I’m fortunate that I get quite a bit of time off for the holidays, 11 days this year including weekends. I had planned to use some of that time to catch up on my design work.
This is what I had planned to accomplish and didn’t get done.
Create a Vassal Module for Order of the Wand
Test Order of the Wand with out of state game designer friends
Review my projects file to purge dead end ideas and revisit better ones.
Work on at least one of those better ideas and create or update prototype for testing.
Test, Test, Test…
Break is over. I’ll just have to squeeze all that is on the weekends.
Comments
Hmm...
I find NOTHING moves forwards during the Holidays. Everybody is busy with family and downtime. I usually find that I have more free time for my projects - but usually the people I am collaborating with DON'T! :P
But hopefully things move forwards in the New Year (2015)! Got some important *blind* playtesting that will happen - and then some MORE *blind* playtesting (again)... Should be pretty decent months of January/February!
Good luck with Order of the Wand!
I'll let you know when I have
I'll let you know when I have a functional module in case you want to check out the wand mechanic.
Cool
Thanks David, I'd be interested in seeing what kind of mechanic it is! I know you already mentioned that is was not merely for aesthetics. Must be real original because having a Wand in a game - sounds real fun for kids. Plus the Wand has a purpose (mechanic) which is EVEN BETTER! :D
The game actually revolves
The game actually revolves around the use of the wand. There had been a secondary time wheel mechanic in the original version that caused some very interesting things to happen if manipulated correctly but it was very confusing and slowed the game down considerably. After many months of trying to make it work my testers convinced me that I needed to concentrate on the core of the game. I stripped everything out but the wand and spell casting mechanics so I could focus on testing the wand mechanic. This left the game a bit flat so the new version I need to test has a time manipulation element to it, one simpler and quicker than the original. I have also put the board back in so movement and area effects are back in play.
I understand
When you start designing a game - you have a pretty good idea of the elements that you want to be a part in the game... But then playtesting occurs and you realize some good ideas just don't work with the remainder of the game.
Then you are forced to strip away elements of the game and you are left with a fraction of the game... And usually it feels a little LIGHT. I personally find this stage of the game the most difficult. Because somehow you need to add elements to the game to give it a more complete feel. And you already know that you had done this with elements that don't work...
So that's why sometimes I abandon a design. Like I did with Rain Of Fire 4.0... Just could not get this game to work. Plus I saw too many other people want/trying to design the same type of game (Religious undertones - based on elements in the Bible). I wanted to create three (3) worlds: the Heavens, the Earth and Hell. But I couldn't get enough ideas to design a card game which was supposed to be a dual...
The duals felt empty and too simple... Anyhow I understand your position!
My regret...
I wish I had known about BGDF BEFORE making my 1st game "Quest Adventure Cards"... I would have save $20k plus I would have ended up with a better product.
As they say you learn from your mistakes. Now my challenge is finding a publisher for "Tradewars - Homeworld". So far the road has been challenging. I have dealt for almost one (1) year with a publisher and they finally said they were not moving forward with the game. The last publisher I approached told me: "How would you sell this game?" And to his crew, it seems like "another Deck-Builder".
So I am having challenges and am getting the game *blind* playtested to see what other people think of the game. That feedback should be able to tell me how to move forwards! Hopefully... :)
Keep at it. My game Nitro
Keep at it. My game Nitro Dice was with a publisher of 9 months before they changed their mind and then I spent 3 more years before I found a publisher.