Hi everyone,

I have a little bit of experience with board game design. But I've always played with the idea of really going into it and trying to experiment a bit with computer games.

I have a very basic idea of a strategy game for cycling. Where the race is cut into sections and where at each section the player (and the AI players) make decisions on what their cyclists do next.

Does anyone know a platform that would work well this concept? I'd just like to try a few things out to see what works.

With kind regards,

Allard

1 hour ago, Allard said:

Does anyone know a platform that would work well this concept?

What control mechanism do you plan for the cycling itself? There are no bicycling controllers. Are you envisioning a player rotating an analog stick? Are you envisioning a player drawing rapid circles on a touch screen? Or does the player type a keyboard key to initiate pedaling?  

Hi Tom,

My first thought was that the player would chose an option by selecting it with a click of the Mouse.

The core of the game in my mind is all about selecting the right strategy. So I wasnt planning on mimicing a cyclists movements. Though something like that could be really awesome as long as it doesnt hamper the strategy aspect.

If you succeed in a race comes down to when you do what.

Mouse means the platform is PC or browser. Touchscreen (mobile) is not too dissimilar. 

To decide between those platforms, try making a decision grid. 

The right platform is definitely prototyping it as a boardgame.

If you find a good design you could either finalize it as a boardgame or choose the right technology to realize appropriate user interfaces, AI etc. without blindly committing to possibly inappropriate devices and game engines at the beginning of design.

17 hours ago, Allard said:

Does anyone know a platform that would work well this concept?

You should clarify what you mean by "platform", because it is possible that you mean something other than what it usually means.

In the context of game development, "platform" means the device on which the the game will run (a PC, a game console, a smartphone, an arcade cabinet, VR goggles, etc.) It seems to me that you want to create a computer game (the platform would be a PC then) and are asking about which tools to use to make it.

Bicycles and strategy? say no more!

Just take a page from real life and introduce the mechanic of... DOPING!!!

Dope your player so much that he can perform at peak power but not so much that he will die of cardiac arrest! the trill! the risk!

But seriously, a tactic cycling game sounds very weird, i can think of this: the scenario is divided in squared areas, or rectangles since its a race, and every area has a percentage of risk and a percentage of speed, meaning that the most risking areas can provide speed boosts but you risk the bicycle getting damaged, the player has to choose a route with minimizes the risk but maximizes the speed, and if several cyclists happen to be in the same area at the same time their speed decreases but the risk is the same

The other side of the strategy would be to buy stronger but slower parts for the bicycle or weaker but faster parts, this would allow to traverse areas with a certain level of risk with no risk at all obtaining a boost from the area even if the bicycle is slower, then the real strategy would come from selecting the area less likely to be occuppied by other players to avoid the speed penalty

It sounds like you might want to make something similar to Motosports manager, but with bicycles?