Designer Notes 1

I’ve been very much looking forward to writing about the game design of Into the Mountain. As I wrote about in the 4th newsletter, the game played at Essen 2023 was the 3rd “version” of the game. There was abundant feedback about the game experience. For those who have played the game so far, I’m very curious as to what they felt was the “weight” of the game in the 3rd version. There are significant changes I’m working on for the 4th version. It would be foolish of me to write that I will improve the experience and not increase the complexity. Therefore, I’m want to know where people think the difficulty level was at.

So, what’s coming up in version 4?

1. I would say a major change is coming to design of the mountain (area control). I have many, many ideas about how to improve it, so testing is underway. This will be the most complicated (from design) change; it’s absolutely necessary. I will likely start here, because it will cause waves across the whole design which I need to react to.

2. I’m thinking about changes to the deck-building mechanics and specifically purchasing cards. Because most new players are so enticed by building constructs, spending resources to get better cards was an option seldom chosen. I do want the core feel and mechanic of the game to reflect deck-building, not worker placement, not area control. We’ll see how the new ideas pan out.

3. I have an idea I’m particularly interested in getting started testing. I heard the feedback that people enjoy the feeling of progression. I also received the feedback, that players were seeking more player interaction. I agree. This change would hopefully ease up the complexity of the first 2 rounds and provide short term goals. It wouldn’t increase complexity terribly, and it would also relax the decisions in the early rounds for first time players. Although, when I make this change, I know 1st player order will likely matter more. In version 3, 1st player wasn’t a major issue. If it becomes clear that it’s an issue, it’s not hard to counter-balance (crystal, extra card, etc.).

4. Most players at Essen 2023 had 1.5 h or less to play. They were getting to the juicy mid-game, where the power levels start to spike, but I know from seeing other games, that the end-game isn’t quite the experience I’m shooting for. The full game played on Thursday did have an interesting end I’ll say. The winner won by 1 point, pushing a seldom chosen strategy, science. Had the 2nd place player made a different decision, it would have been a tie (and yes, there is a list of tie-breakers written in the rules). What I’m getting at is, I enjoy games where there remains some suspense and tension up to the very end (see UW-cities, TM, Gaia Project). I have at least 3 ideas of how I can achieve this, but again, I gotta try them out to see.

5. Sorry, this is getting long, I really do have a lot of ideas that have long been on the back-burner I have some ideas for supporting mid-game direction and orientation. I think this will connect to the increased player interaction of idea 3.

With all these incoming changes, it will 100% add 2-4 pages to the rule book. Idea 2 won’t add much complexity. Ideas 1 and 3 might add a fair amount. That being said, with these additions, there will be a significant “cut” to the game.

Oh, I forgot to add, I really want to make the archetypes shine. Two of them are doing well, but the third archetype really needs some love and it’s been bothering me for a while. Version 2 of the game fixed it, but a major cut from 2 to 3 brought the problem back.

If you’ve taken the time to read all this, THANKS! I didn’t get much of a chance at Essen 2023 to talk about the design of Into the Mountain.

For those who’ve played versions 1-3, what did you enjoy about the experience? Early game, mid, late? What did you feel was the “weight” of the game? What problems did you experience in the archetypes? Did you have “feel-bad” moments? Was it an issue in the design or could you have planned your round differently? Sounds like you’ll want to play another game to try a new strategy

Take it easy,

Kevin