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The design of the game Shark Island grew out of the love of all things sharks by co-designer Pete Shirey and the love of cooperative adventure games by co-designer Richard Launius. Pete, a first time designer, shared his ideas and vision for a shark verses man game with Richard. What Pete had mapped out was a large-scale game whereby players would hunt for a monster shark terrorizing a small set of islands. After reviewing Pete’s ideas and design notes, Richard felt the game was too massive and the mechanics needed tweaking. After some discussion, Richard suggested they work together to create a game on a smaller scale that still encompassed the heart of Pete’s vision – a strategic game of deduction, quick search, and dynamic combat.
Pete was agreeable to the idea and together they established the basis for Shark Island, starting with a simple principle of head-to-head competition between a shark player and cooperative hunters. By choosing to make the shark a competitive player in the game rather than using artificial intelligence for a pure, cooperative game (all players against the AI) as Richard traditionally designed previously in games like Arkham Horror and Defenders of the Realm, the intellectual deduction of where the shark would strike and the strategies that could be implemented would be increased significantly. With this direct competition and deduction process established, the designers began to build mechanics that supported the theme of the game, a classic battle between man and shark. To take the game to the epic level it deserved, the mechanics needed to provide more than just deduction between the players, it required a high level of action, as well, to create those great scenes of terror and heroics reminiscent of such classic literature and films like Moby Dick and JAWS.
Using hidden movement for the shark during each round and placing of fins on the active hunting grounds, with only one (1) fin representing the real location of the shark and limiting the search actions for the hunters, the game delivers a quick and tense search each turn to uncover the shark before it terrorizes an area around the island. Establishing variable terror points for the shark player to score on the few hunting grounds available each turn, which also drive their victory conditions, created a deductive process between the shark player and the hunters as to whether they would take a major risk for more or fewer terror points. The hunters can’t protect all the areas, so if they fail to find the shark in the search phase of the game, they need to determine where they’ll patrol in hopes of catching him as he strikes. This tense game of cat-and-mouse (or, more precisely, predator and prey) is played out rapidly each turn and often results in a heated battle between the monster shark and the hunters. Additionally, as with any Launius design, the focus on the theme would have to be strong. To do this, the shark and the hunters need to have clear identities. Pete brought the shark knowledge and Richard the heroic hunters, together designing decks of cards for each character and shark; adding skills, background, and defining each character uniquely in game play.
Last, but certainly not least, would be a dynamic combat system. Several combat systems were tested before finalizing on the card-based battle that shares some mechanics with Blackjack. But, this combat deck goes far beyond the numbers and suits, but rather in the form of special cards such as Sharks, Harpoons, and The Heat of Battle, each altering the classic game and moving it to something far more exciting and uncertain, yet easy to learn and play.
In the end, the designers created an adventure game in Shark Island that gives a nod to all the classic books and movies that pit man against creatures of the deep, bringing them to life in a 45-minute game experience.
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