Happy Mother's Day to everyone!
Today we got to playtest the game I submitted to this month's showdown. I won't say much about it except that everyone really had a good time and I think it's definitely a design that I want to pursue.
Playtesting is something that everyone needs to do, but it's not near as much fun as just coming up with ideas. The idea phase is great; the unlimited potential that you imagine the game having makes for a pleasant thought experiment, but until you start playtesting you really have nothing more than a bunch of ideas that may or may not work as a game.
Playtesting requires effort. Some components lists are a breeze, some are a downright pain. But even the design of the cards, thought it requires effort, is still a point of unlimited potential. You can imagine exactly how the cards or tiles will be used.
Then you get to the table. People are confused, things you thought were intuitive are anything but, and some things are downright broken. This is the time when you may feel disheartened. This is the time where you want to just throw it all away, and sometimes you should.
Not every design is going to be a hit. If you just have one game in you then I suppose you keep at it until it works. Maybe it ends up perfect and gets published and sells a million copies. More likely, though, you realize that game design is hard work and the work really starts when you begin playtesting.
Even if the game works well there will be niggling things that aren't intuitive or just don't work properly. Everyone had fun today, the design works, but it wasn't born perfect (no idea ever is) and it will take 10 times as much work getting it into a finished product as it did to get it into playable condition.
That's where I need to improve. I have 15 different projects in various stages of polish. I just want to get one to the point where I feel confident offering it to publishers and saying:
"This is my game. It's as good as I can make it. People will have fun playing it, and you will make money."
Not only do I have to say those words, I have to believe them to my very core. If I don't, then why should anyone else?
My goal is to be published. I don't want to be a Kickstarter phenom (not that there's anything wrong with Kickstarter). I want someone else to look at my design and believe in it as much as I do, enough to say: "We want to publish this."
This could be the one, but if it's not I'm okay with that. I'll just keep working and refining my skills. I will be a published designer one day, because I'm willing to put in the work to make good games.
