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Uncivilized is a boardgame about anti-colonial resistance that is currently in the design phase.
Originally designed for a game jam themed around the frontier. The idea for uncivilized arose as the
project I had spent most of the jam working on began to feel hollow. Uncivilized represents a radical
change in my approach to game design.
The game that I had been making for this jam, had nothing to say, it wasn't attempting to be anything more
than an addition to a genre. Borrowing mechanics, playstyle, and identity from the games that came before it,
specifically rail shooters like Star Fox. Clearly this isn't an entirely negative, imitation and emulation are powerful
learning tools especially as it applies to learning how to develop systems. But I was interested in designing an
experience not an imitation.
During this time I happened to be reading Jesse Schell's excellent "The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses", specifically
it was Schell's lens of Essential Experience, as well as youtuber Spice8Rack's video A Very Normal Look at Tarkir
which examines colonialism in Magic the Gathering as well as the Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing project in Gaza. That solidified what Uncivilized ought to be.
Now that the game had an identity of it's own the design questions arose quickly, and their answers seemed to come just as quickly.
I knew that the game needed to be largely cooperative, anti-colonial resistance is only possible when those affected are working toward a shared goal. I also knew that I didn't want one player taking on the role of colonizer, so the role of colonizer became an automatic function. However there was an important caveat, when anti-colonial efforts that fail, often they do so because part of the resistance betrays their neighbors in order to achieve a priviliged position within the colonizer's society. I wanted to make sure that this skewed 'self-interest' was also present in the game.
Difficulty was a question that also had a simple answer, in real life anti-colonial efforts are David vs Goliath endeavors. I also wanted to make sure that imperialist tropes weren't recreated here. Colonization efforts aren't 'wars', they are genocidal projects , and the weapons of choice aren't firearms. They are destruction of food sources, disruption of indigenous life styles and ecosystems, polution, poison, disease, and denial of resources.
Part of hammering in the fact that anti-colonial struggle is an all-or-nothing ordeal, in order for all players to win they must work together. In game this takes the form of building a series of roads that connect the capitals of each indigenous nation. Failure to connect the nations before the 'blight' (ecological destruction caused by colonizers) reaches any of the capitals is the only total win condition. There are ways that individual players can earn a self interest victory by successfully sabotaging the efforts of the other players.