Hot Pursuit, Kickstarter, Lessons Learned

#34: Get the Word Out (KS Lesson #2)

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Here we are: my second lesson on things I should and could have done better with this campaign.  Last time, I really only spoke about my reactions to the launch. This time, however, we get down and dirty with decisions I made (or didn’t) and what I will do differently next time.

Marketing sucks. Marketing is not advertising; although advertising (short-term) is part of a marketing plan. Marketing is promoting and selling products, services, or yourself – in other words, not short-term. Marketing, unfortunately, is completely crucial to the success of a business and not even a little bit easy for those of us who are more introverted. And marketing is where I failed miserably.

If you look at my Kickstarter profile, you’ll see that I’ve backed a lot of projects – 3 of those I backed purely because the creators got me all excited with posts on Twitter. I have also spent most of 3 years researching how to successfully launch a publishing business through crowdfunding. Therefore, I have seen a lot of successes. I already know (and you should, too) that I need to talk all over social media about tests and development; share pictures as I hand build prototypes, play games at conventions, game stores, and UnPub style events, and update / upgrade the illustrations and graphic design; and build the Kickstarter page early so that I can get feedback and allow people to build/share excitement before it launches.

Unfortunately, I allowed myself to run into a STUPID mental-block. Hot Pursuit has very little art and basically no graphic design (4 different illustrations and no text or icons), and it was developed in a very short time. Because I didn’t have all that early stuff to share, I stopped. Instead of looking for alternatives / solutions, I trusted advertising, friends, and a good product to carry my campaign. Well, hope and good intentions don’t go far in the fickle world of crowdfunding.

Here’s what I’m doing next time:

  • Share More – I’ve mentioned this before pertaining to the blog itself. I’m still learning how to talk more. Fortunately, this blog is not just a reason to put myself out there but a good method. Game design is something I LOVE talking about. I could go all stinking day. As I share more here, I’m building the skills and habits necessary to share more about my games, too.
  • Advertise Early – Dumb mistake here which mostly comes down to a lack of actionable research. Most project creators I follow spend the big advertising bucks mid to late campaign to counter the mid-campaign slump and magnify the big boost that typically comes in the last 48 hours. Well, I only recently figured out that several great advertising avenues are really affordable. Absurdly affordable. Next time, to help build excitement/interest and offset my really small social media reach, I will start advertising BEFORE the campaign.
  • More Reviews – My initial plan didn’t involve the avalanche of reviews that is totally possible and often present on first-time creator projects. Mostly, I didn’t want to bother reviewers I don’t actually follow. Plus, reviews cost money (between printing and mailing, the 2 reviews I currently have cost roughly $250) and even really high profile reviewers don’t actually sell a lot of games. They do help but it’s not typically a direct results kind of thing. I had forgotten about a few important aspects of reviews, though. They help build interest, validate the quality of the game, and (most importantly) give me something to share. Best of all, that last part is an opportunity to help myself and them. As you can probably guess, I’ll be making use of more reviews in the future.
  • Launch Party – I didn’t throw one. I don’t have a large group of friends, a big or busy local game store, or, really, any experience in throwing parties. A common alternative is a Facebook “party”. Again, I have a fairly small social reach. Basically, I had no good plan until Tuesday, when I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Patio at The Board of Games. His is one of many organizations around the country which organize game groups in bigger cities and offer marketing / advertising services. What I should have done is take advantage of their hosting services. Therefore, next time, I’ll coordinate with them to advertise and feature my game at one of their bigger game nights and invite everyone I can to my launch party. Remember: it’s okay to ask for help 😉
  • Videos – This one I knew was important before I started but was unable to pull together the resources to make it happen. Videos showcasing your gameplay are always important. Unfortunately, my less than solid plans fell through. With so very many new projects launching on Kickstarter every day, there is no reason for backers to assume I’m not just another idiot. Hot Pursuit sounds fairly gimmicky, looks too simple, and needs to be played to be believed by average gamers. That coupled with the fact that most people would rather watch a video than read some rules means I painted myself into a stupid corner. I KNOW that Hot Pursuit is a great game – a lot of fun, very portable, and deceptively difficult. This isn’t my first design and I’ve done my research and tested the game. Unfortunately, it isn’t easy to see the fun without playing. Therefore, I must and, going forward, will always make sure I have videos ready upon launch to help others see what I see.
  • Written Fiction – I don’t consider this a mistake; instead, a missed opportunity. I have plans for fiction written around a much bigger series of Sci-fi games I’d like to publish later on down the line. However, I failed to consider the potential for this particular game. Writings which bring to life the 4 different stories in Hot Pursuit would be fun to write and great opportunities for sharing. Plus, some people actually enjoy reading that sort of thing.

Understand that this is not written from a place of failure or with a defeated heart. These are simply things fresh in my mind right now. I deliberately launched Hot Pursuit first and at this time of year. I have high hopes of funding, still, but this project is both a launching point and a chance to learn. Now, what do you think? What else could I have done to better prepare for launch?

Games, Hot Pursuit, Lessons Learned

#33: Locomotion

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As promised, to celebrate my growing Kickstarter campaign I am continuing to share lessons learned from and general thoughts on Hot Pursuit. This will be a discussion about an aspect of game play that I obtusely ignored. Not intentionally – it just wasn’t something I thought much about.

Take a moment to think about 2 of your favorite games which feel the most dissimilar. So, not a couple of drafting games (which I love). Make sure they are actually different. For example, Coup and Love Letter.

Yes, they are both very short, inexpensive card games featuring player elimination. Sure, they both involve a level of bluffing and deduction (what your opponent is hiding is important information). This is where the “obtuse” part comes in. It took a year of game design for me to figure this out: Love Letter’s cards force the game to progress and end; Coup relies on the players to progress the game (the cards are simply tools).

You may be thinking, “Duh, Derik.” If not, bless you. Here’s the break down:

  • In Love Letter, the player’s turn consists of drawing one card and discarding one card for a stated effect. The game ends when there are no cards to draw or all but one player is eliminated.  The key here is those cards and effects. They are structured in a way that forces conflict. You see, players MUST discard a card and use it’s effect. Those effects all revolve around eliminating a player or gathering information in order to eventually eliminate a player. In other words, players are moved toward the end of the game by force and they can do nothing to fight it.
  • In Coup, the cards themselves have very little affect on the actual game. It really comes down to how good you are at bluffing, or how badly you can bluff when you are actually telling the truth. That’s it. That’s the crux. Sure, there is some money collection, and money is used to pay for murd… influence, but the speed with which you are able to collect said money still comes down to your bluffs. So, if everyone plays poorly and only collects “Income” (1 coin), the game rules will force an end in (10 x #Players) + (4 x #Players) – 1 turns. A.K.A. a real long time.

By now you’re probably thinking, “Why’s that matter?” Well, here’s why:

Hot Pursuit is very much a player driven game (like Coup). The game will never force itself into an end-state because the cards do nothing in and of themselves. The only way the game ends is if someone is able to wrangle the 2 (or 3, depending on story) “Key” cards (Blue, Pink, or Red) into their hand, facing them. It takes memory, deduction, and a little deception – A.K.A. a lot of work. This isn’t necessarily a problem, though. The fact that almost every single new player HORDES a Key card when they find one does make it a serious problem. You see, Hot Pursuit was originally a 3 – 10 player free-for-all. With everyone out for themselves, and the vast majority of them hording at every opportunity, games go NO WHERE in a really long, painful time. That’s a great illustration of why Love Letter is so easy to teach: even playing poorly with no direction, the game still ends very quickly and has a definite winner.

One of the toughest pieces of feedback I received (and it was only twice) was that the early game was boring because it didn’t go anywhere. At the time, I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about. When I played with experienced players, the games were tough, tense, and terrific (heh). But, that was the key. New players wanted the game to tell them what to do – they wanted the cards to do something. Most people couldn’t wrap their head around a game-plan for acquiring both Key cards because they couldn’t bear to give up the one they knew about.

Coup game a clear reason for your action every turn: to gain enough money to eliminate the other players before they eliminate you. Ultimately, Hot Pursuit stalled because no one had a clear path to victory. Sure, get the 2 cards, but how?  –  See that? There was no direction to the game. I couldn’t see this problem until I sat down at a convention with game designers/publishers and a few hardcore gamers. We stalled. Badly enough that everyone started throwing out ideas on how to fix it. A lot of thoughts revolved around adding card abilities (making it component driven), which I refused to do because it violated a primary design goal. Then, Brent Critchfield suggested I make it cooperative. Well, that won’t work because it’ll take maybe 3 turns to win. “Okay. How about cooperative with a traitor working against the rest?”

BAM!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner! Some clean-up and story writing still needed to be added in, but all of a sudden players had a distinct goal to reach for. Teaching is still a little rough because of the 2 goals and counter-intuitive play (it’s HARD not looking at the card you are being handed), but everyone gets it by the end of their first game. Better yet, they want a do-over when they lose and they feel smart when they win. And they should – it ain’t easy!

Funny enough, this same lesson applies to the solitaire version of Hot Pursuit. It had a reasonable goal (get the Blue, Pink, and Red cards together, in your hand, facing you) and an AI to continuously mess up what you know about card positions, but it would never end until you either solved the puzzle or gave up and let the “bad guys” win. Until we added a timer. Just a stack of extra Yellow “crowd” cards made all the difference. Now, there was a clear and ominous goal: collect tie the paper trail (Red Document) to the Corrupt Commissioner and Dirty Detective before they are able to wash away their sins. As the crowd grew from the timer you also got this great visual of the Corrupt Commissioner making the evidence disappear forever into the city.

I really love player driven games for just that reason – they are typically tough and have high social interactivity. But, now I know that I have to make sure my player driven games have a clear direction – a relatable  goal.

What about you? What are 2 of your favorite dissimilar games? What makes them different and how is it important to your enjoyment?

Hot Pursuit, Kickstarter, Lessons Learned

#32: Day 1 Down; 29 to Go

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Good morning. This is a monumental day. I have waited a year and a half for today. Many, many hours of research, planning, saving and spending, 32 blog posts, countless smiles and hand shakes,  and innumerable prayers have gone out in preparation for today. What day is it?

THE DAY AFTER I LAUNCHED MY FIRST KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN!

It’s a pretty amazing thing. I’m not funded, yet. I still don’t know everything there is to know. But, I finally took this particular first-step. No matter how much I studied, asked, planned, and prepared, some things you just can never know until you FINALLY launch out into the real world and watch that rocket fly. Like always, I’m excited to share with you what I figured out – just yesterday 😉

#1: The spam is incredible.
Holy smokes the spam. Day 1 and I have at least as many spam messages through Kickstarter and personal emails as I do backers. The thing I find most surprising about the spam, though, is the way they start by wishing me success but apologizing for not having the money to back my project. I have a $1 tier. Even my slightly disinterested co-worker can afford to back my project. I would actually have read their emails and weighted their offers if they hadn’t started by telling me they couldn’t invest $1 in a business partnership.

#2: It will be easier than you expect.
This one also caught me by surprise. Getting ready for yesterday was one of the scariest endeavors of my life. Some nights, the thought of launching would make me shake with fear. I would get sick researching shipping and printing costs because I dreaded the idea of anyone feeling cheated by my product.  Ugh! I almost delayed my launch extra days. That morning, though, all the pieces fell into place just as I planned. I was about to go to bed and wait another day. But I looked over the page again and came to the realization that I had already done everything. I know I made a few mistakes, but another day would not have changed anything. Ever since then, it’s been like driving on a road trip. I know where I’m headed. I know how to get there. The journey has started. If I keep following the signs, making the appropriate stops for food and gas, and stay alert, I will arrive at my dream. Now, I’m not saying it’s a struggle to stay awake because I’m so bored. Just that it isn’t the nightmare that my fear-racked mind had built it up to be. Don’t forget that you have friends. Those friends would love to help you out if only you would ask 😀

#3: You will cry.
Holy cow the people! We all hope our friends and family will support us. Every single person I have asked for help has jumped on board. It’s amazing. I don’t know who my first backer is. In fact, I don’t recognize 5 out of my first 7 backers. It’s crazy! The outpouring of support has been unbelievable! Will it keep up? I can only hope. I do know for certain, though, that I really wish I could hug every single backer for believing in me and my game. Even now I’m tearing up. With 103 backed projects, I never imagined I could be making someone else feel like this. You should know right now, every time you back a project, you are making someone cry 😉

#4: Stop planning and start preparing. 
I hope that if you write a blog offering advice and sharing lessons learned, you’ll actually listen to yourself. Despite my #1 lesson (Just do Something), roughly half of my anxiety in getting ready for launch has resulted in my planning – only planning. This was my biggest mistake. I will probably mention it in every single “Lesson Learned” regarding Kickstarter because it was such a debilitating, stupid, and expensive mistake. Plenty of reasonable sounding excuses kept me from building my page when I could have and gave me pause in asking for quotes from printers and shippers. None of them were good enough, though. All of them hurt me in the long run. Are you thinking about running a Kickstarter campaign, too? Stop planning and start preparing! 

That’s all for now. Feel free to swing by the campaign, checkout how I’m handling the updates, see how I structured my tiers, and hold your breath with me as I wait to see if I properly budgeted my shipping costs. Have a great day!

Game Development, Hot Pursuit, Lessons Learned

#31: Perception (Set in Stone)

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With the launch of my first ever Kickstarter campaign looming (Febuary 1st), I figured now would be a good time to start listing all the crazy things I’ve learned in this mad race (because the amount of planning, preparation, and work needed is really starting to feel like a dash to the finish).  To that end, I think my first lesson will be a more universal one.

To date, Hot Pursuit is the closest I have come to taking a game from concept to final, published product. Although I’ve printed “real” on-demand copies of other games and even spent money on art, this is the first time I’ve gotten my game into the hands of other people and sought out 3rd party reviews. Therefore, this particular game has seen many different “coverings” or art styles, a few different methods of play, quite a few different boxes, and has even been to 2 conventions and a 1 day event.

Through all of those different appearances and various players, I think my most surprising lesson has been that perception matters.

Now, this has little to do with the fact that a cohesive story or setting makes the game easier to teach or that you’ll get more people to try prototypes with some kind of art (instead of hand-writing on index cards). Neither does this have to do with getting testers or future customers to take you seriously. While I completely advocate doing everything in your power to respect the precious time given to you by testers, these aren’t the topics I’m talking about, today.

What I discovered, quite by accident, is that the kind of feedback you receive and how people talk about your game depends a lot on how players perceive your game. While the rest of the post operates on a generalization, understand that I am working on the premise of mostly unsolicited feedback from NEW players. Here are the 3 main ways that players see the games they are trying out:

1 – Early prototype (Proof of Concept)
2 – Working prototype
3 – “Finished” product

This list is based purely on how people react to playing my game and the way they talk about it afterwards. But what does it mean?

Well, when the game is clearly an early prototype, new players tend to treat the game as an experiment – “will this thing work?” As such, without specific prompting, they tend to talk mostly about whether or not it worked. Sometimes, they will even feel strongly enough to tell you what specifically did or did not work. This step is pretty awful on testers. They aren’t getting much out of it and have plenty of other things they could be having fun with. So, try not to abuse testers by spending a lot of time with that hot mess in front of them.

“Finished” product means that you have commissioned most, if not all, of the art and have a great prototype for people to play.  It may not actually be the FINAL product, but it should look like it and be discussed as if it is. My absolute favorite experience in this step was at this past year’s Christmas and New Year’s parties. At both parties I and/or my wife told the testers that this was “my” game. Well, most of us arrived with several games because the majority of the day was being spent playing games (also known as heaven). Apparently, they didn’t get our point. At both parties, we played multiple games. Each party surprised me with the people who “got it” and ran the table. It was great! Each session ended with a quick – “That was neat. Where’d you get it?” It’s MY game – I made it 😀 (it’s tough not to follow those words with that face). “Oh!” Yeah, I’ll be seeking funding for an actual print run in February. “Wow. I’d totally buy that!”

See how the communication was about the fun had and buying the game? Yup, that’s what I needed to hear – if they liked it and whether they would buy it (even with the current art and graphic design).

Working prototype. In some ways, I really hate this step, and it all comes down to how players perceive which step you are at. You see, “working prototype” is when your game mostly works. Mostly. Therefore, you are obviously seeking to make it better. Right? God, I hope so because the only feedback you are going to get will be things to add to make it awesome. Don’t ever think you are just going to test out this one idea. Early in development, this is fantastic. 3 of my favorite games in development wouldn’t really be a game if not for testers throwing ideas at me. A word of warning – I am getting pretty good at just saying “Sure!” instead of explaining ANY of what is actually going through my mind.

“How can you hate that?” you are probably asking yourself. Well, let me give you another story from the New Year’s party. I took Into a New World with me. I commissioned gorgeous art for the tiles and mocked up a pretty box. This WAS going to be Lagniappe’s first game until Willis and I came up with Hot Pursuit. I had the opportunity to play it with a couple of guys who didn’t quite have enough time to play chess. The first game was a learning experience. The second game was awesome. One of the guys was looking over my box trying to figure out who on earth made it. “Is this from a Japanese designer?” he asked. He seemed to be really enjoying working through strategies and probabilities. We had some pretty exciting discussions about the gameplay, components, etc. 😀 Unfortunately, after he discovered it was MY design, the conversation quickly turned. The next 20 minutes was him giving me his thoughts on box size / construction, component sourcing, and finding manufacturers via his favorite websites.

He only spent all that time giving me advice because he was interested and wanted to help. Which is great! Immensely appreciated. However, I have already spent over a year researching and planning all of that. The moment people discover that the game they just tried out is a prototype, they immediately back up to the concept of a working prototype – something which can and probably should be “fixed”. Surprisingly, it is often more difficult for me to accept those “fixes” on a “finished” game than when it’s brutally honest feedback on a broken game. Ugh.

Please, keep in mind that this is an observation – not a complaint. Hopefully, I can save you from some of the stress I’ve experienced with these unexpected reactions. That being said, there are steps you can take to ensure that the table talk doesn’t veer off point. Obviously, you can try controlling the conversation by asking pointed questions and using feedback forms. If you are like me and you prefer a more natural, organic conversation, then you’ll need to control their perception. Use a professional, finished looking prototype, be candid about the tremendous amount of work and research you’ve already put in, and be careful with your words – talk about how excited you are to finally publish, instead of how excited you are to finish. If you can give the impression that your design is set in stone, then new players are more inclined to talk about how much they enjoyed the game, if they would buy it, and how much they think it’s worth.

What do you think? How do you like to carry the conversation with new players?

Lessons Learned, Special Guest

#30: Special Guest Matthew Rodgers (Gamesicle)

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This week I’m fortunate enough to bring on yet another designer that I met at Strategicon.  Matt was very open to meeting, discussing design, talking the maths of printing and shipping, and was just a great guy to be around and play with.  I asked and he was kind enough to do this little interview right in the middle of the final push of Bane‘s campaign.  Without further flattery, here’s Mr. Rodgers!

Please, tell us a little about yourself and Gamesicle.

I’ve been gaming all my life; games of all shapes, sizes and types. I played a lot of RPGs and board games in my formative years. I have always been attracted to game systems that have immersion and quality player interaction. Gamesicle was born from this tradition.

 

I have only recently begun to devote my energies full time to building Gamesicle. Before that I worked in Information Technology and Emergency Management. I also have a lot of experience in the performing arts (primarily theatre) and that certainly shapes how I view and approach things.

 

At Gamesicle our quest is to connect players through immersive game experiences.

 

How long have you been working on Bane?
Bane was originally conceived in 2010, but we have been working on it mostly over the past 2 years or so. Bane has shared development time with several other projects. Our approach was to have several games queued up ahead of time so that when we made the move to build Gamesicle we would be able to grow.

What inspired Bane?  Where did it come from?
Bane’s inspiration was simple: create a game where the players felt like hunter and hunted. We wanted a simple mechanic that placed the players in tricky situations of survival. The use of the Vampires, Werewolves and Humans took a bit of doing, as I was opposed to using it at first. But, over time (and with substantial testing) it was the favored direction. I had to create my own I.P. for it though, make the world of Bane a living, breathing place in order to be pleased with the look and feel.

 

How much did your experience with Junkyard King influence the development, iteration, and marketing of Bane?
Our first game, Junkyard King, was a deliberate step we took as a startup game publisher to learn the ropes so-to-speak. It has taught us a lot about how we want to make games. We still have more to do with Junkyard King as well; we want to bring it to full retail.

How long have you been preparing for this Kickstarter campaign?
We’ve been building our network or relationships for about a year and a half and began in earnest on this Kickstarter campaign about 9 months ahead of launch.

 

What was the most important piece of advice about Kickstarter projects, which you found before launching?
Make sure your first 2 days are as strong as possible.

 

I know you hit some unfortunate hiccups just as you launched.  Could you tell the audience about that?

The 3 weeks leading up to launch got really crazy. Let’s just say that things didn’t go according to plan. But, that’s life and business. You have to be ready for anything, flexible. Because it was my first time running a Kickstarter I found myself saturated with information, it was very challenging to know what to do with the final details, how to pull it all together. In the end, I stuck to my commitments and stayed focused and followed my instincts.

 

What is the most important piece of advice you can give about Kickstarter projects now that you have launched?

Make sure that your first 2 days are going to be very strong. Build lots of support. Get your prototypes made early and get the word out that your game is coming. Let people see it, touch it, play it and review it. Talk about it, share it and promote it.

 

Make sure that every Plan A has a Plan B.

 

What is your favorite aspect of Bane (component, mechanism, art, etc.)?

What I like most about Bane is how interconnected the mechanics are. The deck composition, the core mechanic, the scoring mechanism, the turn order, the player setup, the special powers, the bane token and the game boards all blend together to create the unique experience that is Bane. Because of how it’s designed, Bane scales itself to the players. The decisions and player interactions are the soul of the game.

What was the most difficult aspect to get right?  

Creating what I answered in the above question. Balancing the right amount of chance and choice took an awful lot of work and time.

 

What part of the game changed the most between inception and now?

The game boards were the last major design addition. It completely transformed the overall experience. The game instantly became much easier to manage and learn when we added the boards. The overall experience elevated and grew more immersive. 

What was your favorite experience playing Bane?

I don’t have a single experience that I would label as a favorite. What I always enjoy about Bane is that you constantly have interesting plays presented to you throughout the game. Even when you are behind the leader you have plays you can make to give yourself a chance to win. Your goals are not always identical to the other players and those goals can change from turn to turn. I love this about Bane. There is always something to work for, some line of play you can pursue.

 

What is next for Gamesicle?

We want to further develop the world of Bane (RPG… maybe?), we have a strategy game in the wings and we’ll begin working on a project this summer with another design group – but, I can’t release those details just yet.  ; )

 

Any additional comments or advice for the audience?

 Thank you for your interest in Gamesicle! Let’s do this again.

 

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Awesome!  Thanks, Mr. Rodgers, for taking the time to chat with me about your great project and exciting company.  YOU!  Out there in the world: go thank Matt for taking time out of his crazy busy schedule to talk with us.  He can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and the web.  More importantly, Mr. Rodgers currently has a Kickstarter campaign running RIGHT NOW!  Bane can be found HERE.  Honestly, I got to play it at Strategicon and it was great.  I love blind bidding (Top-Deck) and he does a beautiful execution of it.  Not only that, he layers the mechanics in a way which allows for quick pick up but a lot of depth and growing strategies.  I can’t say enough good things about this guy and his project.  But don’t take my word for it – go check him out  😀

Lessons Learned, Special Guest

#29: Special Guest Brent Critchfield (Studio Woe)

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I know I’m excited about all of my special guests but this time we’ll be hearing from someone I’ve actually met in person!  I was blessed with the opportunity to attend Gamex (by Strategicon) this past weekend.  During a lull in my schedule, I had to go over and see what the deal was with this “Gruff” game.  It turned out to be pretty fantastic!  Not only was the game a unique take on my kind of fun, but I really fell in love with the theme and Mr. Critchfield’s storytelling (I mean, come on!  Weaponized goats!  Fat, mean, weird goats!).  Anyway, this guy impressed the snot out of me with his skills as a designer and his approach to this business.  So, without any further ado, here’s Mr. Critchfield!
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Once upon a time, I was working at a company called Vigil Games in Austin Texas (The guys that made the Darksiders Franchise and the ill-fated Warhammer 40,000 Dark Millenium Online). Their publisher, THQ, was in their death-throes, and I lost my job as the studio dissolved.
I had been excited about creating a card-game for ages and when my wife got a really great job offer in California I saw an opportunity to deep dive on this idea. I had been creating a Steam-Punk Americana shoot-out game where you would take Cyborg John Henry and have him fight Carnegie Melon in a Mech-suit. On the long drive from Austin to LA I remembered a project that Virginia had been working on where she had filled sketchbooks full of the weirdest, meanest, and fattest goats of infinite shapes and sizes. Whenever I saw those goats I wanted to see how they would animate, how they would fight, how they would evolve. It dawned on me that I should merge those crazy goats with the crazy card engine that I had built. It took another 9 months before that idea resembled anything like Gruff, and another 2 years of testing before it was ready to be shown to the public but now it is all together and I am really having fun with the results.
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From the earliest stages, I knew I wanted to make a game that was both visually and mechanically “Over-the-top”. Something that would quickly escalate from a slap-fight to a world-shattering conflict. To do that I created an exponential resource generation system, and open ended cards that would easily combo into one another. I love those moments when you are playing a game and all the elements that you set in motion finally come together in some devastating effect. Gruff is designed in a way to make that happen as often as possible.
I knew I wanted to embrace the inconsistency that you get from a deck of cards, but I also knew that I wanted players to have important choices that were independent of randomness. By using self-evolving stats and board positional gameplay, players should always feel like they have important choices right up until the end of the game. Players should never feel like the game was over just because they started the game with a bad hand.
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Primarily, I knew that the success of the game hinged on expressing the personality of the individual goats. To do that I created specific card pools for every goat, and gave them unique abilities that encouraged people to play with them in a specific way. After each match I will ask players who their favorite gruff is. People don’t always name the same gruff, but they are always very enthusiastic about their choice​. When I started seeing that type of reaction I knew the game was close to done.
 Getting to Kickstarter was a really complex path. The thing that really saved my project was meeting up with a local “Support Group” of other Kickstarter hopefuls and veterans. The advice I got from them made me realize that I had planned on releasing the game much too quickly. The scariest part of getting ready for Kickstarter was all the complications that arose once I had actually committed to a date. I had a printing catastrophe that almost scrapped the entire launch. I gave myself 2 months to prepare demo copies for review, and it was not nearly enough time. The next time I Kickstart I am going to give myself 4 months from the date of preview content completion and the moment I actually push the button.
ProductShot_B
The one big newbie mistake that I made was launching on a Friday. We were lucky to have a really great first day, but all of that inertia evaporated the moment the weekend hit. Next time I will definitely run a mid-week campaign.
8633557_origOne thing that went really well was the creation of an “Online Launch Party”. Basically a Facebook event that I advertised a month in advance in order to prepare people to support the game on day one. I really can’t overstate how important day 1 support is. Campaigns like this are all about momentum. If you do not start strong it is almost impossible to build up momentum mid-campaign.
It has been a struggle and I have made a lot of mistakes (poor launch timing, not knowing when to slow down my messaging, getting the wrong people to review my game) But it has absolutely been a great experience. I feel like the experience I gained during this process has made me a better developer. I have come away with a much greater appreciation for all the hard work that goes into the games that I love.
Gruff_Darby_C
Such a great story!  Thanks for taking the time out of your super-busy week to share with us, Mr. Critchfield.  Everyone, please do yourselves a favor and check out his highly successful Kickstarter campaign for Gruff.  Great price, easy shipping, fantastic product for 2 players or a 4 player draft – it’s a no brainer.  For me, this was an auto-back and I will even be demoing it with him at Gateway in September.  I can’t say enough about this guy and his game.  Thanks for reading!  Be sure and look for Mr. Critchfield on Twitter, Facebook, and on the web and thank him for sharing 😀
Lessons Learned, Special Guest

#28: Special Guest Jared Barry (Mad Ape Games)

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Holy smokes, today I have the privilege of sharing with you an interview with Jared Barry of Mad Ape Games!  Mr. Barry is the proud publisher of the gorgeous 2 player dueling game, Clash! Dawn of Steam, which funded back in July 16, 2014.   I recently reached out to Mr. Barry about Clash! and his latest projects, and he was gracious enough to give me a bit of his time.  Following are some great insights he’s picked up on his 1.5 year long journey to get Mad Ape Games off the ground.
 Mad Ape Games
I know you work in a print shop by day, but do you have any background in the game industry itself?
 I worked in a print shop for the past three years and just a couple months ago I was fortunate enough to transition into a position doing graphic design and marketing for a motorcycle company. This transition has allowed me to spend more time working on building up the studio, which has been just terrific.I don’t actually have any real work experience in the game industry prior to Mad Ape Games. Though I’ve been an avid gamer for the last 15 years, which may be an insignificant measure of time compared to some industry veterans, but considering I’m only 23 years old that’s more then half my life. I like to think about it like this, being so young I have plenty of time to build the studio and grow with the gaming industry. Everyday I wake up and feel so lucky to be healthy and to have the opportunity to make games for others to enjoy.
 See when I was 17 years old I found out jarringly that I had a rare form of cancer in my spinal cord, and that they would have to do emergency surgery to remove the tumor the next night. My chances of survival were very low (around 20%), yet I woke from the surgery in the ICU having suffered severe nerve damage but alive. Then I went through the gauntlet of chemotherapy, radiation, and physical therapy to fight off the cancer and get back to living my everyday normal life. I’ve now been living cancer free for five years proudly. The point of that back story is that when I was going through very hard times getting together and playing games with my friends pulled me through.
 That’s the magic and power of gaming, though many outsiders look at it just as some geeks rolling dice, for many it’s a great source of joy and positivity. If I can momentarily brighten up just one person’s world when they play my games then I am more then satisfied with spending the countless hours bringing those games to life.
 Clash! Dawn of Steam
Where did the idea for Clash! Dawn of Steam come from? How did it start? 
Well to be honest my first love is wargaming, but with the cost and room for error so high with regards to miniatures production I decided quickly that I wanted my first published game to be a card game.  Next I actually brainstormed what sort of mechanics I personally liked that I would want to put into it. I came up with the idea for a card game where one player lays siege to a city and the other defends it. Not an original idea by any stretch, yet, many of my favorite things included these types of epic sieges (Lord of the Rings, R.A. Salvatore books, Game of Thrones, Privateer Press, Final Fantasy to some extent etc). I really liked the idea of a fantasy world with no magic being suddenly hit by a storm and now magic is an unexpected reality for the people.
A lot of great questions stemmed from that concept, how would the different nations be affected? Surely some would be quick to embrace this “Dawn of Steam,” as the world is thrown into an industrial revolution fueled by magic. Others would be resistant to change like the Edenites in The Scuffle for the SS Rogue. So to answer the question I just became obsessed with this concept and tried to dig deep into this world of Asyria, that was the start in this case.
When did you KNOW that you had something special, here?
Well my first prototype for Dawn of Steam looked terrible with neon colors and the balance of the cards was crazy swingy, but the game had something I really liked about it. I think the thing I liked about it so much was that to me, the play felt reminiscent of an old Japanese rpg as players would watch what the opponent did then strategize how to outfox them most efficiently.
 Clash layout
Reading your descriptions of a huge world and the 2 decks in Dawn of Steam give the distinct impression that you have even more content waiting in the shadows. Why did you decide to move forward with these decks and characters, specifically?
I’d love to keep releasing 2-player boxed sets(as a matter of fact I have many plans to do so), thus really shedding more light on the world of Asyria. I am very much into story and narrative in gaming and though Dawn of Steam is a light card brawler I still wanted the fluff to be here for those interested. Honestly every game the studio releases will likely have some sort of narrative element whether weaved into the game or as a companion book.
I felt these factions represented the initial struggle to assimilate into this new world of magic really well. The Magister Praeta are religious alchemists who fight zealously for their god, the All Mother. Naturally they would be quick to industrialize, as it is a religious principle for them. Meanwhile the Salvation of Eden is a faction from the primitive island nation of Eden, they are hesitant to change. Prior to the Dawn of Steam Eden by location was safe from outside influence, as the sea was too treacherous for an army too reliably cross. With the invention of airships brought invaders from all corners of Asyria upon Eden, raiders eager to plunder the ancient treasures of the nation.
 At first the Edenites were no match for the technology wielding invaders and much pain and misery was inflicted upon the primitive locals. Cities burned, temples pillaged, many slaves stolen from their homes, and at the darkest hour the Primarch of Eden Zdeno Xao was poisoned and later went mad before being put to final rest by his people. Newly ascended cub Braeatak Xao was crowned Primarch of Eden, tears still in his eyes from the grief of his people, he vowed that this would never again happen. Guided by a human orphan who had been adopted by his people when she washed ashore many seasons past. The now adult Eve of Eden shared her insights as to how to beat the invaders by using this new technology against them.
 Together they wielded this new technology and drove the invaders from Eden. With Eden now in ruin they set sail with the remaining army to bring an unrelenting war to the main land, intent on rebuilding Eden by reclaiming all that had been stolen.
For those who are unfamiliar with your story, it took you 3 tries to
successfully fund. The funding goals and pledge amounts were wildly different each time. What kinds of changes to your approach of the campaign itself did you make each time?
 I guess you could say I’m resilient. Well I learned so much it’s hard to even find words to begin. I learned that everything needs to be ready for change, if a better solution is presented I’d be a fool to not at least consider it. This is the philosophy I adopted, and I posted all over the Internet trying to get as many minds to help me as possible. Some people will hate for the sake of hating, but most people in this gaming community really just want more awesome games to be released for the benefit of all.
 In this way I learned how great the community is and the value of sharing with any and all that would listen. I’m really glad that the campaign didn’t fund the first two times because it allowed me to refine the presentation that much more. My willingness to take good advice was the big change from then to now realistically, other then that just experience and coming upon the knowledge of James Mathes and his blog was hugely beneficial.
Were there any changes you made to the game? 
Many many changes were made, from mechanics to aesthetics to approach. It ties to the positive progression through feedback as mentioned above. I believe it’s important to be totally open to change, resistance is futile after all.
How much of your experience from Dawn of Steam is affecting your process with your next projects? Are there specific roadblocks which arose with Dawn of Steam that you are now planning / designing around? 
I wish I could say Dawn of Steam was perfect and that I was all knowing enough to foresee and prevent the little problems that arose, but honestly speed bumps did occur.  Mainly we printed the game here in California with a local print shop (note, not a game manufacturer). We thought the quality of the product would be through the roof with this approach and that the game would be done twice as fast as one coming from China, thus distinguishing our studio as a promising young studio.
Sure we knew it would be a big task to sort these games and fulfill them ourselves, but this was something I was willing to do for my dream of making games. This turned out to be a huge undertaking, not to be taken lightly, seriously other game designers don’t do this. I felt like if I did it this way just for the first game that it would give me a taste of the American dream, well I got more then a taste that much is certain. In the future we will be manufacturing with one of the Chinese factories, likely PandaGM. The quality of our American print shop was actually nowhere near as good as what was shown to us via samples and some of the cards were miscut after multiples send backs.
What can you do though but live and learn, I’m proud of CLASH! Dawn of Steam as our debut release at the end of the day.
Now that Clash! Dawn of Steam has been fulfilled and is moving into distribution, feel free to brag a bit about your next projects: Exfiltrate Xenos 9 and T. R. E. N. C. H. A Deep Sea RPG. 

Well these new projects have me giddy like a school girl, the first Exfiltrate Xenos 9 is an engine building points grab type board game in which players each become a different mutant waking up with amnesia from cryosleep in a creepy prison set to detonate. Mutate to survive as you try to learn as much about who you are as possible before the prison goes up in flames. This one is a blast and play testers have enjoyed it much so far, I’m excited to show the game industry what a young studio can do with the launch of this game.

T.R.E.N.C.H. is a roleplaying game set in a future where all land mass above sea level has been destroyed, as such civilization carries on at the bottom of the sea. People live in giant Sanctuaries on the bottom of the ocean, here only the bravest venture out across the open sea in ships called Vessels. An rpg about exploring a world of peril that aims to crush you. More to come on this subject in the future.

Any other thoughts? Advice?
My main advice to others who love games or aim to make games, just do it. Nike paid me to say that, seriously though, put equal parts passion and problem solving into the process and you will make it happen. Pay an editor or let your backers proof your game. Other advice pertains to being active in the community, this is an age of the internet, go make friends with others who share similar interests via facebook groups or bgg, or even in person at your local game store or convention.  Thanks again for your time my friend,
-Jared
Thank you so much for your time and wisdom, Mr. Barry!  Wow.  This guy is going somewhere and doesn’t mind sharing how.  If you are interested in finding more information on Mad Ape Games you can find him on the the web HERE; his Kickstarter campaigns HERE, HERE, and HERE; on Twitter HERE; and on Facebook HERE.  Please, check him out, follow him, and thank him for taking the time to talk to us 😀
Game Development, Lessons Learned

#27: ADSftK Designer Diary 3 (The Obvious)

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Welcome to part three of my series on the MANY things I learned from The Game Crafter‘s “Time” Design Challenge.  My entry was A Dragon Show for the King and the lessons were bountiful. Last time, I went over the headaches involved with this game’s art and theme.  I think today we’ll go over a list of much shorter, more obvious lessons.

*Firstly, let me apologize for the great delay in between these posts.  My first attempt at writing this entry turned into a rant about balance.  The second attempt met with some unexpected revelations about design and, therefore, required some extra time to refine.  Then. . . this third try required a bunch of images 😛 Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy!

Tangents:

You may have noticed that I really enjoy a rambling, story-telling style of writing.  I originally thought it would play well with the goal of sharing lessons I’ve learned about game design and self-publishing.  Well, I realized just today that I’ve been basically wasting “blog” time for about a month now.  You see, I’ve been preparing some very pretty words for a deep conversation about generating interaction between players, building a fun “experience” instead of just a clever game, and balancing meanness to player control.  The discussion actually ballooned into 2 posts!  Today, I suffered a moment of clarity and realized that none of that fluff had to do with any lesson I learned from designing ADSftK or taking it to print.  While the writing did lead to a revelation about the design process which I have now begun implementing, it’s not in line with the goal of this series.

Therefore, the lesson here is FOCUS – something I tend to struggle with.  Instead of giving what I promised, I was writing expositions on my design philosophy and what I find fun in games.  While some people might find that interesting reading, it’s not the point.  To that end, moving forward I will be putting more effort into outlining my posts so that I have a clear picture of my topics, and I will try harder to write about lessons as they come up – instead of recapping months later.

speaking of “in line”. . .

Central Alignment:

I feel so dumb.  My first version of this game looked like this:

8-4

Pretty enough.  Just a little something to convey information to my players.  When I finally settled on a theme, I kept the original layout, changed the icons, added eggs, and prettied things up.  Then, I hit this card:

(3+) 2-0

Do you see the problem?

Not enough room.  Know why?  Because EVERYTHING is center aligned.  Ugh.  For the most part, the information flow is pleasant.  I still love the pretty linework that it allowed.  Unfortunately, there just isn’t enough room for time, egg, abilities, and power all down the middle.  Not to mention, I need extra room for the next topic:

Timing:

(3+) 6-8

This was seriously the dumbest mistake I made in this entire project.  I assumed.  At first, the abilities simply happened.  As I figured out cooler abilities, they needed special timing restrictions.  It was pretty obvious that I had to specify something happened at the beginning or end of the turn, and that some things happened when the eggs hatched.  And that’s where I stopped thinking.

I just figured that people would READ the abilities.  If there was no timing restriction listed, they would come to the conclusion that it occurs anytime it would make sense (all the time), right?  Nope.  For a month and a half, my testers and I just played and assumed.  No one thought it was strange or even commented.  So, I submitted my game for the competition.  Then, I got the first email asking about when something happened.  Before I even finished reading the question I knew what I did wrong. . . and it was huge!

 

(3+) 12-24
I have lost count of the number of times that I read “don’t assume”.  I even gave that advice to others.  Then, I went and did it anyway!  Fortunately, the fix was “easy”.  Changing the layout for the previous reason and utilizing icons in the ability text created plenty of room to showcase the egg and add this beautiful new timing label.

Information Breakdown:

This actually goes hand-in-hand with my previous post on using spreadsheets.  Go on, use them!  Don’t just lay out your cards, though.  If you have a finite resource, like how ADSftK has limited space and time, track it!  When I submitted this game, there was a real problem with staging eggs.  It always felt like players just could not get ahead.  Testers in most games I saw would end the game with at least 3 eggs in each hatchery.  That’s a problem.  You should feel smart for planning well, not feel overwhelmed and stupid.  When Willis first suggested staging eggs, I knew I would have to rebalance the times so that it would be more reasonable.  Well, I didn’t expect it to be so very bad.

When I finally input the cards into spreadsheets and looked at the times, I was shocked.  I calculated that the most “time” a single player could process in a 12 round game is about 33.  There was over 90 time in a 2 player game.  That’s a problem!  It meant that no matter how well a player planned, they could never clear their hatcheries by the end of the game.

Information Breakdown Part 2:

I could write an entire post on this point, but it’s here because I discovered it while writing the huge novel that was going to be Design Diary #3.  Very early on in the iterative process, break down exactly how you want players to interact with the game.  Once I decided to make every egg with a special ability unique, I actually had a difficult time coming up with new and interesting abilities.  This problem stemmed from not fully understanding my game’s inner workings.  I was only thinking about the big picture of “time”.  However, each ability’s effect on “time” was actually affecting the dwindling hand / decreasing choices, limited work space, randomly distributed eggs, and risk / reward system (abilities vs. score).  If I had taken the time to define those parameters, the development process would have been faster and easier because I would have known the ultimate goal from the start, instead of blindly stumbling into good abilities.   But, hindsight, rushed work, and all that jazz.

notesThanks to that epiphany, my process is now:
1. Brainstorm idea, story, theme, mechanism, etc.
2. Write Design Goals AND Specific Interactions
3. Prototype, test, refine, and iterate.

Summary of Lessons Learned:

  • FOCUS – write more outlines so that I can stay ON TOPIC!  If I really feel the need for an Op/Ed, write it on my own time and post it elsewhere.
  • PLANNED LAYOUT – while cleaning up the plain prototype is easy, I have to adjust the card to cleanly convey all of the new art, icons, and information that I’ve added along the way.
  • EXPLAIN EVERYTHING – don’t assume.  Tell the players what must be done and when.  Unnecessary confusion is a quick way of ruining an otherwise great game.
  • COUNT – track your finite resources, number of cards, each ability, everything!  Testing will tell you if it feels right, but counting will tell you if you are even in the right ballpark.
  • DEFINE INTERACTIONS – this does not have to be rigid or all inclusive.  Just as Design Goals set big picture parameters for the game, this list is an amazing tool for brainstorming new (game appropriate) ideas and to filter abilities and mechanisms.

Well, that’s it for A Dragon Show for the King’s race for The Game Crafter’s Design Challenge.  The Challenge is over (I didn’t win) and the world has moved on.  I still love this game and plenty of people have had a great time testing it.  Therefore, I am currently reworking the time balance so the game actually works and redoing all of the art so it isn’t as hideous 😉  Stay tuned here and the Facebook page for updates.  What do you think of the game’s progress?

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Game Development, Lessons Learned

#26: ADSftK Designer Diary 2 (Art and Committing to Theme)

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Alright!  Now that they holidays are over and everyone’s work schedules are returning to normal, let’s see if I can get this baby back on track 😀

Finally, part two of my series on the MANY things I learned from The Game Crafter‘s “Time” Design Challenge.  My entry was A Dragon Show for the King and the lessons were plenteous. Last time, I covered the design goals and physical components. This week, I’ll be discussing art and a little bit of theme.

Firstly, a subtle but serious problem.  I’ve mentioned before that this game was quite unique for me in that, out of 10 game designs over a year-and-a-half, this was my first which grew around mechanics – no theme or story.  Seriously! If you go to the game’s page and download the PnP you can see how the cards looked right up until the last few days of the competition.  Just grey cards with some information listed on them.

At first, I wasn’t worried about it.  “A theme will come,” I thought.  “I’ll just work on the game-play now, and finish the look and polish later.”  Yeah, the problem is, “non-gamers” and “gamers who learn rules a little more slowly” have a very difficult time grasping what they should do, when, how, and why without a frame of reference.  As I mentioned in the last post, accessibility was very important to me.  I thought “Draft a card, Cook it for X turns, and Score it” was simple.  It turns out that some people need to know why they are picking a card before anything else can make any sense at all.

Most people could be coaxed along through the learning curve, though.  Just when I was feeling my lowest about this problem, a lady from my FLGS asked to play it again.  The week before this she had played, was confused, and lost badly.  But this week, she said it was fun and wanted to play again!  That’s when I knew I had something worthwhile.  The biggest problem with “No Theme” was still to come, though.

I was so comfortable with the game as it was and so focused on making it a foundational Lagniappe game, that I resisted putting a theme on it.  Any other time, this could be argued as holding out for the perfect story.  Unfortunately, I was on a time-crunch.  I wasted weeks!  Wasted because “dragon eggs” was the second reasonable idea, first good idea I encountered! *Special thanks to Teale Fristoe (@nothingsacredg) for the suggestion of a celebratory dragon show instead of a kingdom wide war!*  Instead of committing to a good idea so that I could actually move forward, I continued to spin my wheels and ask everyone I could what theme / story they thought would work.  DON’T DO THAT!  Not only did I look really desperate (because I was), it tainted my image and ruined the conversation with a number of people who were nice enough to try the game.  The delay ultimately caused a LOT of headaches for the rest of the project.

By not committing to a theme early, I put myself in the awkward position of needing art in a VERY short period of time.  3 ARTISTS.   3 different artists came and went – unable to do the work I needed in the time I had left.  3 WEEKS.  Being a nice guy sucks when it causes you to flush 3 weeks waiting for one artist to actually produce something. 3 weeks down with nothing to show for it is scary!  I didn’t even dismiss her from the project until the 4th week.  When I finally did man-up and tell her, “Dont worry about this,” it was out of pity. With everything going on in her life and only 2 weeks left to finish the entire project, it was better for her to not have this extra stress.  It wasn’t all her fault, either. I utterly failed to follow Mr. Rodiek’s advice on working with artists.  I didn’t have solid numbers on how many dragons or eggs I needed.  I just couldn’t decide, which made her job a bit harder.  It’s always easier to do a lot of things when you know how many need to be done – instead of doing a lot, checking to see if it’s enough, yet, doing some more, ad nauseam.

After all of this hemming, hawing, and negotiating I ended up having to do all of the art myself in the last 5 days before the end of the contest.  Not fun at all.  I still didn’t even know what numbers I needed.  The original plan was to have dragons on the card backs. That way, when players flip the eggs into their score piles, they’d be building a group of dragons.  Right out the window!  I didn’t have the time or skill to pull that off.  This late in the game, I was just happy to have eggs.  I painted up a whole bunch of eggs – went until my brain ran dry.  Then, I worked up some hot coals for the background, built some symbols in Illustrator, and just started laying eggs on cards.  The number of eggs required for the project quickly became apparent.  Certain sets, color adjustments, and repetitions of similar styles were obvious now that I was actually doing something.  Ugh! It hurts to think of how much time and heartache I could have saved by building card illustrations and making a pretty prototype early on.

Now, let’s wrap up my lessons from this post.
FOR TIMED CONTESTS

  • Commit as soon as I have a theme which works with / explains how and why the game works.  This means not worrying about how the game’s theme (wizards and dragons and murder, oh my!) represents the company.  For me, contests are more about the designer than the publisher.  Besides, theme can always be changed.
  • Once I have a working foundation for the game, start mocking up illustrations.  Most people say to keep the prototype completely plain for as long as possible to save money on printing and retain modulation between edits / iterations.  Mocking up illustrations was key to my understanding of what art assets were needed.  Therefore, when time matters, I need to develop the look of the game ASAP (even if it means borrowing art from others) so that I have more time for fixes and adjustments.

FOR GENERAL DESIGN

  • Shop for and network with artists EARLY!  Even if I don’t know what art assets I need, yet.   While most people focus on how expensive art can be, my primary experience has been one of great difficulty in finding an artist.  PERIOD.  A dependable artist who is somewhat familiar with board games would be ideal.  However, someone I can stretch my budget to afford AND who is available has been a bit of a crap-shoot.  Looking for someone at the last second for any project isn’t exactly setting yourself up for success.
  • Mock-up the game before talking with an artist about the project.  If you find an available artist, they want to know what you want  – ALL OF IT – now.  To save yourself and your artists a lot of headaches, you should have a complete list (and complete understanding) of the art assets you need before they begin working.  *Quick note: if you are doing “full art” cards (illustration over the entire card instead of using a card boarder) make sure your artist leaves extra space around the focal point of the illustration.  Your printer needs a bleed area and your graphic designer needs room to layout information without covering up important parts of the image.  This layout. . . this version of framing the image is not natural for an illustrator.  If you don’t make your needs clear ahead of time you will be left with sub-optimal card art.
  • Learn to wear SEPARATE hats.  There are times where the Lagniappe Games publisher really interferes with Derik the designer.  Some times, I need to allow myself to work a game design for the experience.  It might become a great game, and it’s okay if it’s not “Lagniappe” worthy.  The important thing is to allow myself that learning experience.

Thanks for reading!  What have your experiences with design challenges been?  How do you pick your theme?

Game Development, Lessons Learned

#25: ADSftK Designer Diary 1 (Design Goals and Physical Components)

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As promised, I am going to start rolling through the MANY things I learned from The Game Crafter‘s “Time” Design Challenge. The entry I eventually submitted (at the last possible minute) is A Dragon Show for the King and the lessons are plenteous.  *I promise to try and keep this brief and to the point 😉

I guess the most logical place to start is the beginning. The contest began about 2 months ago. I found out about it with roughly 50 days left. Fear and doubt had no place in my mind because it was racing with the potential of a game which used time as a resource – not a simple timer or “clock”, but as something which could be manipulated for the players’ benefit. My Idea Notebook went everywhere with me for a week because I could not stop the flow of game concepts. Sometimes it was just a possible mechanic. Other times the thoughts involved an entire thematic idea. There were so very many  options to choose from – even some great ideas from my friends.

With time running short, I had to make a decision on ONE project to build up and publish, though. Here are the associated design goals I was cooking through:

Contest Requirements:

  • Time as a resource
  • Cost cannot exceed $24.99
  • Publish Ready: logo, backdrop, shop ad, action shots, description, cool factors, all images proofed, and have packaging
  • Must be new and must be (legally) yours

Personal Goals:

  • Small / easily transported (because of the dwindling clock and monetary restriction)
  • Lightweight / easy to learn (because it’s small)
  • Easy / fast set up and break down
  • Good player interaction
  • As many players as possible (because interaction is more fun with more people)
  • An element of randomness to improve replay value
  • Players should feel like they have control over their end-game
  • No player elimination & hidden score (so the game can be fun all the way to the end)

Now, with the exception of the first 2 points, these personal goals are generally how I like to design anyway. Honestly, I don’t even write this stuff down. It’s just how I filter game ideas as I’m preparing to work on a project. So, with all of that in mind I reviewed my ideas and went with the most exciting and “complete” one I had: a drafting game where the chosen cards had to “cook” for a set number of turns. After the cards processed they were turned face-down in a score pile to hide the actual score until the end of the game. Some cards would have abilities which sped up or slowed down the progress of other cards. Some of those abilities would specifically mess with other players.

Why was that the most exciting? Didn’t you have something bigger / better in that book? Well, let me tell you. . .

I love drafting games. Teale Fristoe at Nothing Sacred Games gives a wonderful breakdown of many reasons to love the format. Primarily, I wanted to keep this a drafting game because it utilized randomness in a way to give players a different view of the game play after play, while still allowing a level of control over how the game panned out. Depending on how the draft is structured, you could have a built-in clock to end the game in a set number of turns – thereby giving me control over how big and how long the game was. Because I knew how many turns I wanted the game to last, adding more players simply involved adding a known number more cards. Finally, as Mr. Fristoe points out, a huge benefit of drafting is simultaneous play. Thereby allowing me to add up to 6 players to the game without drastically increasing play time.

The first iteration was actually quite easy to build. The challenge, really, was in determining how many cards I would need. Ideally, I’d be able to fit this whole thing into a tuck box. However, I wanted at least 6 players to be able to play and, as I just mentioned, adding more players meant adding more cards. So, the total number needed to divide evenly into player groups (i.e. 2, 3+, 5+) to allow for easy set up. Secondly, the number of cards divided by the number of players determined the number of turns for a game. Too small a card pool and the game would be extremely short. Too long of a game and players would start with an unwieldy hand (imagine on your first play through holding and sorting 30 cards all at once).

My gut told me that I wanted a 2 player game to last between 10 and 14 turns. This should allow just enough time for players to get themselves into trouble and race down to the finish line without feeling overly long. Whatever I decide for 2 players would be my foundation – no other group would have fewer than this number of turns. After doing a tiny bit of math and a lot of intuitions 😉 I settled on 24 cards. This gave 2 players 12 turns to work their magic. It also multiplied beautifully: 3 players would have 16 turns each, 4 players 12 each, 5 players 14* each, and 6 players 12 each. The one acceptable complication being 5 players. In the end, I put some REALLY strong and crazy stuff in those 24 5+ player cards. So, losing 2 wasn’t really a problem.

This means that the total 6 player capable version would only involve 72 poker size cards. Yay! Small game? Check! Easy set up? (Shuffle together up to 3 complete sets of 24 cards depending on the size of your group.) Check!

That pretty much covers design goals and how I determined the physical details of the game. Tune in next week when I’ll start covering more of the virtual aspects of the game, like: player interaction, time as a resource, theme, etc. In the mean-time, have a great week!

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

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