• Game Concepts
• Godscrown

Design Doc (Jam Version)

• Created 08 November 2025
• Updated 08 November 2025

This game is for the Cosmic Horrors Jam IV! I’m writing this before the jam starts as I’ve already got an idea in mind that should be easy to develop, and let me flex some art skills along the way.

The Plan

I’d like to create a game heavily inspired by Happy Little Dinosaurs, a very simple boardgame where you take your dinosaur character from one end of the board to the other, each turn facing a different disaster, and you use items to hopefully escape. I’ll do some research on Happy Little Dinosaurs, found here. Then I’ll lay out how this game rethemes it and differs.

Retheming

Disasters are Horrors, each a style of horror found in the cosmic horror genre.

Player characters are human, each representing a character within your typical film-noir story

Point cards and instant cards will be joined as Action Cards. An action card will have effects that can trigger in your hand, when played, during ties, etc.

How this differs

This game borrows a lot of mechanics and twists some others, but is it enough to be its own game? Maybe. Here’s a quick chart

Point Effect Cards

In Happy Little Dinosaurs, there’s a limited amount of effects one can do in paper. Since Godscrown is digital, we can do much weirder and more complicated things since the game can figure out the mechanics for us! Growth for example would be impractical in HLD. Reversal would be confusing, but not impossible.

Unlockable Characters

I fully expect some characters to be unlockable through the story. HLD does have extra characters, but they’re expansions and I’d equate that more to DLC.

Rules

Keybinds

Starting the Game

At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a role. Draws three cards.

Turns

At the beginning of the turn a horror card is revealed and each player chooses an Action Card from their hand. Once all players have chosen their card, they’re revealed simultaneously. The player with the lowest score loses the round, and collects the current horror card.

Ties

If more than one player has the lowest score for a round, then a tiebreaker round starts. The tying players play a turn to break the tie, and repeat until the tie is broken.

Horrors

Horrors are usually one of three types: Arcane, Anomaly, Monstrosity. Each type has an icon and color associated with it. If a player collects 3 of the same horror, they lose the game.

Cosmic Horrors

Cosmic horrors are horror cards that count as all types. Collecting a cosmic horror adds to all three type counters.

Roles

Biases

Some roles have biases, which means when facing certain horrors, their action cards can be worth more or less depending on the bias, indicated by the arrows in their character box.

Action Deck

Each role has their own unique Action deck, which is 7 action cards with varying point values and effects. Certain effects are only active during specific points of gameplay, it’s important to use them at the right time!

Action Cards

Action cards have a point value, and sometimes an effect.

Effects

Content

Horrors

• Arcane (Knowledge based) Blue
• Anomaly (Reality based) Purple
• Monstrosity (Creature based) Red
• Cosmic (All Types) Gray

Roles

Detective

• Unlocks: Mob Boss (Turns into them)
• Wish: For no one to lie to them again.
• Result: The Star Crowned King gives them power, makes everyone fearful of them, and the detective becomes an eldritch mob boss. Monstrous underlings do his bidding

Scientist

• Unlocks: Fortune Teller (Turns into them)
• Wish: To know everything.
• Results: The Star Crowned King bestows upon them knowledge of all that has been, will be, and things that can never be. Her arcane knowledge is instead replaced with anomalous knowledge, turning her into the Fortune Teller

Cultist

• Unlocks: Librarian (Turns into them)
• Wish: To please the Star Crowned King
• Results: The Star Crowned King would be happiest if this cultist simply didn’t know of them at all. With their mind wiped, they become the librarian.

Ironworker

• Unlocks: Femme Fatale (Revived by the star crowned king)
• Wish: To bring back someone who died in a construction accident
• Results: The Star Crowned King brings her back, but not as she was.

Technical

flowchart TD
menu[Main Menu]
start_game[Each player chooses a role]
start_turn[Each player chooses an action card in their hand, and draw to replace it]
scoring[Each player reveals their chosen card, and compares the score]

tie[Tied players choose another card in their hand, and draw to replace it]

loser_found[The player with the lowest score keeps the horror card, if they have 3 horrors of the same type, they're removed from the game.]

winner_found[The last remaining player is declared the winner]

menu -- start --> start_game
start_game --> start_turn
start_turn --> scoring

scoring -- players have tied for last --> tie
tie -- repeat the turn with the tied players --> scoring

scoring -- a player has the lowest score --> loser_found
loser_found -- if there are 2 or more players remaining --> start_turn
loser_found -- if there is only one remaining player --> winner_found