This is the third and final post about Food Coma’s gameplay and the decisions made to keep it fun. If you missed them, check out the first Gameplay post about Food Coma’s characters, and the second Gameplay post explaining core aspects of the gameplay.
Three decks just weren’t enough
Food Coma has three core (store) decks: the Butcher Shop, Farmer’s Market, and Grocery Store – each with specific cards you might need to make meals.
As we play tested we were constantly looking for ways to “break” the game in order to find and fix problems with the mechanics. One issue we came across affects all elimination games: What if all players gang up on a single player and they’re out of the game without getting a fair chance? No fun in that!
At first thought, we didn’t want to add any heavy new mechanic because Food Coma was always intended to be a fast-paced game. Even if people get eliminated quickly, it’s not long before the round is over and they’re back in the next game. But we knew there must be an elegant solution and we didn’t stop until we found it. What we needed was a “rubber band” mechanic that snaps people back into the game when they’re almost out.
That’s where the the Food Coma cards come into play.
The Food Coma deck
We solved the problem of people being eliminated too fast by asking ourselves a question: Is there a way to make players stronger the closer they get to being knocked so other players stop targeting them?
Our initial thought was to give each player a “free pass” that they could use whenever they want to nullify any meal. But this solution felt half baked. What we needed were dynamic new abilities that could be a secret so other players don’t know what’s coming, and to help make weak players a force to be reckoned with.
So we added a new deck with aptly named “Food Coma” cards. Now when you cross milestones marked on player cards, you draw a Food Coma card and gain real staying power in the game. Players now have to think twice about feeding a meal to a player holding Food Coma cards. It was our pièce de résistance!
Here are two examples of Food Coma cards:
In addition to a more balanced game, there have been two big benefits: 1) players stay in the game longer, making rounds more interesting for everyone, and 2) people who have been knocked out spend less time waiting for the game to end.
To get a little more technical, what the Food Coma deck really does is shift the meta of the game. Now instead of seeing players with high calorie counts as being weak and easy to eliminate, those players might actually be packing some serious heat, causing you to think twice before crossing them – otherwise it might be you who finds yourself in hot water.
This rubber band effect is one aspect that makes Food Coma dynamic and fun to play, as we’ve seen during hundreds of playtests.
One last chance!
And we had one other big idea: What if, when a character maxes out their calorie count, instead of that player being out of the game straight away, they get one more chance. This is the cherry on top of the rubber band mechanic because it gives every player a fighting chance.
Once you reach that final icon on your player card, you flip your card over. Then once you eat one more meal, you’re out.
Even if you find yourself right at your capacity early in the game, you’re almost guaranteed to have one chance to play and you’ll have three powerful Food Coma cards in hand to mount an epic comeback.
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