Hey everyone, I’m Priyank Singh - the Game Director at Tentworks Interactive. I am heading the design division which takes care of implementing gameplay, narrative, assets, and campaign missions alongside balancing the game’s myriad systems. I’m excited to shed some light on our design process for Becoming Pablo, a game that blends the hands-on fun of base building with the deep challenge of grand strategy.
After honing my skills at Zynga, I now lead a talented team crafting ambitious strategy titles. In this devlog, I’ll take you behind the scenes of Becoming Pablo; breaking down our design experiments, player feedback loops, and the creative chaos that brought it to life.
Discovering the Opportunity
Like many other game developers, our journey kicked off with love for the genre paired with some market research. We noticed two things: first, there’s an appetite for new ideas in the grand strategy genre; and second, many strategy game players are scared off by the notorious complexity of grand strategy games. GMTK have discussed this in one of their excellent videos - Can we Improve Tutorials for Complex Games?.
That’s when we formed our initial hypothesis. We realized that base building is natural to most players - they love the immediate rewards and straightforward mechanics. So we thought, what if we could use that as an entry point? In Becoming, we decided to start players off with simple base building, then gradually introduce the advanced systems of territory control, diplomacy, and espionage.
Base Building Meets Grand Strategy
At its heart, Becoming Pablo is about progression. Here's how it works:
Starting Small: You begin with a small camp where your main tasks are expanding and managing your base, producing drugs, and arranging means for export to make money. The simplicity provides quick wins and a natural introduction.
Growth and Expansion: As you earn cash, you invest in recruiting gang members and upgrade your operations. The focus is to expand your market without overwhelming you with too many choices early on.
The Transition to Strategy: Once you’ve gotten comfortable, more complex mechanics are introduced. Initially, you’ll tackle territory capture, then gradually diplomacy and espionage are introduced to deepen the gameplay challenge.
This “easy to learn, hard to master” approach is at the heart of our design philosophy. We want you to feel that rush of satisfaction early on, then be challenged as the game progresses.
Learning from Playtesting
Feedback from our playtest sessions was invaluable in shaping the game. We experimented, listened, and pivoted based on what we observed. Here’s a key anecdote that shows how player feedback has shaped our journey so far.
Mission Design: What Didn’t Work
In our initial playtests, we decided to put players straight into the deep end by assigning them missions that require interacting with grand strategy elements. Without any tutorial! Unsurprisingly, many players found themselves out of their depths. Here’s what we heard:
Players had difficulty completing the objectives even though they understood what the mission asked them to do.
Some players felt overwhelmed by the number of choices, which made it hard for them to progress or know how to play optimally.
Specific mechanics, like diplomacy and espionage, didn’t register with those who are not regular grand strategy players.
Seeing these struggles confirmed our suspicion: if we want to bring more people into this genre, we have to give them a softer introduction.
Pivoting with Base Building
Based on the feedback, we revised our approach. We reconfigured the first three missions to focus solely on base building tasks. For a period of time, players didn’t have to deal with the complexities of grand strategy - they simply built their base camp, produced drugs, and managed resources in a straightforward manner.
The results were staggering:
Hardly any players reported having difficulties with completing their assigned objectives. In fact, only 13% (total n=38) of players mentioned any difficulties.
A significantly higher number of players, ~76% increase, mentioned that they were able to progress optimally.
A significantly higher number of players, ~64% increase, tried to interact with advanced strategy mechanics.
We always believed that a gradual ramp-up was the key. So it was incredibly encouraging to see that our approach, mixing accessible base building with advanced strategy, was actually working.
Gameplay Modes
Becoming offers two distinct gameplay modes:
Campaign Mode: Immerse yourself in the role of a cartel’s leader. Follow a curated storyline through a series of missions that not only guide you through the game's mechanics but also immerse you in a dramatic narrative filled with highs and lows.
Sandbox Mode: If you prefer to dive right into the action, this mode lets you pick a starting faction and jump into the game’s systems directly. Your only goal here is clear: become the ultimate drug lord by outsmarting and outmanoeuvring rival factions. It’s open-ended and perfect for those who like to experiment with strategies at their own pace.
We have three campaigns planned out so far. Apart from Colombia with Pablo’s story, we also have campaigns with characters like Umar, who leads in Nigeria, and Han Won-ho from Korea. Each character will bring their own unique flavour to the experience, making the Becoming series a global saga of power and strategy.
Wrapping Up
Becoming isn’t just another game for us - it’s a journey! We’re inviting players to enter the world of grand strategy through a familiar base-building experience, gradually unlocking deeper, more complex systems that challenge your wits. Every step, from design to playtesting, has been about refining this delicate balance.
Hopefully, this has been an insightful look at our approach to designing this game. Our next few design devlogs will tackle specific gameplay systems:
A look at our base building mechanics and how we adopt them in the game.
Insights into the diplomacy and espionage systems that enrich our grand strategy gameplay.
Behind-the-scenes stories on blending dynamic narratives in our campaigns.
I really appreciate you joining me on this first dive into the design of Becoming Pablo. Your feedback is vital to our process, so please join our Discord community, share your thoughts and if you haven’t already, wishlist us on Steam.
Thanks for reading, and I look forward to sharing more soon.