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Can Someone Try Playtesting My Game WITHOUT A Physical Prototype?

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Wesinator24
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If not, that's ok too, just means i'll be playing against myself a lot XD

Anyways, my game is called Toy Wars, I'll give a link to the rules to save text space here and i'll give another link for the cards themselves

The two biggest things I am looking for are how the game itself plays and feels and balancing on the cards themselves. There are a total of 42 cards so far and I want to take my time balancing these cards before creating new ones, as I feel like the number I have right now is just enough without being too much.

Thanks in advance! And again, if this isn't possible, that's ok :)

Just more time i'll have to spend playtesting it myself

Link to Rules - http://txt.do/dzbkr

Link to Cards - http://txt.do/dzbkq

Thanks in advance!

pelle
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Sorry, but I think you will

Sorry, but I think you will find it difficult to find testers with the game in that condition. Rules are confusing and written as if you just typed whatever came to mind without order, and important rules like how to resolve battles only in the FAQ at the end.

And what is the idea for playing at all? You could have taken a few minutes to make a PDF with cards to print.

MattyT
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Some kind of prototype

I'd at least make some cards. It doesn't have to be anything amazing. You could use clip-art or royalty free stock photos to make a printsheet of every card in your game. At the end of the day, if you won't put in the effort why would anyone else?

pelle
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Even text only works for me,

Even text only works for me, to make it even simpler. Not that I mind pictures,but not worth the ink cost if it is just random or ugly filler.

let-off studios
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Card & Game Feedback

I didn't play the game, but I did review the text you included for the cards. Here are some quick notes.

Form-Helicopter and Form-Plane both have 0 Health. According to your rules, it seems they would be destroyed as soon as they were placed.

Toy Box needs work. It heals units it swaps (those that are put back in the deck, that is), unless you provide some way to track health for damaged units. However, since it must be played in the front row then it's likely it will become the next target, and therefore not be used at all. I'm unsure if this is the effect you want for this card.

When you revise your cards, be sure to clarify the use of the words "can" and "may" and "must."

I also strongly recommend you reduce the power levels of the cards to a range of 1 through 10 or 12. Additionally, the game should include tokens or clips to account for the bonuses granted by other cards. It will be a challenge for you and your players to keep track of these bonuses when cards become exhausted (it seems to me like the tokens would be fiddly, slow down game time, and maybe even shift to other cards or regions of the play area accidentally as time goes on).

The text for Spinning Top can confuse players. It seems to me that the text is redundant, and it should simply read something like, "When this card is activated or targeted, throw a die. The result indicates its Agility: 1 = ..."

Regarding Form - Van: are all stats boosted, or just one? Does the boost remain from round to round? Do these boosts stack? Does the Form - Van heal itself with this ability?

///

This is a start, and there's potential in your idea. I suggest you embrace your enthusiasm you have for this idea, channel it into the energy you need to write some clear rules, and create some basic cards for a workable prototype. Good luck! :)

Jay103
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Go get NANDeck or one of the

Go get NANDeck or one of the others, figure out what it does (there are tutorials), and make your "cards" into CARDS. Nobody's actually going to play a game where the cards they draw are, what, thin strips of paper they cut out?

(and... thought you were going to divide by 25?)

Wesinator24
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let-off studios wrote:I

let-off studios wrote:
I didn't play the game, but I did review the text you included for the cards. Here are some quick notes.

Form-Helicopter and Form-Plane both have 0 Health. According to your rules, it seems they would be destroyed as soon as they were placed.

Toy Box needs work. It heals units it swaps (those that are put back in the deck, that is), unless you provide some way to track health for damaged units. However, since it must be played in the front row then it's likely it will become the next target, and therefore not be used at all. I'm unsure if this is the effect you want for this card.

When you revise your cards, be sure to clarify the use of the words "can" and "may" and "must."

I also strongly recommend you reduce the power levels of the cards to a range of 1 through 10 or 12. Additionally, the game should include tokens or clips to account for the bonuses granted by other cards. It will be a challenge for you and your players to keep track of these bonuses when cards become exhausted (it seems to me like the tokens would be fiddly, slow down game time, and maybe even shift to other cards or regions of the play area accidentally as time goes on).

The text for Spinning Top can confuse players. It seems to me that the text is redundant, and it should simply read something like, "When this card is activated or targeted, throw a die. The result indicates its Agility: 1 = ..."

Regarding Form - Van: are all stats boosted, or just one? Does the boost remain from round to round? Do these boosts stack? Does the Form - Van heal itself with this ability?

///

This is a start, and there's potential in your idea. I suggest you embrace your enthusiasm you have for this idea, channel it into the energy you need to write some clear rules, and create some basic cards for a workable prototype. Good luck! :)

Form Helicopter and Form Plane wouldn't be destroyed right away, but instead will be destroyed whenever they are attacked.

Hmm, yeah, it sounds like Toy Box could use some tweaking.

I will make sure to clarify words like "can", "may" and "must" when they should be used.

I do plan on reducing the power levels, just haven't done it yet.

I will try to rewrite Spinning Top to make it simpler.

Form-Van gains the stat boost to all stats until that one battle it used it in is over, then all of it's stats get reduced by 25 afterwards.

Thanks for the feedback, I plan to make this game a reality!

Wesinator24
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Jay103 wrote:Go get NANDeck

Jay103 wrote:
Go get NANDeck or one of the others, figure out what it does (there are tutorials), and make your "cards" into CARDS. Nobody's actually going to play a game where the cards they draw are, what, thin strips of paper they cut out?

(and... thought you were going to divide by 25?)

I'll learn NANDeck and get to work!

And yes, I am going to divide by 25, just trying to figure out what to do about some cards like Brick Man who has a speed stat of 10 (would rather not have decimals)

let-off studios
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Simplify

Wesinator24 wrote:
And yes, I am going to divide by 25, just trying to figure out what to do about some cards like Brick Man who has a speed stat of 10 (would rather not have decimals)
Nobody wants decimals. :)

I suggest you streamline the majority of your cards to a range of 1 through 10 or 12 (using whole numbers). For the cards that don't neatly fit into a clearly-divided number when you make your changes, just round up or down.

Ask yourself: is the math the fun part of this game? If the answer is no (and I have an inkling this will be your answer), then simplify it so the player doesn't have to do any more than necessary.

Jay103
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Well if the speed is just who

Well if the speed is just who attacks first, that could just be its own 1-10 scale. There's no reason you should need more than that.

Quote:
Ask yourself: is the math the fun part of this game? If the answer is no (and I have an inkling this will be your answer), then simplify it so the player doesn't have to do any more than necessary.

This is a FUNDAMENTAL thing to do to have a good game design!

Figure out what your game is about, and for any feature, ask whether it supports that or not. Other stuff is either getting in the way of your game, or at least just taking up space.

And in this case, your game is about toys in a toybox fighting each other (I think). Get the fights interesting and streamline them as much as possible.

(I believe most games can/should be able to have one SHORT sentence that defines them, before you get to any mechanics.. the game I just did is probably "D&D without any math or reading")

Wesinator24
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let-off studios

let-off studios wrote:
Wesinator24 wrote:
And yes, I am going to divide by 25, just trying to figure out what to do about some cards like Brick Man who has a speed stat of 10 (would rather not have decimals)
Nobody wants decimals. :)

I suggest you streamline the majority of your cards to a range of 1 through 10 or 12 (using whole numbers). For the cards that don't neatly fit into a clearly-divided number when you make your changes, just round up or down.

Ask yourself: is the math the fun part of this game? If the answer is no (and I have an inkling this will be your answer), then simplify it so the player doesn't have to do any more than necessary.

Yeah my answer would be no, i'll definitely be simplifying the stats

Wesinator24
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Jay103 wrote:Well if the

Jay103 wrote:
Well if the speed is just who attacks first, that could just be its own 1-10 scale. There's no reason you should need more than that.

Quote:
Ask yourself: is the math the fun part of this game? If the answer is no (and I have an inkling this will be your answer), then simplify it so the player doesn't have to do any more than necessary.

This is a FUNDAMENTAL thing to do to have a good game design!

Figure out what your game is about, and for any feature, ask whether it supports that or not. Other stuff is either getting in the way of your game, or at least just taking up space.

And in this case, your game is about toys in a toybox fighting each other (I think). Get the fights interesting and streamline them as much as possible.

(I believe most games can/should be able to have one SHORT sentence that defines them, before you get to any mechanics.. the game I just did is probably "D&D without any math or reading")

I originally did consider having players go through their whole 15 card deck and I have yet to try it, but ultimately I decided against it because it would make certain constants extremely hard to use effectively.

I would say my game is about 2 toy armies going at it. Any tips on how to make fights more interesting without making things too complex?

I would say my sentence is "Two toy armies battle for supremacy"

Jay103
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Secondary question.. there's

Secondary question.. there's the implication that players are selecting the elements of their deck. Why? and what are they selecting FROM? Do players all need their own copies to play this? Is there sufficient strategy here to make deck-building an interesting part of the game?

Wesinator24
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Jay103 wrote:Secondary

Jay103 wrote:
Secondary question.. there's the implication that players are selecting the elements of their deck. Why? and what are they selecting FROM? Do players all need their own copies to play this? Is there sufficient strategy here to make deck-building an interesting part of the game?

I'm not quite sure what you are asking on the first 2 questions.

Eh, sort of. I plan to have a 30 toy card and 10 assist card set for beginners so that each player can use 15 toys and 5 assists. But say you didn't purchase this, then yes, you would need your own copies to play this game.

As for the last question, i'm not sure. My goal is to make archtypes for different types of toys to allow for different playstyles.

As examples:

Brick - Survivability
Stuffed - Shut Down
Tinker Toy - Position Swapping
Army Man - Strong Together, Weak Separated
Form - Adaptability
Spinning Top - The only toy not part of an archtype so far

I'm not sure how well those playstyles are translating to the actual cards, but I do know that I have to be careful with Stuffed, Army Man and Form in particular, because those could easily power creep should I add something that allows them to do things they shouldn't.

Jay103
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Well, to clarify my question,

Well, to clarify my question, it sounds like you're making a CCG. Or at least a game where every player has to have bought their own deck. I think that's hugely problematic from a real-life standpoint. If I buy the game, I literally can't play it with anyone. If I want to play it with my family, I have to buy multiple copies right off the bat.

The "Why?" question is why people are constructing decks in the first place, rather than just choosing randomly. Among other things, constructed decks are far far more likely to expose/create broken mechanics. And of course, without that, you could just have one pack and play with your friends.

The reason you give is that you think maybe people will be able to construct along a theme, but you don't have that part in the design at this time, so I wouldn't consider it a core part of your concept...

Wesinator24
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I'm back after all this time XD

I'm back after all this time XD

I've gotten a new interest in the idea, but I'll be honest I haven't touched it since I made this forum. It sounds like I need to make this game more of a Deck Building Game like "Legendary" and I wholeheartedly agree. The tricky part is coming up with enough cards to justify a price point XD

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