12 months ago, we took a leap into the wild world of tabletop game design.
Where playtesting is king (or queen) and the ONLY question you need to answer is...
'Would you play the game again?'
So... you want to be a game designer?
WARNING: If you become friends with a game designer be prepared to 'spare a few minutes' (i.e. hours) for unscheduled game testing.
They will pull their game out at every opportunity and ask for playtesting feedback. A big thank you to our family and friends, you are stars.
Theme or mechanics first?
There is an interesting divide in game design - some designers go story (theme) first, while others focus on 'the mechanic' and then choose a theme to fit.
For example, the Australian designer of Sushi Go (great game), Phil Walker-Harding, created a 'circular drafting mechanic,' and then found a circular theme to fit - a sushi train!
Exploding Kittens started as a simple Russian Roulette-style game called 'bomb squad' - before Matt Inman from the Oatmeal turned it into comic kittens. It literally blew up the game industry and has now sold over 60 million copies worldwide.
Games like Wingspan take a different approach again - building gameplay around real-world birds, brought to life through detailed artwork and actions.
For us it was always going to be theme first.
And luckily - we had 3 new Adventure Guides that were filled to the brim with creative story angles, unique themes and quirky facts. The perfect starting point for our game.
Time for arts and crafts
Let the fun begin! Brainstorming ideas, making rough cards (we still have them), and straight into playtesting for weeks on end.
Until we were nearly sick of our own game. Oops
The day they broke the game
After months of family testing, it was time to take it to the professionals. * GULP *
We joined the incredible community of Incubator Melbourne - where designers test each other’s games and where feedback can be brutally honest.
30 minutes into our 20-minute game, it was clear: they weren’t just playing… they were trying to break it. And they did.
Our game turned into a ping pong match, where one player hoarded special cards, another player was overrun and there was no end in sight.
We stopped the game and gathered the feedback... time to refine and test version 2.0.
Did I mention playtesting?
When is a game ready? For some designers it's a gut feeling, others will wait until it's rated 9 / 10 in nearly every play test.
We didn't know - so we kept testing and refining - until the game just flowed.
We asked professional gaming group Player Lair to blind test the game using only the rulebook. Their suggestions were invaluable and are present in the game today.
We won a spot in March at Game Expo and spent 4 hours teaching 9 different groups to play our game. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
We blind tested it with more friends, our neighbours, anyone we could ask!
Until the only feedback that came back was.
'We loved it - when can we buy a copy?'
Answer: In September this year ;)
