Our team set out to design a tabletop game experience inspired by the game semantics and aesthetics of Cyberpunk 2077 and its supporting animated series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022). Although this is largely a creative project, crucial parts of the design process such as iterative prototypes and playtesting are applicable as skills required for general user experience design.

The storyline of Edgerunners follow characters as they build to fit into stronger body upgrades until they reach a tipping point of ‘cyberpsychosis’ — a state of insanity when their nervous system fails to keep up with the cybernetic body modifications. The goal is to embody this experience of striving, building and upgrading, while balancing the stakes of an impending cyberpsychosis.

Vision Statement
Cyberpsychosis is a Euro-style tabletop game that encourages players to push the limits of a cybernetic body as they race to install body modification parts and collect upgrades.

Boardgame

In Cyberpsychosis, players assume the role of a med-tech, a cybernetic surgeon that specialises in installing cybernetic parts onto and into a human body. In each turn, players play and draw cards, which will equip them with the ability of installing new parts, or altering the cyberpsychosis meter, for better or worse.

Rulebook

Game Materials

Playtesting

Early Designs

Our boardgame first started as a resource management game, similar to Catan. Players collect resources determined by dice rolls, which helps them build cybernetic parts. Installing these parts puts them in a vulnerable state of ‘Cyberpsychosis’, where other players may steal their zones on the main board. We wanted to capture a feeling of players fighting for control in Cyberpunk’s Night City, but ultimately this concept was abandoned, as its gameplay felt very monotonous. The dice rolls left most of the game to chance, lacking player agency.

Blitz Mode: Following the Fun

As an adaptation to Cyberpunk, we wanted to explore and highlight the best parts from Edgerunners, that being cybernetic upgrades, and the psychological stress that comes with it. This was the core concept of the final version of the game.

The focus is the cyberpsychosis meter, with various mechanics that increase and decrease the meter count. After a few rounds of playtesting and balancing, we wanted to escalate the endgame, hence we introduced Blitz Mode. In the final round, players can install as many cybernetic parts with their remaining resources, and when the game ends the winner is the player with the most installed parts.