Tag: creative project

Categories
Color Space Game Design

The Many Trials of A Colorful Game

I’ve been heads-down refining the mechanics for A Colorful Game. Here are some of my discoveries from the 10 playtests that I’ve had so far:

Issue

Games were way too long. (1+ hour)

Resolution

I took care of this by minimizing the card count. Put the game at a smooth 30ish minute playtime. That’s the goal!

Issue

The game was also far more complex with decisions than I wanted it to be. You have to place AND move a tile—ugh! Too much brain juice to spend on what to do best. (I watched a player’s life flash before their eyes for more than 10 minutes, hoping to glean some forgotten wisdom to help them make a decision.)

Resolution

This was advice from another designer: Don’t make players have to add a new primary color tile to the play area AND have to move another tile. That’s a lot to deal with during a turn.

Note that doing this also helped to reduce the playtime to around 30 minutes.

Issue

Scoring points is just altogether difficult sometimes.

Resolution

Wild cards and bonus points! I added some cards to the game that let you fill in any blanks with a color of your choice. For example, if you have a contiguous path — orange, orange, green, purple, purple — you could play a wild with that to treat the green as a part of your path.

Also, if you scored with three or more cards, you get a bonus point; four or more and you get three bonus points!

IMG_0910
Wild card; but no bonus points for you!

This new format for the game helped shape it into the quick abstract strategy game that I was looking to make. That’s a huge milestone!

I’ve playtested this new version quite a few times and have found some new challenges to work through:

  • Games are a little too short now. It’s difficult for a player that’s behind to see a chance to come back and try to take the win.Idea to test: I’m going to add cards to the point deck or have the discard shuffle back into the deck.
  • With the introduction of wild cards, games feel like they’re not strategic enough (a little too luck of the draw).Idea to test: I’m going to add more wild cards and make them have a greater negative impact on players who use them.
  • Once you score a path, you remove all of the roads that you used to score that path with. That reduces momentum and gives too great an advantage to the first player to score.Idea to test: I think a “pick a color, remove all roads for that color” method can give the right balance of changing the play area in a fun way and not making players feel like they’ve got to start from scratch.
  • I need to work out how the game ends a little more. Right now, the game ends once the point card deck is depleted and neither player can score on their next turns…it just feels like an odd way to end the game.Idea to test: A “first player to x points” win condition should fix this. I just need to test whether this is fun and try to discover what “x points” value is best.

That’s all for now! Until next time…

Categories
Game Design

Happy Playtesting (and Holidays)!

This may come as a shock to anyone reading this, but I play a lot of board games. Gasp! I know. This holiday season, I’ve had the chance to play a lot more board games with my close friends and family. I cherish the holidays. But enough about me, let me talk about how my board game designs are coming along…

Untitled Nation Manipulation Game

I’ve got a solid prototype that I’ve been playtesting with people. It’s balanced enough at this point that I’m going to start long form playtesting. (Playtesting the game at least ten times before weighing any feedback-based changes.)

Why haven’t I done that already? Well, the game wasn’t balanced AND I haven’t had the time to playtest the game that many times as of yet. The game is still lo-fi (image of some cards below for reference) but I’ve got it to a place where I can just bust it out and people can enjoy a long, mostly uninterrupted by rule confusion, session with people.

Screen Shot 2019-11-29 at 4.19.04 PM
Cards! Cards everywhere!

I’m also mostly finished with the one asset that hasn’t dramatically changed in theme during my construction of this game, the War Hero.

War_Hero.JPG
I bet he’ll look good on a card. (Still working through some textures.)

Early this January, I’m going to be finally hitting the playtesting scene hard for this game, and I’m excited for it to get torn a new one by strangers.

A Colorful Game

I made this game for the Button Shy 18 Card Game challenge, originally, but didn’t get picked to be a finalist. I later realized that for the most part, the challenge is based more on pretty designs and less on unique, fun game mechanics. I won’t be participating in another challenge, at least not for a while.

But something good did come out of it. I created a primary/secondary color creation game where you create secondary colors in sequences to score points. Here’s what that looked like for the challenge. (I threw the design together in like 5 minutes, so it’s pretty messy.)

Screen Shot 2019-10-13 at 6.46.39 PM.png
Primary colors one side of the card and secondary colors on the opposite side. Rotate the card to activate a certain color.

Well, I like the idea of the game but not the idea of it existing in cards like this. So that game evolved into this…

Now in A Colorful Game, you take certain placement or movement actions to generate secondary colors. Each primary color has different rules for how you can place and move it. You create paths of secondary colors through this, and in this, you score points based on the pattern of paths you created.

It’s taken me three weeks to redesign this game from the ground up, but it’s also ready to hit the playtesting circuit more heavily. Funny out that works, my Untitled Nation Manipulation game has taken almost two years to get to where it is right now. So it goes.

 

Categories
Game Design

Prototypes for Days

The nation! Just ripe for the manipulation: although, there are good and bad types of manipulation in this game

Here’s a Quick Status Update

Bullet pointed list, activate:

  • I just finished printing a new prototype for my hidden identity, country manipulation game
  • I’m close to a new prototype for my quick tile laying, tactics-based game
  • I’m working on revamping and injecting more fun into an abstract color making game

Here’s a Long Status Update

My latest build is coming along. I got a lot of feedback on game pacing and balance which I’ve incorporated into this version. I haven’t had time to cut out these new assets yet but it’s on my to-do list.

Crisis board, tells you the effects of each crisis resolution based on player votes
Player mat with mechanics that drive Wealth, Education, and Reputation (all needed to kick ass in this game)
The nation! Just ripe for the manipulation: although, there are good and bad types of manipulation in this game
Cards! Cards everywhere!
Secret hidden private confidential characters! (Shhh, they’re a secret.)

I’m experimenting with different art and graphic styles and I nail down some of my more concrete assets. (None of my final designs are present in the gallery above.)

How do I collect feedback, you ask?

I use a google form and sheets of paper during the playtest. I actually ask people to fill out the google form before providing open feedback. I do this to collect metrics (who won, how many players were there, and what character did everyone play) more than look at what they had to say about the game.

I also collect open feedback at the end of the game. What was fun, what wasn’t, etc etc. That’s what I act on when revising my later builds of the game.

My Other Games in Progress

I have two other games in the pipeline aside from this one. They’re both getting heavy makeovers.

A Colorful Game

This is an abstract color making game. You manipulate primary color cards to form the most of your secondary color on the board. I still have some kinks to work out. Mainly, the game starts in a grid format and I think I can do better. I’m going to convert these cards to square tiles and make it more of a tile laying game.

Screen Shot 2019-10-13 at 6.46.39 PM
Current assets that will soon receive a fabulous makeover—and be converted to tiles

Untitled Tile Laying Tactics Game

This one has been a blast to design but I still have a lot of work to do. I’m going to go full on hexes for this game, add a tile laying aspect (it’s currently set out in a grid) and add combat mechanics. Eventually, I’m going to change the way each element plays the game for some asynchronous strategy. (Although, the game won’t be entirely asynchronous.)

Screen Shot 2019-11-21 at 10.37.19 AM
The four playable elements

That’s all, Folks

Thanks for reading! Until next time…

 

Categories
Game Design

My Promises to My Future Self

I have the corniest reason for selecting this picture of a mountain top as my featured image. I took this photo while backpacking for a couple of days in the North Cascades. This is Colchuck Lake. My wife and I took this trip as a sort of pre-honeymoon, a few weeks before we got married.

Gross.

When I took the photo, I thought it was neat how the mountain was reflected on the water. I’m using the photo now because it’s sentimental and reminds me of a time when I was granted quiet, peaceful reflection. Mainly, I reflect on how lucky I am to have an amazing wife who supports me and to be surrounded by people who also have an interest in what I’m doing here.

I’m ready to take the next step forward and turn this design thing from a fun hobby into something real.

This is a board games blog, not live journal (is that still a thing?)

I’ve got a few things that I believe I’ve got to change to really get me there. I hope that I don’t lose people during this transition, but I think it’s for the better. Here’s what I’m talking about:

  • I’m working on an official name for the entity that I design games under. It’s not going to be “Under the Tabletop.” I really haven’t cared about an official name so far. My thought process on this is that I should have a game close to ready, something to really show, before I brand my work. Nothing is set in stone yet and as such, I have nothing more to say on that. But I’ll keep everyone informed along the way. I’d rather make this change now than later when I have a game or two being kickstarted and I don’t really know what to call myself.
  • Some time early next year, I’m going to close down Under the Tabletop and redirect all traffic to a new site. I’ll still keep up my development diaries, although they may expand somewhat.
  • I likely may not continue the whole “drink and review” thing. I haven’t written a drink and game pairing review in a while. It was fun, but my time so far has been so consumed with creating things that when I get to play a game with someone, I want to enjoy the moment. The drink and game review began to feel like a chore. At first, I thought it was a great way to show everyone that I’m actively participating in the board game community, but I think I’ve got different ways of showing that now.
  • I’m going to take on at least one smaller project and have it ready for a kickstarter campaign by March 2020. When I mean smaller project, I mean a shorter-paced game that you could likely fit in your wallet or a tin can. I have a few ideas on what that looks like and I’ll definitely keep everyone posted on that.

Thanks to everyone who has followed me thus far and I hope that you’re all there after my vaguely worded changes. (I promise, I’ll have more to come once I settle on a name and set up a C corp.)

Categories
Game Design

I got my ass kicked at my first public playtest

Finally! Is that why you haven’t written a post in forever?

I didn’t physically get my ass kicked.

Damn, you need a good whoopin’ though

I played a 1v1 of my latest game build against a volunteer play tester at a local event for board game designers to work out the kinks in their games. I got my ass kicked in two ways:

  1. I lost the game…the game that I made
  2. The play tester had a lot of feedback that has made me completely rethink my game

I think you should scrap making a board game and take up bare knuckle boxing

In terms of most types of testing, you typically want to test multiple times before deciding what needs to be changed. I believe that this play tester, who is an avid board game player and has no reason to pull their punches, had the ability to directly articulate the feedback that my friends and family (some of which aren’t hardcore board game players) have all been trying to provide me in one way or another.

I think the most helpful points of feedback were that they told me what they liked, as opposed to everything that they didn’t like. There were also things that I noticed during the playtest as well that I really wanted to change.

At points during the game, we were having fun and full of banter, at other times — I personally felt arrested. As if I could see every crack, every creaky plank, every squeaky wheel in my game but I had to keep playing.

What are you going to do about it? (Boxing is still on the table here)

Let me just lay out what they liked and what they disliked.

What they liked:

  • The blind auction-like voting
  • The currency and power manipulation
  • The hidden identity and hidden win conditions

What they didn’t like:

  • During the mid game, we both had more currency than we know what to do with
  • The veto mechanic and general power struggle was purely about who has at least one more coin than the other (especially so in a two-player game)
  • The guilds didn’t interact at all with one another
  • Aside form offering different types of tokens for purchase, the guilds weren’t distinct enough in their mechanics or thematic alignment — they mainly just seemed like means to an end
  • Crisis resolving seemed like a huge limiter in the game: Since they were random and the different types of crisis were extremely necessary for players to advance their win conditions, it was frustrating when a player had to wait forever until the next crisis type presented itself
  • The end seemed like a slog, like we were going through the motions
  • A lot of random elements, which lead to a lot of meaningless choices
  • When the play tester won, it was completely anti-climatic (there was an ability that they could easily exploit to win, which I couldn’t stop)

I repeat, what are you going to do about it?

First and foremost, I’m going to focus on what everyone likes. I’m going to remove four of the token types, leaving only four types of tokens in the game. I’m removing a direct monetary currency and replacing it with a far more intricate system of mechanics that involve general wealth, debt, reputation, and education. How players resolve crises will grant them all specific stats, which they can apply in a number of ways or trade in for a different type of stat. What types of stats they have and what guild their in will determine what combinations of tokens they’ll get.

I’m also opening it up such that every type of crisis can be solved in any way, and different outcomes occur depending on which token “wins” the draw.

Lastly, since there will no longer be coins that players spend to buy tokens or veto, I’m adding a four-way “paper, scissors, rock” style mechanic where players can cancel out or completely replace specific tokens during the draw. (Cancelled tokens are discarded, replaced tokens override the token drawn but can be replaced again!)

OK, OK — I get it…get back to work already

A lot of good things underway. My next build will definitely be a huge departure from the current one. But that’s how it should be after a good ass-kicking, right?