Dev Diary #3: Playing With Portals
Greetings space cowfolk,
First things first, if you didn’t already know, WE ARE LIVE NOW ON KICKSTARTER! Click here to pre-order your copy before time runs out! We’ve been having a great run so far, a warm thank you to all of our backers!
Today’s Developer Diary is honing in one of the single game defining mechanics of ESOB’s development history: The Portal Potty!
I introduce to you the Portal Potty! My latest and greatest invention in the study of interdimensional travel! Why are you cowering in fear?
Portal Potty is a wild card. While we have so many unique mechanics and cards in the game, this is the one that set our game apart from the rest both in imagination and gameplay. In the moment of its conception, there was no strategic demand for it, I really just wanted to see how it might work.
The core of the game is getting from point A to point B. (point B being point Butt) Multiple players had different point A’s, so they would have to maximize their path’s potential to connect, all the while preventing other players from reaching the Almighty Butt. But what if both players had the same point A? What if a player had literally invaded another player’s path like some weirdo space parasite?
Heck yes.
The humanity! That cheat!
Who let you in here!
The Portal Potty allows a player to remotely insert themselves into another player’s open stomach by placing the exit portal potty token and play cards on the same path as the host. This can involve royally screwing over the host by turning the stomach in ways that prolong their victory.
“But since they’re both playing out of one stomach, do they both win?” I hear you, and the answer is NO. Only the player that plays the stomach that connects to the butt will win. This non-sharing win condition goes for players that are connected physically on the board as well. (Or you can house rules it and be generous haha)
This card, for all its wildness, actually meshed well with a lot of the other mechanics in the game. While the Portal Potty card was a dead end, if the invading player had a branching path on their original stomach, they can continue to play from their torso AND wherever they portaled into. Poops and toxins were also able to travel through portals into another stomach. Toxins became extremely valuable for hosts as a method for deleting stomachs with portals. Once a portal was deleted, the space invader would be kicked right back to their unbuilt torso, which is always a fun time.
Portal Potties are a prime example of how much interaction a single game can have between all its players. Each time it is played, the party reacts in the best mix of shock, horror, laughter, and anger. And some games you might never see its use, building anticipation on when your enemy remarks “I have a really good card.”
We can’t wait to see the ruthless plays between grandparents and their grandchildren! <3
Still got a lot of road ahead of us! So many stories to tell!
Stay tuned,
Justin