Design Diary — Flatten

If you’re looking for how Flatten works, check this article.

How it all started

In Digimon World, you could inflict an LCD status effect on an enemy Digimon called “Flat”. It reduced their 3D model to a DOT sprite like in the v-pets and caused them to use a weak attack. It seems pretty appropriate to include for any 3D Digimon game that wants to include DOT sprites as with set Bit Depth. At the time, I already had this mechanic planned but no theming. So reducing the opponent’s dimensions one by one until they pop out of existence made a lot of sense. Originally, the balance was centered around having to obtain 4 instances of flatten. This didn’t test well. It took far too long to 4-hit-KO even when it can pierce evolutions. The next step was to tweak that number until it felt right in many many games. There was one point where I was torn between requiring 3 flattens and a regular damage hit versus 4 flattens and I ended up just including both due to how supports could be used to add more flats. The 3 flats with damage requirement was slightly too powerful while 4 as a fixed amount was way too slow without a constant supply of support-based flatten. Full Article

• October 16, 2020
• Design, Digimon Battle Evolution, Game Design
• Alice White

Flatten Mechanic

The Rules

Flatten is a mechanic that was released with set Bit Depth. It decreases the dimensions of opposing Digimon until they shrink into a point and vanish!  On its own, flat doesn’t do any damage or cause any immediate effects—instead, it’s a ticking time bomb. So here are the rules:

• When you meet your condition (in the pic, opponent used Circle, or opponent’s type is Dragon), you will cause a “flat” to the opponent
• On attack abilities, only one condition can be met per hit. (If a Dragon uses Circle, it only causes 1 flat, not 2.)
• Track “flat” by placing a marker to represent it in front of your active.
• If you would ever have 4 flat markers, you get KOd!
• If you would take damage if you haven’t attacked yet and have 3 flats, you get KO’d! (meaning opponent attacks first while you have 3 flats & you take damage)
• When you evolve by DP, you can subtract 10 DP from anywhere (such as your DP zone or your Immortalize card) to remove 1 flat marker. You can only remove 1 flat per evolution.

And that’s how it works. Check the rules for an official explanation (glossary or attack abilities). Flatten is specifically intended as an alternate win method, similar to trashing an opponent’s deck out (which may reduce your required KOs). You will still have to use all your cunning and experience to make the most of it, but it can be a powerful KO method. Since it “poisons” a Digimon, opponents may have to slow down their evolution progress. Or you could exploit them after they evolve to Mega for 2 KOs. Repeatedly gaining 4 flats can be difficult, even if you maximize your opportunities, so be sure to have a backup plan. You can get a KO sooner with flatten as long as you can hit first and supplement it with damage.

For more info on behind the scenes of this mechanic, I have a developer’s design diary article for Flatten.

Update 10-16-2020: Flatten rules now updated in this post to reflect the recent rule changes. Now requires 4 Flats or 3 Flats+Damage+1stAttack to KO; up from 3 and 2 respectively. Flats are represented by a token or marker instead of a card. Flats can only be removed when evolving by DP. “Paying DP” has been reworded to make more sense. Added more about the design and intent.

• May 16, 2018
• Design, Digimon Battle Evolution, Game Design
• Alice White