GAME DESIGN
A tabletop board game where players lead their own otter clan across locations in Singapore. Defeat rival clans through attacks and defences to earn the highest score, or capture the legendary Koi Fish. I designed the game mechanics, balanced the rules through playtesting, and did the graphic design.
Lead designer
3 months, 2021
Players lead an otter clan across locations in Singapore, spending action points to move units, surround and eliminate rivals, and hold ground. Released in 2021.
There are two ways to win. The first is to reach 15 points, earned by eliminating enemy units and by holding the centre Koi Fish tile, which scores five. The second is to capture the legendary Koi Fish outright by occupying all of the centre tiles with seven units.
Board games are unforgiving in a way software is not. There is no telemetry, no patch and no onboarding flow to lean on - the rules either land at the table or they do not, and the only way to find out is to sit down and play. Playtesting was the whole method here: run the game, watch where the rules stalled, and change them until it ran smoothly.