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[GDS] NOVEMBER 2013 "The End is Near" - Critiques

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KrisW
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One Clip Wonder Critique

One Clip Wonder (I gave them the gold) 47
- Comprehensibility 5X4=20
- Playability 5X3=15
- Theme 4X2=8
- Marketability 4X1=04
Notes:
Most of the points I gave were heavily biased by my gut feeling on this game. Loved it. LOVED IT! Want it.

Comprehensibility: It seems simple. Play a card, read the card to see what can be played on it. Keep playing until a card ending the hand is played. Mechanically it seems a lot like dominoes and yet, completely different. I don’t have a good idea as to specific text that will be on the cards, but that is what makes this so intriguing for me.

Playability: How fast will this get old? Can a player sit down and read through the cards as if they were a pulp novel of internet memes? Perhaps the links should be coded, rather than printed out on the linking cards, to encourage discovery through play rather than discovery through inspection.

Theme: The game is extremely topical, and will become outdated quickly. This could be an advantage as update packs could be the way to keep it fresh. In only a handful of years it could go from being outdated to historical, soon to become nostalgic. Eventually someone will write a college dissertation on it.

Marketability: The material components are simple to produce. Perhaps the hardest part is the research and writing needed to make the cards. I’m always in favor of games where more effort is made in the intellectual development as opposed to crafting pieces. This game is going to need a crack team of writers, and potentially could use crowd sourcing as both a research tool and marketing strategy. A possible problem would be a constant need for updating the cards as internet memes evolve.

The audience could be teen and twenty-somethings wanting to play a game involving the world they are immersed in. Parents of the teens and 20’s could want to find out what is going on in their children’s world. Although this has multi-generational appeal, this is far, far from being an inter-generational game. What high school senior really wants to explain camel toes to mom?

Corsaire
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Thanks, really appreciate the

Thanks, really appreciate the feedback so far. I was worried I made it a bit too garbled in crushing it down to 500 words. In the process, I did lose one key concept: I see this as a storytelling game with the onus on the players to explain to each other why Cow links to Church (two cows getting married, cow has gas and it is a Sunday morning, dress the cow as a preacher... etc.)

Kroz1776
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Confusions - By ELO (Great Song BTW)

This game didn't make the list mainly because I didn't understand much about it. The rules were confusing to me and I didn't really understand the mechanism that ends the game. I must say though the rule about winning after you die was awesome though. If you'd like better feedback (from me at least), repost a more detailed explanation in it's own thread! I'd be happy to look over it then!

Dagge Games
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One Clip Wonder Critiques

I am sorry. I did not get, and still don´t get how this game works. It kind of sound like a fun idea, but I don´t understand the concept. I have read through it several times, but gets lost every time.

I will read it again if the designer posts a new edition of the game.

Corsaire
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Sorry, guess it was too

Sorry, guess it was too incoherent trying to squeeze it all in and maintain a "voice". I'll do a quick gameplay focused synopsis...

The basic card play is Uno like. Instead of colors, we have uses for the item cards (Publicity - Anatomical moments – Stunts – Accidents - Mad skillz - Mind blowers) and a card can have more than one of these. Picture instead these as colors. We have Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Purple icons.

Next exception to Uno, when you play a card into the sequence, you would describe how it is being used in relation to the prior card (I ride the Unicycle to the top of the Ladder.) In this case Ladder and Unicycle both share a green Stunts icon.

Next exception, you play your cards in front of you so they are accessible for scoring.

After each player has had a chance to play, now we get into the fresh mechanic, the potential hand ender. The dealer flips over an outcome (Guess What) card which has possible internet worthy outcomes.

Following the above example let's say the outcome card is "Full Body Cast" it would list possible outcomes and cards needed to be in play to achieve it, like:
1. Crushed - Homemade Trebuchet, Elephant (hand ender)
2. Brokeback hill - Unicycle, Ladder, and Clothesline (hand ender)
3. Oh Duck! - Skateboard, Parked Car bonus 10,000 hits for person with Skateboard (hand continues)

So, as the cards on the board increase, the chance of ending outcomes increase. A number of the fatality outcomes will have Gasoline and Matches (because it's a classic); so if Gasoline is in play, you may want to hold onto your Matches, unless you want an ignominious posthumous victory.

Hope that clarifies better, sorry about the original garbledness.

Kroz1776
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Matching

So basically there will be a card that has a result with multiple ways to get those results. You must play those cards from your hand to get the points (hits) from the outcome card?

Corsaire
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Kroz1776 wrote:So basically

Kroz1776 wrote:
So basically there will be a card that has a result with multiple ways to get those results. You must play those cards from your hand to get the points (hits) from the outcome card?

No, sorry, the opposite. You play the cards as in Uno with no clue as to the possible outcome. Then outcomes are the unexpected results in relation to the elements already in play (I didn't think the elepahnt was going to land on me.) When the hand ends, you score the cards in front of you along with any bonus from the outcome card.

Very helpful process in clarifying my thoughts and how best to explain game elements.

KrisW
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One Clip Wonder Critique

There has to be a way to fit the Darwin Awards into this.

Kroz1776
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No hits?

Corsaire wrote:
Kroz1776 wrote:
So basically there will be a card that has a result with multiple ways to get those results. You must play those cards from your hand to get the points (hits) from the outcome card?

No, sorry, the opposite. You play the cards as in Uno with no clue as to the possible outcome. Then outcomes are the unexpected results in relation to the elements already in play (I didn't think the elepahnt was going to land on me.) When the hand ends, you score the cards in front of you along with any bonus from the outcome card.

Very helpful process in clarifying my thoughts and how best to explain game elements.

What if you have cards that don't show up in the results at all then?

mindspike
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Head, Gut, or Groin?

#3 One Clip Wonder

The idea of viral video construction is both appealing and horrifying at the same time. I've had assignments shudderingly close to this.... As has been stated, the "die peacefully" rule is hilariously appropriate!

(+) Another game with comedy gold built into the theme. The various card combinations can result in ludicrous chains. Although technically a competitive game, the cooperative aspect has a strong presence that makes this game stand out. Source material is virtually endless. Seems to draw heavily from Fluxx for inspiration, making player interaction a key element.

(-) The mechanical restriction is either poorly implemented or poorly explained, as this seems to be a simple build toward a point total to end the game. Strategic options are severely limited by hand size and the large number of potential combinations. The total card count seems excessive in proportion to the number of cards in play at any given time and the requirement for a hand to end upon a certain combination of cards in play.

anonymousmagic
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#3 One Clip Wonder - Critique

This game won my silver medal mainly because of the original theme and a great implementation of the contest requirement. Now that I've thrown a fresh view on it, I think the profit score might have been a bit on the high side, since all the card art is going to pile on the cost.

This is going to need a lot of play testing to make sure the cards work well together. I do agree though, this is going to be easy to make expansions for.

Mechanic-wise, I think you need a fail-safe. You don't want someone to play a killer guess what card on the first round, be the only player to score and end the game.

With a little bit more clarification and work, I think this could be extremely successful.

Limit: 9 points; Theme: 9 points; Mechanics: 8 points; Rules clarity: 7 points; Components and profit: 9 points; BONUS: 8 points; TOTAL: 50 out of 60.

disaac
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One Clip Wonder feedback

Unique idea, put me in mind of AFV & various TouTube videos of course.

But, because of that, the "death" end condition kinda took me aback. Thinking along the lines of AFV, you don't generally see people actually get greivously injured. But this is a card game, and if the artwork, etc is more cartoonish than photo-realistic, I guess that would be just fine.

The link and end conditions seem to be quite specific. It would be quite difficult to come up with an exact match to end the hand. Seems like if the Guess What cards were more card-class based rather than specific card based, there would be more possiblity for a match.
On re-reading just now with some info from earlier discussions today, I think I can see more clearly how this mechanic might still work out alright. Again, this is probably some confusion due to the rules length limitations.

It was not very clear how chaining would work between cards. What works and what cant.

It also seemed like the players are not really working towards an end, but just playing cards and talking about them until a win condition suddenly comes about. Sort of like a game of Quidditch, the points in a Whose Line Is It episode, or even the first 3.5 periods of an NBA Basketball game.

There is definitely room for improvement of this game, or possibly just more clarification of the rules. It sounds like there are some who are quite interested in what this could become, and it could infact become an interesting party game with the right group of people. For me personnally, I would have to pass. I am just not very interested in story telling type games.

Corsaire
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KrisW wrote:There has to be a

KrisW wrote:
There has to be a way to fit the Darwin Awards into this.

I like that, it may be the bridge concept for the sequence of possible outcomes.

1. Liked on Facebook
2. "The Sylvester" i.e. I've been retweeted
3. The Soup
4. AFV
5. YouTube favorite
6. National news
7. The Darwin Award

Thanks everyone, I'm feeling inspired to push this further. Biggest hurdle is going to be nailing the tactical play which is weak in concept currently, hand size is going to be crucial.

As to art, I'm seeing doodles on napkins as the start motif and riffing from there, because these things must be planned after midnight in a bar or fast food restaurant.

P.S. huge thanks to rich and mindspike for this new daily feedback concept.

richdurham
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I love parties.

The best part about friends is that you can have fun doing almost anything, including games like One Clip Wonder. Clearly the fun isn't in the simple chaining of cards, but the crazy combinations. If you develop this, it probably will be at the same crowd as Cards Against Humanity more than Apples to Apples - although a kids version with cat videos and uplifting messages about humanity people might sell well....to some.

richdurham
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Thursday, November 21st: The Housing Bubble

Thursday's game is the TOP PICK, The Housing Bubble, eeking out a victory over the tie for second. Congratulations again to those three clear favorites. This is Dagge Games's first entry, too, and is another reason I love the GDS: a level playing field.

Kroz1776
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But I Can See It Coming

The Housing Bubble: 4th Place

The Housing Bubble drew 4th place for me. It was one of the better games out there but as said for the last few games, I judged the games through elimination rounds, eliminating all the games that didn't really follow the criteria. The Housing Bubble just barely missed the Bronze. I want to iterate that this doesn't make this a bad game.

Now to the review. This game sounds great. The rules are clear for the most part and the game seems straight forward. It's sort of a push your luck kind of game where you want to buy houses in the early part of the game, sell some off later to be able to afford better homes, and then hopefully sell them all off before the bubble bursts. The mechanics for the game are great, they seem to work well and they fit the theme.

The only problem I had, and this is the only problem, was I didn't feel like the contest criteria was followed 100%. The way I read it is that players draw these cards and have a hand of them and play them. If the limit at which the housing bubble happens is known, then I felt like this had just a tad too much player control (yes I know there are more price increase cards but a player would know at the beginning of his turn if he was going to end the game and could plan on it). This took the game out of the running because I was looking for the best game that followed the criteria, BUT I think I'd enjoy this game far more than my Bronze pick! I know I'm weird! XD

Congrats on the win though, you have a great game on your hands!

bike
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Housing bubble - critique

My gold medal. Even though I did notice that the players had reasonable influence on the end of the game, I thought this was the best game. Trying to spot the district that would go up in price (because other players have interest in it) or go down (because you are the only one, and other players drop the price). The choice to sell just one, or all of your properties can be a hard decision.

Since money is hidden (?) there is no extra tension towards the end of the game, and it is not clear which player should be hindered by dropping prices in the district he has the most houses in.

A suggestion: cards like "good school", "shopping center" which, over several turns, increase the price in a district. Or nasty ones, with negative effect.

KrisW
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The Housing Bubble Critique

The Housing Bubble (I gave them the bronze)
My personal scores didn’t make any sense so I won’t inflict them on you.
Notes:
The mechanics are well designed and balanced. I was biased against it because it makes me want to stomp around in circles yelling “You idiots!” at real world home buyers.

Comprehensibility: I couldn’t figure out the mechanic of how the luxury goods come into play. I assumed that 4 are laid out for all to see and refreshed when sold. This wasn’t a huge problem, but it does set up the winning conditions, which is important to make clear.

Playability: I can see why many people rated this one at the top of their list. The outrageous luxuries and enthusiastic suspension of disbelief in the inevitable will create a thrill or maybe an “Aaaaaauuuuugggggg!” towards the end of the game. This effect is really, really well done.

On the other hand, some people who were too close to the real world housing debacle might find this painful and not entertaining. I don’t think this game will start any fights at a party, but it might lead to uncomfortable silences and strained expressions.

Theme: This models the recent housing bubble very well, except for the part about everyone seeing the inevitable.

I do wish the purchase of luxury goods was worked into the theme more tightly - possibly the only way to purchase them would be through loans based on the difference between the standard value of the property and the inflated value? Add to this a rule that loans may be paid only at the beginning of a turn, before luxuries can be bought, so that loans must be held for at least one turn. This would force players to take more chances with the inflated price. In the real world a lot of people got in trouble through taking loans backed by imaginary property value.

Marketability: It looks like the components are simple and off the shelf except for the cards. I would think highly stylized, iconic graphics will help pull the players into the fantasy, and hiring a high level art director good enough to pull this off might be costly.

You may have to do some research to get truly insane luxury cards, which is what this game demands. Not just a car, but a diamond studded car. Not just a swimming pool, but a pool adapted from a Roman bath imported from an archeological dig in Italy.

This game would be a great learning tool, but it shouldn’t be marketed as such as that is dull, dull, dull. Of course, in time people will find the crash more entertaining. If you try to market this and fail don’t throw it out. Bring it back in 10 or 12 years as a nostalgia piece and it may do surprisingly well.

Corsaire
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#4 Housing Bubble Critique

Congratz for taking the win.

The contest as presented, I took to be unexpected endings/fresh game ending mechanics. In that way I was screening for an ender that felt orginal and natural to the game. The Housing Bubble won my gold as it nailed this on both accounts, particularly as it really evokes that woah it changed/is over sense as well as encouraging a play style focused on the impending doom.

I think the market adjustment cards are the tuning point in this game, how those play out, how the player control is dictated, etc. I suspect some mechanism where bidding actually alters the market would ramp this up and enhance the simulation aspect.

Bonus points for a game that accomplishes social commentary without any hand waving.

One thing that arbitrarily bugged me was using the d4+number of players in a couple of places.

Nice work.

Dagge Games
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Kroz1776 wrote: The only

Kroz1776 wrote:
The only problem I had, and this is the only problem, was I didn't feel like the contest criteria was followed 100%. The way I read it is that players draw these cards and have a hand of them and play them. If the limit at which the housing bubble happens is known, then I felt like this had just a tad too much player control (yes I know there are more price increase cards but a player would know at the beginning of his turn if he was going to end the game and could plan on it). This took the game out of the running because I was looking for the best game that followed the criteria, BUT I think I'd enjoy this game far more than my Bronze pick! I know I'm weird! XD

I guess I should have explained this part a bit better, though the game-design is not 100% finished.
Explanation: At any time players have 2 market-adjustment cards in hand. When the phase comes to playing those cards, the players must pick a card from the revealed market-cards. Then they either have to play this or one of the cards from hand. If they choose to play a card from hand, the picked card stays in hand. This way, I would say that the players have some control over the market, but eventually they will have to play a market card that is not "good for them"
Also I want to say that players don´t know during their round if the bubble will burst or not. In the buying/selling phase the players don´t know which cards, nor how many market-adjustment cards that will be played in the market-phase.

bike wrote:
Since money is hidden (?) there is no extra tension towards the end of the game, and it is not clear which player should be hindered by dropping prices in the district he has the most houses in.

A suggestion: cards like "good school", "shopping center" which, over several turns, increase the price in a district. Or nasty ones, with negative effect.

No, I did not mean for the money to be hidden. I would say the extra tension in the end is more should I risk a new loan to buy more houses now, should I risk to buy more luxury-items, or should I sell everything before the bubble bursts and I get stuck with a lot of unpaid loan?

Good suggestions. It might work in this concept.

krisW wrote:
Comprehensibility: I couldn’t figure out the mechanic of how the luxury goods come into play. I assumed that 4 are laid out for all to see and refreshed when sold. This wasn’t a huge problem, but it does set up the winning conditions, which is important to make clear.

Yes, d4+ the number of players. In a 4 player game this would be 5-8 cards per round. My thought was that players in clockwise order with alternating starting player chooses a card to buy. Not refreshed when sold. These cards gave points according to how expensive the luxury was, but also the combination of cards should matter. For instance: If you bought a lot of expensive cars, this would give more points than just buying random luxury.

krisW wrote:
Playability: I can see why many people rated this one at the top of their list. The outrageous luxuries and enthusiastic suspension of disbelief in the inevitable will create a thrill or maybe an “Aaaaaauuuuugggggg!” towards the end of the game. This effect is really, really well done.

Thank you!

krisW wrote:
On the other hand, some people who were too close to the real world housing debacle might find this painful and not entertaining. I don’t think this game will start any fights at a party, but it might lead to uncomfortable silences and strained expressions.

This might feel different for people in US. I live in Norway. The bubble has not yet bursed. People have threatened us with this for several years. The prices are still rising. (well, maybe not the two-three couple of months)
But one day I guess........:-(

krisW wrote:
I do wish the purchase of luxury goods was worked into the theme more tightly - possibly the only way to purchase them would be through loans based on the difference between the standard value of the property and the inflated value? Add to this a rule that loans may be paid only at the beginning of a turn, before luxuries can be bought, so that loans must be held for at least one turn. This would force players to take more chances with the inflated price. In the real world a lot of people got in trouble through taking loans backed by imaginary property value.

You are right about this part. My original idea was that players could take as much loan as they would like during the game and buy as many properties and luxury items as they would like, but this might not work so well because of the fact that the prices probably will rise throughout the game. So maybe better if the players can spend only their "profit" on the luxury-items. After all it is not a game about making the most money, but a game about making enough quick money every round to live a luxury-life until the bubble bursts. And then try to be the one to come better out of it than the rest of the players.
I need to find a good way to do this.

Corsair wrote:
The contest as presented, I took to be unexpected endings/fresh game ending mechanics. In that way I was screening for an ender that felt orginal and natural to the game. The Housing Bubble won my gold as it nailed this on both accounts, particularly as it really evokes that woah it changed/is over sense as well as encouraging a play style focused on the impending doom.

Thank you!

Corsair wrote:
I think the market adjustment cards are the tuning point in this game, how those play out, how the player control is dictated, etc. I suspect some mechanism where bidding actually alters the market would ramp this up and enhance the simulation aspect.

Yes, if I could find a way for the bidding to be the factor to alter the market it would be great. I will try this. Any suggestions?

Thanks a lot guys for the feedback. It´s been a great experience. I love this GDS thing. A bit hard to write everything in english, but very good practice.

Dagge Games
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cab I "steal" an idea from Aliens on holiday

Would it give more tension to the end if the scale "bubble-indicator" started somewhere below zero. Then after playing a loft of market adjustment-cards the indicator is above zero and now you roll a D20 every round to see if the bubble bursts or not?
F. eks if the indicator is at "3" you would need to roll 3 or lower for the bubble to burst.

I loved this idea in the Alien on Holiday game. Can I use this Bike?

Corsaire
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OK, completely off the wall

OK, completely off the wall but relatd to the dice rolling direction: what if it was literally a bubble bursting?

Picturing a pump apparatus in the middle attached to a small balloon and everytime a market moves or total loans exceed a certain level you push the pump. Then eventually POP!

Dagge Games
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Great idea

I love the idea. That would be very fun.

Although it would probably raise the price of the game.

Kroz1776
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Price is Subjective

Dagge Games wrote:
I love the idea. That would be very fun.

Although it would probably raise the price of the game.

Yes it will raise the price of the game but you have to look also at the value of the game. If I add a component that adds $10 cost to the game, and it only adds $5 worth of enjoyment, find something else to use. If the component adds $30 to the cost of the game, but adds a $50 value of enjoyment to the game, go ahead and put it in. This has to be balanced of course with looking at who you're marketing to. The baloon very well might turn off more hard core gamers who will get snobby and shun shuch a "childish" game. I personally would love it, but you must take all these factors and more into account.

Dagge Games
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Kroz1776 wrote:Yes it will

Kroz1776 wrote:
Yes it will raise the price of the game but you have to look also at the value of the game. If I add a component that adds $10 cost to the game, and it only adds $5 worth of enjoyment, find something else to use. If the component adds $30 to the cost of the game, but adds a $50 value of enjoyment to the game, go ahead and put it in. This has to be balanced of course with looking at who you're marketing to. The baloon very well might turn off more hard core gamers who will get snobby and shun shuch a "childish" game. I personally would love it, but you must take all these factors and more into account.

True. You absolutely have a point. I would love the fun of this at least a couple of times, but after playing a couple of times I think I would prefer the indicator. But then, I am a hard core gamer. It could work for "normal" families although I think the theme is not very "family-ish"

I think the idea would work better in a different themed game where the bubble eventually will burst. For instance:
A game about kids trying to irritate their parents as much as they can before the "bubble bursts" :-)

Kroz1776
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Precisely

Dagge Games wrote:

True. You absolutely have a point. I would love the fun of this at least a couple of times, but after playing a couple of times I think I would prefer the indicator. But then, I am a hard core gamer. It could work for "normal" families although I think the theme is not very "family-ish"

I think the idea would work better in a different themed game where the bubble eventually will burst. For instance:
A game about kids trying to irritate their parents as much as they can before the "bubble bursts" :-)


This was my same thought as well. This seems more like a medium-hardcore gamer type of game and so I'd leave the actual bubble out. I think the game works as it is and I personally think the way the game end comes about works, although if you'd like to create a stronger theme, I'd recommend trying to tweak it so that there is more uncertainty.

bike
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Boom boom balloon

Dagge Games wrote:
Would it give more tension to the end if the scale "bubble-indicator" started somewhere below zero. Then after playing a loft of market adjustment-cards the indicator is above zero and now you roll a D20 every round to see if the bubble bursts or not?
F. eks if the indicator is at "3" you would need to roll 3 or lower for the bubble to burst.

I loved this idea in the Alien on Holiday game. Can I use this Bike?

Of course you can use this. I took inspiration from Evo, and adjusted it to fit Aliens on holiday. Just thank me in the rulebook!
The suggestion about a balloon... in the Netherlands there is a game 'Boom boom balloon' by Identy games. Actually raises my eyebrows, but it does show how far one can extend the definition of a game.
Combine that one with the housing bubble and you got a thematic winner!

disaac
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The Housing Bubble feedback

This game was at the top of my list, mostly due to what I saw it could become. I did think there was some clutter in the current rules though, and perhaps a few unclear points.

I really liked the whole stock-market aspect of the game, and look forward to a game which captures that excitement in a fun and interesting way. This game doesn't have to just be about the housing market though, but could instead include other types of investments just as well. I do like the use of districts to sort out which items raise/lower and how fast. But that could also be accomplished with various commodity types and classes. (Electronics, oil, ... top-of-the-line vs economy-class items, etc.)

I did not like the random d4 aspect to the game. It seemed kind of tacked on to an otherwise straight forward game. I think the randomization of the card decks would be enough randomness in a game like this.

Vacations are not really Luxury Items. After a vacation is done, you don't have anything permanent leftover to show for it. Perhaps instead a Personal Island, or a Yacht, or some such. However, I am not certain whether you would even need Luxury Items in this game. Final cash value of each player could be enough. Unless you want the Items to be another source of tension where player need to determine if they should lock some of their money into a Luxury Item (which then cant be sold), or to retain it as a liquid cash to be availabile for further investments, etc.

As others pointed out, the game-end condition did fall a bit flat as far as the competition rules went. It also seemed just a bit contrived. Perhaps some other end condition might fit in better, even if it does not retain the constraint from this competition.

This game may need quite a bit of playtesting and fiddling with values to make the game fun and to playout well. But that is what designing games is all about, and what each of us is here to do.

Best wishes with this, and congratulations on the win.

mindspike
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Pop goes the investor.

#4 The Housing Bubble

What do you get when you combine artificially inflated markets with investors looking to make a quick buck? Investment bubbles throughout history ought to yield rich source material for thematic elements.

(+) Investment bubbles seem to be a natural fit for the required mechanic. With the market in constant flux, there is constant pressure to convert to cash. The idea of converting to luxury goods instead of straight cash is amusing. The penalty for waiting until after the bubble bursts to convert is a nice touch, expanding the strategic options.

(-) There seems to be a clear dominant strategy of purchasing early and converting late, though the uncertainty of the bubble will test risk tolerance. The addition of a random die roll seems to be added arbitrarily, and doesn't affect the flow of the game. Player interaction is limited to adjusting the market value of property. Color coding the properties doesn't seem to add strategic value.

richdurham
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Personally...

I think one of the reasons The Housing Bubble got so many votes is the simple, straightforward way the rules are written. By reading them you get a sense of the gameplay (it also helps we're all familiar with a lot of game mechanics). Although Dagge might feel a lot is left out (for instance, do the Market cards do ANYTHING other than increase or decrease the market?), the rules did what they needed to in the space given.

My questions

  1. Why play so many Market cards if all it is doing is adjusting a single number, and players can potentially cancel out what they don't like with cards from their hands? I don't think there is a compelling enough reason in the market to really fight for how much it rises, since it's going up anyways.
  2. What is the order of play when it comes to adjusting the market? Do players keep going around until everyone has played 1, or can you play again if you are replacing a card? That matters a lot if you get to play last. Then again, if the market is probably going up anyway, then it most likely doesn't matter.
  3. Gameplay is simple, as you bid on properties. How you work this out can make or break this game. Will you be able to bid on more than one property at a time? How many? Is each property bid on by everyone and then you move on to the next, and so on? That could take a while and with no apparent difference between properties that affect gameplay I don't see bidding being interesting either.
  4. The scoring at the end; which criteria is more important? Luxury points or Debt? It's okay if you use the same scale like this:
Player Luxury Points Debt
ONE 15 -2
TWO 14 -1
THREE 16 -3

In this case, my brains just adds the Luxury Points and subtracts the debt to give a score and they all tie. But why not just say "Subtract Debt from Luxury Points?" unless they are on completely different scales.

Player Luxury Points Debt
ONE 15 -$225
TWO 14 -$196
THREE 16 -$256

Now I have to wonder which is more important, the Luxury, or the Debt.

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