What makes FAZA Unique?

A question I’ve asked myself many times, has anyone else already made a game that’s similar to FAZA? And I think this stems from my desire to add new ideas and fun experiences to the corpus of games that have come before.

To answer the question, there are multiple ideas and game mechanics I can point to when brought together make FAZA a unique and fun experience.

A Communal Turn

The player’s all share a communal turn, which means actions can be used in any order that is advantageous to the group’s strategy. As a result of the communal turn, the game facilitates strategic group discussions, creating the feeling that everyone is a tactician preparing for skirmishes and war.

Playtesting an early iteration of FAZA

The communal turn was designed into the game as a solution to reduce the amount of time that it would normally take to complete a round. The action point system is designed into the player cards, and creates a self limiting system. Any player can do any action at any time since there’s a limited number of player cards. Designing for self-limiting actions sets the groundwork for simultaneous play.

Diversity

The variety and diversity of characters represented in the game makes for the empowerment of different ethnicities, ages, sexes, and species.

FAZA character roles

The Algorithm

The algorithm that defines how the FAZA motherships move across the board creates a challenging game where the enemy dynamically adapts to the actions players take against them. As the FAZA retaliate, players will feel overwhelmed as if all hope is lost, but by working together they can overcome the challenges ahead.

The three Faza motherships

The Art

I’ve been very fortunate to work with Scott Chantler. His amazing work has breathed life into the game. He has a style that uniquely captured the retro science fiction theme.

Replayability

Finally, there’s a high degree of replayability, which stems from the number of characters players can choose from, the board that is setup differently every game, and the way the motherships adapt to player actions.

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