New Game Design - Ready for Playtest Again

I have updated everything to be ready for a potential playtest tomorrow!  I even went so far as to create actual tokens and player boards instead of just using paper.  Maybe I've gone a little too far, but I really think the board design and tokens are pretty close to being done.  Just to note, all art is either clip art (houses) or quickly done in Paint (resource symbols).  I am not an artist and do not intend to add too much (if any) art myself.

House Tokens

 Above are the House Tokens.  There are 6 different types, which are separated by cost.  All except the most expensive provide 1 additional worker, while the most expensive provides 2 workers.  The 4 similarly priced types also provide a bonus of Citizen Points and/or resources.

Player Board

Here's a player board showing a few cards already placed, and the some of the other tokens to be used.

If this gets tested tomorrow, I will share the results sometime over the weekend.  If not, then I hope to get this to the table in the next couple of weeks.

Kickstarter Musings #2 - Reward Levels

Before I begin this Musing, I want to apologize for something in my last Musings.  I should not have made suggestions that were not in the realm of possibility for Kickstarter as part of my main argument.  From now on, my main suggestions will be usable in Kickstarter.  If something I mention is not doable (since I have not created a project, I am not 100% sure), then someone please let me know.  I may still make some non-Kickstarter suggestions, but will refrain from mentioning them until the end of the post.

Now, today I want to talk about backer reward levels.  First, I will not be talking about the price of the levels as that is the creator's choice (they need to raise the funds).  What I want to discuss are the different levels that are presented to us backers to choose from, and what is offered in them.  Let's get started from the beginning:

1) $1 - A big "Thank You!" - Most projects include some form of the $1 Thank You level, whether it's a mention on their website or a toast, etc.  Although this level is not necessary (A backer can select the "Back This Project" button and put in $1), I think it's nice of the creator to thank everyone that backs their project (even at the lowest level).

2) You don't get the game, but here is something related to it - I have seen some projects that have a level below the "Get the Game" level that includes some related item (dice, tokens, etc...see the Compounded $8 level as an example).  Depending on the reward, I think these are either completely worthless or barely passable.  I don't really care about a button that has the name of a game that I could not back enough to own.  Perhaps if I would have received some tokens from the game, I might be okay; however, in general, I would pass on these levels.

3) Early Bird backer - I hate hate hate (did I mention hate?) these levels.  If you are going to offer a special rate for the first 50 or 100 backers, then either offer it to all backers, or reduce the price of your "Get the Game" level by $1 or $2.  It is really annoying to not know that a project has gone live until a mention on BGG, and then find that all the Early Bird level(s) have been taken.  Anyone who does this (especially Queen Games), please stop!

4) Get the Game - Yay!  I get a copy of your super-awesome game!  Enough said.

5) Get a Copy of the Base Game (Expansion Project) - No problems here.

6) 4 + 5 - Again, no problems.  Need the base game if I just found out this existed.

7) 4 + A copy of an unrelated game - I will say that I have pledged at this level before to get a hard to find game; however, I am generally not a fan of these levels.  It just seems like the creator is trying to do anything to get enough support to fund the game.  If your game is truly good, these levels should not be necessary.  Let your game speak for itself, and keep your other games out of the project.

8) Get drawn in the game/design a card/etc. - Generally, I think these are great rewards.  My only issue is that, similar to the Early Bird, you generally need to be one of the first 100-200 backers to have a chance at one of these.  My suggestion would be to release these over the course of the project to allow backers just finding the project the opportunity to get these as well.  Feel free to mention on your project when you will add some or provide an unfair social media advantage, but if I really like your project enough to back at a large level, then give me a chance at one of these levels.

9) Multiple copies of the game - These are excellent for international orders.  Keep using them.

So now that I have gone over most of the levels, there is one reward item that some projects add to most levels that I want to talk about...

Your name mentioned (insert location here) - In most cases, this is just fine.  The one location that I do not like, however, is in the rules.  Looking at the Kings of Air and Steam rules, the inside front page is just a list of backers.  Don't get me wrong, I think it's great as a backer to have my name mentioned somewhere, but please don't do it in the rules.  If it will be included in every copy of the game, then put it on the game box or the back of the game board.

So that's it for backer levels/rewards.  The topic for Musings #3 (at this time) will be Videos Included in Projects.  Thanks for reading!

Kickstarter Musings #1.5 - An Update on Stretch Goals

As I stated in my last Musings, I am not a fan of stretch goals that add game play content.  My biggest example of this was the TMG Kickstarter for Scoville.  The biggest problem I had with this project is the addition of 5 and 6 player options when the appropriate stretch goals were reached.

Earlier this week, TMG announced that they are removing the 5 and 6 player stretch goals, and adding them to the game!  This is excellent news, and I cannot thank TMG enough for listening to their backers and making this change.  I realize that this adds cost to the game, and I would have been okay with them restarting the project with a higher base price due to the change, but they have decided to keep the backer cost the same.

The other stretch goals that Scoville has are more recipe and market cards at 2 different levels, then replacing some tokens/cubes for customized meeples/wooden pepper tokens.  Let me first say that stretch goals for upgrading materials are excellent goals and I fully support them.  The stretch goals for adding more content to the game, however, leaves me with mixed feelings.  TMG has stated on their project page that all stretch goals met will be included in all copies (including retail) of the game.  Since there is no Kickstarter Exclusive for these cards, I do not have a problem with them being stretch goals on that count.  I have a slight sticking point, though, when it comes to items that add game content without being included by default. 

After thinking about my previous Musing where I outright stated that goals adding game play content should not be used at all, I need to back up a little bit.  I realize that in that post, it could have appeared that I contradicted myself stating that Promos are acceptable stretch goals, while new game play content was not.  I feel that Promo items for games are acceptable stretch goals since they are add-on content above what the base game experience provides.  As an example, look at the Eminent Domain: Bonus Planets Promo pack that TMG provided on the original Eminent Domain Kickstarter.  This promo pack added 9 new planets that players could use in the game.  These planets were new planet types, not the 3 basic types included in the base game.  Since this provided a new "mechanic" to learn, I believe this was an acceptable stretch goal.  In the Scoville project, however, the new cards do not really change the game play experience.  Instead, these new cards only provide a little more replay value without adding anything new to the game.

I realize that my stance above walks a very thin line and could be considered a gray area, but I feel that new content as stretch goals should provide new game play features, not just adding a little more replay with nothing really new to add.

New Game Design Update - Many Changes

So as I stated in my last design post, I have been in the process of making some major changes to the card design.  I now believe that I have achieved an acceptable product to begin testing.  Rather than keep you all waiting, let's dive right in to the changes.

Here is a picture to compare the old card structure to the new structure:

Card Changes

I realize this does not look like much of a change, but it really changes how the game is played.  Here's a brief explanation of the new card layout:

Card Anatomy

1. Card Title
2. Cost to build
3. Ability provided
4. Synergy/Upgrade
   1. For Synergy, the building listed is required to utilize the Synergy ability.
   2. For Upgrade, the listed cost must be paid to gain access to the Upgrade ability
5. Hidden Ability – this ability will be provided while this portion of the card is visible.
6. Citizen Points rewarded for the building
7. Year this card is available
8. Number of players to include this card
   
   
    
   The real change to the card is the new Hidden Ability.  This ability will only be available until a new building card is built next to it.  The new building card will overlap the existing card such that the Hidden Ability becomes, well, hidden.  What this also accomplishes, is that it hides the Citizen Point value that the building provides, which will hopefully make all players "forget" about how many points everyone has and just enjoys playing the game.
   
   
   I also made changes to the player boards.  Previously, the boards were very basic holding spots for all the cards.  Now, however, the layout looks more like that of an old Western town:
   
   

   

   Player Board

   As you can see, the new player board lists the starting resources, number of workers, and special ability that player has.  Why Special Ability?  Well, my plan is to make each player board double-sided.  One side will have the board you see above, while the other side will have different starting resources, workers, and/or a special ability.
   
   
   Also added in this version is new House Tokens.  Before this update, players received additional workers for free at the beginning of each year.  Now, players will have to buy House Tokens which provide additional workers.  There are currently 4 different types of houses that provide between 1 and 2 workers (and possibly some additional Citizen Points and resources).  I was not really a fan of just providing new workers for free each year, so my hope is that this will be a good replacement.
   
   
   At this point, I have no plans to have a playable version with the new changes ready for any game days that I will attend this month.  I hope to be able to get a few people to visit and try a runthrough with these changes, however, before bringing a copy to one of the game days in March.

Kickstarter Musings #1

So in the past couple of days, there have been 2 events that have made me really think about stretch goals that are offered on Kickstarter for board/card games.

The first event was the start of the TMG project for Scoville.  All of the stretch goals offered are not Kickstarter exclusive.  All of the goals add more to gameplay (5/6 players, additional cards).  The backer price is 67% of MSRP.

The second event was an update for the Euphoria project from Jamey Stegmaier concerning amending the Kickstarter exclusive for realistic resources for the game.  For those that are not aware, the retail version of Euphoria comes with wooden tokens to represent gold, stone, and clay.  For the backers, those resources are replaced with gold painted metal bars, painted glass beads, and resin bricks.

Kickstarter Exclusives
After receiving Jamey's update and doing some hard thinking, I have come to the following conclusion:
Exclusive Kickstarter backer rewards should be avoided at all costs!

Now some people will probably think "Then why should I ever back anything on Kickstarter?".   There are many reasons to back a project.  The biggest reason being that there need to be enough backers so that the game is actually produced!  Even though I said that there should not be exclusive rewards, there are still things that projects can do:

1) Provide additional "Promo" content
There are many projects that provide additional game content as backer rewards.  Some of these projects, though, also provide a means to purchase this content later (usually through BoardGameGeek).  My opinion is that this does not constitute an exclusive reward since I will have the ability to purchase it at a later time.

2) Provide the game at a decent discount
As stated above, the backer price for Scoville is 67% of MSRP.  Most online sites will sell the game for around the same price point.  To me, this is enough to make me back the project since shipping is generally included in the backer cost (provided the game ships from the same country).  Also combined with this is that backers generally receive the game first, with distributors receiving it a couple weeks later.

Just before starting this post, I received another update from Jamey stating that Stonemaier Games is removing all Kickstarter Exclusives from future projects.  I applaud Jamey and Alan in this decision, and look forward to their upcoming project Tuscany: Expand the World of Viticulture!

Gameplay Content Stretch Goals
Another topic I would like to weigh in on is the use of stretch goals to provide additional content.  I am not a fan of this tactic.  I would prefer to play the full game instead of a mostly complete game.  If developers have playtested something and thought it was good enough to keep, they should include it by default.  I realize that in some cases, not having a few extra cards does not really affect the quality of the game, but there have been some projects that were adding items to the game board if a stretch goal was met

I realize that if the project included all the gameplay content by default, the starting price would have to be higher.  I am perfectly okay with that, and will gladly pay the difference.  What the project could do instead, although I realize that Kickstarter makes it more difficult to do this, would be to have stretch goals that decrease the cost for each backer, since the burden of producing the full content of the game has been covered by enough backers.  Again, I realize that this is impossible, but I find it really annoying when I keep hoping 3 more people back the project so that my copy of the game will include those 10 extra cards.

Hopefully anyone that reads this now understands my view.  These are strictly my opinions, and I welcome any debate.

New Game Design - Taking a Break from Playtesting

So it's been 2 months since the last playtest of my game.  I am not worried about it, though, since there have been a lot of new games (Kickstarter and Christmas gifts) to play.  Recently, I have had a couple new ideas for my game that will also deal with a couple issues that I had.

The biggest issue I've had so far is the amount of space each player would need.  I have been trying to figure our how to reduce the footprint required by all players.  Then it hit me, overlap the cards.  Given the layout of some old west towns, the majority of buildings could be on one main road.  By setting up the player boards to have a single, main road, I could have the players overlap the cards, thus reducing the footprint.

The slight downside to this change, however, is that there would be a lot of blank space on the cards.  So in thinking about it for a little bit, I came up with an idea.  The idea is to give some/most of the cards from the first 2 years a temporary or one-time ability that can only be used while it is visible.  This would add more strategy for players by making them decide when to overlap a specific card, thus losing its temporary ability.

So with these changes in mind, I need to take some time to modify the cards to add temporary/one-time abilities, and generate new player boards.  While I am working on these changes, I also plan to start thinking of some ways to give players unique starting resources/abilities that provides each player a different potential strategy to pursue.

Until next time, keep gaming!

Kickstarter Spotlight #1 - Tricked-Out Hero

So on occasion, I will mention some games that I back on Kickstarter.  The game I will talk about today is Tricked-Out Hero from Prolific Games.  I have had the opportunity to play this game at GenCon for 3 years, and have thoroughly enjoyed it!

Tricked-Out Hero is a trick-taking game that combines aspects of Hearts and Spades with monster battles.  Before the game starts, each player selects a character card that has some unique abilities and starting statistics. 

Each game, 12 rounds of trick-taking are played, but the trump suit is determined by a card revealed prior to the start of the round.  At this point, each player has a chance to use an ability they have that could alter the way the tricks are captured (change the trump suit, go no trump, smallest card wins).  When the trick-taking is complete, players gain tokens based on the suit of the trick taken.  These tokens affect the monster battle that occurs immediately following. 

Each player fights a different monster that has a melee and/or magic stat.  Each player rolls a d8 and must roll above the stat they choose in order to defeat the monster.  If the player is not confident, they can spend some of the appropriate melee or magic tokens to add 1/token to the roll (must be spent prior to rolling the d8).  If the player fails to defeat the monster, they lose health tokens as stated on the monster card.  If the player gained any Spade tricks, the tokens gained increase the monster's stats by 1/token (mandatory).  At the end of the game, the player with the most gold (each monster has a Gold value that is gained when defeated), wins.

As stated above, I have played this game 3 times over the course of 3 years.  Each time I have played, I had a lot of fun (as did my wife).  This game was a day 1 back for us, and we both highly recommend this game to anyone that enjoys trick-taking games.

To see more about the game, visit their BoardGameGeek page.  If you would like to back the game or see more information, visit their Kickstarter page.

New Design - Changes Progress

At this point, I have made many minor changes:

1) Changed some building abilities.  Changes include decreasing some gold to food conversions, replacing the upgrade ability of the Blacksmith to allow upgrades when building new buildings, and some synergy tweaks.
2) Minor changes to a few event cards.
3) Larger player resource board.  Also, player resource limits have been introduced, with the limits for each year listed on the resource boards.
4) A few building costs have been changed.

Changes that I would still like to make for Version 0.0.3:
1) Make a larger player aid card that explains all actions available to the player, and answer some FAQs.
2) Change the player boards to more closely resemble building an old west town.
3) Update the rules to account for the changes made.
4) Potentially make a few more tweaks to building and upgrade costs.

Changes to make for future versions:
1) Basic art for resource symbols
2) Basic art for player boards and resource board
3) Layout revision for building cards and event cards
4) Basic art for building cards and event cards

If anyone reading this has playtested the game, please provide any feedback for changes.  I believe I remember most of the feedback, but would appreciate any comments in case I missed something.

Also, if anyone is interested in doing some graphic design for the game, please let me know.