Designing A Cooperative Board Game — Solar Storm

Earlier this month, we found Solar Storm while browsing through Facebook and was really intrigued and excited about the premise and concept of the game. Caught up in a solar storm while the ship is falling apart? Sign me up!

We connected with Ayden Lowther from Dranda Games to learn more about Solar Storm, the inspiration behind the game as well as tips on how to create a cooperative board game.

What is Solar Storm?

Solar Storm is a cooperative survival game for 1–4 players. Your ship is caught in a solar storm which has knocked the power out of your energy core leaving you stranded. Players must go around the ship and divert the power from other areas back to the energy core. However, players have limited resources and they must choose if they are going to use them to divert the power in order to win the game, or repair areas that are taking damage and stop the ship from blowing up.

It’s a game that is quite easy to learn but quite difficult to beat.

Where did the inspiration / idea of Solar Storm come from?

Initially I wanted to enter it into the 2017 BGG mint tin competition. This meant that I was going to have a lot of constraints to make the game small. But, after a few days it became obvious that my design wouldn’t fit in such a tiny package. However, I tried to keep it as small as possible because I was very aware that a first time designer and publisher would struggle to get people to buy their large expensive game. I think this also turned out to be positive as well because it has meant that I have really focused on fixing any mechanical issues instead of just patching over things with extra components. It’s resulted in a very streamlined game.

The theme itself actually started out as a large war bunker. People had to lockdown different areas of the bunker in order to stop radiation from leaking in. Or it was something like that anyway. But I got quite a lot of early feedback to say that the theme didn’t quite work. So, I took to the internet to ask people’s opinions and the result was I should change it to some sort of sci-fi theme.

What are the key differences in game design when designing a cooperative game versus a competitive one?

The difference between designing a coop game and a competitive game is that coop games need a goal for everyone to work for, whilst at the same time having lots of side issues going on that should try and prevent/distract the players from their main goal. A competitive game involves balancing actions that players will take, often against each other, and making sure no one feels like they didn’t have a chance at winning. That’s the short version anyway.

What is the most challenging aspect in creating a cooperative game?

I’d have to say there were two main challenges. The first is making sure everyone feels they have something to do at every point of the game. Even at the end. If people think they are about to win when it gets to the third player, you need to make sure that the two players before them still have something significant to do. Otherwise, they lose the fun right when it’s meant to be most climactic.

The second challenge is, make sure it always comes down to the wire. If people win, they want to have won with just one card remaining or just one point away from losing. Same if they lose. They don’t want to feel as if the game thrashed them. They want to feel that if they’d just done one thing differently then they may have won.

Where are you at with Solar Storm and what are your next steps?

Solar Storm is finished. We are just putting the final touches on the Kickstarter page and waiting for a few review videos. Other than that, we are good to launch on the 3rd September. So, keep your eye out for it and make sure you back it.

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