The Most Important Aspect of Game Design: How 'Feel' Makes Escape Land's Necrostag So Powerful

Throughout my years working as a play tester and game designer, there is one aspect that I really love to watch come to life – the way a card that I had my hand in designing made someone feel. My time working with a major company gave me a lot of those opportunities, but nothing has been as cool as seeing the reactions and those feelings play out in Escape Land.

Doing this for as long as I have, it can sometimes be hard to put into words the intent behind something, since often it is kind of just second nature in a lot of ways when working on cards. Today though, I want to highlight one shining example of a card designed with a few purposes in mind – Necrostag!

Necrostag’s design is all based on emotion and pushing player development. In Escape Land, linking your Critters to summon Legends is one of the most powerful, and fun, aspects of the game. Especially when playing with physical cards – the act of physically stacking your Critters to form a Link, summoning the Legend on top, and harnessing the effect is one of the biggest draws to the game and often creates some of the most memorable moments.

Necrostag is all about flipping that excitement on its head to create a huge emotional swing, especially the first time you encounter it. Investing your resources into summoning a Legend costs the cards in play, the card in hand, and sometimes Action Points to make it happen. Having a card that simply derails that investment feels backbreaking. The player who summons the Necrostag however feels all-powerful and clever. My favorite is when both players simultaneously call the card “overpowered” or “broken” – that is exactly what was intended.

This feeling however creates a lasting memory and a desire to find alternative paths when playing against a deck that contains Necrostag. In Escape Land you’re limited to having a max of 4 Critters in play and the only way to open space on your board is either by having your Critters KO’d, or by linking them to summon Legends. The first few times someone plays, they get drawn into summoning Legends early and often, keeping their board down to 1 to 2 Critters in play, making a well-timed Necrostag feel even more punishing. Once you feel that power though, you learn that the goal isn’t to always link – but to instead keep your board at 3 to 4 Critters the majority of the time and link only when you need a powerful Legend, need to alter the math for a turn, or need to open up space for a Basic Critter with a game-altering effect.

Next time you’re sitting down to play a game or spending time working on your game, try to focus on how you want some of your cards and effects to feel. A lot of times we can get wrapped up in numbers, mechanics, and overall balance – what ultimately matters at the end of the day is the emotions people feel when playing your game, since ultimately that is what they’re going to remember and be tied to.

Happy testing!