With the Kickstarter for our new game rapidly approaching, we’re going to be doing a post on the blog every Wednesday, giving you glimpses into the final-stage development of Robot Fight Club. We’ve got a team of artists and graphic designers working behind the scenes to make things as pretty as they can be before launch, and we’re going to be showing off some of the things they’ve been working on! As the weeks go by we’ll mix it up a bit - we’re planning How To Play videos, Let’s Play sessions (possibly featuring some people you might recognise from around the industry…) and more!

Building a World

One of the most exciting elements of Robot Fight Club, for us, was the opportunity to create our own setting. So far, pretty much all of the game design work we’ve done has been for clients who have their own established game worlds (or have licensed them from larger IP holders, as was the case with Hellboy and Devil May Cry). This time we had a chance to design something for ourselves.

Here’s what the rulebook tells you about the setting:

When Lyeville Cybernautics Academy was shut down, no one was too surprised. The institution’s research budget had been outstripping its funding for years, with its founders pouring a fortune into keeping it alive in a society that had started turning its back on remote-piloted robots.
Once hailed as a shining beacon of academic excellence, the Academy had been a haven for youngsters who’d shown promise in the field of cybernautics. Most popular of all was its Robot Club, where local kids could gather after hours to make use of the state-of-the-art facilities.
Almost a decade after it was closed down, a group of teenagers decided to explore the old Academy building - and found it surprisingly intact! Having heard all about the glory days of Robot Club, they decided to see if they could start it up again.
They began to hold regular meetings in the old club complex, clearing away debris and sorting the workable machinery from the junk. Scouring the wider buildings, they even managed to find half a dozen robots in (more or less) working order.
Soon, their friends wanted to come see. It became one of the best-kept secrets in town, attended by crowds of kids but never discovered by the adults. Wanting to keep the newcomers interested, the teens came up with a set of league rules, and Robot Fight Club was born! Each week two competitors would face off, each using a pair of customised robots and fighting to the first deactivation.
So come and join the club. Fight for thrills, fight for glory, but most of all, fight for fun – because Robot Fighting is awesome!

As you might know if you’ve been following the game’s progress, the setting was something that we actually came up with quite late. We knew we wanted to have a game about robots fighting each other, and from the way the mechanics had ended up we knew that the robots were being controlled by someone. Oh, and there was the idea that you got to customise your robots. But that was about it!

Scrapyard… Scrap

During a lot of the game’s development we were working under the assumption that it was going to be set in a big scrapyard. We even toyed with the name Scrap for the game - it seemed like a solid title with a good double meaning.

Problem was, it all felt a bit clinical.

We love games that tell a story, and story was sorely lacking here. Basically, it didn’t have any heart! Also, scrapyards are a bit of a tired cliche.

I realised this when I was watching a pair of playtesters battle through a close-fought match. They were clearly enjoying the gameplay, but they didn’t seem particularly invested beyond wanting to win. I mulled this over for a few days while I worked on another project. Eventually, on the way home from work one night, something eventually occurred to me.

Could the people controlling the robots be kids?

I can’t remember where it came from, but it immediately felt right. It turned the game away from grubby scrapyard fighting, which felt a bit grim, to a bunch of kids competing to build and battle the coolest robots. It was so much more optimistic and uplifting!

Ideas Aplenty!

Creatively, it felt like knocking down the first domino. There was a cascade of ideas. We could introduce character cards, letting you choose the kid (or “Cybernaut”) you’re playing as - which gave us both a new mechanical hook (unique abilities) and the opportunity to put some engaging art on the box that isn’t just big metal things hitting each other. Next came the idea of setting it in an abandoned robotics academy; that gave us some interesting graphical opportunities (we could make everything look a little bit ramshackle and bodged together) but it also added to the sense of optimism. Plucky, curious kids finding abandoned technology and putting it to new use feels like something anyone could get behind.

As soon as we started trying it out, the difference was clear. Playtesters were immediately engaged. Even before we had character art, when each kid was just a name, a special rule and a one-line quote, the players started identifying with them. They seemed so much more engaged with the theme; we seemed to have tapped into a deep vein of nostalgia with several testers, putting them in mind of long afternoons tinkering with Lego kits or science projects.

So all in all, we knew we were onto a winner. Hooray!

Introducing Raul…

So now you know about the setting, how’d you like to meet one of our Cybernauts?

Raul is one of life’s improvisers. He's at his best in the arena when he's flying by the seat of his pants, thinking no further than two steps ahead at any given time. When it works, he looks like an unbridled genius... when it works.

Although he doesn’t have the largest Scrap Budget (which you spend at the start of the game to construct your pair of fighting robots), he has a unique ability involving Improvisation Cards. These cards, purchased from an array that changes turn after turn, let players bend or break the rules to get an edge over their opponent. They normally cost between one and three of the precious Scrap Tokens you collect during the game, but each turn Raul can take a single card that has a cost of 1 without spending a thing! This means he’s always got a trick up his sleeve, and can pull together some remarkably unpredictable plays.

Until Next Week!

That’s the end of Robot Fight Club News this week. We’ve got so much to show you over the coming weeks - we just can’t wait. Make sure you’re signed up to our Newsletter if you want to make sure you don’t miss anything. (Oh, and if you sign up before the end of the month, you’re in with a chance of winning a signed copy of Hellboy: the Board Game. Not bad, eh?