Andy Long

Johannes Spaulding

Buzz Tilford

Katamari Damacy

The game we are adapting is Katamari Damacy for the PlayStation 2. In the colorful

universe of the game, the player takes on the role of the Prince who must roll a sticky ball called

a katamari around various environments picking up objects to make their katamari as large as

possible. At the end of each level the Prince's katamari is judged by The King of All Cosmos,

who decides whether or not the katamari is worthy of being turned into a star.

Katamari Damacy already has a multiplayer mode where The King has forgotten what the Prince

looks like. The two players pick their characters from among the Prince and his Cousins, and

compete to make the most impressive katamari. Our game competitive play follows from the

same premise.

Adaptation of Mechanics

The two core mechanics of the PlayStation 2 Katamari Damacy are rolling the katamari

around the environment and strategically picking up objects to grow the katamari. In our analog

game we translated the in-game rolling of the katamari to rolling of dice. As the katamari would

become larger and more cumbersome in the videogame, in our game the player has to contend

with an ever growing number of dice they must handle. The picking up of objects in the original

translates to the picking up of Stuff pieces, and placement onto a player's Katamari Board, in our

adaptation. Growing a katamari increase a player's points and increases the number of dice the

player will be rolling.

Dice Engine vs. Points and Layers

Each turn players roll dice depending on the Stuff pieces on their Katamari Board. These

dice give the player Rolling Power which lets the player add more stuff to their board. Players

have a choice of what Stuff pieces to buy and add to their board. The general conflict in this

decision will be one of building and maintaining the Rolling Power of their katamari or buying

Stuff that will set them up for a high score at the end of the game. Early on, building Rolling

Power is more important, but even early on players are encouraged to think their choice by the

appearance of special symbols that can provide a great point boost if a player uses them wisely.

There is an additional mechanic that complicates the decision making process. Player

must build their katamari up in layers to afford and place the highest scoring purple pieces. Blue

pieces must be placed over blue or yellow pieces, and purple over purple or blue. Purple pieces

cost the most Rolling Power and do the least for the players engine, but are necessary for scoring

a large number of points. The different choices players must make in buying and placing Stuff

pieces is the most engaging aspect of our adaptation.

Machination 1

Dice Engine vs. Points with a Timer (EngineVPoints.xml)

In this machinination the player is giver a semi-random amount of time to obtain 20

points. Each turn the player is given an amount of rolling power depending on the number of

Rolling Booster pieces they have. The player buys most Rolling and Point Boosters with Rolling

Power. While points do not slow the gain of Rolling Power in this machination, obtaining them

does cost the player the opportunity to get more boosts. The main conflict of engine vs points is

represented clearly. The semi-random timer represents the possibility of other players gaining or

losing advantage. Our adaptation is competitive, but the only way to model that uncertainty was

to use a semi-random element. Even though there will usually be 15 turns in this machination, it

is not guaranteed. There is uncertainty in a mathematically optimal solution.

Machination 2

KatamariBoard (KatamariBoard.xml)

This machination models a simplified Katamari Board

economy, which houses the pieces a player collects. The player

begins with 19 hexes on their Katamari Board, and over the

course of a gamethey will fill them up with Stuff pieces of

different colors. The various converters simulate how players fill

their boards in the analog game. Yellow pieces replace empty

spaces, blue replaces yellow, and purple replaces blue. While

being quite an abstract representation, it communicates how a

Katamari Board changes over the course of a game.

The following are samples of a Katamari Board over the course of a playtest game.

Going Too Fast and Crashing

In the Katamari Damacy video game, players can move too fast and crash, losing pieces

of their katamari. We wanted to involve this in the game as a mechanic. In the first version of the

game this took the form of a deck of 10 cards with 1 Crash Card in it. Every time a player bought

Stuff they would draw a card from their deck. If it's a Crash Card they Crash which means losing

their turn and the largest piece on their katamari, otherwise they discard it and buy Stuff pieces

as normal. Players could reshuffle their discard pile into their deck by paying some Rolling

Power. It was intended that this would act as a “push-your-luck” mechanic. It was not fun and

felt arbitrary in play.

After the first playtest we changed the mechanic so players Crash if they roll a certain

number of '6's when generating Rolling Power on their turn. This allows Crashing to act as a

braking engine, slowing down super effective dice engines. This meant that while players gain

more dice, they also increase the chances they crash. We began with five 6's but Crashing

happened only once that game. The third playtest we changed it to four or more 6's. Crashing

was still quite rare, but every time a player rolled three 6's while generating rolling power, there

was a wave of relief from avoiding disaster.

Counting Dice

We simplified how Rolling Power is counted after the first playtest. Initially, players

were expected to count up the pips on the dice they were rolling. After rolling a dozen dice, this

slowed down the game way too much for it to be enjoyable. Turns were going too slow. We

decided to allow each die to generate 1 Rolling Power, and to modify the cost of the Stuff pieces

to fall in line. We also decided to introduce types of dice that are associated with the colors of

Stuff. Stuff pieces give players dice of their color. Yellow Dice are very effective, generating

Rolling Power on a 3 or greater. Blue dice generate on a 4 or greater. Purple dice generate on a 5

or 6. The shifting effectiveness of the dice became integral to the choices players make when

buying the different Stuff pieces to put on their katamari. Purple will give you more points, and

more dice, but they will be less effective (but just as likely to contribute to a crash). This change

really brought a lot of the game together. It made turns faster and players are entertained by

recalculating their dice when it isn't their turn.

Written Rules

There were no written rules for the first play test. By the second we had most of the rules

written, but not enough to give to someone to play without guidance. One person wrote the rules

out and had them looked over by the other members of the team who cut out all the fat. After

getting feedback from the in-section playtest, one of us rewrote some sections of the rules, and

again they were reviewed by the other members of the team.

Iteration

Playtest 1 Playtest2 Playtest 3 (in section) and 4

● Adding dice is slow in

the late game

● took 13 or so turns

● Symbol bonus

attainable

● Crashing feels arbitrary

● No player interaction

● Dice often fall off table

● Prototype Stuff pieces

are ugly

● Game of 15 turns takes

25-30 min with 2

players

● Crashing almost never

happens

● Yellow Dice are really

good

● Symbols are

completely worthless if

you have fewer than

another player

● Some rules are unclear

● Symbol combinations

are not strong that raw

points

● Almost Crashing is a

rush!

Response Response Response

● Crashing is tied to

rolling 5 '6's

● Symbols bonus is now

based on symbol

ignoring Stuff color

(player with most of a

kind gets 5 points)

● New Dice colors with

different success

weights

● Symbols each grant

players a point, just for

having them

● Dice that fall off table

cause a crash

● Added in a Dice Tray

● Changed Crashing to a

result of 4 or more '6's

● Fancy Stuff Pieces

● Another Rules draft

● Boosted the symbol

bonus to 7 points