The Legend of the Seven Swords Wiki

Welcome to the Battlefield of Yanbai

***The Legend of the Seven Swords*** is a hero strategy board game for 3-5 players developed by the student group Tartaros 2 as part of fulfilling the final assignment of the course Game Design 3: System Design. The current development team members of Tartaros 2 are: Igor Sogorovecs, Rajat Upadhayaya, Sanna Helsing, Franciszek Ryt, Emma Andersson, and Stan Nguyen.

The initial game idea was proposed on October 30, 2023 and since then has undergone 6 major updates until release. The development cycle of the game follows a weekly pattern: one flexible weekday beside Wednesday for Playtest (most commonly Monday/Thursday due to course time being arranged in this way), and one static day (always Wednesday) for review and planning, as well as internal playtest when applicable. New version of the game are mostly released every Wednesday in this manner. The remaining time in between are reserved for team members to work on their individual tasks agreed upon during planning.

The first version of the game (Iteration *1.0)* was exclusively played within the development team (*Internal Playtest #1*) only to better assess gameplay issues before release, as well as to finalize design specification of all gameplay components. Iteration *1.1* was introduced on November 2, 2023, in preparation for *In-class Playtest #1*. The original roster of heroes at this point only consist of Howie, the Fire Fox; Fia, the Snow Bunny; Haru, the Water Dog; Regu, the Earth Monkey; and Silac, the Wind Panda. *Iteration 1.2* was introduced on November 8, 2023 and accompanied both Internal Playtest #2 and In-class Playtest #2. Two new heroes joined the roster at this point: Violea, the Lightning Crane; and Luces, the Soul Squirrel. *Iteration 1.3* was introduced on November 12, 2023, followed by In-class Playtest #3. *Iteration 1.4* was introduced on November 15, 2023 and accompanied both Internal Playtest #3 and In-class Playtest #4. *Iteration 1.5* was introduced on November 22, 2023 and marked the game's port to Tabletop Simulator and the team's first External Playtest. Iteration 1.6 was introduced on November 29, 2023 and wrapped up with External Playtest 2. Lastly, Emma and Helsing organized an additional playtest on December 02, 2023 to gain additional insights on an alternate character design. The game is set to release on December 04, 2023 on Examination Day.

## How to Navigate

For the purpose of this assignment, this WIki serves as Tartaros 2's hub of knowledge regarding iteration change notes, playtest observation, and research data. It will mostly follow this pattern:

Internal Playtest --> Iteration --> In-class / External Playtest --> Internal Playtest --> ...

## Development

### Idea

Development for The Legend of the Seven Sword started later than planned. After the assignment was revealed on Thursday 10/26, Tartaros 2 met immediately in the afternoon to discuss potential game ideas and core mechanics. Among the six members of the team, Stan, Franciszek, and Igor have had the chance to be Product Owner for a previous assignment (Igor's idea was used for Assignment 1, Franciszek's idea was used for Assignment 2, and Stan's idea was used for Assignment 2). The members felt it was natural to give the other three members the spotlight for the last assignment.

The initial idea for this assignment was to develop a social deduction game around the settings of Bortbyting - changeling fairy babies who are secretly exchanged with human babies. The first challenge of the idea phase was in developing a social deducing mechanic that could stand out since the market has been saturated with social deduction game in the last few years. This was further worsen by a feeling of being "burnt-out" and tired after having developed 3 board games in a short amount of time. Because of this, the development team couldn't agree on an idea to begin working.

On the next idea meeting on Monday 10/30, the development team came up with more idea than last time:

* A duck arena war to collect and raise a legion of ducklings.
* A World War IV simulator where players fight and control territory with elements of TCG's abilities.
* A miner's dream game where players collaborate to mine as much mineral as possible.
* A social deduction task assignment game where players play as students and seek to deduce other players' tasks.
* A Final Fantasy-esque dungeon crawler games where players assemble a party to explore and fight bosses together.
* A strategy hero-chess game where players compose a team of heroes to conquer their enemies.

After two rounds of poll, the development team ended up with the last idea, and it became known as "The Legend of the Seven Swords."

### Iteration 1.0

On the first iteration of the game, the team sought to implement only features that make the game a minimum viable products. This was identified to be:

* Five essential heroes. Each occupying a unique niche that defines 95% of player interactions. As a result, the heroes released at this point included: Howie, the Fire Fox; Fia, the Snow Bunny; Haru, the Water Dog; Silac, the Wind Panda; and Regu, the Earth Monkey. They each occupy the DPS, Caster, Healer, Crowd-Controller and Tank niche respectively.
* A hexagonal board with 6 different sectors. Each sectors contains 1-30 tiles, each a possible point for generating a flag.
* Flag lottery to randomly spawn flags according to tile ID.

The first version was played exclusively within the development team (Internal Playtest #1), as a crash test of sort. The board worked and granted decent amount of space for the players. The flags were found to be spawning a bit randomly, and deemed fit to change on a later date. The immediate fix was in hero balancing before the coming playtest.

The visual of the characters at this point were simple abstract shapes. This was done to challenge players to identify and relate to the heroes only through shapes and color language.

## Iteration Updates

Each Iteration notes is first posted on the group's shared Discord where all can access and reference for their research purpose. The following page is a reupload of these posted notes.

### Iteration 1.1

The very first update of the game was released on November 02, 2023. This update immediately follows Internal Playtest #1 within the development team, and features balancing changes to the core five heroes, aimed at increasing their mobility as well as differentiating their abilities into different niches.

This iteration was playtested with an In-class group on Monday 11/06. The players were Wilma, William, and Anton.

### Iteration 1.2

Released on November 08, 2023, which was 2 days following the first In-Class Playtest, this update features more balancing changes to the existing roster after the development team has taken the first round of feedbacks into account.

More importantly, this update introduces the remaining two heroes developed during initial conceptions to the playable roster: Violea, the Lightning Crane - a highly mobile DPS with the ability to hijack enemy's position; and Luces, the Soul Squirrel - an enigmatic support with the ability to share damage and healing between heroes.

Additional rework to the round and flag progression was also made. More flag points spawn across the map for increasing number of players was added to the Rulebook as a Multiplayer Scaling clause. The total duration of the game was reduced from 20 rounds to 7, without reducing the frequency of flag generation. The total number of lotteries was reduced to experiment with smaller spawn point counts. A dedicated round tracker was added as a playable component to resolve the issues of players forgetting round sequence. An ultimate flag token (worth high number of points) was introduced as a system that induces "escalation" in the game. Lastly, the respawn system was reworked to remove same-turn retaliations.

This iteration was playtested internally on November 08, 2023 before release, and then playtested with another In-Class group the next day (November 09, 2023). The players were Gustaf, Nea, Teodor, and Birk.

### Iteration 1.3

This update was released on November 12, 2023. This update was introduced on a Sunday rather than a Wednesday due to In-Class Playtest #3 having already been booked on the following Monday, and the development team wanted to resolve certain issues moving into this playtest.

Further balancing was introduced to the existing roster to promote viability of all heroes. The respawn system was enhanced: gradient color tiles, which were closer to the middle, was repurposed to act as Respawn Point, giving players closer access to Major and Ultimate flags. The total numbero

This version wasn't playtested internally. It was, however, used during In-class Playtest #3. The players were Essi, Jean, Elizabeth, and Alkam.

### Iteration 1.4

This update was released on November 15, 2023 during the development team's weekly planning and review session. This update features an overhaul to two major graphical components in the game: the game board, and the hero sheets. Beside graphical enhancements, the board features 1/ a reduced number of tiles that can generate flags in addition to the previously experimented reduced lottery; and 2/ an ultimate zone in the center that restricts hero's AoE abilities.

Hero balancing this update heavily features a rework of the Initiative statistics of each heroes based on recurring criticisms of the Turn-Order system and how certain heroes can abuse their turn order for greater effectiveness.

This version was internally playtested on the same day. The following Thursday features In-class Playtest #4 (November 16,2023). The players were Kler, Myra, Mirjam and Yum.

### Iteration 1.5

This update was released on November 22, 2023 and marks a momentous change to our IP as it is now officially a certified Tabletop Simulator game! Alongside the addition of the new platform, this update introduces minor changes to character balancing, playable component, and the rulebooks.

This version wasn't internally playtested, but was the first iteration to be played on the Tabletop Simulator. The players were Helsing's online friends.

### Iteration 1.6

This update was released on November 29, 2023 and focuses on Quality of Life improvements across all playable components including: rulebooks, almanacs and AoE tokens. Friendly-fire interactions among allied heroes have also been enabled. The scope of the update is kept small since this is the last update before the official 2.0 release.

This version wasn't internally playtested. It instead features External Playtest #2. The players were Igor's friends from other departments in Uppsala. An additional playtest was organized by team member Emma and Helsing to obtain more data on an alternate character design.

## Playtests

There are three types of playtests that were carried out throughout the duration of the project. Each playtest is an opportunity for the development team to test an iteration of the game, as well as to document players' input for game design research.

### Internal Playtests

*Internal playtests take place within the development team member. It always occur on Wednesday after we went over feedbacks from the previous feedback. We then proposed changes to address feedback, review them as needed, and implement simple paper prototype to playtest newly added features before release.*

* Internal Playtest #1 (November 1, 2023)
* Internal Playtest #2 (November 8, 2023)
* Internal Playtest #3 (November 15, 2023)

### In-Class Playtests

*In-Class playtests take place with a peer group of Game Design 3. Both groups exchange game and members one on one so that each team can wholly dedicate their time and efforts to review and feedback on the game.*

* In-Class Playtest #1 (November 6, 2023)
* In-Class Playtest #2 (November 9, 2023)
* In-Class Playtest #3 (November 13, 2023)
* In-Class Playtest #4 (November 15, 2023)

### External Playtests

*External playtests take place with people currently not enrolled or employed by the Department of Game Design at Uppsala. The format for this can be either through Tabletop Simulator or in real life, depending on playtester's preferences.*

* External Playtest #1 (November 22, 2023)
* External Playtest #2 (November 29, 2023)
* External Playtest #3 (December 02, 2023)

## Setting

### Story

Once upon a time, in the village of Yanbai, a young child lived a humble life with their family and friends. The village has never seen war, nor strife, and its inhabitants live a long and fulfilling life, never desiring anything more or less. For this young child, life was to be as tranquil as ever.

That is until the Great Plague. No one knows where it came from, nor how it started. But it swept across the land relentlessly and without mercy. The village of Yanbai was no exception. As the days go by, its residents slowly expire.

As they lay on their sick bed, counting the days till they rejoins his family and friends in the afterlife, the young child starts crafting paper cranes. 1000 of them to be exact.

It has been spoken in a legend passed down in his village that whosoever manages to craft 1000 paper cranes and put it in a jar. Their deepest wish will come true. And so for months they craft, until the jar was full with 1000 cranes.

It would be all too easy to wish for their illness to go away and live another day. Yet on the very next day, they were found dead just like all others. Miraculously however, the plague has vanished like a mist. The child has wished for peace instead of saving his own life.

More than a few centuries later, this heart breaking story has inspired a new tradition. Every 10 years, the strongest warriors across the land gather on the battlefield of Yanbai, where the prize is to fight and collect as many paper cranes as possible. The tradition is a mock re-enactment of the story of the 1000 Cranes of Wish. Whosoever manages to collect all 1000 cranes on this exalted battlefield will have their wish come true.

### World and Lore

The Legend of the Seven Sword is heavily inspired by the world characteristic of the Wuxia (武俠 [ù. ɕjǎ]) genre, which literally means "martial heroes". This is a genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists in ancient China.    The main backdrop of the game is the original site of the 1000 Cranes of Wish, Yanbai. The battlefield is hexagonal, and divided into six equal sectors, also known as "Heaven". Each Heaven is a domain where one classical element is more favored than the others, giving each a unique aesthetic. (E.g The Heaven of Lightning is where the element of Lightning is favored, giving it a purplish appearance.) The classical elements discovered thus far are: Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Earth, and Soul. The element of the Soul do not have a corresponding Heaven, and instead finds it home within all living creature.
The elements are a key indicator of each Hero's visual characteristics and system designs. The corresponding Heaven, however, do not grant any differing advantages.

## Characters

The defining feature of the game is the ability to compose a team of any three heroes from a roster of 7. Each heroes embody a specific element and by extension the fantasy behind what each element should excel at in combat.

### Howie, the Fire Fox

Howie embodies the element of Fire and plays the role of a duelist in the game. He has balanced stats and is capable of dealing high damage to a single target during his turn with "One Strike". Defeating enemies in combat also heals him a small amount.

### Fia, the Snow Bunny

Fia embodies the element of Ice and plays the role of an AoE debuffer in the game. She has balanced stats and is capable of hopping over terrains. Her abilities "Icelit Dance" deal damage in an area, capable of affecting multiple enemies at once. It also leaves behind a Snowstorm field that will slow down all enemy's movement.

### Haru, the Water Dog

Haru embodies the element of Water and plays the role of a support healer in the game. He has low HP which puts him at a disadvantage when engaged upon, but in return is able to swap the HP of any two chosen heroes within range using his ability "Give and Take". This can turn the tide of battle in a pinch.

### Silac, the Wind Panda

Silac embodies the element of Wind and plays the role of a support crowd controller in the game. He has above average HP, but lower movement. His ability "Windborne Hymn" allows him to pull any heroes within range and put them adjacent to him. This is versatile in that he can either abduct an enemy hero, or rescue his allies at any moment.

### Regu, the Earth Monkey

Regu embodies the element of Earth and plays the role of a support tank in the game. He has very high HP, but lower movement. With his ability "Thousand Stones", he erects a straight wall terrain within range. The wall is capable of blocking all movements and ability range, as well as displacing enemy out of positions.

### Violea, the Lightning Crane

Violea embodies the element of Lightning and plays the role of a high movement DPS in the game. She has the lowest HP in the game, but her movement capacity is unparalleled. This is further augmented by her signature ability "Fading Flash", which allows her to move, deal damage, and swap her position with her target's.

### Luces, the Soul Squirrel

Luces embodies the element of Soul and plays the role of a support controller. She has balanced stat. Her signature "De Anima" creates a Domino effect link between any two chosen heroes: they will then share all fluctuations in HP values. This allows her to double the effectiveness of damage and healing, as well as spreading them from great range.

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