So in June, I took the latest iteration of the game to Geekend – an annual informal get-together of friends who boardgame and roleplay – for some much-needed playtesting. This is actually only the second time the game has been in play and a lot of work has gone into making changes to improve the game from when it debuted in 2011. Ideally, I would have a dedicated group of seasoned boardgamers in my garage working 24/7, providing me with a stream of feedback so that I could tweak the game and then re-test on an endless agile ‘wash and repeat’ cycle until it is ‘right’ (the ideal state). The reality is that acquiring such a group when you are an Indie game developer is a difficult task in its own right, making progress incremental and slow and is therefore a major limitation in terms of completion that I have to devise a strategy to address. I may have to settle for the ‘If a thing’s worth doing – it’s worth doing badly’ scenario in order to get the game out and into the big wide world before I hit 50.
Design-wise, I am happy with a lot of the current elements: the board, cards and tokens make the game look professional, and I think that the artwork that I have gathered from around the web to build the prototype has a fairly inclusive flavour that evokes the nihilistic horror of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories. Acquiring all the IP from the various designers for that artwork is going to be a large, frustrating, slow and complicated affair in its own right and will form a major part of the way that the game develops as a Kickstarter project – something I might discuss in a later post.
Game Design-wise, however, the actual playing of the game (or ‘proof in the pudding’) will hopefully demonstrate how successful the various elements work together under the rules set and provide an indication of which elements are working (and why) and which are not (and why not). These ’emergent properties’ are singularly important as the way in which people interact with the game occurs at various levels, and the aim of the designer is to ensure that each layer is successful. The board design must be practical, efficient, attractive and functional. So do the various game elements – the rules, the cards, the tokens and assorted paraphernalia. Most importantly – ‘fun’ and ‘re-playability’ are the two most crucial emergent properties that I must strive to create and preserve. If the game fails on either of these – no one would buy, play, or recommend it.
Gamers like ‘bling’ and so I have still to work out how to develop unique game items such as figures that will brighten and enhance the overall experience. While this of lower priority than some other aspects, it will be critical for later establishing the price point of the game and affect the likely available market (which in NZ is inescapably going to be pretty low). In addition, there are practical ergonomic aspects to the design that have to be right – for example, the size of print on the cards – many of the ageing eyes of my compatriots complained that they had issues reading some of the type – this could mean that card descriptions needs to be rewritten so that they have fewer words so that the typeface can be enlarged. It might mean some elements of the underlying card design need to be reconsidered, but this is a relatively minor point as I consider the feedback I received.