Łowcy Niebios

Łowcy Niebios (Heavens Hunters) is a board game I created in fall 2021.

Currently, no copies of this game exist, and the original (in Polish) resides in my room.

A typical game of Łowcy Niebios.

Game description

The game is set in an unspecified place somewhere in the fictional universe of Livuluria. According to the game's introduction, the game begins during a difficult time when the dark clan of Gindzuk is found to be able to destroy the sacred temple of Eulidion, which is the only connection of the Gods to Livuluria. After a message of help is spread, multiple clans arrive from many corners of the world, but they aren't necessarily interested in combating the dark forces and may instead try to satisfy their own needs.

Gameplay

Each player is a leader of their own clan. During the game, the player acquires cards and improves their statistics to prepare for the ultimate fight. The game has a stable economy system which the player must make use of in order to survive. Players are also constantly challenged by both action cards affecting individual players and event cards affecting each player and/or the world. Player movement isn't random – a player has full control of which direction they go and how many spaces they move, but they do so at the cost of their clan's energy. Players can also recruit up to eight units, but more units come with less spare energy to move them.

Players have a vast amount of actions at hand. For example, they may conquer a city to destroy other players' economy and/or plunder the city to get valuable statistics and items at no cost, or head to the Reshaka desert or the Depths of Gluonor for treasure. Players are also expected to compete with each other, as their average strength influences the enemy fortress strength. One of the main things players may compete over are five Hunter Cards, scattered across the map, which can be combined in two ways in sets of three to create either a powerful staff which can greatly help destroy the enemy or an item which summons the Apocalypse (one out of three endgame variants).

While there are many possibilities, the game also has rules that limit the players in order to balance the game, such as a strength limit, and punishes the players for crossing these limits with so-called Hatred cards. The players may also receive Gods cards, which have the opposite effect, by completing tasks given by the Gods.

Halfway through the game, the enemy clan joins the game and attempts to destroy the temple, the cities, and lastly, the players themselves. If the temple is destroyed, players will no longer receive debuffs for breaking the game's limits (such as the strength limit) but they will also no longer be able to respawn upon losing all of their units, making the game less balanced. If the cities are destroyed, the players' economy will greatly suffer, leading to less chances to rebuild their strength after clashes. Such an endgame may seem tedious but is actually enjoyable according to people who already played the game.

It usually takes about 8-15 hours (roughly 40-60 turns) for the game to conclude. So far, no game concluded within one day.

The game is meant for 2-8 players, but according to already performed games, the gameplay is best at 3-4 (and perhaps 5) players. If most players are new to the game, the gameplay can be tedious and the game may be left unifinished.

Origins & creation

Influences

I had three major influences when creating the game: my previous board game "Wyścig po Skarb" ("Race for Treasure") from February 2018, Blood Rage and Monopoly. "Wyścig po Skarb" already featured cards, though less differentiated, as well as two shops, special areas and player boards, but movement was still random. Concepts such as multiple units, clan strength as well as battle cards were largely inspired by Blood Rage. It was also the main inspiration for the battle system. It could also influence the timeline of the game. Although I list Monopoly among my major inspirations, it is difficult to state which elements of the game it inspired. Features such as the economy system and the concept of an enemy clan appearing as a player by itself weren't inspired by anything in particular and were developed mostly during production.

Pre-production and production

I first thought of the game on 1 January 2021 after playing Brass: Lancashire with my family. After that, on 2-3 January 2021, a game of "Wyścig po Skarb" (my previous board game) was played but ended up unconcluded. After spotting many mistakes, I came up with many ideas for the new game and started gathering them. Over time, more ideas appeared, especially in March and April. In April, I had enough ideas to consider starting the game in July, but production was eventually delayed to September partly because some of the features lacked clarity and also due to an unexpected amount of ongoing projects in July.

Production started on 2 September and concluded on 9 December. In early 2021, I expected it to last about two weeks, about twice as much as my previous game "Wyścig po Skarb", and by the time the production began I hoped to finish it within September, but the game turned out to be more demanding. The sheer main board took 2 weeks to complete. The instruction turned out to be 20 pages long, 6 of which solely described player actions. The 155 cards also turned out to be more time-consuming as each contained a detailed design and eventually ended up becoming the most demanding part of the game. Both the cards and the instruction were finished only by mid November. The tokens, totalling 271, were started after the cards and took about 2 weeks to complete. Lastly, clan boards and counters representing player units were assembled and the game was decisively finished on 9 December.

Post-production and patches

On 11 December, the first test game started, with BeetMacol and Myoko, playing for 4 hours straight almost until midnight. (In my "Trivia log", I noted that the game turned out to be "very balanced, but kind of slow at the beginning (at least for me), possibly because of our lack of clear-cut strategies.") The test game concluded on 18 December. I noted that it took "three times longer than expected", though I'm not sure how long exactly had it lasted. I likely expected the game to take 2-3 hours to conclude.

On 9 January 2022, a month after production concluded, the game received a suitable box which allowed me to finally free space from my desk. Since then, the game resides on my wardrobe.

Initially, I left the game mostly unchanged despite some minor features lacking clarity and at least one more game was played in 2022. On 6-7 January 2023, while Florik, a friend from Cracow, arrived to Łomianki for a 3-day stay until 8 January, the first complete 4-player game was played (with BeetMacol, Myoko, Florik and me participating), and it turned out to be perfectly balanced and lasted about 10 hours. After that game, I made a list of 15 things to consider in the new patch, which I performed on 26 January.

Changelog

1.1.0 | 26 January 2023

Hydra: if the player owns less than x (7 – fishing rod, 5 – harpoon) strength, they lose the unit. (earlier: if the player owns no more than x strength, they lose the unit)
After defeating the city, the player acquires 1 strength. (earlier: unclear/0)
The first player who reaches Glendeyl has one free building action. The city also starts with 2 strength cards (instead of 1)
In order to retain a card after a battle, the winner pays the amount of strength equal to their clan strength after the battle per card (earlier: 4 - strength acquired in battle)
During the Gods' End, the clan of Gindzuk conquers each city dividing its forces into 2
Event card "Weapons Delivery": if there are not enough cards in the strength stack, skip to the next event
The "Secret Chest" cannot be stolen from a city (earlier: unclear)
The card "Umbrella" has a single use in Reshaka (earlier: could be unclear)
Players in the vicinity of x fields from the battle field can support the fighters with the cost of x energy (earlier: in the vicinity of 1 field, at no cost)
Nerfed Reshaka: 70 drens -> 35 drens, 35 drens -> 10 drens; the player moves between rewards for 2 energy per field with reward (earlier: 1 energy)
Nerfed the Clan of Wanderers Nowhence: it starts without money
Nerfed "begging at the gods": if the player has no more than 15 drens and is located no more than 3 fields from the temple, they get 10 drens from the gods (earlier: no more than 20 drens; gets 15 drens)

1.0.1 | ? (2022)

In order to retain a card after battle, the winner pays the amount of strength equal to 4 - strength acquired in battle per card (earlier: difference of strength in battle)