Why it is called Tribal Pride and other things you don't wonder about.

What is this game?

Tribal Pride will be a turn-based strategy game, with collectibles and trading, based on pre-gun civilizations and warfare throughout history. Think Age of Empires + Chess + Magic: The Gathering.

If it's not about natives, then why is it called "Tribal Pride"?

This game will be focused on what is known as tribalism and tribalism is caused by unhealthy amounts of pride within a group that have some things in common.

So wait; How will this create a better world or better humans?

This game will be designed to dispel tribalism by exposing its superficiality and uselessness, as well as its corrosive nature to society and our world. Tribalism is a form of prejudice in a group scale. The group does both, feel extreme pride for the group it shares an identity with and hates or fears anyone outside said group. This behavior has been and still is responsible for many atrocities and injustices. This game is an attempt at reducing this behavior through education. It will incorporate the following game design techniques:

-Players choose a tribe every time they start a game. The player may only use game pieces that belong to the chosen tribe. The higher the tribalism level in the player, the more likely it will be for them to chose a tribe related to their tribalism instead of the tribe that has the better pieces to win the game. It is my hope that they will notice tribalism within themselves when they reflect on their loses.

-Players that want to use a tribe related to their own tribalism will want to collect game pieces of the tribe they are identifying with. They will have a much better chance doing so if they are willing to trade with players that use tribes that they dislike. It is my hope that they see the benefit of cooperation with people outside their identity group, and thus, recognize their own tribalism as an obstacle in their life.

-Some game pieces will have certain features associated with identity; Gender, sexual preference, religion, etc. Players may cripple their chances of winning if they refuse to use said game pieces simply based on these features that have no strategic or gameplay value whatsoever. It is my hope that the player reflects on their loses and sees their tribalism as an obstacle in their life.

-In team games, it will be advantageous to have a diversity of players in your team, for different tribe game pieces will have exclusive abilities and traits. A homogenous team made up of one or similar tribes will lack the array of options required to overcome the challenges encountered in a game. The team that can better adapt to situations will be more likely to be victorious.

There may be more design techniques to expose tribalism within players, but these should give you an idea of the goal. These techniques will not be available right away, but they will be completed by the time the game goes into beta stage.

How will this game be played?

Players start the game with an empty board. They take turns either deploying a game piece or moving a game piece. Game pieces have deployment requirements, so you can't just deploy that powerful piece on turn 1. Game pieces will often require a certain amount of other game pieces to be already on the board, so it will be possible to prevent a big powerful piece from coming out by eliminating the pieces it needs to deploy. Basically, the pieces themselves act as resources instead of having them be divided between resource and combat units.

Players will earn game pieces without buying them with real money. Game pieces will never be sold this way, unless you buy them from another player. Players will earn pieces by login in daily, by playing mini-games, trading with others, etc.

There will be single player AI, but it will be dumb at first. AI is very expensive to make, but if the players support the game, i will re-invest those profits back into development and improvement.

The game will be played asynchronously. This means that players may play at their own pace according to their availability of time. They may play lots of games in one sitting or walk away at any time because they got busy and take their turn at a more convenient time. Players will also be able to have multiple games going on at a time. Basically it may take 10 minutes or a week to complete one game, all depending on the availability of the players. I think that this is one of the most important features, as it allows busy adults to also participate in the fun without being penalized for having responsibilities.  

Before closing this article, i leave you with the gallery of the art assets of the game from 2010-2014.
I created a chronicle along with the display of each asset re-telling the history of its development so far. I hope you find it entertaining and informative.

Thank you for your time.