Design Tip of the Week #26 (Maintaining Enthusiasm on a Design)

How do you maintain enthusiasm on a design after working on it for months or years?

This is one of the hardest parts of design.  When you have a new project it is easy to work on, but after a while you start hitting walls and the luster wears off a bit.  The "new" mechanics you added to the game aren't new to you anymore.  Sometimes working on a design feels like work.  And most of us aren't doing this for work, this is a passion.  A hobby.

So what do you do?

The easiest thing to do is move on to a new design.  There is no rule saying that you can only work on one project at a time.  Sometimes working on different projects will give you inspiration for your first design.  Even if you don't find a solution, it will give you renewed energy and a fresh perspective when you do go back.

If fact, I wrote a whole article about it in DToW #13.  Here is a link: http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/07/dtow-13-if-you-love-your-design-let-it.html

What if I have a time limit?

This can definitely happen if you are working with a publisher, or are building toward a convention.  In this case you will have to find inspiration inside.  One of the best ways I have found to do this is to bring it out and show it to someone else.  Preferably someone who hasn't seen the game before.  I find playing our games with new people often gets my enthusiasm up for the game, and sometimes a new perspective will lead to new ideas to get past your design issue.

So what if I don't have people to play with?

I would challenge you to find someone.  I assume if you love this hobby so much that you are getting into designing games, you probably have people you play games with.  Even if you have worn these people out, or they have no interest in helping you playtest, reach outside your normal group to find people.

Don't be afraid to take your design to a local game store.  First off, no one is going to steal your design.  Second, don't be afraid of failure.  You know your game isn't 100% ready.  Make sure you set the expectation to your play testers that it isn't 100% ready.  But there are a lot of people out there that would love to contribute to making a game better.  Sometimes you just have to get out there and set up your game, and wait for people to come by.

There are other places to find play testers like the internet.  There are playtest groups.  You can go to BGG (boardgamegeek.com).  There are forums for designers and play testers to meet up.  There are groups on BGG too for people to meet up and play games.  Not everyone will be interested in play testing games, but you will never know who is until you look for them.

Family and friends are another group you can tap into.  Sometimes family won't want to play other games, but if they know they are helping you with a project they will step up.

Still not an option for me.  What else you got?

Consider bringing someone else in on your design.  If you have met people either online through social media, or in person at a convention consider giving them a shot at your project.  You can either send them the files, or just chat online.  Even if they don't become a co-designer, lots of people are very free with their advice or sharing their experience.

I told you I don't know anyone.  Now what?

The easiest thing I find is making small changes.  If the game is too long, figure out one thing that is taking the longest and remove or trim it.  You can always make more changes later, but small changes will make a bigger impact than you think.

If the game is not fun enough, add something small.  Even if the game seems about the correct length and complexity.  If you add something that adds fun you can always trim elsewhere later if you need to.

Any last tips?

Consider playtesting elements of your game.  Not every playtest session has to be a full game.  You can just playtest the beginning, the end, or key elements.  If your endgame is good playtest the beginning over and over.  If the beginning is good, playtest a full game, but at the point you want to make the change save the gamestate.  Write down players positions and then make your changes.  Keep playtesting from that point on.

Lessons Learned.
 Keep your enthusiasm about a game up by:

• Working on another game.
• Play it with other people.
• Work with another designer.
• Make small changes.
• Playtest parts of your game, not the whole game.

What's next?

 That's it for this week, next time I am going to talk about theme choice in your game.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #25 (Why Not to Have Custom Dice in Your Game)

Tell me about this series.

The first part of the series was about how to make your own custom dice at home for a fairly cheap price with minimal effort.  You can find it here:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/11/design-tip-of-week-23-how-to-make.html

The next part of the series covered a few reasons to add custom dice to your game:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/11/design-tip-of-week-24-why-have-custom.html

This week we are going to cover why you wouldn't add custom dice to your game.

Take us back.  What was your first negative experience with custom dice?

The first game we ever designed was called Squires.  It has evolved and morphed since then into Bastion, but we have been working on it for years in various forms.  We were so excited about the game and took it to a convention to pitch it to a publisher for the first time.  It had 25 custom dice in 3 different molds.  After looking at the components the publisher didn't even let us get into a pitch.  We turned them off before even getting a chance.  There were too many components, and specifically too many custom components. 

At that time having that many custom dice was just out of the question unless you were Fantasy Flight.  Even now when FFG produced BattleLore they only included 4 custom dice in the box.  If you want 8 more you have to pay $10 for them.  Cost is probably the primary issue when it comes to custom dice.

There are exceptions to every rule though, and Marvel Dice Masters and Castle Dice have shown that you can have lots of different custom dice and still maintain an affordable price.  I think you have to be careful though.  It isn't just the cost of the dice, it is the cost of the dice in addition to everything else you are adding to the game.

So if cost isn't an issue, what else?

Accessibility can be an issue too.  We talked last time about how custom dice can make games simpler, but that isn't always the case.  If you need a result that is randomized between 1 and whatever number, a standard die will work just fine.  You don't need to make something fancier just to have it fancier.  Also, adding symbols could confuse things.  If you symbol represents a 6, then just leave a 6 there.  Sounds simple, but I have seen lots of examples of Cthulhu symbols or whatever else on one side of a die just to make it look cooler.  It can be confusing, and people often need to look at the other side of the die the first few times to figure it out.  Sounds simple, but it could slow your first game experience down.  The first impression could be the only one you get. 

Another thing about accessibility is using symbols people are comfortable with.  If you do choose to use custom dice then don't use a POW symbol as a miss.  Most people associate a POW or Sword symbol as a hit.  Make sure you are familiar with conventions before adding custom dice to your game.

Anything else?

Sometimes standard dice do the job better than a custom die.  If you have changing values for things it may be simpler to use a standard die.  For example in one of our next games we have die that level up as the game goes along.  At first you only hit on a 6.  Later you may add a 4 or a 5 to that type of hit.  Maybe you add another 6, so your 6 results do 2 points of damage.  This would be very hard to do if you used custom dice.  You could have different symbols, but in this situation they would all have to basically mean the same thing. 

Another more common example is monsters in a dungeon crawl, or roleplaying game.  You can have several monsters that behave very differently using the same few die.  This one hits on 3-6 and the other one hits on 5-6.  And you don't have situations like you have in Descent or Star Wars: The Queens Gambit where people are asking "where is that green die again?"

Lessons Learned.

Don't use custom dice in your game if:

• Cost is an issue - Maybe you already have too many components, or the game is too simple to justify a higher cost
• It complicates your game - If your game would be easier to understand or play without custom dice, leave them out.
• Standard dice would do the job better - Sometimes custom dice aren't as flexible as standard dice.  There is a reason so many games use standard dice, they are very versatile.  They could determine your income in one phase and tell you how far to move in the next (not saying to do this in your game, just an example).

What's next?

 That's it for this week, next time I am going to talk about getting through that 100th playtest of your game, and how to keep if fresh.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #24 (Why Have Custom Dice in Your Game, and When to Introduce Them)

Another Series?

Looks like it.  Last week I talked about a simple way to make custom dice for your prototype (or any time you need them).  Here is a link to the post if you missed it:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/11/design-tip-of-week-23-how-to-make.html

You may also want to see the discussion over at BGG (BoardGame Geek) for some other cool tips:

http://boardgamegeek.com/article/17518053#17518053

So this week you are going to tell us why to make Custom Dice?  Isn't it obvious?  Because they are cool.

That is certainly a factor in why to have custom dice in your game.  But there are some fundamental things that custom dice allow you to do that you can't do with a traditional die. 

Firstly, they allow you to have more information on a die face than just a number.  Look at Quarriors, Dice Masters, or Mice and Mystics for some examples of this.

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/2010754/marvel-dice-masters-avengers-vs-x-men

People often talk about cards having multiple uses, but you can achieve this with dice as well.  In Salvation Road we use the dice for Threat Rolls, Fighting, and Healing.  You don't need to look up what to do with the dice for all these situations, you just count up the hits.

Custom Dice allow you to convey information without having to look up every result on a custom table.  While Dice Masters has a lot of information on their dice, they try to add more depth by introducing rules on the cards too.  I view this as a small failing because not only do you have lots of information you need on the dice, you also have to refer back to the cards.  They developed a cool system, but all the information isn't in one place.  It could be worse, you could have to keep looking back at the rules, but this could lead to bloat as more cards are introduced to the set.

Lesson Learned: Custom Dice are a way to add multiple uses for a single component without a lot of extra looking things up in the rules.

What are some other cool things you can do with Custom Dice?

You can also mess with the odds a bit.  For example, if you want to remove an enemy and take one wound for your hero you could easily put that in the rules.  Or you could roll a die that has 4 hits, 1 miss and 1 double hit.  Now you are still taking 1 Wound on average, but it will be a little swingier. This leads to more tension than just taking 1 Wound.  If you want it more swingy you could move the hits around even more.  You could have a die with 3 hits, 2 hits, 1 hit and 3 sides with misses.  You would still average out to taking that 1 hit, but it will be a lot more swingy.  Half the time nothing will happen to you, but every once in a while you will take a tremendous amount of wounds.

Dead of Winter did this with their Exposure Die.  Your results could be anywhere from no damage, to dying and taking someone else out with you.  Some people love this and some people hate it.  It certainly creates more tension in your game, but it could also create huge swings in luck that drive people away.

Be careful with having too large a swing in your luck.  There is a lot of middle ground between gaining Victory Points and Dying.  Both results probably shouldn't be possible on the same roll.  But it all depends on your game.  The longer your game is the less one roll should matter.  If you are rolling the dice 100 times in your game the luck should probably all balance out.  In a 5 hour game the final result probably shouldn't be determined on one die roll.  Of course there are always exceptions.

Lesson Learned: You can vary the odds in more ways than one.  The average result doesn't always tell the whole story.  If you want more luck in your game, have more variety between the results on the different sides of your dice.

What do they add to your game?

There are two main things I think Custom Dice can add to any game.  The first we have discussed above, but don't think it can be repeated enough is simplicity.  You can simplify your rules by making Custom Dice.  You don't have to have lots of tables or reference sheets to tell you what happens on each die result.

The second main reason to have Custom Dice is theme.  Custom dice are an easy way to add theme to your game.  I would much rather roll a hit symbol and know I did damage than have to look at a table to see that I hit on a 1-4.  Even Dungeon Dice, which wouldn't be any fun at all with normal dice, gets a big buzz because of it's custom dice.  Just looking at the cool symbols is enough for some people to get totally emerged in your game.

Lesson Learned: Custom Dice should simplify your game while emerging people into the theme.

When should I bring them into my prototype?

You should make sure your prototype is a game first.  Your first few playtests will probably be either solo, or with people very close to you.  You don't need your dice to be custom at this point.  You could just have regular dice and look up tables.

Even if your dice are turning out to be very intricate it is better to test them before committing to making dice.  You may find out that you don't even need them at all.  Maybe a more streamlined approach is better for your game.  Maybe you find out you don't like your initial distribution and want something different.  It is much easier to change your table then to remake the dice.

With that being said, once you have a good working prototype and are ready to show it to the world, you should probably put the effort in to make your dice.  If it makes things easier for your playtest group, and speeds the game up then it is the right call.  If you make them and need to change them at this point, it is ok.  Sometimes you will need to change them several times.  That is why it is good to hold off as long as you can, but it is better to put the extra work in before you show it to people than to start getting feedback like:

• The game is too long
• There is too much to remember
• There is too much to look up
• I couldn't get into the theme

Then you are wondering is it the mechanics, or the components.  That is the toughest part of early playtesting.  Even later prototypes can suffer if your components or graphic design is confusing to playtesters. 

Lesson Learned: Make your Custom Dice when you are convinced your design is solid and are ready to introduce it to people outside your inner circle.

What's next?
 That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about why not to use Custom Dice in your game.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #23 (How to Make Custom Dice)

Lets get right into it.  What will you need?

For a 16mm D6 (probably the most common die I make) you will need:

• 16mm Blank Dice (you could use ones with pips too, but I buy blank ones)

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D166220011&field-keywords=blank+dice&rh=n%3A165793011%2Cn%3A166220011%2Ck%3Ablank+dice

• 1/2 inch Hole Punch 

http://www.amazon.com/EK-Tools-Circle-Punch-0-50-Inch/dp/B0090JVDNA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1416284062&sr=8-1&keywords=1%2F2+inch+hole+punch&pebp=1416284209536

• Sticker Paper

http://www.staples.com/Staples-Sticker-Paper/product_490429

• Paper Cutter, or Scissors

The links are only suggestions, you can google these items, or find your own source for them.

Step 1:

Lay out your symbols in a word document (any program will work).  First may a test print on regular printer paper as it is much cheaper if you make a mistake.  You want to look at spacing, quality of the symbols, and size.  Make sure you punch a few out to make sure you aren't overlapping, and that the symbol fills the punched out piece.  You can resize and test again until you get the size and quality you are looking for.  I will often print on the same piece of paper to save cost.

Layout - You want to have several rows on your paper, each with enough symbols for 1-2 dice.  Even if you end up printing more than you need it is ok, you will want to have more later for sending out prototypes.  Here is an example below:

Step 2:

Print on the sticker paper and use your paper cutter or scissors to cut between your rows.  you should now have strips that are ready to punch.

Step 3:

Have your blank dice ready and peel the backing off one strip of your sticker paper.  You will then punch one symbol at a time, placing each symbol on one of the die faces.  While I apply the sticker to the Die, I leave the rest of the strip inside the punch.  It will stick to the punch a little, but should be easy to take off.  I have included a picture below as an example:

Final Results:

As you can see, I left the blank sides blank.  If you want, it would be easy enough to add a blank sticker to them if you are really worried about them being weighted.  Personally I am not that worried for a prototype, but it is easy enough to do.

Anything else?

Nope, it's as easy as that.  I have made custom D8s too.  For those I bought a bag of 100 D8 like those listed above for D6.  The punch I use for D8 is a bit smaller too.  It doesn't have an exact measurement on it, but it is about 8-9 mm.

What's next?

 That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about the benefits of having custom dice in your game.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

More Content...

There is some information about the components I use to make d8s below in the comments.  But here is a picture of what they look like.

 

Design Tip of the Week #22 (FUN to Time Ratio Part 3)

What is this about and where do I find the first 2 Parts?

This series is covering something I call the Fun to Time Ratio.  You know your game is done when you get this ratio correct. 

In the first installment of this series, we talked about ways to make longer games feel shorter:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/09/design-tip-of-week-20-fun-to-time-ratio.html

In the second part of the series, we talked about ways to shorten your game, without losing the flow:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/11/design-tip-of-week-21-fun-to-time-ratio.html

Now the hard part, how do we add fun?

What is fun?  That seems general.

Fun is a very general term.  What is fun to some people will not be fun to others.  This week we will focus on some general tips to increase fun that should span most gamers.  Even though we have different tastes, there are certainly some things to consider regardless of your audience.

Lets start out with Decisions.  How do you make them fun?

Lets start with the basics.  People want to feel smart.  Anything you can do to make the player feel smarter without making their opponents feel dumb is probably a good thing to add to your game.  Think about the games you like.  Why do you like them?  Probably because you are pretty good at them.  You feel good playing them because you make good decisions.  You feel smart.  Even if you don't win your favorite game a lot, you are probably either getting better the more you play, or see your decisions making positive impact on the game.  I have heard people talking about building their farm in Agricola, even if they didn't win, and pointing to the progress they made.

What people don't like about Agricola is the pressure feeding you people puts on you.  This isn't universal, but seems to be the key complaint.  That is because when you don't succeed you lose something.  In this case points.  In The Year of the Dragon puts pressure on you too.  You probably won't finish that game with all of your things in tact.  This is a chief complaint about the game.  Some people love this mechanic, so I am not trying to push you away from it altogether, but realize that if you put negative feedback in your game that it will turn some people off.

An example from our designs was in The Last Bastion.  We originally had a mechanic where people would lose if the town burned and they hadn't helped enough.  It was a good mechanic and lead to some cool tension at the end.  Even if one player seemed way ahead they could lose because they didn't do enough to save the town.  We flipped it on it's ear, instead incentivizing people to try and save the town.  Instead of giving people a negative experience of the auto-loss, we gave everyone a bonus for doing what we wanted them to do.  At the end of the day everyone felt better because they were pushed to do what the theme told them they should be doing.

Lesson Learned: Try to make decisions lead to a positive reward, not a negative punishment if possible.  People want to feel smart, reward them for good choices.

Oh Great Game Maker (insert sarcasm here) what else do people want?

People also like to feel special.  Look at all the top games on BGG (boardgamegeek.com).  In almost all of them people have a way to feel different from everyone else.  Do what no one else can do.  The top game, Twilight Struggle, both sides feel, and play completely different because of the events.  In Terra Mystica every race has a unique power.  In Through the Ages, civilizations don't start differently, but they acquire things that make them unique throughout the game.  If I get Napoleon, you can't get Napoleon so I am unique.  Keep going with Agricola.  You have unique cards that only you can have, and upgrades that only one person can build.  Puerto Rico the same thing.  Buildings are limited so only one or two people can have the same one.

It is very hard to design games that make people feel unique, but I think this is a key to success.  If you play 2 games in a row and do the exact same thing regardless of special powers, or starting position, then there may be a problem.  That is why I don't necessarily like games that have an open tech tree.  If you can build anything whenever you want, than what prevents you from doing the same thing every game. 

Lesson Learned: Give people a chance to feel unique, either through setup, or introducing limited powers throughout the game that only one person can attain.

Summary

While the concept of fun is unique to each person, we do have things in common.  People want to feel smart, and people love having something no one else does.  It is in our nature.  Observe any child for 20 minutes and you will see this.  They always want what the other person has (special powers).  And they always want to show you something (feel smart).

Series Summary

I always get asked the question, how do you know when your game is done.  Or how do you know when to start trying to break your game?  I come back to this rule, if your game is fun to play, in the timeframe you are playing it, you are probably there.  If it was fun for the first hour, then got boring, find a way to cut the end without making if feel rushed.  If the game is playing quickly, but it feels like something is missing, try to add some fun through the techniques discussed here and in the first part of the series.

What's next?
 That's it for this week, next week I am going to get back to prototyping and discuss how to make your own custom dice.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #21 (Fun to TIME Ratio Part 2)

So this week you are going to talk about the Time part of the Fun to Time Ratio.  Where do I find part 1?

Sorry for the delay.  We have been spending lots of time lately working on this issue for both of our games, so hopefully I have some more (fresh) insight this week.  But here is a link to part 1:

http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/09/design-tip-of-week-20-fun-to-time-ratio.html

So isn't it easy, just cut out a couple of rounds and voila shorter?

Yes, it does sound easy.  What you find when you cut rounds though is that sometimes your game doesn't feel complete.  If you have a buildup to your game, people could feel cheated if they didn't get to build up as much, or equally bad they could spend all this time building and not get to the payoff.

Lets take this one step at a time, how do you solve the buildup issue?

This is a great question, and one I have worked on several times.  Not only in our own designs, but also with other designers at Unpub events.  If the first couple of rounds of your game feel superfluous cut them.  If everyone does the same things every time you don't need those rounds.  The key is to cut the rounds without cutting the progress. 

For this we have introduced character cards in some of our games.  In Bastion for example, during the first few rounds you were setting a course for yourself.  Later in the game you would either try to maximize those strengths you had developed, or balance your character out, to handle more diverse situations.  By introducing characters we were able to start setting the course for you.  The keys to making successful character were:

1. They had to be unique: Their powers had to match their persona.
2. They had to train you up equal to about a turn of training.
3. They couldn't railroad you into one specific strategy.
4. Don't constrain yourself to powers that you would normally find in the game.  These "Character Powers" didn't have to be balanced with the rest of the game.  If they were better, the character could start with less of something else, if they were weaker they could get more of something else.
5. They have to be easy to learn.  The game is designed to be easy to learn and play, with rich decision.  The characters should not muddy those decisions, they should build to them.

We had now cut an entire round out of the game without detracting from people's experience.  It doesn't have to be special characters though, lots of games have variable setup cards, or abilities.  Even if it is just for first time players so they can get into the game quickly (see Catan's first game setup) it is worth looking into.  If first time players are making decisions they don't understand it will not only take longer, but could ruin the rest of the game for them.  If they don't like your game the first time they probably won't try it again.

Lesson Learned: Try cutting a round at the beginning of your game by having special setup cards.  They could be variable power cards (like characters) or quick setup instructions (like Catan).  Either way could cut a round off the beginning of your game.

What about chopping off a round at the end of the game?

The hard part here is having players do a lot of buildup just to be left cold in the end.  The end of your game should be the most exciting part, as that is going to be the lasting impression the gamer leaves the table with.  You don't want to overstay your welcome, but you don't want people building up all this cool stuff and never getting to use it.

What we did with Bastion was to make the last round something you had to earn.  We didn't cut it completely, but made it so the town could burn before you reached it.  If it didn't burn, then the last round was another chance to use your cool stuff.  The town is no longer in danger of falling, you just get to wipe up the scrubs while they try to run away.  It gives you a cool benefit for getting better at the game and surviving until the last round.  There is no player elimination, so if the town falls you just add up your scores when it fell, but your are rewarded with extra VP for trying to save the town.  This way the first time you play the game will probably be 1-2 rounds shorter.  As you get better though you will make it to the final rounds.  As you get better the game also becomes faster so you will probably finish in the same amount of time.

Another solution for cutting rounds at the end of the game, is making the ramp up quicker.  You may have to make the end game costs of things lower as people won't have as many resources, or you may have to make the resources you gain from an action higher, but this way you get to the endgame faster.  In Salvation Road, we decided how many rounds we wanted the game to be (approximately) and back filled the costs for things to work out.  At some points the game was going longer than we wanted, so we cut down the cost of each end game card.  Now the game could end earlier.  So we had to up the pressure throughout the game to make it hard to reach those goals.

Lesson Learned: Consider having a variable endgame, that is more likely to go longer the better you get at the game.  Another option is to find out the correct length for your game, and tinker with the costs of things to have a natural build to that point.

Is that is for Time?

Yup.  That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about the Fun aspect of the Fun to Time Ratio.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Random Musing #2 (Where have you been?)

Hey all.  Sorry I have been away.  I had been pretty good at keeping on a weekly schedule until life popped up.  I do plan on continuing this as a weekly feature (probably missing more weeks in the future) but sticking to a better schedule.

Part of the reason for my absence was a tight schedule to get Bastion in a good place before the end of the year.  There have been a few developments with Bastion which will probably come to light very soon, but also the design work on it has been very productive.  We were in a spot where we were making lots of changes and most of them stuck.  The game is the best it has ever been right now, so I feel it was worth the time away from the blog.

With all that being said, this week is crazy and I am working through the weekend.  Hopefully I will have a new post up by next week, but if not I promise one the week after.  Thanks for sticking with me and hope you have enjoyed the content so far.

As always feel free to reach out to us at MVPBoardgames@gmail.com or on Twitter @MVPBoardgames.

That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about the "Fun to Time Ratio Part 2".  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #20 (Fun to Time Ratio)

What is the Fun to Time Ratio?

The Fun to Time Ratio is quite simply: Did the game provide enough fun to fill the time it took to play it?  There is no real way to measure this as there is no real statistical way to measure fun.  But we have all felt when this ratio is off.  There are some games that just outstay their welcome.  There are some games that end just as you finished building up your engine (or army) and you wanted them to last longer.  And different people react differently to this as well.  Some people want a 10 hour game while others love Micro Games.

So how do you know if your game is at the right level?

This goes back to knowing your game.  Who is the audience for your game?  If you don't know this then you probably need to take a step back and figure it out.  Once you figure out who will like your game, find other games in the genre and see about how long they take.  Do people complain about games being too long, or short?  This will give you a good launching point, but doesn't have to be where your game comes in.  Maybe that can be a differentiator for your game.  But you should know that going in and look for feedback on it when conducting playtests.  Ask questions like: How did the length of the game feel to you?

That is the second part of the equation.  While it is important to have all different kinds of people playing your game, it is most important to have this core audience try it out.  If your game is about a Strip Club (sorry couldn't help myself) don't bring it to a church gaming group you have.  The audience for your game are the ones whose opinions you should trust most on this subject.

Lesson Learned: Find the right groups to playtest your game and see what they think about the length.  It may not need to be the length that changes, you just may need to add more fun.

How can I change it if my ratio is off?

There are many ways to change this ratio, but the 2 main ones are change the length of the game or make it more fun.

Well that was easy.

Some other things to think about are mini payoffs.  I like to use Micro Games as an example of this.  I am not a huge fan of Micro Games, but I have learned some lessons from the ones I do like.  For example, One Night Ultimate Werewolf wouldn't work if you had 2 hours to solve each session.  One of the keys is having that time constraint.  After you are done you get that payoff of winning or losing.  Most times people want to play again.  Maybe they use different roles.  Or use the same roles until they get better with them, then change it out.  Some groups will use the same roles all the time if they find a grouping they like.  So why do people play it over and over for 2 hours if it wouldn't make a good 2 hour game?

It is the quick payoffs.  There are other reasons too, but this is a big one.  Some longer games incorporate this into their gameplay too.  Twilight Struggle incorporates "Scoring Cards" into the deck.  This introduces mini goals for the players to achieve.  After the battle for Europe is over now we move on to Africa (to be honest I don't know the order but the point remains valid).  You get that high, or low from the one conflict then move on to another one.  All these conflicts are tied together in a bigger struggle but you are still getting these mini payoffs as you are playing.

Lesson Learned: Adding mini achievements in the middle of your game can lead to the experience seeming to move faster.  It also gives players a goal to work toward.

Is that it?

Not even close, that is just one way to work on your ratio.  I am going to try something new and make this a 3 part series that comes out over the next 3 weeks.  Please provide feedback and I will try and incorporate it in the rest of the series.

What's Next?

That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about the Time aspect of the Fun to Time Ratio.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #19 (Special Powers)

What are the advantages of Special Powers?

Special Powers can be leveraged in a lot of situations to differentiate things.  It could be characters the player controls, neutral characters everyone can control, items players can gain, foes, locations on the board, etc.  Here are some benefits of having special powers in your game:

• Differentiation - This is the biggest one in my opinion.  Makes things act (and just as importantly feel) different.
• Variety - Lets every game feel different.  If you can have a different power each game it increases the replayability.  Even if the powers just come out in a different order, or on a different spot the game changes from one game to the other.  This is especially true when you have 2 variable things that intersect creating lots of different combinations.
• Theme - Special powers are a great way to add theme to your game.  They have to make sense though.  Don't paste this on.  The power really needs to evoke the feel you are trying to reach for that character.  An example we had in Salvation Road was the "Annoying Kid".  He was a Survivor so he had an ability that hurt the group.  We wanted him to feel annoying to the players so we made him hurt other characters when he went to their location.  It made sense thematically as other characters were more careless around this kid since they were just trying to get away from him, but it also made the player annoyed with this character as well.  You had to plan around him and make sure that no one ended up with him.  He filled the roll thematically for the character and for the players.
• Fun to Design - Tinkering with special powers in your game lets you learn a lot about your system.  It lets you break things in interesting ways without complicating the system.  Even if you don't keep a power, it may change the way you think about your game and lead to bigger changes.

What are some challenges of Special Powers?

Special powers are cool, so why not put them in every game?  Here are some negatives:

• Hard to Balance - Special powers can be very hard to balance.  In math terms if something is worth 1 and something else is worth 1.5 what do I do?  Do I make them both worth 1.5 or 1.  What if the next thing is worth 1.7?  They will never be 100% equal and this could upset some players.  It is also easy to miss something without a lot of playtesting and it could totally break your game.  Even if you fix it later players may have moved on to the next game and won't even give it another chance.  They may perceive your game as broken and not well playtested.  It could be a poor reflection on you as a designer even if one card is off.  My friends won't play City of Remnants any more because there was a broken card in it.  It has since been erataed but they won't even bring it to the table to try it, and view the company in a poor light.  I would love to give it another try, but it will sit on my shelves collecting dust until I find another group to play it with.
• Unwanted Complexity - Some games just don't need more complexity.  It could be a light game that needs to stay light.  Even adding little powers may push it over the top.  Or it could be a big heavy game where one more thing will make your brain melt.  Either way, if you are pushing the "Fun to Time Ratio" of you game don't add more stuff.

When should I start adding Special Powers?

I usually try to get the core of the game down before adding special powers.  I may add some basic ones early that give +1 here or -1 there, but try not to mess with the core until it is solid.  These basic powers give me something to balance my future powers against too.  If I want them to be really good I will add +2 to something and see how that changes things.  But I don't get into the nitty gritty of powers until the game is balanced everywhere else.

How do you introduce new powers?

I try to balance them again the basic powers I made early.  I typically try to come up with a whole lot of thematic things first and add them, not concerning myself too much with power level.  After playing them I will work on the balance if the game still feel good.  Balance can be achieved by either making a power better or reducing the cost, or by making a power worse or increasing the cost.  This seems obvious, but people often forget about the cost part of this ratio.  All the powers don't have to be the same if there are different costs associated with them.  I will get into this more later, but just be careful with costs.  If it just a one time cost and come out early, is it too good?  If it is a steep cost with a great power, does it lead to rich get richer situation?

When introducing a new special power to an already flushed out system with other powers already designed, I try to make the new power a little better than the others.  I do this intentionally because I want people to use it so I can see the consequences of it.  If it is on par, or worse than your other powers people will avoid it because they are unfamiliar with it, or perceive it as weaker.  You want it to get tested so it is better to lean toward too good and back it down later after you realize the consequences of it.

Lessons Learned?

Special Powers are good for a lot of games.  If your game needs a shot of theme try to add them in.  Make sure you know your game can handle the added complexity though or it could hurt your game more than help it.  Also, realize you will be adding a lot of playtest time as you try to balance the powers.  Don't release new power without playtesting them with your other powers or it could break the game and make you look bad.

What's Next?

That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about the "Fun to Time Ratio".  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

DesignTip of the Week #18 (Cram Sessions)

Are you taking about studying for a test?

Nope, we are still talking about game design here.  There are many times where you have to get your design ready for something and need to put in a lot of effort in a short amount of time.  You may be preparing for a convention, to send your game to a publisher, to send your game to blind playtesters, or just have a gamenight coming up you need to prepare for.  This week I want to talk about some of the benefits of a cram session, and how to create these for yourself, even if you don't have anything coming up.

I always thing of cram sessions as a negative thing, where you forget everything afterword.

That may be true for a school, but in game design they can be very productive.  Some of the benefits of cram sessions include:

• Focused effort - You force yourself to think about the obstacles you are facing in your design.  Also, you are carving out time to specifically work on those problems
• Time sensitivity - Even if it is a "fake deadline" it still forces you to sit in front of your prototype instead of the TV (or whatever other distraction)
• Streamlined solutions - I find that I will typically come up with much more streamlined (both component wise and gameplay wise) solutions when I need to get it done by the next day.  If an idea seems too complicated I will couch it and try to come up with something easier or stick with my current way of doing things and work on something else in the game.  If you can't come up with a simple solution, maybe you are looking at the wrong problem
• Small chunks - I won't try to fix the whole game at once.  This will let me micro focus on one aspect of the game.  "This week I am working on the items...next week I will handle character powers."  First off it is easier (and better) to test one thing at a time.  Second you will see your efforts paying off as your game comes together.  Just like a lot of things in life, if you take them one small bit at a time they don't feel so big anymore

What if I don't have any events coming up?

This is why I decided to do this post.  I was finding that I didn't have any upcoming events, and all my time was getting filled up with other things.  This would lead to my design projects getting pushed to the side.  My wife and I decided (ok, it was her idea, and a great one) to give myself a design night.  A night where Mike and I would get together and tackle a whatever we needed to.  This has worked out great.  Not only does it encourage us to work on the games on our own during the week, but also gives us a night to plan for.  Cram for.  Playtest for.  And lets us get in a cram session once a week even if we don't get to the anything else during the week.

Lesson Learned?

Give yourself a game design night.  One night you know you can focus on your games.  Just try to solve one problem you are working with, or tweak one part of your game.  You can either use the rest of the week to prototype and playtest it, or wait until the next week to do those things.  If you schedule it, you can even start looking forward to it and plan around it.  It will make those around you happier too as they can plan around your night. Cram sessions work, and they make your game better one step at a time.

What's Next?
That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about special powers.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #17 (Building on the Shoulders of Greatness)

What happened to you last week?

Life.  All kidding aside, we have really been focusing on The Last Bastion development.  Trying to get it ready for the blind playtest portion of it's life.  We are going through the challenge that all designers go through.  Trying to add more theme without messing with the streamlined gameplay.

On to the topic of the week.  Lets talk about stealing ideas from other games.

I first want to quickly dispel the idea that building on the success of other games is somehow wrong.  This is how we progress as a species.  Without building on successes of those before us we would never be where we are today.  Without why reinvent the wheel, or electricity every generation.  Instead lets take the concept of electricity and combine it with the concept of a spindle to produce a sewing machine.  Lets take factories and the assembly line process and build boardgames.  Lets take printers and peoples desire for miniatures and make 3D printers.  Without building on the successes and failures of those before us, we wouldn't be in the golden age of gaming.

So I should just play every game I like and just copy it, maybe adding a different theme?

No.  But the part of that sentence I liked was playing games.  You shouldn't just play good games, but bad games too as we discussed on the last Design Tip of the Week #16.  You should also not restrict yourself to games you think you will like.  you can learn from different genres and bring the best parts of what they do to your game.

Example.

Lets start with Memoir '44.  Currently ranked number 78.  When it came out there weren't very many light wargames that tried to simulate specific battles.  It took a simple concept of card based movement and combined it with dice based combat to come up with a fun game.  It also used scenery such as forests, hills and buildings to make the board more dynamic and realistic.  None of these were new concepts, but they were combined to make something more than the concepts themselves alone.  If Richard Borg the designer hadn't played wargames before, he may not have tried to put together a cinematic experience that lets players control an army.  If he hadn't seen the trends in Europe of streamlining gameplay, he may not have been able to distill the experience into such an easy to digest product.

Lesson Learned: Don't be afraid to use what works.  Make it your own, but don't always try to reinvent the wheel.

Combat Commander: Europe

Combat Commander: Europe is currently ranked 47 on BGG.  It took some of the card based movement and scenario play of Memoir '44 and added some extra complexity and granularity to it.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage ranked 57 as well.  Hannibal came out before Memoir and also had card based movement and action selection.  There were probably many other games that influenced these as well.  Combat Commander was the next logical step after Memoir.  But it wasn't designed by the same designer.  In fact, I don't know that it could have been designed by the same designer.  Designers have strengths and weaknesses just like everyone else.  Some excel at getting the math right.  Some create thematic experiences.  You will develop your own style.  Even if you design a similar game to someone else, it should feel like your own creation even if the parts are borrowed.

Lesson Learned: Whether you are adding complexity or taking it away, the end design should feel like your own work.

Ticket to Ride

This to me is the ultimate game to introduce new gamers to the hobby.  Is it totally unique?  Not really.  At it's core it is Rummy with a board added.  Obviously it is more than that, but that is the basic element.  I think that works in it's favor.  People immediately know how to play part of the game without you having to explain it.  The rest of the game can be easily explained in a couple of minutes.  It feels very different from Rummy when playing it though.  And that is the point.  You recognize the main elements of the game, but it is clearly not the same game.  It has made an evolutionary step forward.

Lesson Learned: Using familiar elements can lead to easier teaching, learning, and playing experiences.

Bottom Line

If you want to be a designer, get out there and play games.  Play a game even if you don't think you will like it.  It may lead to a great idea for something you were working on.  Don't shy away from popular mechanics.  It will decrease the barrier to entry of your game.  But always, make sure you are brining something to the table.  Using familiar mechanics is good, as long as you are adding something.  Who knows, maybe some day we will be borrowing your mechanics.

What's Next?

That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about cram sessions.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

Design Tip of the Week #16 (Lessons From Published Games)

Your published games?

That would be nice, but neither of our games have been published yet.  Both are with publishers, but in different stages of development.  Hopefully they will both be on Kickstarter early in 2015.  I am talking about what we can learn from other published games.

Like stealing ideas?

Well that is one way to learn from published games.  Borrowing mechanisms is a way to build on ideas of the past.  That is why I believe we are in a golden age of gaming right now.  People borrowing good mechanisms from each other and building upon them.  Look at the BGG top 100.  Most of those games are derivative in one way or another.  I will get into that more next week.

This week I will focus on what I learned from ALMOST liking a few games at WBC (World Boardgaming Championships).  I will use a few examples to illustrate this concept, and show how it can help exercise your "design brain".

First up Thunder Alley.

I liked this game a lot.  This was almost my game of the show.  I think the first 90% of this game is fantastic and very thematic.  After playing it 5 times it always had the same problem though.  The end game was very unsatisfying because it always came down to a Kingmaker situation.  You wanted to sit to the left of the player that would put you in position to win.  Either because they were out of it and trying to get into a better position, or had no choice due to their card.  But it always came down to someone else putting the winner in the catbird position.  It may not have been as big a problem in a shorter game.  But after 2 hours of very fun gameplay, it was a very unsatisfying end.  This happened in all 5 games I played, and I just soured more on the game as the convention went on.

Lesson Learned: The endgame is very important.  You want to leave people on a high note.  Not with a sour taste in their mouth.

Next up, Voluspa.

This is basically a tile placement game.  Very abstract in the fact that you are just trying to get the highest tile in a row or column to score that row or column.  I am usually not one for abstracts, but the Art on these tiles was fantastic.  The theme on the tiles was pretty good too.  They all had special powers that matched the theme of the tile.  So what went wrong.  When playing with two players the game played long.  Not that it took long, but it felt long.  There was no scaling based on the number of players, so you played the same number of tiles as you would in a 4 player game.  And some of the tiles replaced tiles on the board, so the game didn't progress toward the end on those turns.  I think it would have played better with 3 or 4 as you would have less turns, so you wouldn't have as many active turns in the game.  This is easily fixed by removing a certain number of fixed (or random based on your preference) tiles to reduce the playtime.

Lesson Learned: Scale the play experience to the number of players.  You don't want a game to feel like it is outstaying its welcome.

Lastly, Lewis & Clark

I loved this game.  It was definitely my game of the convention.  The racing element combined with engine building was great.  Every time you pulled off a cool combo it made you feel smart.  So what went wrong?  Nothing in our games, but I did notice there was a way to go backwards at the beginning of the track.  At first I thought this was odd, but then noticed that there was no other penalty for building up a lot of resources and saving them for when you have better travel cards later in the game.  The other day I saw a thread on BGG saying that there was an official "fix" for this problem.  I still loved the game, but it is definitely something to be aware of if designing a game where your engine gets stronger as the game goes on.  They could have easily fixed this by making the track behind the start position longer.  They obviously realized that this could be a problem or they wouldn't have put those spaces back there to begin with.

Lesson Learned: If you have an engine that gets better as the game goes on, make sure the players can't just store resources that do the same thing better later in the game.  If you do, make sure there is some incentive to use the resources early, or there is a strong enough penalty for keeping them.  Make all options viable, or don't have them as "fake choices" in the game if one strategy is clearly better.

Bottom Line

I don't want to make is seem like I am picking on these games.  I liked them a lot and bought 2 of them.

There are lessons to be learned from games, even in their weaknesses.  When playing games, don't just look at mechanisms you can use in future game designs, but also think about the lessons you can learn from their less strong parts.  This will help you avoid a lot of time making the same mistakes, or help you see these things earlier in your designs.

What's Next?
That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about building on the greatness of other games.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

DToW #15 (Learning from WBC)

How was your week at WBC?

Great.  Very good news for Bastion fans.  We got an intent to publish for The Last Bastion, so we just need to work out the details and clean up the game a bit.  But I learned some valuable lessons there as well.

Lets start with making contacts at conventions.

I will start by saying I am a sales person.  I have been in sales for over 16 years.  This is what I do, so it comes somewhat naturally to me.  But it wasn't always that way.  I wasn't the most popular kid in school.  It takes practice.  It is ok if you fail.  You won't hit it off with everyone, and that is ok too.  But if you have interest in talking to a specific publisher, do it.

If they are very busy when you get to their booth don't go up to them at that moment.  Hang out a bit and see if it dies down.  If not, try going at another time and see if it is clear then.  Don't try to start a conversation if they are trying to sell or demo games to someone else.  First impressions mean a lot and that will just tell them that you are rude.  On the other hand, don't be the person that is afraid to go up and introduce yourself, you will only regret it later if you don't.  Publishers are just people like you and me.

I didn't even have a game to pitch since both of our games are with publishers now.  I still went up to publishers I may be interested in working with in the future just to start that relationship.  One of the publishers is someone I talked with about Bastion two years ago at WBC.  He remembered me and I told him we had worked on the game a lot and got it picked up.  He wished me luck and I told him hopefully I would have something for him in the future.  I wanted to share this example because it shows that even with noting for them right now, how you can plant some seeds for partnerships in the future.

If you do have a game to pitch it is best to contact the publisher by email before the convention.  Follow their normal submission policies, but follow up with an email saying that you will be at a convention they will be attending and you would love to show them your game. 

This is a very deep topic and I will get into it more in the future.  The biggest tip here is: GO FOR IT! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE AND YOU WILL REGRET IT LATER IF YOU DON'T.

How about playtesting?

To be honest I didn't do too much playtesting at this convention.  The biggest reason was that I played with our potential publisher and they gave us some feedback on what they wanted us to work on next.  I was already spending all day gaming, and staying up until 3 to finish the prototypes for them so I didn't have time to work on making any changes.  Looking back though, I wish I had taken some time to play Bastion or Salvation Road with others.  Even if you know there are going to be changes testing the core of the game is always a good idea.  I was having too much fun just being a player at this convention and I think that is ok sometimes too.  Playing other peoples games helps you develop your own ideas, or may provide inspiration for future ideas.

Is that it?

I am trying to keep these shorter.  I don't want to take up your whole Monday reading these blog entries.  If you have any specific feedback, please feel free to leave it.  This blog is part "how to" but it is mostly meant to inspire ideas, provide motivation, and give weekly personal development goals.

What's Next?

That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about some of the games I played and WBC and what I learned from them.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

DToW #14 (quick take on preperations for a game convention)

Why aren't you getting ready for WBC (World Boardgaming Championships)?

Good question!  I felt a sense of duty to the people that have been reading this blog weekly.  I want to stay on schedule for you, although this will be a much quicker article than usual.

Why is this such a big deal?  Can't you just work on your game next week?

Like I have said many times in this blog.  Setting deadlines for myself is one of the best ways to get things done on my designs.  This is a deadline to get The Last Bastion ready to show to the world, and get the rules ready for blind playtesting.  I was up until 3am last night finalizing them, so I could send them to Mike to make another round of revisions.

So your prototypes are packed and ready to go?

Not exactly.  I haven't had time to make the new prototypes yet.  This is actually the key point I wanted to make this week.  While a professional prototype is important, a professional game is more important.  I will spend some time tonight working on the components, but this week and last have been focused on playtesting.  Getting the game as good as we can make it before presenting it to the public.

But what good is that without a game to show?

It is no good at all.  I will have games when I need them, but game quality is always more important.  The content not the visual appeal.  At least for your prototypes.  Good visual will draw some eyes to your game, but if they play it and it is horrible then you just wasted that graphic design time, playtest time, and potentially turned someone off to your game.

So what are you going to play with?

I plan on printing everything tonight and bringing my prototyping materials with me to WBC tomorrow.  I may even get some people there to help me put it together.  If you have limited time I would always work on gameplay first.  Graphic design is important.  In fact it can be a barrier to learning your game.  So we spent some time working on that too.  Teaching the game to people, even if we didn't play it to come up with questions they have just on initial impressions.

You practice teaching your game?

Yes.  This is just as important as getting the game right.  If you don't teach it well, and it leads to a bad experience, it is just as bad as having a bad game.  It doesn't have to be perfect, but you should be able to get the basic concepts across quickly and concisely.

Bottom Line?
 Use deadlines like conventions as motivation to get your game ready.  If you have a choice between getting your game physically ready, or playtesting.  Always choose playtesting to make sure it is as good as it can be.  Most of these playtests may have to be solo.  Just make sure something isn't obviously broken, or really fiddly.  If it is fiddly ask for feedback on it at the convention.  If you are short on time, bring your prototyping equipment with you and make your games at the convention.  Either at night, or between games (do not slow other games down by prototyping it will just annoy everyone around you).

What's Next?
That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about my experiences at WBC.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

DToW #13 (If you love your Design, Let it Go)

What are you talking about?

This is going to be a series about ways to improve your game by stepping away from it.

For example?

This week I am going to cover working on other games.  It could be your games, other prototypes, or published games.

I thought of this topic when I was playing Salvation Road the other day.  One of my favorite mechanisms in that game is the wound system.  The way it works is that your carrying capacity goes down each time you take a wound.  So if you could carry 6 items then take a wound, your maximum capacity is reduced to 5.  If you were carrying something in every spot you would have to drop it.  The carrying capacity is also your life total.  When your last circle is filled, the character is removed from the game.  This mechanism came to us when we were working on a different game.

We were trying to solve a problem with the other design.  We wanted the capacity to be limited so that players were encouraged to interact with each other, but also players had a way to play more conservatively if they wanted . We wanted to make certain targets more or less enticing.  Imagine they were ships (they aren't).  You would be more likely to attack the ship that was loaded with the most cargo as you are more likely to get more loot.  It works the same in this system.  You attack someone and if there are open spots the wounds just cover them and you get nothing.  However, if you are carrying a full capacity you would have to drop one or more items.  So while it is more efficient to carry more, you are also a better target.

It doesn't work exactly the same Salvation Road, since you aren't attack each other.  But your capacity is still limited and so the decisions become more interesting.  Do you push you luck and stay out there gathering more items, to be more efficient with your actions, and hope the Marauders don't find you?  Or do you run back to the Compound, protecting the resources you gathered, but spending more actions?

So how does this relate to "Letting your design go"?

If we never stepped away from Salvation Road to work on this other game, we probably wouldn't have come up with this Mechanism.  We were trying to solve a different problem, but it worked on multiple fronts and worked out great for Salvation Road.  Will this mechanism work well in the other game?  Maybe, but it still has a great life even if the other game doesn't work out.

What about playing other people's prototypes?  Are you stealing their ideas?

Not at all.  Unless they say it is ok :).  I am talking about giving people feedback on their games being a creative endeavor.  While at prototype conventions people always want to play their own games.  But you can make progress on your own game by helping other people with their designs.  You may have a great idea stored in the recesses of your mind that you don't even know about.  Your brain can't see how it applies to your game because you are too close to it.  But when you give it as feedback to someone else on their design, it clicks.  This happened with The Last Bastion.  We weren't even showing it off at this Unpub mini event.  But when talking to someone about how to make their decisions mean more, the Favor Token was invented.

In Bastion you have the ability to change the board state while resting at the infirmary.  The problem is that in doing so you are just helping other players get the first shot at the new stuff.  The favor token makes sure you have access to the changes you made to the board.  It is a key mechanism to the game now, that probably wouldn't have been discovered if we weren't trying to help someone else solve their problem.

Bottom Line?

Don't be afraid to step away from your game.  If you are stuck on something, or it just isn't coming together, work on something else and inspiration will come.  If it doesn't come right away, at least you were still being productive instead of beating your head against the wall.

What is this series you referred to at the beginning?

A lot of the topics I have been covering have a lot of depth to them.  So far I have only scratched the surface of a lot of these.  A primer if you will.  I will be revisiting a lot of these topics in the future with more depth.  With that in mind, if you have any subjects you want us to cover more in depth please let me know in the comments, or through email at MVPBoardgames@gmail.com.

What's Next?

That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about preparing for a convention (as we prepare for WBC). Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

DToW #12 (The Last 10%)

What do you mean "The Last 10%"?

I am talking about the last 10% of your game design.  What takes an average game and makes it good.  What takes a good design and makes it great.  What takes a broken design and makes it playable.  This is the part of design that takes the longest if done correctly.  This is where all the playtesting and breaking your game occurs.  This is where you tell your friends and family, "it is almost done."  And then it takes 6+ more months.

What?  How is that possible?

It can and does take this long or longer all the time.  This can be the longest part of design.  It is so hard because you are so close.  It almost feels right.  Or worse yet, it does feel right but really isn't ready and you release it.  Lots of games get released without this final, crucial step.  Not just Kickstarter game or small independent games, but games from big companies.  I would argue that most of Fantasy Flight Games were this way for a while.  That is why they kept releasing expansions that fixed their games.  Or have 10 page FAQs.  Or change the rules with the re-release (see RuneWars).  They have gotten much better at this lately and their expansions can focus on what they are meant to, adding great content for people who love the game.

I don't want to pick on Fantasy Flight, it happens all the time to many different companies.  At least they took the time to fix their designs.  There are so many "Meh" games that come out, and a  lot of that is  just not taking the time to polish the design.  After designing games for a while you will see this  lack of polish when playing others games.  The game has a good idea in there, but it just isn't complete.

How do you know if you are at this point?

The last 10% is after you have your main mechanics in place, but you still need some tweaking.  The game is solid, you may even have some people who really love it.  But as you play it more yourself, or watch others play it you realize there is something missing.  Maybe it is balance.  Maybe it is fun.  Maybe the game takes too long.  Maybe the game ends too quickly.  Maybe there is a balance issue you haven't seen yet because you haven't playtested enough.  Maybe the game isn't as replayable as it originally appears.  Maybe  it  just needs......something.

Have you had this experience?

We are at this point with Bastion right now.  The game even has a following of people who really love it.  But we know it isn't done.  We have been searching for something.  The mechanics are solid.  The gameplay works well, is smooth and fun.  But something has been missing.  We have recently started working with a publisher who found the thing we have been looking for the last few months.  The game needed other ways to score.  We were so close to the problem that we couldn't see it.  We tried a lot of things to add more dynamic gameplay, but all made the game too complicated.  After a fresh set of eyes took a look at it we were able to identify the problem and work toward a solution.

The same thing happened with Salvation Road.  The game was good, probably good enough to publish, but after working with AJ and making a few tweaks it really started to shine.  We even thought we were done with this one and there was room for polishing.  I am  not saying to never release your game  to the public, but I am saying to get more eyes on it.  The benefit of a publisher is that they have financial investment in the project too, so they will be more critical. 

A lot of times that is what it takes.  A fresh set of eyes to help push past this barrier.  And it is little tweaks we are talking about here, not sweeping changes to the rules.

What can you do about this?

This is a big topic with lots of things to cover, so I will just get into the basics this week.  The main thing you can do is playtest, tweak, playtest and show it to others.  If you have access to other game designers or publishers they are the best for this kind of feedback.  If not, take it to conventions and show it to strangers.  Join a designer group.  The worst thing you can do is just release the game before it is done.  Don't forget your name is on that box.  While this step is long and difficult, it is what makes a game shine.

Bottom Line?

Get your game out there.  Don't be shy because it isn't done.  Show it off to others so they can help you with things you are too close to see yourself.  Go to the local game store, go to a convention, go to your family and friends.  Other eyes on your game will always benefit it.

Can you wrap it up now, you have been out of town all weekend and I need some sleep?

That's it for this week, next week I am going to talk about time off (We just got back from a break, did it work? What are  the benefits?).  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

DToW #11 (Prototyping Game Boards)

Where do you want to start?

First off I made this topic way too broad, so I am just going to touch on a few things today, and come back in the future and hit some very specific things.

Tell me about board layout.

Layout is very important.  Here are some bullet points on things you should be thinking about when designing your game board.

• Game Flow - Keep things that go together near each other on the board.
• Clean - If it doesn't need to be on the board, don't put it on the board.  This will spark some debate I am sure, but as a general rule we try to keep the board clean unless it helps gameplay.
• Accessable - Where will people be sitting?  Try to put the elements of the game that are used most often closest to the players.  Also, if you have cards with words, make sure that they are within reach of most players.
• Spark - Doesn't mean you have to have a beautiful prototype.  What it means is, if there is something cool going on in the game try to make it cool on the board.  For Salvation Road, we will probably be having the Marauders surrounding your compound.  For Bastion the wave of Barbarians coming toward the town is a very real feeling.  If I am shipping something I should easily be able to see where to get it, where to drop it off, and how I got it there if possible.

How do you make the boards?

I don't, my partner Mike does.  I think he uses the program InDesign.  I will have him guest blog one week and tell you all about it.  Or he can be reached at MVPBoardgames@gmail.com.

So what do you do?

I make the prototypes.  I don't do anything that fancy, but the boards are playable and fold up nicely to fit in the box.

I use 110lb white paper.  Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Neenah-Cardstock-Inches-Sheets-Brightness/dp/B006P1EQXA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405300706&sr=8-1&keywords=110+lb+paper

When I get the file it is in Adobe and already cut up.  We try to keep it to 4 pieces, but sometimes it has to go to 6.  When Mike makes the board I have him add a dot in the middle, and lines on the sides at the half way point.  This way when I am going to cut the board I can see where to cut.  It will give me nice straight lines to work with that disappear when the board it put together.  Here is an example:

After cutting the board using the techniques discussed here http://mvpboardgames.blogspot.com/2014/05/dtow-2.html, I just use scotch tape to put it together.

For a 4 piece board, I will tape the back of the top piece so when they fold together I will see the board facing outward.  I use 3-4 strips of tape making sure that the top and bottom are covered within 1cm of the edge of the board.

I then tape the bottom pieces to the top pieces on the front side.  The bottom pieces do not get taped to each other.  This way they will fold up and cover the top pieces.

 

When the board is fully folded you should only see the backs of the bottom pieces.

What do you have for us next week?

Next week I am going to talk about the last 10% of game design.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

DToW #10 (Play Testing)

How many times do you need to playtest a design?

Well, that is a broad question, and really depends on the circumstance.  I would say way more than you think.  I know we have tested all of our designs well over 100 times each.

100 times, where do you find all that time?

Making a good game is about finding the time.  Not all those playtests are full run-throughs of the game, if something is obviously broken we stop the test and talk about what we experienced.  And ways to improve on the design.  Even with "bad" versions of the game, there is always some good, so I ask people their favorite part.  That is one of my favorite questions because it is usually easier for someone to give you positive feedback than negative feedback.  This starts the feedback discussion.  Then I can go into, "what was your least favorite part?" and "if you could make one change, what would it be?"  These are early playtests questions typically, but I use them all throughout the process as it still breaks the ice, even with a late stage prototype.  During a late stage play test you may get the same feedback over and over and realize something needs to be addressed.

You didn't answer the question.  100 times?  Really?

Yes.  It is crucial to get a lot of playtests on a design.  There are different stages of play testing though, and not all the playtests are with other people.  It also depends on the level of complexity of your game.  Smaller simpler games will need less play testing to be sure you have it right.  Although those are the fastest to playtest normally, so you could easily still get a lot of playtests in.

Also, if you have been designing for a long time you may be able to get away with fewer playtests.  Although I think this is a bit of a copout too, as we have all seen bad designs from well known designers.

You can probably tell from this discussion that I am a big fan of getting your design right the first time.  Some people take the "throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks" approach, but we like to invest a lot of time in each design.  We want to work the kinks out before the general public gets to see it.  Even when we get it where we want it, we work with our publishers to streamline and balance it more.  For each change we try to get at least one play test in for each of us (Mike and myself) so we can discuss our thoughts.

You mentioned different stages of play testing.  What do you mean?

We start by keeping the game in house for a while.  Doing a lot of solo play testing, controlling 2 or 3 characters each if need be.  When we feel we actually have a game, we will get together and play it ourselves a few times and tweak it.  More solo play tests if necessary until we feel it is ready for your close knit gaming groups.  This is key, you don't want to put a lot of crap in front of them or they won't want to play any more of your designs.  Some groups that are extra sensitive to aesthetics.  We won't even put it in front of them until it is almost done.  That is ok, you just have to feel out your groups and see how they respond.  If you feedback is all about the graphic design and art, this isn't a good group for early play tests.

After we have played it ourselves and feel it is good, we will bring it to our closest friends and family.  That way if things go horribly wrong we can just stop and play something else.  Usually I will just play a few turns with my wife to start.  This will give me a chance to teach the rules (usually you will find some flaws right here) and see how easy the game is to understand for someone who hasn't been working on it.

If it passes the family test I will usually try to get it to a convention next.  Unpub conventions are the best (the Kickstarter for Unpub 5 is starting today July 7th at noon, make sure you sign up), but any convention you can convince strangers to play a prototype will work.  Sometimes just setting it up on a table next to you while you play something else will draw people over (please don't do this if there is limited gaming space at your convention and people are looking for tables).

Meanwhile, during all these other steps we are continuing to playtest solo and tweak.  We talk at least 3-4 times a week, usually much more, when we are at this stage of development.  It is also key to start working on the rules if you haven't done so already.  You will need them for the next step of play testing which is the blind playtest.  This is where you give the game to people who haven't played it before with only the rules to learn it from.  It is great if you can be there to observe and see what they are getting wrong.  Try not to intervene unless you know the answer to their question isn't in the rules.  If that is the case, take notes and fix the rules.  Make them look up rules they can't remember so you see how long it takes them to find it.  Make sure to emphasize rules that are forgotten, or missed during these sessions.

After all this is done we start looking for publishers who may be interested in our type of games.  The play testing doesn't stop here though, we are constantly tweaking the games to try and make them better.  If we have sent a prototype to a publisher, we try not to make any tweaks to that game until we get feedback from them.  You don't want to be playing a different game than they are.  Once we get their feedback we go into development mode again and work to correct things.  Then more play tests.  At this point we are doing all types: solo, together (just the two of us), family, game groups, conventions, etc. 

Can you summarize those stages again?

These stages build on each other.  We start with solo and keep adding as we go down.  None ever go away though and we will be solo testing all throughout the design.

• Solo
• With a close friend (lead play tester, co-designer)
• Family and YOUR Game Group
• Conventions
• Blind Play Tests
• Publisher

Anything else?

There is a lot more to cover, but that will be it for this week.  We will hit the subject again in the future.  Don't forget to sign up for Unpub 5 on Kickstarter.  This is an unsolicited endorsement.  As always your feedback is appreciated.

That is it for this week.  Next week we are going to cover board layout and prototyping.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.

DToW #9 (Working With A Publisher)

So are you some kind of expert in working with all publishers?

No.  I only have experience working with two publishers on games, but I thought it may be helpful to share my experiences.  I know some people want to go out and publish their own games, more power to you, but there are some benefits to working with a publisher.

What benefits?

The biggest one for me is that I don't want to deal with art coordination, printers, Kickstarter, BGG advertising, Convention booths, logistics, and everything else I don't even know about.  I want to design games.  I want to design games.  Some people love the other stuff.  More power to you, I will send you some of my prototypes to publish, but for me the fun is in the challenge of design.

What else?

Publishers think differently than I do.  Even AJ, who is a designer himself, will look at the number and type of components.  How to best do layout.  Ideal number of Characters to include in the box.  As a designer, I hope to start thinking about these things, but they definitely aren't at the front of my mind right now.

Also?

Sometimes you are so close to a game you can't see it's warts.  It takes that outside set of eyes to look at it, and make it better.  Play testers are great, but they don't have a financial incentive to keep pushing the design forward. 

A lot of times it is cutting the extra bits, but sometimes it is something little that makes a huge difference.  A perfect example is when we started working with AJ on Salvation Road, one of the first suggestions he made was to start with the locations face down.  We use to just deal them to the board face up.  Doesn't seem like a big change, so we tried it.  Wow what a difference it made.  First off it made explanations to new players easier.  They didn't have to look at 3-5 locations before deciding what to do.  Also, it made the first turn much more exciting, and less calculated.  You get the feeling of discovery as you go out.  Also, you may need to move people around so they are at a more ideal location so the game becomes more dynamic.

I am sure that publishers who have no design experience would be just as helpful in the development process.  It isn't necessarily the same skillset, so I don't think you have to have a design background.  Chis with Dice Hate Me Games is great at development, even though he doesn't have a design background.  I am sure there are countless other examples of this as well.

How do I find a publisher that will help me with my game?

Well that is an interesting question.  And one that will take a lot more than one post to cover, but I will quickly give you my general thoughts here.

If you are looking for a publisher I would start with people who make games that you like.  If you like their games they probably publish the kind of game you are making.  Also, don't get discouraged if you get rejection, this will happen a lot.  It isn't necessarily your game there are a lot of factors that go into their decisions.  Sometimes it is though, so take their feedback seriously.

You may have to dig a little deeper, most of us won't be published by Fantasy Flight for example.  Check out the publishers website and see if they have a submission policy.  If they do, follow it to the tee, this isn't the place to get creative.  Publishers want to know you can follow directions so when they work with you they have a good idea you will be reliable.  Better yet, see if they will be attending any conventions you will be going to.  Try not to just approach them at their booth, send an email ahead of time and try to schedule some time if possible.  You probably won't get a whole demo in, so have a 30 second and 5 minute pitch ready.

The more interesting part of the question is getting help with your game.  Even though publishers schedules are sometimes tight, you may get lucky and they will play your game.  Even if they don't pick it up, they will give some of the best feedback you will get.  As stated above they sometimes look at things from a different scope.  Having this insight will make your choices for developing the game more informed.

What else?

Let me know what you think?  How have your interactions with publishers gone so far?  Am I wrong, should we all be self publishing?

That's if for this week.  Next week we are going to cover play testing.  Until then, I am Peter, keep designing great games.