NEON
Battle Royale Game Overview
Hello and welcome back to our Game Creation series.
Recently we’ve announced our new game Neon – the game in which a computer games genre, battle royale, was recreated into a tabletop version.
In this article we’d like to talk more about the genre itself and what’s similar between digital games and this boardgame.
Surprisingly or not, many of the boardgame lovers share their love for computer games too. There are even online boardgames, which for some might still be a bit confusing. Yet the two worlds exist pretty close to each other and often ideas, mechanisms and stories from the digital reality are implemented in boardgames.
In Neon, just like in any classic battle royale game, players find themselves dropped at a common area, from which they can start moving in any direction. They have their own abilities, some of which are unique, and some minimal equipment, like a basic weapon.
The aim of each player is to become the last one standing by eliminating all the opponents. In order to do that effectively, they need to explore the city area and search for better equipment.
There are different types of equipment: weapons – from melee weapon to small and heavy guns, – grenades, armour and helmets. You’ll also need to have ammo, with which your gear will work much longer.
When another player is within your weapon’s range, you can attack (by rolling dice) and use your pre- and after-attack abilities to improve the result. Your rivals could’ve prepared a Defence Field in advance, but they still can receive damage if they roll their defence dice poorly.
When you are hit, you don’t die immediately, but you lose your health points. When you lose your last HP, you are eliminated from the game and your equipment can be looted by another player.
Another feature of the battle royale genre that was used in Neon is a gradually shrinking (in our case, submerging) playing area. So the tension of the game grows more rapidly over rounds making players attack each other more frequently and speeding the game end.
Unlike most of the classic battle royale games, Neon has 3 game modes, only one of which contains this elimination element. The other two modes allow players compete for victory points without dying completely (but having an opportunity to go through maintenance and get back in the game) – either alone or in teams (squads).
Drop Ship – the starting area
Player’s general and unique abilities that can be used during attack and defence
City Sectors – playing area, which gradually submerges during the game (the sectors are removed from the table)
Search tokens that are placed on the field after someone conducts a Search action
Equipment cards, where gear and ammo can be found
Attack and Defence dice
Hit Point (HP) tokens
Player’s personal deck
Defence Field parts (each part gives a player +1 dice for defence)
Round Track sheet, which shows how many City Sectors will submerge in the current round
The top number shows which Sector will submerge in the current round
Generally, although the game was created by battle royale fans, you do not necessarily have to be a fan of neither the genre itself, nor of computer games as a whole.
After all, who knows, maybe for some Neon will be the one to open a door to the digital world 😉
In our next article we’ll tell you more about the development of the game: why it is hard to recreate a battle royale game in a boardgame, which details of the game are worth paying attention to and what ideas inspired our development team. So stay tuned not to miss our next Game Creation series!
