T.I.N.T. or This Is Not a Treasure is a chess-inspired game that revolves around memory. The goal is to reach the treasure situated on a grid of cards turned face-down. The catch is that it is always quicker than you: each time you move, it moves away from you. Remembering where it was before and which card lies under it is the key to victory.
This is a project where I was a sole designer. I have plenty of experience playing card games and while this isn't exactly a card game, it has some card mechanics and still ended up being a relatively polished and engaging experience.
Roles: Design, Testing Duration: 8 Weeks
The treasure can't move for 1 turn.
AND
Reveal the numbers of adjacent cards
0
0
Choose a tile position where the treasure would not be able to move. Place a marker.
If this card is activated twice, the treasure starts to move symmetrically to you (vertical symmetry)
3
3
If successful teleportation costs more than 1, reduce it to 1 instead.
OR
Switch positions of any 2 cards (excluding cards where the player and the treasure are)
2
2
Reveal a card adjacent to you.
5
5
Randomize 6 cards on lateral edges.
Randomize 6 cards on non-lateral edges.
OR
2
2
OR
Movement cost is increased by 1.
You can move 2 positions at a time instead of one. Your movement points are reduced down to 3.
1
1
+2 Movement points
0
0
Successful teleportation cost is increased by 2.
4
4
Reveal an adjacent card to you.
5
5
Choose 4 cards positioned in a square shape. Move them clockwise or counterclockwise.
4
4
+2 Movement points
3
3
Choose a row of cards. Move it to the left or to the right. The remaining card is moved to the opposite side of the row. (Player's and treasure's positions do not change)
1
1
Iteration III
- 12 Cards
- 1 Player Token
- 1 Treasure Token
- 16 Movement Points (in a form of a dice)
- 2 Markers
Rules
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Start the game with a 4 by 3 grid of random cards placed face-down. Put the player token anywhere you like.
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During each of your turns, you can use one of the two actions: move to an adjacent tile (not counting diagonals), which costs 1 movement point, or teleport.
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Teleportation requires you to guess the number on a card you would like to teleport to. If it's correct and it's the same as the number on a card you stand on, you lose 0 points (teleportation success). If you don't guess correctly, you don't teleport and lose 3 points (teleportation fail). For each unsuccessful teleportation, the cost of teleportation success and teleportation fail is increased by 1.
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Once you reach a tile, the treasure moves to a position that is an L-shape away from you (like a knight in chess), in a random direction. Use a randomizer like dice to get an unbiased result.
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Once the treasure is moved, reveal the card on which you stand. You have to then do what's written on that card.
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Put it face-down again and start the next turn.
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Once you run out of movement points, you lose the game.
Iterations
The development consisted of three iterations (the third one is presented above). While the first one also had health points and tried to resemble a dungeon by having monsters you needed to fight (cards 11 and 12), this idea gradually toned down since it wasn't engaging enough. After several playtests, I realized that some of the old cards just ask the player to count numbers and don't provide more choices upon which the player could act.
Iteration I
Iteration II
It was also important to make sure that besides the game feeling like a challenge, it should also feel like it isn't simply beating down the player like the card number 7 in the first iteration. Randomizing all cards is too big of a hit to the player's progress, despite it being designed as a more powerful bad card.
The third iteration in this case presents a choice. The player can shuffle the cards in the middle or the ones on the sides of the grid. This way, not only the player will still get to preserve some known information about the board but also get an excuse to reduce the memory load. Remembering a long chain of numbers while being on a particularly tough board state can be draining even though that's technically the aim of the game.
Randomize 6 cards on lateral edges.
Randomize 6 cards on non-lateral edges.
OR
2
2
Strongest Bad Cards
Orthogonal Design
To create unique interactions with cards, I also attempted to reduce the number of cards with similar effects. There was a desire to make a symmetric design similar to the typical playing cards, where a card of each power has three more copies with different symbols (f.e. a typical 52 card deck will contain 4 queens, 4 kings, 4 aces etc...). However, not only T.I.N.T has 12 cards instead of 52, it also presents them to the player all at once - they are never separated into piles at any point in the game.
This is why orthogonal design is important. Just like there can be different types of vehicles in shooters instead of cars with varying speed, T.I.N.T contains cards that can't be categorized, allowing for interesting situations to happen. For example, if the player finds a "+2 movement points" card after they chose to reduce their total down to three in exchange for a powerful ability, the remaining part of the game would have greater tension, since this outcome is unexpected and the player would have a little more time left than the previous card allowed for.
If I had more time working on the project, I would've certainly attempted to make each card unique and conducted more testing. While the third iteration is relatively polished, the current design does not account for all potential board states, thus there can be some that can make the player's experience particularly bitter.
1
1
You can move 2 positions at a time instead of one. Your movement points are reduced down to 3.
Movement cost is increased by 1.
OR
3
3
+2 Movement points
Choose a row of cards. Move it to the left or to the right. The remaining card is moved to the opposite side of the row. (Player's and treasure's positions do not change)
1
1
4
4
Choose 4 cards positioned in a square shape. Move them clockwise or counterclockwise.