Sonora: Flickety-Split into Combo-Ville!

This is a great summer title, it’s hot outside, the theme is the Sonora Desert, there’s animals! It’s like a scirocco really, a nice breezy blast of hotness to land on my game table! 

Flicking this review off, let’s slide into the good. Almost everything about this game is good. It’s fun, it’s crazy, it’s chaotic! It’s built on the shoulders of board game giants, Crokinole and Ganz Schon Clever (That’s Pretty Clever), and it’s better than the sum of its parts. 

Sonora board with discs

In Sonora, players are flicking discs (5 each) onto a board in quadrants with bonus spaces that double the disc and move it to a different quadrant. Players are effectively “drafting” their 5 or so actions to play 4 mini-games. Each disc is numbered, which will mean something depending on the quadrant. 

The first quadrant, which is competitive and should be completed first each round, is the Lizard. In the lizard game, players sum their disc values for this quadrant and fill in spaces equal to that value in one of the areas to gain points and/or bonuses. If you complete it before your friends, then you’re getting a bigger reward. The other quadrants can be completed simultaneously as they are not competitive. The Fox has players using their specific value of disc to fill in a polyomino shape earning any bonuses covered up. The player can take a polyomino of lower value instead. The Owl has players use individual values to start down a path in the creek bed marking out spaces equal to the value of the disc, then circling the next space for points or a bonus. The Jackrabbit has players again summing their discs then using the total sum to mark spaces out creating triangles for bonuses or points in the triangles. 

All of the quadrant actions create nutso combos that can really get going in a bonkers way — especially in a long game of 7 rounds. Very fun! 

It also has a great solo mode with a brutal AI. The trick with solo is you are flicking 15 discs. 1 of the colors is discarded from the board, one of the colors is for the player, and the last color is for the AI to mess with the player. I found it easiest to dump a color in a quadrant and focus on the other 3, letting the AI chew up real estate with the Owl or with the Fox positioning the AI away from where I wanted to go. Also with the Jackrabbit because the player can go in the opposite direction, but be aware too many AI moves in Jackrabbit ups the cost to play on the outside where the big points are. For all that is good and helpful, keep the AI away from the Lizard. The AI creates spaces that have to be filled before the player can work on their areas. 

We’ve played this game a ton — like a whole lot. It’s fun, it’s wild, it’s a bit of a hot mess with flicking discs. Mostly 2 players because of COVID-19. That said, the board feels good with 2 players when flicking discs. I noticed playing solo that you’ll bump discs a lot more because you’re flicking 15 of the 20 discs in there. Just for fun, I ran a 4 player game with us each playing 2 colors of discs. The experience was like playing Colt Express or Galaxy Trucker. You’re holding out hope that at least 1 of the discs you landed in just the right spot will stay put. In that case, aim for the middle if you can! There is no planning with 4 players, it’s just tactical, hope for the best, like Colt Express and Galaxy Trucker, but know that your plans are shot!

Pile o' sheets

I said it on twitter after about 3 plays, this game is going to receive SdJ level attention, and I still firmly believe that. It has great table presence, it’s fun, and it’s chaotic! If that sounds like your canteen of tea, go grab it! If not, maybe play a friend’s copy to at least have the experience of this very entertaining game!

Full disclosure: 
I have no affiliations with Pandasaurus Games or Rob Newton. This game was a gift from my good buddy Derik, who also has no affiliations with the aforementioned Pandasaurus Games or Rob Newton.  

With a smile and a lotta fun

Howdy! I’m back to tell you about a new Kickstarter project that needs your help to get published. With a Smile and a Gun comes to us from Jon Vallerand at Subsurface Games and is a two-player dice-drafting and area-majority game set in a fantastical noir reimagining of the Prohibition era. I was sent a hand-assembled prototype copy with rules and art that were not yet final. I have a LOT I want to say, so let’s dive in!

When Mr. Vallerand first reached out to me, I honestly had to temper my excitement. The game has a cool name and hits a LOT of my buttons: dice, drafting, noir, strategy, and variable setup. I warned Mr. Vallerand that I only do reviews, that I’m a bit of a critical snob because of my background and experience, and that I will *only* offer honest feedback. I am incapable of flowery, hype-building documents for the sake of making a game sound good. But that just seemed to make him even more determined to get the game in front of me. 

Figuring I could at the least, maybe, help him out, I jumped in to see what he had. Honestly, my hopes were high but my expectations were low. This is Mr. Vallerand’s first venture into the world of publishing. The core mechanic of the game (moving around a square grid and sequentially distributing markers for territory control) is something I’ve seen before in a few old abstract games and puzzles. The original rules were pretty sparse and a little ugly. The component count is WAY higher than I expected for the size, weight, and time frame of the game. Basically, I had several small red flags that gave me reason for concern. 

THE BIG SHOW:

Now that you have an idea of my worries going in, let’s talk about what the game actually IS: 

This thing is SEXY. The box cover is arresting. I promise you I would snatch that thing off a shelf if I saw it in a store. The cards are the same level of stylized gorgeousness. I just want to decorate my office with this game’s illustrations. Even the map – probably the least critical art asset in the game – is so freaking pretty. Remember when I said I’m a snob? Reused, tiled, and recycled assets are an actual pet peeve of mine. EACH DISTRICT IS DIFFERENT! Did they need to be? NO. But they are and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that level of care. I fully expect to see a lot more games in the future adorned with Justin Lanjil’s work.

The rules are impressively clean. Normally, I have to play prototypes with the open rules in my hand as I stumble through the first half of the game because the poorly written rules leave me strruggling to figure out how everything is *supposed* to work. With a Smile and a Gun just makes sense. I used a player aid in the beginning to remind me briefly of turn order and to “Settle the Score” at the end of the round. As I continued playing it over the course of a couple weeks, I only used the Player Action Aid to make sure my drafted dice did what I needed. I own a LOT of published games which aren’t this clear and easy to learn. 

I was not prepared for how engaging this little beast is. Like Santorini, With a Smile and a Gun grabbed me right away because the control and engagement are subtle – sneaky even. The core mechanic, as mentioned above, is straightforward. Simple. No real conflict. However, special powers, the way control is settled at the end of each round, and even the way final scoring is handled lead to some dirty-dirty shenanigans. Rotten shenanigans like boosting police presence to force a tie in a district you just can’t gain control of in order to keep your opponent from scoring there. Or taking / rerolling dice just to keep your opponent from drafting them. Or setting up the Shadow to steal the one Business Control Token that would’ve allowed your opponent to block your monopoly. It’s simple but clever, underhanded, and so tasty to pull off.

RIDING SOLO

With a Smile and a Gun has an impressive THREE ways to play on your own: a basic mode against an automated rival gang, a mission-centric mode, and a beat-the-high-score mode with no rival gang. Unfortunately, these solo rules only became available during the last few days I had with the game. So, please understand that I did not get to play solo as much as I wanted nor did I play with the final version of the rules. 

Solitaire rules were easy to understand and buttery smooth. I’ve played plenty of solo variants which are awkwardly challenging to keep track of turn progress without that other player. With a Smile and a Gun’s turn tracking system of drafting dice and placing them on a “clock” perfectly fixes this common challenge. You can feel the turn progress and watch your control wax and wane. It is just as easy to learn as the rest of the game, buttery smooth, and easy to operate.

Although impressive, I did not really enjoy my initial plays with the solo system. Keep in mind that I am a SNOB who plays and designs a LOT of solitaire games and variants. The system featured a process of following you and doing basic actions better than you can. It was very easy for me to “game” the system and have my way with the town. In my plays, I controlled the only monopolies and completely blew away my rival’s score. 

::UPDATE:: However, during the online tournament that Subsurface hosted to prepare for the Kickstarter launch, I was able to try out some updated solitaire rules that Mr. Vallerand excitedly shared with me. The team kept most everything the same and added 1 single important rule: if the rival controls a district, they gain 1 credit with every business present through control tokens. How the game prioritizes taking control tokens didn’t change. How the Rival leader chooses dice didn’t change. BUT that one tiny rule ABSOLUTELY changed how I had to play. Before, if the Rival was looking to lead a district over the Police or lead a district with a Hat (points) and a business, I didn’t have to worry because my monopolies were safe. Simply, I didn’t need to actually *stop* the Rival in order to win. I spent the game gifting the Rival and Police small victories while I scooped up the businesses. 

NOW, multiple businesses in a single district is a nightmare scenario because I have to make sure the Police and I lead at the end of the round. Moreover, let’s say that you, like me, feel bored by an AI that will always move as close to you as they can. You feel like every turn is the same decision of trying to move *just* short or far enough that the AI can’t move exactly the same and thereby win you some space to breathe. Good news: there’s a Shadow card that will shoot that plan in the face! If you catch the attention of the Gumshoe, she’ll block you from taking the highest value die for movement OR actions. This doesn’t just foil *your* plans. This also severely inhibits your ability to control the dice available for the Rival to use. Seriously, I went from repeated, embarrassing victories with the old system to losing by HALF under the new system with a Gumshoe following me all over town. It was humiliating. And very very enticing. 

I hope Mr. Vallerand and Carla Kopp continue to fine tune the rules as they race toward publication. From what I’ve already seen, though, this will be fantastic for anyone who enjoys the base game. Solitaire is just as smooth and can be just as challenging as a 2 player session. Overall, the aim is deliciously ambitious and I can’t wait to play more.

CONCLUSION

Sorry this has been so long winded. I wanted to convey just how much of a surprise this game was for me and give you a feel for how much it has captured my heart. I was only able to spend a few weeks with a prototype version of With a Smile and a Gun, but I think I love it. Like, most every weekend of the month since I had to give it up has seen me ANGRY that I couldn’t keep playing. I hate that I can’t keep diving into that solo system. My wife and I have started hosting patio parties where we have a distanced-dinner with friends under trees in our backyard, AND I’M ANGRY I DON’T HAVE THIS TO PLAY OUTSIDE. I am DEFINITELY backing this on Kickstarter and cannot wait to play again. 

TLDR:

Crazy pretty game. Tricksy and puzzley with subtle, clever tactical play. Not mean in a “take-that” way, while still providing player engagement and agency. Super ambitious solo system. I WILL back the Kickstarter because I want a lot more of this in my life.

With a Smile and a Gun is on Kickstarter NOW! Please, head over and lend your much needed support. You can also find Subsurface Games on Twitter and on the web.

Rick and Morty: The Morty Zone 

Hello friends, welcome to the *checks notes* Morty? Zone! Ah. Well, I’m not sure what that is. I do know that it’s roll and write designed by Matt Hyra recently of Cryptozoic Games and also the designer of the DC Deck Building Game among many others. In this game, you take on the roll of… Well to be fair, the story isn’t exactly fleshed out in the rule book. Something about Death Crystals and Jessica. If you win the game, then maybe you have the best death and Jessica decides to keep you as a contact in her mobile phone?

And awaaaaaaay we go! So I know zero about Rick and Morty, I know the older guy who gets transformed into various other versions is Rick and the kid is Morty. That’s it. I’ve never watched the show, though I understand that this game ties into the Season 4 premiere episode. So that’s where I’m at with this game. I guess, let’s peek under the lid and see what’s up – holy schmoly those are some huge dice! There are 8 of them and they are an inch! Which seems appropriate as the Morty Zone is a game of inches. You and your opponents are battling for tight scores, differences of 1 point are likely!

Back to the components. Besides the huge dice, it also has 4 really nice and thick dry erase boards, 4 markers with good erasers, cards, and card stock crystals that have bonus points for completing certain tasks. 

In the game, each player grabs a crystal and keeps it secret. They also receive 3 Public cards which they keep face up in front of them, also for scoring points, or in some cases for changing your fate. Plus those player boards and a marker. Some lucky soul, probably the person with the biggest hands, rolls all 8 dice at the same time. I have big hands and roll all 8 of those one handed was tricky. You may want to pursue the Scoop-n-Dump™ method. 

After rolling, put the like colors together:  red, green, blue, black. These will be related to the tracks on the player board. There is not a color blind friendly method here. After grouping the colors, announce the combined values of the pairs of dice in those colors, Red 3 and Red 6 would be 9 Red. Then the players have to mark values on the matching tracks. The players can however, break up the total value into any two numbers that add to that value and have not already been crossed out. So that 9 Red could be 1 and 8 or 2 and 7. The tracks are 1 to 10, the combined dice values run 2 to 12. All players mark their tracks at the same time, it is possible that in a group all of the players will mark the same numbers on tracks throughout the game. 

If you’re the dice roller you also reveal a Rick card, which can optionally affect the die roll. As you continue on in the game, you will want to score your Public cards. They feature characters from the show (I’m assuming as I haven’t looked any of them up) and mostly likely will give you points for having done something that turn. The Public cards are useable once. You can also score Smith Family characters for completing certain activities on your board, everyone has the same ones. 

The round ends when all players have Locked all of their tracks. Locking happens when a player cannot mark the numbers on their track as those numbers have already been marked. Players score their crystals if possible, any Public cards that score at the end of the round, and also the Smith Family characters. What I found was the round is a solid 10-20 minutes depending on the quickness of the players’ decisions. The game recommends playing 3 rounds with the highest total score winning. 

That’s fine. For me, I was happy with one round, tally score and give the player the highest score the win. Playing 3 rounds effectively feels like playing the game 3 times in a row. You maintain the points from the previous round(s) but clear everything else, get a new crystal, and get 3 new Public cards. Basically a reset of what you’ve done. You maintain the score though for your total score of the 3 rounds. 

I admit that I only have this game because it is a roll and write. That said, I found it very clever. There are a few more moving pieces than say Qwixx which has you crossing out numbers on a track. But this game is more than Qwixx, a lot more, so many ways to get them bonus points. 

Thematically, I really can’t give an opinion, though I will say gamers with families may pass on it as some of the characters have names that certain people will not like. So do your research first! 

Mechanically, I really enjoyed this one. I think one round is plenty if I’m playing, I don’t really have a burning desire to play through 3 rounds again. It was okay, but it felt repetitive. There are plenty of Public cards though and the dice are random so variety can be found. 

If you’re in the market for a roll and write that does a lot of things well and you don’t mind the characters, then this game is well worth picking up! 

Full disclosure: 

I have no affiliations with Cryptozoic or Matt Hyra. This game was a gift from my good buddy Derik, who also has no affiliations with the aforementioned Cryptozoic or Mr. Hyra.  

Man muss auch Gönnen Können: Treat Yo Self!

The newest roll and write from Schmidt Spiel has arrived! It’s available in German and I bought a copy off amazon.de. So welcome in friends to a game I really was excited for and well, you’ll see if you want to treat yourself to this game or not. 

From its outset, this game read like the GanzSchonClever and Silver & Gold (https://www.inquisitivemeeple.com/rolling-with-benny-silver-and-gold-hunting-for-treasure-in-islands-of-polyominos/) got together and made a super cool new game. Well, that’s not entirely true. What you have here is a game that is far more reminiscent of Viva Java: The Coffee Game: The Dice Game (Viva Java Dice, from here on). 

You roll your dice up to 3 times – that seems fine – keep any you want from roll to roll. The catch, after you have re-rolled the dice at least once, the other players may claim 1 of the dice you rolled to add to their cards. Good for those players. Here’s why it’s good. In this game, you are effectively creating a 3 by 3 grid of cards, sort of Kingdomino-esque. The cards you are placing have a B on the back or laurel leaves. The B cards add an ability for the player to change their dice, cool. The laurel leaves are Victory Points at the end of the game. 

Here’s the rub, you have to activate these cards by rolling specific dice combinations, even then you cannot place your dice, unless you can complete the whole card. I’m just going to lob this grenade in, going first is a huge disadvantage unless you can finish your entire card with your first roll, statistically very difficult. The laurel leaf cards are going to be much harder to complete, typically they require up to 8 dice. Which you can never complete in a single roll with 5 dice. So you really have to pay attention to what you have and what you need. This is a game of math all the way and normally, I love mathy games. 

Placement of laurel leaf cards is also critical as they want to be next to specific color cards, some of them anyway. Also if you don’t activate a card, it probably won’t count toward your scoring at the end. There are exceptions. 

You receive 4 cards, 2 each, at the outset of the game, keep 3, discard 1. Probably keep those 2 laurel leaf cards as you will need points at the end of the game to win. 

Then you have two options after you finish rolling, you can try to activate your card(s) as mentioned above, or you can buy a card from the center. There are 4 of each card type in the center with 2 of each costing 4 of the same dice value and 2 of each costing 3 of the same dice value. Yep, you have to spend your quad or your trip to get another card. Could you have used those dice to complete and potentially score one of your other cards? Yes probably. In multiplayer this really isn’t so bad as the cards move and everything seems to have purpose, in solo play this is really not an idea I’m fond of. You could also instead of placing 2 dice have taken the top card blindly from either deck and added it to your grid or discarded it (yay free card, but you don’t get to place those 2 much needed dice).

Basically in solo play, you are playing a campaign with extremely rigid goals. The first level, you have to get 90 points in 15 rounds. A round is an active turn in which you roll your dice the usual way and if you reroll once or twice, you have access to fewer dice on the passive turn. Wait, if I’m extremely lucky, then I get more dice for being lucky? Yes. Here’s where solo really falls apart. Let’s assume you aren’t luck with dice (like me) and you get to that third roll and can place 2 dice. Yay! But on the passive turn you roll all 5 dice and can use 1 of those. If you were lucky and needed no rerolls, you can use 3, if you used 1 reroll you can have 2 of the dice. So you have to be lucky twice. If you are, you can effectively use 8 dice over the two turns. But you probably won’t get that lucky. At best you will use 3 dice, hopefully!, in those 2 turns. So if you aren’t lucky, you get 5 less dice. That is a huge margin considering most of these cards require up to 8 dice. 

To put it bluntly, I think the solo mode is terrible and this is why the game is leaving my collection. I literally seethed with anger. I haven’t wanted to flip the table as much as the last time I played Catan 14 years ago (it has been that long and no I won’t play it again). 

Here’s where this game shakes out for me, the multiplayer seems better as it is not a set number of rounds, you play until a player has played their 9th card, then play 1 more round. That’s pretty great. The thing is, I have a much loved and well worn NSV copy of Silver and Gold that is much more fun multiplayer and doesn’t drag like this game does. So why would I play something that isn’t as much fun? Well I wouldn’t. Again, it’s leaving my collection. 

So there we have friends, I wanted to love this game so very very much. I even jumped on amazon.de and made sure to grab it as soon as they had it available with my hard earned cash. And I am extremely disappointed in treating myself to this one. It’s going away, far far away to the land of Ohio. If however, this sounds like a game for you, treat yourself! Or treat yourself to something else! Either way, self-care is important. My self-care means this game no longer has a home with me because it doesn’t make me happy.

A Musician’s Best Friend

Hello friends! Great news! I started a band, well my friends started a band, not y’all, I have other friends! A few, anyway, all you need is 1 person to make a band! Look at Lil Nas X or Moby, and all those other electronic and hip-hop artists! 

So my friends started a band. Since I’m not a great musician, I offered my services as their manager, I know right?, what a great friend I am! Here’s the thing though, they are getting streaming play in certain area of the country and not others, so I’m trying to figure out the best route to send them on for their tour. 

To do that, I figured, heck, let’s roll some dice! On Tour showed up on my phone then on my table at just the right time to help me with my grand scheme, er plan. This game is one of hope and prayer and “come on you #$&% dice!” 

Each turn you turn out 3 cards and roll 2 pentagonal trapezohedron, for those playing along at home those are d10’s. Now after I roll those dice, all the players must use both combinations of numbers if possible. Let me explain, if I roll a 5 and 0, then 50 AND 05 are placed on each players’ boards. The cards are a guide to areas: North, South, East, West, Central, then South East, North East, North Central, South Central, North West, South West. Each card also has a State, 41 cards in all, we lump those New England states into 1, also no Alaska or Hawaii. We’re too cheap for planes right now, load that van and book it to the next show!

If a player writes a number on the identified state, they circle it. All cards show a state and a region. The dice values have to be written in the region. There are times when you can’t place a value or don’t want to in which case you mark an X and no route can go through that state. Guess they didn’t stream my friend’s band enough. 

There is also a chance that the dice show the same value or all 3 cards show the same region! In this case, mark a Star in 1, and only 1, state. Again, following regions on cards. This can be any value. That’s good news. 

Here’s why it’s good news, you may have figured out I’m sending my friend’s band on tour. Now, I need to get them to as many states in a row as I can manage. That means I have to follow the dashed highway routes on my map and also fill in ascending values. It feels a bit like darts at first, then as the states start to get out of hand with values that are wonky based on what I wrote in, it all goes together like a great big disaster. At least for me. But you will definitely have better luck! 

Also, if you track through a state with a circle, because you used the named state, you get a bonus point! All told, your route is worth 1 point for each state you pass through on your longest route and also a bonus point for the circled states. You could get incredibly lucky and make it through all 41 states. 

I found playing it multiplayer is basically like playing it solo, there is minimal interaction, but you can trash talk your opponents, not just the dice. This fine, because the game is a lot of fun. Interaction would make it a mess to deal with. 

My quibbles, I think scoring “points” is fine, but I want it to be more thematic! Make the points money, for me, the band’s manager! If I tally up 23 states, make that $2,300 that I pocketed from the Band’s tour. Did the band get paid? That’s not my problem! 

Also, the dice are dice and luck is luck. Just deal with it, it’s fine! 

In general, this game is fun, like Camel Up, but less interaction. Everyone will be screaming at the dice after a few turns and that right there is the perfect bonding exercise! It’s like a cooperative game only the dice are the ones that seem to win, then get put in the Hall of Shame. Also, the physical version is huge! It has massive boards and massive dice! The dice are less a choking hazard than a projectile hazard. Please don’t throw those big d10s at your friends!

Time to dial up another tour for my friend’s band! See you on the road! Safe travels and all that!

Dice, slice, place

Hello friends, welcome back to another Rolling with Benny! We have changed format slightly as our hosting situation has changed. I want to first say a very big thank you to Ryan Sanders and the crew at Inquisitive Meeple for allowing me the opportunity to post reviews on their site. They have shifted toward the education angle, which I really enjoy. So please check them out. 

Today we are looking at Renegade Games’ Clipcut Parks. The first, that I know of, game that includes scissors and is a roll, cut, place game. Thematically, you are urban planners who have received requests from the city to build a number of parks, usually 5. In longer games it can be more. At the game’s beginning you reveal 2 of the 5 park cards that you will be working on. 

Mechanically, you are going to be rolling the die and making those specific cuts on your player sheet to separate out squares to place on your card. It’s got a lot of strategy about where to make your cuts and if you mistakenly take off a big chunk, it’s gone. You can’t further cut that chunk into smaller chunks. You have to crumble that up and set it aside as part of a tie breaker loss. 

The trick with cutting too is you cannot extend the cut on the same round. On a following round you can extend the cut though. The fascinating part with this is that you’re using the included scissors to be very thoughtful and thorough in your cuts. I could almost see that mechanism pop up in a zen garden type of game, where you are a monk laying rocks in specific places or placing certain items. 

When placing, you must follow certain rules, color for example, or symbols such as wildlife (paw), recycling (circle of arrows). You will also have to be mindful that when you have two squares connected by a bridge you much have your squares you are placing also be connected. 

You’ll earn bonuses for completing cards. There are 3 types of tokens, wildlife and recycling, which can ignore those requests, as well as bonus cuts which you make immediately or trowels that let you ignore colors when placing. This makes the game more along at a steady clip and saves the player from feeling stuck. I appreciate that they had the foresight to make the game color blind friendly also. Each color is also represented by a thematic type of item such as the red squares are umbrellas or tents. 

There is lots of variety with cards and the included expansion cards had harder parks to make. The rules suggest adding up to 3 to each player’s deck for a more challenging game. It plays solo with the player working through a partial deck discarding a card each turn to act as a countdown timer. 

The dexterous practice of cutting here may not be for everyone. The cuts tend on the small side so you will have to be very specific when cutting. Also, this game has no interaction. There is nothing I can do to mess with my opponents at all or even influence what they are doing. For some this is fine. And overall, the game is really fun. 

I felt sort of sad that i did not get to use more of my sheet. A part of me felt a pang of guilt that I was tossing it. Then I thought about most roll and writes and how the whole sheet gets tossed after ward. I just have to live with it and recycle it. 

I could see Clipcut Parks having a lot of options for play and even learning. You could do a manual dexterity lesson, because you can only cut exactly the number of spaces in a row the die shows as well as making sure you cut specifically between the squares. It also has a lot of planning, which is great for activating executive functions. 

For me, Clipcut Parks is a winner! Please do check it out if you have the opportunity. 

Full disclosure: 
I received Clipcut Parks as a gift from my buddy Derik who is not affiliated with Renegade Games. To that end, I don’t really have any affiliation with those folks at all, other than being a social media follower of Scott Gaeta. He seems like a nice guy and Renegade continues to put out interesting games. 

#38: Keeping the Peace

Howdy!
It sure is good to be back. Between a crazy schedule at my day job and game designs coming and going, I haven’t really had the energy to write – even if I did somehow come up with the time. However, something happened recently that I feel compelled to talk about. So, let’s get down to business and tell you a story that will hopefully help you out of a similar jam.

About a week ago, a random guy off the street stepped out a doorway and stabbed me right in the chest. Well, not exactly. That’s what it felt like, at least. You see, a guy came to a public forum on the internet where I was talking about one of my games and threw out an accusation of it being “broken”. Seemingly out of nowhere, we have this dude telling the whole world that he played with his friends and it not only lasted way too long, but they couldn’t really accomplish any goals, either.  It was a hot mess and he was extremely disappointed.  Worse yet, it turns out that he has a blog where he called me and the game out, again. Here’s the real kick in the pants: based on his description of the session, I could tell right away that he completely fumbled at least 1 critical rule. So, he played incorrectly and is now complaining that my baby is ugly.

Now, what would you do? Ignore him? Tell him he’s an idiot? Be nice and explain what he likely did wrong? How a person responds to an hurtful accusation really depends on what their goal is. Defending your pride, correcting the mistake, keeping the peace – all common motives.  Be careful, though, just as anyone can come along and see the accusation, they will also see your response.

Here’s the key to this entire situation: why did this guy come over and stab me? Why did he tell everyone my game is broken? This random person I’ve never met or spoken to before PRINTED MY GAME and played it with his friends! Then, instead of blowing off the situation, he came back to me to explain why his session sucked. He CARED – that’s why. Clearly, he was concerned and wanted me to know that there was a problem. I can only assume he didn’t think about the repercussions.

Really quick, let’s talk about why his accusation hurt – why I’m being so dramatic with my analogy. As an indie designer and publisher, reputation is everything. I literally cannot do business without the trust of the public. Because I’m “new”, I have to borrow trust by showing how much labor, study, and work has gone into the thing I’m presenting. Therefore, a random 3rd party crying “It’s broken! It’s broken!” completely shatters the little bit of trust I was starting to build.

Now, I’m sure by now you’re aching to know what I did. Well, I surprised myself. I read his message 5 or 6 times and put myself in his shoes. The fact that he came to a public forum with a story of how the thing he wanted to like disappointed him, means that he will likely be a little on edge already. So, even though I was certain this was HIS mistake, I couldn’t make any accusations of my own and risk sparking a fight. So, I read it some more, I prayed, and I counselled with my closest, and most level-headed friends. After a couple of hours we came to the following formula:

  • I apologized for the bad session.
  • I thanked him for the work he put in.
  • I explained how important it is for me to investigate any problems.
  • Finally, I asked to take the conversation private so that I could gather details and make sure there wasn’t a rules mistake.

 

You see, my goal was to show appreciation. This response allowed us both to save face (sort of). The damage is already done – there’s no sense in showing my anger and creating more problems. Even in the private conversation, I didn’t lead of with how he screwed up. I mentioned that I think I know what happened and clearly my editor and I have some more work to do if such a critical rule wasn’t apparent to him. Again, I don’t want to blame him for messing up – clearly my rules could be clearer.

After our chat, he made another comment and another blog post sharing my game, stating that he made a mistake last time, and proclaiming just how good the game really is. I’m not saying that every situation will work out this way. You can’t control other people in the world. You can control your reaction. The damage is already done and continues to spread from that initial comment. However, through the challenge I was able to show a level of professionalism which converted him into a real fan and allows me to borrow and build a little more trust from people who see our interaction.

#37 Keeping the Faith

I mentioned this a few times (here, herehere, and here) but game design is rough. Heartbreaking, even.

For a little over a year, now, (basically, the entire time I’ve been working to bring Hot Pursuit to life) I have struggled with doubt. Sure, there are a lot of things which can go wrong after funding on Kickstarter, but that’s not really what I’m talking about. I am having to learn-as-I-go how to ship internationally, manage business bills/taxes, etc. That’s not it, either.

You see, I am happy member of The Game Crafter’s designer community and I spend a lot of time in “help” groups on Facebook. Twitter and Kickstarter also eat up a fair amount of my time. Sometimes a game/designer comes through I immediately think, “Wow. That just looks like no fun at all.” Either the illustration or graphic design are awful (different from non-existent) or the game looks/reads as garbage (on a fundamental level). Now, this does not include complete rip-offs (like Cards Against Humanity clones) or situations where the creator is just bad at sales). True, it functions much like a snap judgment, but I honestly take the time to at least read up on the game. Simply put, based on my years of experience reading, analyzing, and teaching games, that thing looks like a pile of dog-doo.

Some people come in knowing that they have some problems that need fixing. Cool. What’s fascinating is the number of designers who just don’t see it. They can’t tell that they are toting around steaming feces. And THAT is the scary part. Is my game crap? Am I just as clueless as the rest? Did my Kickstarter campaign fail because my product sucks or was it only my poor marketing?

Well, let’s look at the typical filter:

  1. Do your friends like it? They say it’s a fun / neat idea / cool game.
  2. Do they ever ask to play it? One, yes; the rest no.
  3. Have you shown it to people you don’t know? Yes, at my FLGS, an Unpub mini, and multiple conventions.
  4. What did they say? Same thing: fun / neat idea / cool game.
  5. Has anyone asked to play it again? After the first game, many people ask for more because they feel they can do better with a clearer understanding of the game. But no, no one has asked to play it after the first session.

That looks pretty darn bleak, right? Disheartening, even. This metric burned in the back of my mind for a few months – breaking my hope and causing me to dig around for ANY other games.  Honestly, I began doubting all feedback – it felt too polite. Clearly, something had to be wrong even if no one would tell me. Then, I had some unexpected opportunities for demos, and they were GREAT! Since most things in my life rarely function at face-value, I started trying to look past these initial, damning answers for actual causes. Let’s look at that list again:

1 & 2: The vast majority of my friends don’t care for tabletop games. Those that do, only play light games – they can’t quite grasp thinky, brain-burning games.
5: I have rarely seen any of the people I demoed to a 2nd time. It’s pretty tough to be asked to “bring it back out” when you don’t play together.

The vast majority of online advice for game design revolves around that question (who actually requests it). So, it was obviously the source of many doubts and concerns for me. As this cloud followed me around, I was also hitting some real frustrations from an inability to play any new games (which were finally showing up) and older favorites. And I about fell over when I realized NOBODY asks me to bring out ANY game. Statistically, my games are just as popular with my friends as 7 Wonders,  Machi Koro, and Hocus.

What a freaking relief that was. True, I should probably find something more mainstream before going back to Kickstarter, but at least my games don’t ALL suck. One question I never see asked is “Does your game have any fans?”. This little gem was what started my confusion and frustration with Hot Pursuit. Although the Kickstarter campaign failed and none of my friends request it – I discovered at my last convention that I have FANS! One guy I hadn’t seen for a year came out of the crowd to say hi. He still carried around the copy I gave him last time and plays it with friends. Another guy we demoed to came back and asked if he could buy a demo copy. A distributor played with me and took a copy downstairs to the “free-play” room and played with his friends and family!

I guess the lesson here is this: critical feedback is vitally important for gauging the readiness of your game. However, cling to positive feedback (however slight) and allow it to temper the negativity, doubt, and constant competition that surrounds us every day.

What about you? How do you weather the storms? Got any fans?

#36: (Something clever about losing stuff)

Believe it or not, I am taking a fairly different approach to the current work load of preparing for Hot Pursuit’s relaunch than I did for the initial launch. This new approach will even affect my blog. And it all started a couple of weeks after Hot Pursuit’s project ended.

So, let’s jump back to the middle of March. The clock continued to tick but my total funding… not so much. I was surprisingly not devastated when it died. Afterall, this was my first project and the tiny game made balancing the number of backers at reasonable backer levels against the total shipping and printing costs difficult. Well, at the end of the project I suddenly found myself with some “extra” time to think and do stuff. During this opportunity to catch my breath, I reviewed old blog posts and looked through my idea notebooks as I contemplated participating in a new design contest. That is when I found my old friend, A Dragon Show for the King.

When I last left ADSftK, I was charting and reworking all of the figures and some of the abilities in order to give players a fighting chance of actually finishing the game. Well, my friend Craig was showing off his new game idea, but I wanted to play my game, too. As I sat down to update my prototype, my blood was pumping; my mind was racing with ideas (in a good way); I was looking forward to the busy-work… heck, joy was returning to my life. It turns out, though, I had already worked out all of the new math and redid most of the cards (up to 4 players worth) back in February of 2015. Which means that I had not touched this game (which I was genuinely excited to publish someday) for over a year.

THAT is where I found the problem. THAT is when I found this thing that I didn’t even know I had lost: joy.

The reason I’ve been designing for 3 years despite basically no public/professional attention is because I get a great sense of fulfillment in the work. However, for nearly a year, preparing Hot Pursuit for Kickstarter is all I allowed myself to think about. For 3 months, ALL of my free-time was dedicated to Hot Pursuit and it’s Kickstarter (the page, the print / ship quotes, the rules, the convention, etc.). For quite some time there, if I wasn’t working, sleeping, or eating, I was working on Hot Pursuit. The work didn’t bother me because I deemed it necessary. I am dedicated to getting this business off the ground. If Jamey Stegmaier and Colby Dauch can do it, so can I!

Unfortunately, in that race to launch I managed to get too busy; too focused; too “productive”. I was honestly starting to feel the pangs of doubt, frustration, and futility – until I returned to game design. All of a sudden, the future looked bright! I had hope again. My insurmountable, soul-crushing problems were gone.

So, now I have a new plan. Instead of doing EVERYTHING I POSSIBLY CAN TO LAUNCH ASAP (!!!), I am going to work responsibly and not launch until I am completely ready. More importantly, I am going to continue designing on the side. This will actually give me an opportunity to try something I’ve wanted to do for over a year. Very soon, I’ll begin a “Design Diary” segment where I share with you my thought process of working through a game from day one.

While I am stoked to finally give the design diary a try, there is a catch. You see, as a backer, I hate getting project updates which talk about the designer’s next game. When I am counting the days waiting for your current game to arrive, talking about the next project just sounds like you begging for more money and I hate it. Therefore, my Kickstarter projects will not ever refer to other designs I am working on. I will only be discussing the new games HERE, and only if I also have a Lessons Learned post for the same week. I don’t want to “brag” at you when you are likely coming here for those “lessons”.

Anywho, that’s it for now. Have you ever lost something important without realizing it? Ever get too involved in a big project? Tell me about it 😀

#35: Special Guest Fedor Sosnin (Disruptive, Inc.)

Good morning, we have another special guest today, this one has far more experience than the rest 😀 I met Mr. Sosnin through Twitter during his first Dice Bazaar campaign. The game looks great – so I was really surprised when the clock ticked down and he fell short. Mr. Sosnin immediately went to work revamping his campaign, preparing for a relaunch. The more I researched his previous campaigns and saw him prepare for a second shot, the more impressed I became – I HAD to pick Mr. Sosnin’s brain. And without further ado, here he is 😀

Fedor Sosnin

First, tell us about yourself and then about Dice Bazaar.

Hello everyone. My name is Fedor Sosnin, the designer of Battle of Durak. I run Disruptive Inc, a design firm in Sparks, Maryland. Dice Bazaar is my second table top game. I really wanted to create a game that can be played by a variety of people. Something you can share with non-gamers, family, kids, co-workers, and not scare them away from the table from a complex set up or overwhelming table presence. I wanted to create a dice game because everyone knows what to do with a die. Shake it, roll it, have fun. I worked hard to make the game light enough yet be engaging enough for avid gamers. I chose the game’s theme based on my memories of bazaars and markets from Uzbekistan from when I was a kid. Keeping the colors bright and vivid, I tried hard to not only give it a presence on a shelf but also make it attractive to all ages.
Dice Bazaar 3
With this as your 2nd game, how was this campaign different from Battle of Durak?
I learned so much from my first campaign, Battle of Durak. I wanted to take all of those lessons learned and apply them to my presentation of Dice Bazaar. I wanted to be as clear and transparent as possible so there are no questions when someone has scrolled through the campaign. I also worked hard to get copies out to reviewers to hear their thoughts and get their feedback early on. I also learned some new software to create a better video that I’m proud of. Hopefully, my hard work shows in this new campaign. 🙂
 

You made a somewhat controversial move by launching Dice Bazaar before Battle of Durak shipped. What were your reasons? 
Once I got the word from ShipNaked that everything was in their hands and ready to go, I saw a green light. I want to show that I have more material, more games, to show and share with everyone. As well speak, almost everyone has Battle of Durak in their possession and I wanted to transition right into the next game with no delay. Maybe it is a somewhat controversial move, but I have no regret because I wanted to keep the excitement high.
Dice Bazaar Box

“Customs Friendly Shipping” for Canada, Australia, and the European Union is no easy feat, and most campaigns don’t bother. How are you pulling it off, and how important do you feel that extra step is for your backers?
It is super important to me to make sure that EVERYONE can get Dice Bazaar. I am using ShipNaked for shipping and fulfillment and they assure their customers that they ship all over the world, customs friendly. To have this level of service, I will not be making extra money off of my backers and their pledges, instead, that money is going directly towards shipping and getting the game produced. After-all, that is what KS is all about.
 

What were your major “mistakes” in the first Dice Bazaar campaign that you’ve been fixing for the relaunch?
Shipping. That was by far the biggest hurdle. My biggest mistake was making the box large. That not only cost more, it weighed more and cost MUCH more in shipping costs. Reducing the box size and getting rid of luxuries like player boards got the weight down and fixed the issues from my past campaign allowing me to price the game $10 lower!
 

Where did the idea for Dice Bazaar come from?
I was toying with many dice game ideas before stumbling on what Dice Bazaar is now. Since I wanted to keep the game in the family category, I instantly thought of having the dice be the currency in the game. After many prototypes I found that it not only worked, but memories of going to these types of Bazaars in Uzbekistan when I was child stood out. The rest just fell into place after months of testing and tweaking.
 Screen Shot 2016-03-24 at 11.42.26 AM

When did you know you had something special?
I knew I had something fun when I tested the game with strangers at a local convention. Smiles, laughter, even shouting over a stolen good was an indicator. Since then, it’s happened more and more and because of that, I’m all in.

What was the worst part of preparing your Kickstarter campaign?
It’s just so much work! If I had to choose the “worst” thing about preparing the campaign it would have to be checking and double checking and triple checking all of the numbers and costs.
 

What was the most difficult part of designing Dice Bazaar?
Finding the part that makes the game different yet fun. I came up with the fluctuating market idea when I realized that most other roll and match games had dice on the cards and the game was stagnant. The market makes things exciting and allows the chance for player’s dice to stay on the board instead of being completely knocked off. The hard part was figuring out why and how many cards and dice to use. Do I have a 6th product, should I have multiple products? A balancing act that can only be figured out though testing and many, many plays.
 

What was your favorite part of designing it?
My favorite part was the creating the art. Aside from that I think it would have to be when I thought of the idea of allowing players to trade products. That really took the game to next level and gave it that zing other games didn’t have.
Dice Bazaar 1
Do you have any advice for designers and project creators reading?
Don’t give up if you fail, brush it off and try again. Iterate, change, tweak, test. Take feedback with a grain of salt, but listen to each and every word. Figure out why they gave that feedback more so then what the feedback was. At the end of the day you might need to make changes but keep in mind your goal and your vision as everyone has a different opinion. 🙂
 
Best,
FEDOR SOSNIN
USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNER
WE MAKE APPS, WEBSITES, & GAMES

Really cool stuff, huh? This guy has really busted his butt to deliver the kind of service and beautiful product I hope to present. Please, visit Twitter or Facebook and thank him for sharing, and take a peek at his Kickstarter campaign. He’s doing some great stuff that we can all learn from 😀

Fun, original games at a great price, and lessons for designers on what not to do.

%d bloggers like this: