Well I took the ENTIRE day to "re-design" the *NEW* (Latest and Greatest) cards for the prototype. Now I know this game has had a bunch of versions. Some of which that never made the "prototype" phase: they went from idea straight into the trash! LOL
But more seriously, I found some good elements and pieced them all together. I hope to conduct testing "tomorrow", once I finish up cutting the next deck. Since this game is two (2) Player "Micro" Decks, I've finished up Deck #1 and have to repeat the process for Deck #2.
Could take between 1 to 2 hours to cut up the cards.
Yeah it takes time - but it's worthwhile since an earlier playtest confirmed that the game "had merit".
The game take anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to play. It's a fairly QUICK game and it allows players to do several attempts towards victory (like best 2 out of 3 or best 3 out of 5). @JewellGames (Gregg) was working on some smaller format games too... But I haven't seen him on BGDF for quite a while now. Anyhow it would be nice to finalize the prototype for this game and do a ton more "playtesting"!
Cheers...
Comments
1st Playtest COMPLETED!
Alright, again another playtest of the new card "engine" for this duel game and it was a close one: 24 Red vs. 25 Blue (Blue wins by 1 point!)
Player's had 8 Mana points and "Red" won the 5 point BONUS color (which gave Red +5 points, 19 + 5 = 24)
Man this "little" game really has a lot of POTENTIAL!
I have to create one more single card for both Decks... A defensive card, because I feel like the "Assassin" card is too powerful without a "Zealot" "Unbreakable" Active Ability for a whopping 5 Mana.
Lots of cards on both sides of the table were taken out of the "final equation" when making "melds" and computing the score.
Now time for bed it's 12:30 AM ... eyes are feeling droopy. I will conduct more playtest tomorrow too. I'll report back some time around 12:00 Noon-ish.
Cheers and A+!
About the game
One nice feature of the game is how the gameplay is divided into several focused steps. It makes "computing" the Puzzle very difficult.
Phases are:
That's a lot of BANG for only 12 cards!!!
Will report back tomorrow with more results. Cheers!
Partially inspired by Gwent
I wanted to design a card game "you could bring to the table". The concept of having two (2) types of unit rows is sort of like Gwent...
I wanted to stay as far away as possible from Magic, even if my duels are 100% deterministic.
So far I'm very pleased with the results. Again will report back tomorrow with more playtesting results. Cheers!
Taking a break from playtesting
Moving into the cutting of the twelve (12) "expansion" cards which are a complete 2nd deck. That's kind of my "strategy": offer one (1) deck but with the miracle of Kickstarter, allow people the benefit of getting one whole extra deck FREE.
I'm trying to drive more "value" for the game.
I don't think I'm ready to test that 2nd deck... Because odds are you would want to mix and match card to build a strong deck. This is all about "collectibility" of the cards and off-site Deck Construction.
Because this is a CCG (Collectible Card Game), each card will have a singles value that defines the after-market value of a card. Obviously used cards are less value than new ones ... but you may not always be able to get the card you are looking for.
But platforms like eBay are perfect for selling "used" singles at a fair and reasonable price (in comparison to NEW cards all the time). I'm interested in "growing" the community of player who are interested in the game. At the same time, I plan to limit the amount of cards available. Hence the "collectible" aspect of the game.
Maybe with Quality (New, Good, Used, etc.) that could help a buyers decide what they want: do they want a card to ADD to their collection or do they really NEED a card to play with. Both plausible scenarios.
Cheers.
Complete the "extended" deck
So I've managed to print and cut the 1st "extended" deck for the game. That's twelve (12) extra cards. I'm going to repeat the exercise for the other player too... Figured I'd just share my progress. I also need to eventually (like tonight) design the "High Elves" "Zealot" card to balance the decks with some kind of offset to the "Assassin"'s "Assassination" ability...
On to Deck #2 (extended cards)...
Done with the decks AND...
I also managed to design the two (2) "Zealot" cards in order to make the "core" Deck having twelve (12) cards. It makes it more reasonable to have twelve instead of only having eleven... Was an odd number.
Now I have two (2) FULL decks that may come with the "core" game! This gives the game good "value" in that singles would cost a lot and we also have a couple reward tier for ONLY the "core" game - which are less expensive and require less of an investment.
I'm going to playtest the "core" decks another time and see how the scoring goes with the NEW "Zealot" card.
Cheers!
Another "core" test...
This time Blue won AGAIN with 39 points vs. 20 points. I was a bit of a "blowout"! It seemed like it was going to be closer, but the color bonus (+5 VPs) that was won by Blue really put his score over the top.
Well I still feel the game has "GOOD" potential. And with some amazing artwork, the game might be cherish by teens and older players. This is not a game for players under 13 years. I think there is too much strategic depth, that younger players may feel "lost"...
Will have to start working on a rulebook to document "HOW TO PLAY". Seeing as I doubt this game will get into many people's hands... Might as well work on something necessary like the rulebook!
A must no doubt - either way. I'd like to complete this design...
Cheers.
First TIMED test
It clocked in at 11:35. Which is more than my 5 to 10 minutes play time... Maybe it would be best if I said the game is played within 15 minutes instead?!
I don't know what it is about Blue (40 to 26). Another Blue victory!
Also great card picks because The Duke was played into the Support row (Blue player) thus making it harder to be attacked.
That's three (3) Playtests ALL Victories to the Blue player... Oddly enough the both player's Decks are IDENTICAL! Let's not forget that either. Blue has been dominating by winning all the games (thus far).
I may playtest some more tomorrow evening.
If it's a quiet evening - I may get the chance to playtest a few more rounds.
Cheers!
It's all about BALANCE
While I have been playing the basic "core" of twelve (12) cards... I am starting to realize something:
So even though I am testing the "core" cards, I am deeply concerned about how the game can be "dumb-ed down" to simply choosing all HIGH scoring melee units (Plus '+' operator).
Some observations:
If this occurs then it's sort of a "fait accompli" where the opponent must do the same or the victory will go to the opponent.
I am thinking I should REVERSE the point values:
Now it's a no-brainer: just choose a melee unit and meld with the Warlord. Kinda too easy... Anyways I will most definitely need to go through the process again and RE-THINK gameplay.
Keep you all posted on my progress.
Cheers everyone!
Design put back ON HOLD!
Reviewing some of my older design material, I have decided to PAUSE the development of "Crystal Heroes" (CH). My motives are that "Monster Keep" (MK) married with some of the "newer" CH mechanics ... might be more interesting of a game.
MK has a more solid "Foundation" with it's Lords of the Keep and FUSING the "Micro" Deck concept from the latest CH prototype could prove to MAYBE be more of the game that I am hoping to design.
I know it's a bit strange: a design gets HOT ... and I develop it TO A POINT. And then I review material of my other designs and see MORE potential than with the current design.
Well to be honest, I see "something". I'm not sure if it's REAL potential - but it intrigues me... And that's worthwhile examining.
So therefore expect a BLOG update for "Monster Keep" (MK) some time soon. Once I figure out HOW to marry the "Crystal Heroes" (CH) Micro Deck. I have some ideas - but it may take a while.
Cheers and thanks for reading!
New Ideas?
I don't think I have seen either of these yet. Are these new design ideas or old mechanics resurfacing? Do you have rules for these somewhere?
Mixing old and new
Well to be honest, I have a drawer filled with Game Ideas/Early Prototypes. I keep all my stuff in "plastic baggies". And sometime I like to look in the drawer to see all the "neat" stuff there!
Believe me the drawer never ceases to amaze me.
There are a bunch of "failed" games - which suck. But at the same time, there are COOL cards and ideas in some of those lousy games. It's not like the entire game sucked - just not good enough to produce or publish.
Even so, with those mediocre games ... they have cool IDEAS or MECHANICS, and sometimes I REVISIT a design after rummaging through that drawer.
And just recently (Today), I was looking over my "Monster Keep" cards. And I finally found the code to http://www.random.org for my ID generation. I also found the cards and could NOT locate the spreadsheet on either of my computers (that's a bit strange...)
But what I do have is PHYSICAL copies of the cards (a prototype). And I found the .AI files for those cards. Just no spreadsheet or .TXT file. Again very surprising.
Looking over those copies of the cards and I was like a Kid at a Candy Store... "Wow these cards look COOL (And just templates - Black & White - no artwork)." And then I found the "Lords of the Keep" and saw how cool the abilities on those cards are, plus three (3) Lords could be stretch goals to make the game go from one (1) to three (3) player to SIX (6)!!!
Although I could find no rulebook (.TXT file)... The design has me fascinated. And yeah I remember how crappy the game (as I was playtesting it) SUCKED. But that's the COOL part: the game that I had designed might have sucked but the cards have POTENTIAL. I just need to re-design HOW I use them. And it strikes me that it should be a "Deck-Builder" too! (Hahaha) No seriously I am thinking of BLENDING "common" cards for Deck Building Engine (during a game) and bring your "custom" Micro Deck of twelve (12) cards as your Monster Deck for the challenge.
So "common" and "custom"... We'll see I have to think about more how to get these two (2) to work together (old cards with new mechanics and gameplay). We'll see how long I can go on this design. And IF it can make it to a "sufficiently good" game from the prototype.
Cheers and thanks for your interest!