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Hello from Estonia

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indrkl
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Joined: 10/12/2012

Hi all, I'm Indrek from Estonia.
I'm a huge strategy and RPG fan. I mostly play them on PC, but when possible I also play boardgames. Actually lately, because I started making a board-game I've been playtesting my boardgame more than playing PC hehe :P .

So why I chose to make a board-game instead of a game for PC. Well at first I wanted to make the game on PC, but as I discussed my idea with a friend of mine, he pointed out that my idea invloved "way too much player interaction and discussion" for PC, why not make a boardgame. So I pondered about it for a while, tryed different boardgames, and started laying out ideas. So 5 months ago after graduating from the university as a computer schiense Bachelour, I set out making my own social engineering/strategy boardgame. By now I've spent aroud 150 hours playtesting it with many differenet people and making many huge changes to the game, involved an illustrator and now I'm hoping that it will soon be ready to see daylight (in a few months).

So yeah, thats my story why I ended up here. :)

mindwarper10
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Joined: 06/13/2010
so whats your boardgame

so whats your boardgame called and whats the style of play? I myself am working on a boardgame/cardgame (mixture of both.) my game also requires alot of social interaction (its a political war game) so I too decided not to put it into vidya game style, as it would limit play potential.

indrkl
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Joined: 10/12/2012
Name is not final, but I

Name is not final, but I explained some things about it in http://www.bgdf.com/node/7306 .
But so far I've considered a few names, and 2 of them are still an option: "The era of change", "Grey Era".

mindwarper10
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Joined: 06/13/2010
(personallyI would go with

(personallyI would go with the second name, something about it draws me more than the other. That's just my vote/two cents, so it don't count for much)
Seems we have a few similiarities in our game styles, course your further along in your game than I am. Examples being Diplomacy being a major part of the game (my game's rulebook has a whole section devoted to diplomacy and player interaction). also I noticed you specifically mention 3 players just like my game, while 2 or above three are good/great, (my game) is designed around 3 players.
In my game most of therestrictions come from the players choices themselves, in the form of "law" cards that change, add, remove or bend rules.

indrkl
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Joined: 10/12/2012
In a way I prefer that

In a way I prefer that aswell, it has more meaning to it, and sort of reflects the dilemmas players have to face (agression, pacifism, play fair, play dirty, win now or maintain your reputation as a honorable player etc., play sharing or go greedy ).

But player number, the thing with diplomacy is that, a 2 player game almost always boils down to chess. Both players want a simple opposite outcome. Now with 3 players, all players usually go for a balanced board, where everyone cooperate with a player who seems to be falling behind, but no one wants to make a bold move or risk going 2 against 1. Now from 4 players, interaction goes much more complicated. It can go simple 2 against 2, the alliances might change, "teammates" start to have different agendas from some point. Temporary 3 vs 1 are easier to occur than 2 vs 1 in a 3 player game, but they are also less stable and less personal. At first I designed the game for 3-5 players. And it took quite some time to play with 5 people. I recently made quite huge changes to the game to increase the pace and now I'm designing it for 3-6 players, while I would suggest 4-6 players simply because of the human psychology. Cos over a lots of play-testing I noticed that when we play with 3 players, everyone would simply play a very careful game, it was either complete cooperation or simply everyone would do their own things. Conflict and confrontation seemed like a bad idea and occured rarely, compared to 4 and 5 player games. And since I designed conflict (war) more as a choice into the game, not a must-do, then there is nothing much I could do from the design standpoint to change that.

mindwarper10
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Joined: 06/13/2010
I see, that makes sense. That

I see, that makes sense. That is how I assumed it would turn out, and I am glad you testing your game turned out like that, as that is the same thing in my game, war is an option but not the only way. My game is politics more so than war.However I have not playtested mine yet, I am kinda hoping the threat of playing safe in my game will counterbalance the threat of going all out.

Can't wait to see your game once you get it released. It is also good to know there are so many people like minded to myself, as I seem to be meeting alot of people with similiar ideas, just not having gone quite as far as myself let alone you.

indrkl
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Joined: 10/12/2012
I think play-testing is

I think play-testing is crucial for a project like yours or mine. I remember after having an idea and finally free time (after graduation), I rushed the initial prototype within a week to make first play-testing as soon as possible. Especially for me, since it is my first board game. So at first it is really hard to predict how some things would behave or effect the gameplay. So getting this feedback to all your ideas and theories is basically a must.
I'm not saying the you have to do that SHAZAM thing someone explained somewhere recently, but usually once things are played through, you will see what feels wrong, and as you sense the mistakes you can start focusing to fix them. Also your intuition grows tremendously through that.
Anyways, best of luck.

mindwarper10
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Joined: 06/13/2010
thank you, and luck be with

thank you, and luck be with you too. My game should go into testing before too long. You are most definately right, I used to make maps for a game called Warcraft 3, the game before World of Warcraft ya know? and I always had my friends around to play test it. Always had a blast then, always figured out where I messed up.

Oh and guess I never posted it before, now I feel rude. Welcome to the community!

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