Paul and I have spent the last couple weeks of lock-down working on the upcoming Hogs 2 title. Straight away we agreed on several ‘auto-includes’ for the game in order to make it the follow-up game that the fans will love.
Firstly, we both want the game’s run-time to be longer and the game-play more expansive.
Hogs Of War The Card Game plays fast and is quick to pick-up and learn. Paul and I can typically get through a game in 20-30m and have a lot of fun but in order to set Hogs 2 apart, we will be looking at a game that takes an hour to play and has a lot more decision making processes involved for that deeper strategic play!
This conclusion naturally led us to the decision to incorporate a campaign into Hogs 2. The original PS1 Title had a Saustralasia world-map that was progressively journeyed through to complete the game, we’re aiming to incorporate this into Hogs 2 and provide players with the chance to come back to the game over and over again with a group of friends or as a solo gamer to finish a full campaign.
Secondly, the world of Hogs Of War has to represented in miniature. Fans universally have asked for miniatures in our market research and Paul and I are both into war-gaming. It feels natural to upscale the Hogs board-game ‘universe’ into a product offering that includes miniatures in the box!
Lastly, Paul and I have both agreed that Hogs 2 needs to feature ways to incorporate 1 to 4 players in any combination of play. I.e. Providing players with the chance to compete or team-up, depending on the game mode.
The original PS1 Hogs Of War title has this party-game feel, where teams can be put together to allow for Team-based Cooperative play or left as a free-for-all. This flexibility makes a game super fun for a wider audience, not all players want to work as a team and likewise, not all players want to feel like they’re alone in a gaming scenario.
It’s been Stone Sword Games’ aim from day 1 to cater to all sorts of gamer… so Paul and I both feel that Hogs 2 has to have a list of varying game-modes to ensure everyone has their preference catered to without asking players to rely on a sandbox game-play mode of their own devising.