Proioxis & Palioxis — a pursuit to remember
A downloadable game
Proioxis & Palioxis (or P&P for short) is a fast-paced, high-octane game of hyperaction. In it, you portray a radical pursuit between two characters; you either catch or escape from your opponent!
It was born when I was reading Night's Black Agents, one of the books from Pelgrane Press (the publisher I have been obsessed over), and one of the most interesting mechanics of the game is a chase mechanic. Since this is a game of espionage, the chase can make or break the game, in my opinion. I realized, as I was reading, that the idea behind that mechanic could be made into its own mini-game— and right there, P&P was born.
P&P is inspired not only by NBA, but also by all action movies— Casino Royale, Skyfall, Mission Impossible, Mad Max: Fury Road— that I'm always thinking of when I try to make my characters in a game look cool, or doing something absurd in the pursuit of a bad guy. I used those to craft the names of the "Secret Moves", as watching them gave the ideas on what could make the game cooler; they also helped me get inspiration for the Locations & Situations for players to use in the game.
The goal, from the start, was very clear: to give players the exhilarating feeling of a chase sequence, without leaving their seats. I knew that I love throwing dice around, and as such wanted to have the game mechanics to include that. While NBA uses a single die and a pool of points to determine differences in investment between characters, I sensed that this worked because the game was more than just the chase— the points made sense for the investigative theme, and to show competence. This was not the case for me. When trying to tie the dice pool mechanic with the feeling of betting against your opponent, I thought back to the Dread game, and it hit me: I could combine these two. The resolution was elegant, since the block tower provides a tactile response for the player's risk-taking tactics, and the number of dice per blocks removed escalates enough to make success certain around 5 blocks.
I wanted to, the best as I could, have my mechanics mimic the excitement of the chase— a risky jump from one building to another will be likely described along a 5-block-pull, and the many dice rolls will provide the player with a feeling of empowerment. From there, the visual design was simple: point towards the flexibility of the game, using people and cars alike for the imagery, the tower as a quick indicator of what you need to play, and give things names that stimulate action. I'm particularly proud of Valhalla, Brother! as a hail-mary move, and the immense stakes it puts on the following roll.
Credits: Jenga by Cha (flipped), run by James Smith, run by Gregor Cresnar car jumping & car flying by Ston, from the Noun Project (CC BY 3.0), all cropped.
Status | Released |
Category | Physical game |
Author | I am Eurydice |
Genre | Role Playing |
Tags | Tabletop role-playing game |
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