Post on 23-May-2018
Andy Long
Johannes Spaulding
Buzz Tilford
Katamari Damacy
The game we are adapting is Katamari Damacy for the PlayStation 2. In the colorful
universe of the game, the player takes on the role of the Prince who must roll a sticky ball called
a katamari around various environments picking up objects to make their katamari as large as
possible. At the end of each level the Prince's katamari is judged by The King of All Cosmos,
who decides whether or not the katamari is worthy of being turned into a star.
Katamari Damacy already has a multiplayer mode where The King has forgotten what the Prince
looks like. The two players pick their characters from among the Prince and his Cousins, and
compete to make the most impressive katamari. Our game competitive play follows from the
same premise.
Adaptation of Mechanics
The two core mechanics of the PlayStation 2 Katamari Damacy are rolling the katamari
around the environment and strategically picking up objects to grow the katamari. In our analog
game we translated the in-game rolling of the katamari to rolling of dice. As the katamari would
become larger and more cumbersome in the videogame, in our game the player has to contend
with an ever growing number of dice they must handle. The picking up of objects in the original
translates to the picking up of Stuff pieces, and placement onto a player's Katamari Board, in our
adaptation. Growing a katamari increase a player's points and increases the number of dice the
player will be rolling.
Dice Engine vs. Points and Layers
Each turn players roll dice depending on the Stuff pieces on their Katamari Board. These
dice give the player Rolling Power which lets the player add more stuff to their board. Players
have a choice of what Stuff pieces to buy and add to their board. The general conflict in this
decision will be one of building and maintaining the Rolling Power of their katamari or buying
Stuff that will set them up for a high score at the end of the game. Early on, building Rolling
Power is more important, but even early on players are encouraged to think their choice by the
appearance of special symbols that can provide a great point boost if a player uses them wisely.
There is an additional mechanic that complicates the decision making process. Player
must build their katamari up in layers to afford and place the highest scoring purple pieces. Blue
pieces must be placed over blue or yellow pieces, and purple over purple or blue. Purple pieces
cost the most Rolling Power and do the least for the players engine, but are necessary for scoring
a large number of points. The different choices players must make in buying and placing Stuff
pieces is the most engaging aspect of our adaptation.
Machination 1
Dice Engine vs. Points with a Timer (EngineVPoints.xml)
In this machinination the player is giver a semi-random amount of time to obtain 20
points. Each turn the player is given an amount of rolling power depending on the number of
Rolling Booster pieces they have. The player buys most Rolling and Point Boosters with Rolling
Power. While points do not slow the gain of Rolling Power in this machination, obtaining them
does cost the player the opportunity to get more boosts. The main conflict of engine vs points is
represented clearly. The semi-random timer represents the possibility of other players gaining or
losing advantage. Our adaptation is competitive, but the only way to model that uncertainty was
to use a semi-random element. Even though there will usually be 15 turns in this machination, it
is not guaranteed. There is uncertainty in a mathematically optimal solution.
Machination 2
KatamariBoard (KatamariBoard.xml)
This machination models a simplified Katamari Board
economy, which houses the pieces a player collects. The player
begins with 19 hexes on their Katamari Board, and over the
course of a gamethey will fill them up with Stuff pieces of
different colors. The various converters simulate how players fill
their boards in the analog game. Yellow pieces replace empty
spaces, blue replaces yellow, and purple replaces blue. While
being quite an abstract representation, it communicates how a
Katamari Board changes over the course of a game.
The following are samples of a Katamari Board over the course of a playtest game.
Going Too Fast and Crashing
In the Katamari Damacy video game, players can move too fast and crash, losing pieces
of their katamari. We wanted to involve this in the game as a mechanic. In the first version of the
game this took the form of a deck of 10 cards with 1 Crash Card in it. Every time a player bought
Stuff they would draw a card from their deck. If it's a Crash Card they Crash which means losing
their turn and the largest piece on their katamari, otherwise they discard it and buy Stuff pieces
as normal. Players could reshuffle their discard pile into their deck by paying some Rolling
Power. It was intended that this would act as a “push-your-luck” mechanic. It was not fun and
felt arbitrary in play.
After the first playtest we changed the mechanic so players Crash if they roll a certain
number of '6's when generating Rolling Power on their turn. This allows Crashing to act as a
braking engine, slowing down super effective dice engines. This meant that while players gain
more dice, they also increase the chances they crash. We began with five 6's but Crashing
happened only once that game. The third playtest we changed it to four or more 6's. Crashing
was still quite rare, but every time a player rolled three 6's while generating rolling power, there
was a wave of relief from avoiding disaster.
Counting Dice
We simplified how Rolling Power is counted after the first playtest. Initially, players
were expected to count up the pips on the dice they were rolling. After rolling a dozen dice, this
slowed down the game way too much for it to be enjoyable. Turns were going too slow. We
decided to allow each die to generate 1 Rolling Power, and to modify the cost of the Stuff pieces
to fall in line. We also decided to introduce types of dice that are associated with the colors of
Stuff. Stuff pieces give players dice of their color. Yellow Dice are very effective, generating
Rolling Power on a 3 or greater. Blue dice generate on a 4 or greater. Purple dice generate on a 5
or 6. The shifting effectiveness of the dice became integral to the choices players make when
buying the different Stuff pieces to put on their katamari. Purple will give you more points, and
more dice, but they will be less effective (but just as likely to contribute to a crash). This change
really brought a lot of the game together. It made turns faster and players are entertained by
recalculating their dice when it isn't their turn.
Written Rules
There were no written rules for the first play test. By the second we had most of the rules
written, but not enough to give to someone to play without guidance. One person wrote the rules
out and had them looked over by the other members of the team who cut out all the fat. After
getting feedback from the in-section playtest, one of us rewrote some sections of the rules, and
again they were reviewed by the other members of the team.
Iteration
Playtest 1 Playtest2 Playtest 3 (in section) and 4
● Adding dice is slow in
the late game
● took 13 or so turns
● Symbol bonus
attainable
● Crashing feels arbitrary
● No player interaction
● Dice often fall off table
● Prototype Stuff pieces
are ugly
● Game of 15 turns takes
25-30 min with 2
players
● Crashing almost never
happens
● Yellow Dice are really
good
● Symbols are
completely worthless if
you have fewer than
another player
● Some rules are unclear
● Symbol combinations
are not strong that raw
points
● Almost Crashing is a
rush!
Response Response Response
● Crashing is tied to
rolling 5 '6's
● Symbols bonus is now
based on symbol
ignoring Stuff color
(player with most of a
kind gets 5 points)
● New Dice colors with
different success
weights
● Symbols each grant
players a point, just for
having them
● Dice that fall off table
cause a crash
● Added in a Dice Tray
● Changed Crashing to a
result of 4 or more '6's
● Fancy Stuff Pieces
● Another Rules draft
● Boosted the symbol
bonus to 7 points