36. The final set! Playtested with my teacher and my friends and
my family.
Cards were balanced and fun. Lack of art was sad (I’m sorrrrry)
The tokens fit the board and the art on them was also very
nice. The board was a good board. Only problem at this point
is the game all in all was still very complicated.
+ Wooo playable
- I need to work on my people skills.
- The rules could still use a lot of polishing.
Level X

37. The final product!
Cards are printed and backed with black construction paper
Board was laser cut off clear 3mm acrylic
Pieces were made into different colors for each insect.
A hexagon box was made out of illustration board.

38. This isn’t gonna be the last board game I’m going to try making. This board game isn’t a
hundred percent success but it is playable and the concept still has more potential.
I bit more than I can chew. I didn’t expect the difficulty of play testing. And I made the
board game way more complicated than it had to be. Nevertheless I am proud of what
I have accomplished with SWARM.
I could have done better. I know that I could. At the same time, I am already content
with what I have made. What I should do now is try some other formula. Make a
different kind of game.
Reflection

39. Look out! Maybe one day you’ll find one of my
games on the shelf of a board game cafe!
:D