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Mixbots - Mix. Build. Battle

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funamite
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Mixbots

About the Game
Mixbots is a "trading" card game that allows you to build your robots and battle. You can play 2 to 10 players team battle or free for all. It's a 15 minute game that you can pick up and play with friends anytime, anywhere. It's also "new gamer" friendly so your non geeky friends can have tabletop fun too.

How to build
The robot parts are stickers and you attach them to the torso on your cards.

How to play
Watch the video to find out ;)

Please check out the website at http://www.mixbots.com and watch the video and let me know what you think.

radioactivemouse
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I'm curious

I'm really curious as to what the reception on this game is and how far into production this game is.

I mean...mix is cool...build is ok...battle seems kinda weak. It's a glorified Rock-Paper-Scissors.

Personally, I'm not interested, but maybe there's an audience for this.

ElKobold
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Did you play-test this

Did you play-test this outside friends&family?

How did people react to the rock paper scissors part?

From the first glance it doesn't look appealing, to be honest.
Neither game-play-wise, nor visually.

funamite
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Thanks for the

Thanks for the opinions.

radioactivemouse, how can I make the battle better? I would prefer to use as few components as possible so players can just play.

ElKobold, I have playtested with non family and friends and they thought rps is more suitable for kids, but they were all laughing and engaged while playing. Kids enjoyed it.

I can launch next month if I want. Been working on it for a year.

What about the visuals did you not like? Maybe it's something I can work on. Is it the cartoon style?

ElKobold
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funamite wrote:ElKobold, I

funamite wrote:

ElKobold, I have playtested with non family and friends and they thought rps is more suitable for kids, but they were all laughing and engaged while playing. Kids enjoyed it.

This might be a problem if you plan to crowdfund. I think games oriented at kids are generally doing better at retail, than KS.

funamite wrote:

What about the visuals did you not like? Maybe it's something I can work on. Is it the cartoon style?

The robots are functional, but look very grey and generic (especially if you position it as a game for kids).
The design of the cards doesn't look professional.

All in all (and this is very important for crowdfunding) it doesn't scream "quality" to me.

I'd recommend to try and go through publisher with this. They will be both able to help you out with the visual side and market it to the right audience.

Sorry for the criticism. I hope it helps.

radioactivemouse
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Research.

funamite wrote:
Thanks for the opinions.

radioactivemouse, how can I make the battle better? I would prefer to use as few components as possible so players can just play.

ElKobold, I have playtested with non family and friends and they thought rps is more suitable for kids, but they were all laughing and engaged while playing. Kids enjoyed it.

I can launch next month if I want. Been working on it for a year.

What about the visuals did you not like? Maybe it's something I can work on. Is it the cartoon style?

Rock-Paper-Scissors is a game mechanic that's prevalent in many games, however it's always an evolution of it rather than using the straight RPS game AS a combat mechanic. Take Pokemon for example. Water is stronger than fire, but it is very possible for a fire Pokemon to overtake a water Pokemon (if fire is a higher level, of course). The problem is that the result is absolute. If you put out the wrong thing (i.e. paper to scissors), then there's NO way to come back from it...and that can be discouraging if the player just has bad luck.

Aside from "reading" your opponent, using RPS as combat might as well be luck; the player has no real control over the battle.

Also, I'm not too keen on clips on cards. It just screams wear and tear (even from its first use) and it's not guaranteed that every clip would stick well to the cards.

I think making the battle better would require a total overhaul of the game. I mean, the stickers are cool, but they don't seem to add anything to the game...WHY, besides looks do you want a certain type of arms? Do certain legs allow you to go faster? If I'm not mistaken, the stickers should correspond to the abilities.

Aside from ElKobold's responses, I think that a lot of work was put into this project, however, I'm inclined to think that more thought was put into the backstory and production of the video rather than the game itself (half the video is story). The board game industry is truly an industry now. In order to sell your game (for profit) you need to present something that feels different than anything else out there. Yes, some of your ideas are "cool", but I'm telling you that combat system is boring, if you ask me.

My advice would be to research other games out there. Yomi (http://sirlingames.com/yomi/) is a great example of a card game that uses Rock-Paper-Scissors in a creative way and they managed to have decks that are no more than a standard deck of cards (54, I think with "jokers"). Shift (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/laboratory/shift-the-single-card-ccg) is another game that's creative...it touts itself as a "single card CCG" and is pretty creative for a combat game.

I applaud you wanting to use as few components as possible as many game designers don't think about component quantity as a big part of the game; they just seem to have counters for everything.

Anyways, good luck.

funamite
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I was wary of making the

I was wary of making the robots colorful due to all the mixing and they might end up looking weird, but that was just in thought. I'll try to add some color and see what happens. I'll also try to come up with a different card design.

Good point about the clips wearing down the card. Would little sticky notes be better? I'm concerned about the flow of the action and don't want there to be a mental hitch/speedbump/slowdown when players are thinking "I'm gonna get you back" or "one more to get the special ability". I'll give the sticky notes a test, but they don't look as cool though.

Only the left arm sticker affects gameplay because it is tied to the special ability. I hadn't thought of how the other parts can affect gameplay without negatively affecting balance. What if someone uses only strong attack stickers? I'll give it some more thought on how the stickers can be more functional such as what a leg helping to "go faster" would mean, and I'll let you know if I come up with something.

radioactivemouse
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Color and stuff...

funamite wrote:
I was wary of making the robots colorful due to all the mixing and they might end up looking weird, but that was just in thought. I'll try to add some color and see what happens. I'll also try to come up with a different card design.

Good point about the clips wearing down the card. Would little sticky notes be better? I'm concerned about the flow of the action and don't want there to be a mental hitch/speedbump/slowdown when players are thinking "I'm gonna get you back" or "one more to get the special ability". I'll give the sticky notes a test, but they don't look as cool though.

Only the left arm sticker affects gameplay because it is tied to the special ability. I hadn't thought of how the other parts can affect gameplay without negatively affecting balance. What if someone uses only strong attack stickers? I'll give it some more thought on how the stickers can be more functional such as what a leg helping to "go faster" would mean, and I'll let you know if I come up with something.

You should highly consider utilizing color in your game as, to me, is a design element that provides so much but is totally underutilized.

I wouldn't even touch anything that can cause damage to the card. Consider Pokemon TCG win conditions...each player has 6 cards they place on the side and, as they defeat pokemon, take their "prize" cards. Or even look at BushiRoad's Cardfight Vanguard...every time the player takes damage, they place a card into a damage area (which can also be used to power certain abilities)...6 "damage" and they lose the game.

There's many ways to count damage without having to resort to marking a card.

Again, I say research what's out there. Don't just look at TCG's, Look at Living Card Games, party card games, non-collectible card games, etc. There's so many great ideas out there.

funamite
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I redesigned the card. For

I redesigned the card. For some reason I can't post a picture so here's a link. The new card is on the left, the old is on the right. Let me know what you think.
http://www.mixbots.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/redo-compare3.jpg

ElKobold
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Yep, the new one is better, I

Yep, the new one is better, I think.

radioactivemouse
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way better

Way better, but if I were to choose between the two designs, I pick the left one because it's far more clear and the contrasts are more realized than the right one.

funamite
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I'm sticking with the new

I'm sticking with the new card design and I sprinkled in some color to the robots like you guys recommended and I think it does look better. I'm not done coloring all the robots, but you can see some of it at the kickstarter preview page. Feel free to leave feedback on the preview page.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/funamite/1584582306?token=0a019079

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