The Sproutlings
Salutations! Welcome to The Sproutlings! A support-based custom fan Spirit made by me, Abyssal Novelist.Spirit Island belongs to Eric Reuss and Greater Than Games.Eric — I agree to the terms for creating Spirit Island game elements set forth in the FAQ.Creating The Sproutlings wouldn't be possible without the Spirit Island Builder, created by Resonant, Neubee, Tom, and Derrick.Playtesting wouldn't be possible without the unofficial Spirit Island Tabletop Simulator mod by MJ and Iakonakona.Spirit art was comissioned from the very talented Kejtu_My heartfelt thanks to all mentioned above <3
Tabletop Simulator Download
Visit the Steam Workshop and download my mod, which lets you play as The Sproutlings in the unofficial Spirit Island mod by MJ and Iakonakona!
What is Spirit Island?
Spirit Island by Eric Reuss, published by Greater Than Games, is a first-of-its-kind settler-destruction type physical board game.In stark opposition to Catan, Spirit Island is all about working together to fend off against the waves of colonization.The players play the role of powerful beings known as Spirits, protecting their home island.Each Spirit has its own unique special rules, powers, cards, and lore, leading to fun asymmetric cooperation and near infinite replayability.
The art of The Sproutlings
The Sproutlings were meant to be this silly force of nature, willing to help all that asked. Even if it was a tiger asking for help in hunting the aboriginal Dahan. Or Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine requesting help in abducting the conquistadors.
To help visualize this, I searched for artists with a cuter, somewhat Disney-esque artstyle. Ideally, I wanted the card art to convey a certain driven unseriousness.
Kejtu_ and their art ended up being a perfect fit!
Spirit panels and power cards
Don't feel like downloading the mod or reading the long post mortem? You can also check out the Spirit here!
Fun fact, in total it took 35+ iterations, 3 reworks, overbuffing twice, and overnerfing once to finish designing and balancing this Spirit!
Short Introduction
The Sproutlings are a support type Spirit, designed with the following in mind:
Their kit should be wide, but not too deep or hard to grasp.
They should be a growing Spirit; experiencing hardships early on, and reveling in strength in the late-game.
The intensity of their support should not break either the narrative or the game design.
Choice should be an important theme for the Spirit's play style. Especially whether they opt to help themselves or another Spirit.
The Sproutlings: a game design post mortem
The Sproutlings were absolutely savage and demolished me for a longer while.
Ultimately, I am very happy with how they turned out, but they were definitely forged with blood, tears, and sweat. Nothing made me appreciate other designers as much as my own folly!
Why? Well, I've written down a few reasons below!
Finding a ludo-narrative identity for them was difficult at first; especially as somewhat similar Spirits already existed in the game.
Playtesting them was one big lesson in QA for me. Namely that sometimes quantity of tests is better than quality. All of my initial playtesting was plagued by some of the worst RNG known to humankind.
This led to me overcompensating and overtuning the Spirit's power levels, swiftly turning them unnecessarily OP.Balancing individual powers was also difficult, especially as I wanted them to be unique design wise. Granting each of them an extra 'oomph' of power unlockable by reaching elemental thresholds was a good choice in that aspect! It did, however, make balancing them even more difficult.
And finally: I had to quickly swallow the bitter pill of knowing that no matter what, gamers will be better at playing your own games. Playtesters always fared better in their own tests compared to me!
This led to further rebalances, as players swiftly and mercilessly laid bare OP strategies I had not even dreamt of previously.