Category Archives: design process

playing catchup: my Gathering of Friends

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April is always a whirlwind month for me and this April was no exception.

The big event, of course, was Alan Moon’s Gathering of Friends, a 10 day, invite-only game con, held annually in Niagara Falls, NY, and hosted by legendary game designer Alan R Moon. This was my 5th year (wow, how can it have been five years?), and my longest stay yet – I attended for the full 10 days.

 

 

As is my preference, I played more prototypes than published games and the published games I played tended to be small, light games. I’ll attempt to highlight a few games I enjoyed that haven’t been heavily covered elsewhere.

 

 

SHADOW THRONE, by Teale Fristoe, is an intriguing card-drafting game. A step or two above Phil Walker-Harding’s SUSHI GO! in complexity, with a dark fantasy theme, SHADOW THRONE is a little meatier, adding some welcome player interaction to a style of game that often lacks it.

 

 

LOONEY QUEST, by Laurent Escoffier and David Franck, is the best attempt I’ve seen at converting a video game experience to the tabletop. In it, players exercise hand-eye coordination to plot paths, enclose objects, and pinpoint targets on a series of video game-like level maps by drawing on a clear acetate sheet. Players then then check their accuracy by overlaying their acetates on the screen map to see how accurate they were. We were especially taken by how the game box itself was used in play, both as the “console” and as an ingenious method of tracking scores.

 

 

ABRACA…WHAT?, by Gun-Hee Kim, is an entertaining game of wizards attempting to deduce the unknown spells they carry by trying to cast them! It has been compared to Alex Randolph’s classic deduction game CODE 777, and the comparison is apt. ABRACA…WHAT? takes the basic deduction structure of CODE 777 and overlays a lighthearted magical combat system that encourages more than a little play acting and silliness.

 

 

Play testing prototypes is always one of my favorite activities at any game con, and I played quite a few good ones here. My dear friend Greg Daigle, designer of HAWAII, always brings a clutch of his smartly designed, beautiful prototypes, and I look forward to playing them each year. He has a couple this year, including a pirate game, that were very promising.

 

One bare-bones prototype that got quite a lot of play over the week, was Vlaada Chvátil’s early prototype of a very clever word game code named CODENAMES. This is one of those “why didn’t I think of that?” kind of games that is so simple and engaging it’s amazing nobody’s done it before. This is sure to become a classic with the right development, and Vlaada has the design chops to pull that off.

 

 

I got a few good play tests in of my own game, LXIX: THE YEAR OF FOUR EMPERORS. Lots of positive response from some very well-respected designers, and with their input I’ve found a couple final tweaks that should put the finishing touches on it. I sent LXIX home with a world class publisher, who will assess it over the summer. I have high hopes for this game.

 

 

What makes The Gathering truly wonderful are the friendly, generous attendees.  This year, even more so than in years past, I connected with so many new people and made new friendships, and reconnected with those friends from Gatherings past. It really feels like a family reunion.

One of my favorite moments was during my very last moments at the Gathering and didn’t involve any games at all. It was the Monday morning after the final day, when we last few stragglers were finally trickling out of the hotel. I had packed my luggage and game bags into my vehicle and checked out before stopping into the hotel Starbucks to grab a coffee and a breakfast sandwich for the road, when I ran into CAYLUS designer, William Attia.

I’d played a couple of games with William during the week, including an intense play test of LXIX, and had a nice conversation over a long lunch with him and Greg Daigle. I had gotten to know this quiet, reserved fellow, so it was with pleasure and friendship that I met his greeting and wished him safe travels, as I was about to begin my long drive back to Madison.

William had a sandwich of his own and his ever-present cup of tea, so when he suggested that, surely, I had a few minutes to sit with him and eat before driving, I couldn’t resist. We breakfasted and talked about what books we were reading. He avowed a passion for the classics, and we talked a while about Jules Verne’s oeuvre and the more and less successful games based on his novels.

At last, our sandwiches finished, I could responsibly delay no longer. It was good bye until next year, or the unlikely event that he should find himself traveling in Wisconsin.

It was a delightful conclusion to my Gathering week and a fond memory.

 

Bonus Link: Check out my friend Nick Bentley’s excellent abstract game CATCHUP on iOS.

the importance of designing a product

When designing a game you hope to license for publication, keep in mind that you’re not just designing a game: you’re creating a product. For your game to be successful, a publisher must be able to sell it quickly, in quantity, and for a reasonable mark-up.

 

 

 

fourth 4P update and final thoughts

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Last Friday I drove to Chicago for a play test jam with my old pals Jeph Stahl and Greg Daigle, both sharp, successful, highly-respected designers. We all had new games we were eager to get on the table and dig into. I’d brought along Dungeon of Doom, with the hopes of fitting in a fourth play test session in January, to complete the 4P challenge.

Jeph and Greg are both familiar with an earlier version of this game and were eager to see what I’d cooked up for this new iteration, so I set it up and we got right to work. Jeph quickly zeroed in on a flaw I’d missed in earlier play tests and we worked through several iterations that afternoon, looking for just the right fix.

 

 

Throughout that afternoon, there was an issue we kept dancing around. I’d changed the resolution of the original risk-reward mechanism in this new  version of the game and it just didn’t feel right. It had lost the tension that made the original so much fun. We proposed and tested several changes, but at the end it was apparent they were little more than band-aids.

Most of my changes from the earlier game were good, positive gains in the system, but this one was a mistake. I further confirmed this feeling in a play test this Tuesday at my Board Games & Beer game night. It was simply lacking that spark. Fortunately, swapping back to the original risk-reward mechanism (or something closer to it) is an easy fix.

Dungeon of Doom isn’t a finished game, but there is definitely a light at the end of this tunnel. I’ve got a clear goal for my next few play tests, and I think I can wrap this game up over the next couple of months.

 

 

I designed a game and play tested it four times in January. I’m very proud of that accomplishment.

 

 

4P reactions

I designed a game and play tested it four times in January. I’m very proud of that accomplishment. I’m incredibly happy with the progress I made with the design and I’m excited by the possibilities I see in it. I think people will have a lot of fun with it.

Four play test sessions in, and I’ve had breakthroughs and revelations in each. I have  a solid system to build on and most of the heavy lifting is done. My next step will be to write a rules outline to hang words on. Then; more play testing, more play testing, more play testing.

 

 

4P Lessons Learned

Play testing

The first play test of a rough design should be with other designers. You’ll have a lot of rough edges to work around and designers are best equipped to deal with warts on a game. Additionally, play test with players in your target audience early in your game’s development. They’re the people you’re designing for. If you listen carefully, they will help you make the game you want to design into a game they want to play.

Prototyping

Don’t worry about making your prototype pretty, as long as it’s functional and clear. If it needs art, borrow it online from games with similar themes or settings. Don’t reinvent the wheel. You’re going to be making a lot of changes as the game progresses. Don’t make anything you’d feel bad about tearing up and throwing away. Your modus operandi in the early stages is rapid iteration. Get it built and get it on the table. Fail faster!

The Big 4P Takeaway

I had a  lot of fun with the 4P challenge, but my biggest 4P takeaway? I had four play test sessions in January! That’s one play test session each week. It felt practically decadent. It was wonderful! I’d love to continue that pace. I’m going to try to make that happen.

Getting Ready For Protospiel 2015, Part 1

design process

Words of wisdom from veteran Protospieler Kevin Nunn.

Read it. Learn it. Live it.

Kevin G. Nunn's avatarKevin G Nunn

Protospiel events are big game design parties.  Most of the attendees are authors, carrying work that varies in completion from “heading to the printer” to “thought of it this morning.” Playtesters–people who attend to play and nothing else–will be milling about.  Publishers will be scouting for the jewels among the mass.  No matter what your role, everyone will be playing a variety of games, offering feedback, impressions, and suggestions.

Design events like Protospiel have become increasingly common both as stand-alone events and as part of a larger whole.  In the last year, Origins, Gen Con (http://www.gencon.com/) and BoardGameGeek.Con all featured “designer alley” or “designer/publisher speed dating” or both.  There are playtesting events scattered across the US and Canada.–check the main page at protospiel.org to find one in your area.  With so many around the continent, I cannot imagine how any designer could fail to attend at least one of…

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3rd 4P upd8

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On Saturday night I plied four friends with awesome homemade pan pizza in hopes of getting them to play test Dungeon of Doom. The pizza worked its magic and the play test was a smashing successes! All four ladies had a great time while playing and it inspired a stream of comments and suggestions in the postmortem I could barely keep up with. Excited, energized play testers are a wonderful thing!

Getting my ducks in a row.

After the previous play test, I made a few changes to the prototype. I simplified the scoring by rounding the gold values on Monsters to even hundreds. To improve the odds of a successful Delve, I reduced the frequency of Canardo symbols in the deck. Additionally, I took the Magic Item cards out of the main deck and added ‘item draw’ symbols; now, when a player takes a card with the symbol, she draws a card from the Magic Items deck. I figured these updates would give me plenty of data to analyze before the final 4P play test. Race and Class cards, which allow players to break the rules in small but meaningful ways, would need to wait until those rules were rock solid.

On the night of the play test.

This play test started out, as mine often do, with me fumbling my way through the explanation, hoping I remembered everything. By the time we got through the first round, though, my players had grokked the system and we were off to a rollicking start.

Dungeon of Doom has some bluffing and press your luck elements and a very silly theme which combine to generate tension, laughter and a lot of groan-inducing puns. We were on fire last night with groaners so epic I had to write some of them down so I could incorporate them into the game later on. I’d share them here, but that would spoil the fun!

After the game, we talked about what worked and what didn’t, what they wanted to see more of and how the game play compared to previous versions of the system.  More frequent access to Magic Items was big on everyone’s list, and I agree. The new system functioned, but I hadn’t added nearly enough of the ‘item draw’ symbols for it to actually work as intended and very few Magic Items entered the game.

There was one element that managed to surprise both my players and me.

There are a couple of Epic Monsters in the deck that disrupt the Delve when they appear. The first one they turned up took them completely by surprise; I’d sort of neglected to mention them when I explained the game. I could tell they were annoyed.

In the postmortem, their enthusiasm for them took me by surprise. At first, they explained, they didn’t like the Epic baddies interrupting their carefully planned Delves, but after they had a chance to reflect on it, they demanded more and various Epic Monsters! The wild unpredictability of them shot an extra thrill through the game that they really enjoyed.

What’s next?

I need to increase the frequency of the ‘item draw’ symbols. I’ll double it to start with, maybe triple, and I definitely need more Magic Items. Lots of possibilities here.

I’ll bring in a few more Epic Monsters. My play testers had some great suggestions for new Epic baddies and I’ve got some cool ideas of my own. I’m excited to get a few more in the game, but I will have to make sure they don’t become too disruptive.

Lastly, I need to finish writing and test the Race and Class cards. Simple, easy to understand and easy to use powers are called for here.

I’ve got at least one more, possibly two more play tests coming up this week, which I’ll post about here. And then? Then I’ll have won 4P.