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Lotus is a game that was developed mechanisms-first, then grew into its beautiful theme along the way. The process started during the summer of 2014. Our early objective was to create a board game-like experience using cards and no board. We started playing around with how cards are held in your hand and how that same fanned-out shape could be placed down on the table to create a full circle of cards. This led to the development of the game's core mechanism of set completion with five different sets, ranging from three cards to seven cards. Using a little geometry to identify the exact angle of overlap for each set, we were able to guide placement of each card for a clean shape every time.
It didn't take long before the card-laying mechanism naturally led us to a theme of building flowers. That theme, in addition to our desire for a board game experience, led to the addition of butterfly meeples to be used for area control of the flowers in the garden. We gave the design the name "Bloom" and got to work on a ruleset and petal card illustrations.
It doesn't always make sense to invest in full art so early in the game design process, but in this case, the petal cards actually help enable the mechanism by providing guides for placing the next card in the set. The art also provides a visual indicator of progress toward the completion of each flower, which is helpful during gameplay. We had a full art prototype made to confirm whether our vision was going to work as we expected. It was time to move on to playtesting!
Thanks to the great community at Unpub and the Blue Noodle, we were able to show our design to a large number of wonderful people and receive incredibly valuable feedback. Their countless hours of playtesting various iterations and providing detailed suggestions helped us polish the details. We also leaned on the Reddit community, specifically the TabletopGameDesign subreddit, for some early feedback on artwork and general concepts of the game. You could even say this process led to some budding friendships.
Daryl Andrews, Gil Hova, Jordan Goddard, Ian Zang, Tony Miller, Mandy Goddard, Isaac Shalev (back row)
Tiffany Caires, Daniel Newman (front row)
About a year into our project, in the summer of 2015, we partnered with Renegade Game Studios. It was a wonderful experience working with the Renegade team and collaborating with their extended network of game designers and artists. While the core mechanisms of the game remained unchanged, there were a few significant improvements made as a result of working with the new team.
Theme and Visual Aesthetics
We learned that the name "Bloom" was already taken by a European game, so we started brainstorming alternatives. (Two examples were "Blossom" and "Garden in Bloom".) The final decision for "Lotus" didn't come about until after we landed on the idea for the box art. Kane Klenko (designer of Covert, FUSE, and Dead Men Tell No Tales) led the art direction for Lotus and we owe him a HUGE thank you for how beautifully everything came together. Illustrations were provided by Chris Ostrowski and graphic design by Anita Osburn — what an amazing team!
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The final theme was a result of the art direction — or at least of a feeling the art evoked. Players are invited into a mysterious lotus garden where they compete for flowers in order to harness the wisdom that the mystical blossoms provide. Each player also commands a set of insect guardians that helps them gain control of flowers and aids them in gaining special abilities to make their quest more successful.
Mechanism and Components
For what may seem like a fairly simple set of rules, the game did pose a number of challenges for us during playtesting. It's interesting to look back now to remember how much it really changed over the course of two years in development.
Below are a few examples of ideas we tested that didn't make it into the final version of the game. We also show the issues that kept these ideas from working and the solution that was implemented in the final version of Lotus.
A few more tweaks here and terminology updates there, and we finally had the Lotus rules. Final components were also taking shape, including a change from using just butterfly meeples to including three other critters — ladybugs, dragonflies, and caterpillars — to round out the mix of insect guardians.
The most fulfilling part of the entire process was supporting the launch of Lotus at Renegade's booth at Gen Con 2016. The reception of the game was so positive, and we are just so excited to see other people enjoying playing with their families and friends. If you have a chance to play, we would love to hear your feedback on Twitter @JordanandMandy.
Thank you so much to everyone who helped us along the way!
Jordan and Mandy Goddard
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