神河当時 - 開発メンバーの動向

昨日の記事の続きです。

But What About the Cards?
As you can see, Kamigawa’s creative infrastructure was part research and part accident. And because it developed over the course of months—months during which card design was supposed to be ongoing—the process of coming up with cards and mechanics was even more chaotic than usual. Each design-team member had a different interest and focus.

Brian Tinsman, the team lead, was interested in thinking about spells as supernatural martial arts moves. He was also focused on designing common cards. As I would later learn, designing good common cards is much harder and less fun than designing uncommon and rare cards, because commons have to be simpler, more nuts-and-bolts, more elegant. If it’s wacky (and I prefer wacky cards), chances are very good it’s not common.

I was busy trying to design a keyword mechanic for combat. I can’t be too specific in case we use any of my ideas in future sets, but some of the mechanics I designed were “overawe,” “bladework,” “finesse,” “fealty,” “taunt,” “fury,” . . . there were about 20 in all. (Sadly, the bushido ability we chose in the end wasn’t one of my designs.) I was also slaving away on commons.

Mike Elliott was working on what he does best: abstract mechanics (the ones without super-definable flavor such as echo and cycling). His work would eventually yield soulshift. Mike was also doing some combat-keyword design.

In the meantime, Bill (a busy guy by any measure) was overseeing our efforts, shaping the common-card designs and weighing in on the ideas we produced and whether they would yield good cards and good gameplay or not. He contributed material of his own, as well.

The last piece of the Kamigawa puzzle wouldn’t come until months later, and it became a real lynchpin of the design: legendary creatures. But that story is worth an article in and of itself.

引用元
A SERIES OF FORTUNATE EVENTS: KAMIGAWA WORLD DESIGN Posted in Feature on October 18, 2004
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/series-fortunate-events-kamigawa-world-design-2004-10-18

筆者も含めたデザインチームのメンバーの動向について語られています。特に、興味・関心が多様であったことが分かります。

Brian Tinsman　…　呪文を超自然的な武術として考える。コモンカードのデザインに注力。

Brady Dommermuth　…　戦闘用のキーワードメカニズムを思案。ただし、武士道の発案者ではない。

Mike Elliott　…　フレイバー的意味の薄い抽象的なメカニズムと、戦闘用メカニズムの思案。「転生/Soulshift」の発案者らしい。

Bill Rose　…　コモンカードのデザイン調整。デザインのゲーム性への影響について担当。

意外にも、伝説はデザイン後期のことだったようです。神河にとって重要なテーマであるようですが、最初から掲げていたというよりは、最後の段階でカードにテーマ性・一貫性を持たせるために使われた、ように見えます。



2021/03/09 追記
日本語訳を見つけました。
一連の幸運：神河世界のデザイン――神河の巨大な世界の創造
https://web.archive.org/web/20041113050558/http://www.hobbyjapan.co.jp/magic/articles/files/20041025_01.html