On the Appeal of Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Why I am working on For Terra. I was inspired by Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition ( Ranked #177), but not due to the terraforming aspect. In the original Terraforming Mars(Ranked #7), there is actually a map with tiles. TM: AE (the card game) does not. It just modifies a value that represents different parameters and when reaching certain value, things happen.

The game is ultimately a competitive game - whoever has the most victory points win. It’s not a direct competition like war games such as Age of Empires. There is no elimination of another player. While there’s a bit of “take that” mechanic in the original, there is very few actions you can take against another player, if any.

This is not different from most Eurogames where you have indirect competition. For example, in Agricola, you are all building your own farms and competing for the most victory points. You cannot directly destroy the other person’s farm, but you can definitely ruin their day when you pick up a resource when they really needed it. What makes TM: AE different from most Eurogames, then?

It’s that you also have some hint of cooperation within the game. Instead of just being “oh man, you took the resource I really wanted”. It may instead be “oh sweet, you raised the temperature to this level, now I can play this awesome card earlier than I thought!”

Tangent. This reminds me way back when there was an AGP team making a MOBA game about “coopetition” (cooperative + competition). They never really explained well how they were going to do that. Felt more like a buzzword. From what I remember, they were describing something akin to the Baron Dragon in League of Legends. You can fight it together, but only one team will get the benefits. That doesn’t really seem like the teams have an incentive to cooperate. I get no benefit from you killing the dragon. I am only there to stop you from getting the buff or to get the buff for myself instead.

TM: AE is a form of coopetition. We are all working towards impacting a common goal, though our contribution will decide the victor. As we work towards the common goal, the game/world state will change, allowing better cards to be played, thus your action, which you want to do to help you win, can also help me win. This means the game is not as cut-throat as direct competition games while having more inter-player interactions than some traditional Eurogames. TM: AE in particular also removed a lot of the effects that directly and negatively impact the player. It is not listed as having “take that” as a mechanic in the game. This puts TM: AE in a different design space and play space than wargames or Eurogames.

Other than the coopetition, I think I really enjoyed the tableau building aspect. During late game, when you have lots of cards on the tableau that grant you actions. You can do one action after another for big combos, which feels great. What was a very slow process of terraforming all of a sudden becomes a race to the end as each player have grown. It makes you feel like you(r faction) have really grown and become powerful.

For better or for worse, TM: AE does not feature spatial locations that player can interact with. That means there are less for players to think about. You don’t have to worry where your card goes, it simply goes into the tableau, and you benefit from having them. This shifts the player attention onto other matters. It’s more macro than micro. Playing some games where you have to do base building, sometimes I get tired of worrying about the layout. For some, its fun. For others, it quickly becomes a chore. (And for some complicated factory game without templates, it’s a job)

Okay.

• Coopetition via improving the shared world state.
• Sense of growth and power via economic engine building (with the power curve provided by Tableau Building). That seems like the two biggest attraction from TM:AE for me, as far as I can analyze. There might be more, but irrelevant for now.

During the ludum dare 56 game jam, I was actually thinking of using a fantasy backdrop instead to fit the theme of Tiny Creatures.

In this game, the town will have some global parameters that the players can contribute to, such as prosperity or development of the town. These parameters of the town will function similar to the terraforming parameters, allowing for new player actions or better actions as the town grow. Player would play creature cards that goes into the tableau that may help the player gain resources, work toward global parameter like fame and prosperity, score VP, and so on.

So, terraforming isn’t really the point. The described game above should in theory scratch a similar itch with a different backdrop. Economy Engine could also be achieved by other means such as deck building (such as in Dominion), albeit with different impact. Having a sprawl of cards that form your tableau looks and feel different from having an efficient and powerful deck.