I just started working on my first design with a few friends. We've play tested 5 times now and feel like the mechanics are in place and what we're spending a lot of time on now is balancing the game and player interaction. We still have a long way to go, but I'm really excited. I'm also excited to have found this site, to get to talk with like minded people and maybe get some insight and, when I can, lend some insight.
- Andrew
Welcome to bgdf! I'll look forward to reading about your game.
-brent
Hello Andrew!
Yes this site is pretty awesome actually, the community is lovely here and everyone is willing to help :)
Tell us then Andrew about your game! What type of game is it? What mechanics do you use? How many players? Is it co-op or versus? What is the "elevator pitch" of your game (eg: You have 2 minutes of talking to tell us about your game - Go!)
sam
Right Andrew!
Im afraid its "Be a bastard time" so I am sorry in advance for any offence caused, it is meant to help only!
No problem about not knowing this kind of pitch, now you know! :D next time you go into a big publishing house and they say "give me an elevator" - you know then not to call the passenger lift up for them!
Ok so I thought it was actually a very good decription! That is until you said "poorly explained mechanic above" - and i thought "oh yes, I agree nowm it IS poorly explained" which makes me think "WHY is it poorly explained? Is it too complicated? Is it rubbish? Can andrew not tell us about his game properly?"
(Just being harsh so you know genuinely what is in my head). I thought that you did very well actually.
Pros:
- Fantasy Theme is well loved and has genre fans-a-plenty
- The wizards are out to only "find knowledge" and not blast eachother to smithereens (n.b I just had a rather vocal yet digressed debate with someone here about the meaning of "smithereen) So they are not destroying eahother - they are hunting knowledge. This is a nice twist when using the fantasy theme and works quite well for kid friendly idea as well - target market now can include kids!
-Nice idea about portals and switching and things like that, strategy is good
Cons:
-Fantasy games have been done before. No new theme to explore
-Im worried that your game is a something like a roll and move game with cards. Is this the case? :(
-If it is a race game and the leader can ALSO leave the door smashed so no others behind can come, will their be a problem of a "runaway leader" - someone who is basically "going to win" after turn 3 that I have no say in?
Questions:
-How do players "buy" cards?
-What does the board look like?
-How do portals actually work?
-How many times have you playtested this so far?
-Does the game play "fast" or is it one action per player turn, with one of them being "create a portal". Ideally you would avoid "Ok my go...I build a door....your go" if you can, but sometimes this cant be helped.
Ideas:
-Probably choose "co-op" or "versus" and keep the player number strict - a lot of games nowadays, in the persuit of ever-lasting variations have put a very heavy emphasis in different game modes, player numbers, game types etc. In all honesty, I do not buy your game because it has 12 different game modes. I buy it because it has 1 good one.
-Is there any real reason to have 6 cards as a limit? Do players discard cards ever? Is there any possibility of having NO limit?
No offense taken. This kind of feedback is great, and why I'm here.
We've play tested 6 times now, with groups from 3 - 5 people. Play time has been fairly consistent from 60 - 90 minutes. Our last play test involved some minor changes and that game took 40 minutes with 3 people. The game plays relatively fast, but occasionally someone's turn can take longer while they try to form their strategy. This weekend will see at least 1 new person play testing with us, which will help figure out the timing better since by now we all know what we're doing fairly well.
It is a race, but the board is a map with 22 interconnected locations. The players can split up and not all have to follow the same route so there's no runaway leader in a few moves. You do run into situations where you've placed Portals for a carefully thought out route and then someone swoops in and travels across them before you can and now you have to start over placing those Portals. However, that's never a big enough blow to set someone far enough back that they feel hopeless.
I won the last play test (the only one I've won actually) and arguably this was in part due to a choice to go the opposite direction of the other two players, so they had some conflict and got in each other's way a little, while I was free to do my own thing. There is a mechanic to hinder someone no matter where they are, so this can be prevented. Even so, my win was only by 5 points, and in fact had one player not inadvertently helped me on my final move I'd have lost (come in second).
Picture a map that has lines connecting various locations (kind of like the Pandemic map). These lines come in 4 flavors (right now, pending more theming: red, green, brown and blue). To travel along a line you need a portal there (portals come in 6 flavors right now, affectionately called A through F pending the theme being ironed out). On your turn you can pick from a face up pile of Portals (or draw a random one) and place it on the board (you then draw a card). The catch is that what works for you as a portal, might not work for other players.
e.g. You place a portal A on a Red line. This would cost you one Portal A card from your hand to cross if you took the movement action. However, for me Portal A on Red costs two cards not one. And for a third player Portal A on Red might not be a legal action at all so they can't travel that route no matter what.
This means that you could, on your turn place a Portal where you know I need to go, but it is a blocking move for me. This means I would either need to find a way around it, or spend a turn to remove the Token from the board.
The 6 card limit was put in place to force players to move regularly and not just horde cards and then move across the entire board in fell swoop. It also forces some hand management when you draw a new card but now have to discard one. We do allow 3 cards to count as a wild for travelling across Portals (as long as it is a legal move for your character). So a 6 card limit means you can, no matter what your cards, more than likely travel 2 Portals using them as wilds.
Your questions were great, by the way, and helped me focus my description. Thanks :)
- Andrew
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Yes this site is pretty awesome actually, the community is lovely here and everyone is willing to help :)
Tell us then Andrew about your game! What type of game is it? What mechanics do you use? How many players? Is it co-op or versus? What is the "elevator pitch" of your game (eg: You have 2 minutes of talking to tell us about your game - Go!)
sam
I clearly need to work on my elevator pitch, because I read your question and my first thought was "uhm..."
Right now the game is 3 - 6 players, and not coop although I'm playing with ways to make it possible to either do teams, or coop vs 1 player as alternate game modes. None of those might see the light of day, but I had to entertain the possibilities.
The game is won by victory points, but the basic mechanic is a race. Game ends when 1 player has visited every location on the board with their pawn. Travel between locations is only possible once a portal is opened between them (a player action on their turn can be to open a portal between two locations). Players have a maximum of 6 cards in their hand which they can use on their turn (as an alternate action) to travel through the portals which then close (are removed from the board) behind them. This means anyone else who had been planning to use that route needs to rebuild the portals before travelling.
The tentative theme is around wizards, racing to various realms collecting scrolls to gain knowledge. In addition to the poorly explained mechanic above :) there's also spell cards which players can buy to cast on their turn for various advantages (like taking two actions per turn, etc).
How'd I do? So far the only people I've explained this to are my co-designers and play-testers. It's considerably harder without the board and tokens in front of us. I need to work on that.