Hey all
I've noticed a few other people talking about going to the UKGE this year and was wondering if any others would be interested in meeting up. We could discuss our games, look over each other's prototypes, talk about how our playtests go and so on.
I'll be there for the Saturday and Sunday. If anyone else is interested drop a message here. Then we can discuss in private messages where to meet/how to identify each other.
I'm going up on Friday (hoping to arrive some time in the morning) and staying until Sunday -- though Sunday is our family day when my wife and daughter will be joining me, so I'll not have much time for "business" then.
So far I am booked in for a playtesting slot on Saturday, 11:30 to 13:00, and I'm planning on joining a few test sessions for other people over the weekend. I suggest the playtest zone could be a good place to use as a focus.
Where/when was that announced? I totally missed it!
http://www.meetup.com/Playtest/events/230583949/ It says on the event page that they will initially be "but allocated on a first come-first served basis at a later date and initially limited to one per designer." (emphasis mine)
I don't know if they've actually posted the date at which people can book second slots publicly, I was told it in the confirmation e-mail for my 3-hour slot.
Ah! I think this may be a privilege of being in the Three Hour Club. I'm just a Ninety Minuter, so haven't had the nod on this. I expect it will come soonish.
I've got a 3hr slot booked for Saturday 2-5pm but I haven't had confirmation that a second slot can be booked!
My oh is competing in a memoir tournament so I'm free most of Saturday.
I be the one with an orange (rust!) buggy and over excitable 9m old :)
I checked.
Rob said hopefully later this week.
Ok it turns out I was misinformed
It looks like the playtest zone is in desperate need of volunteers to help out, so I've put my name down for a slot on Friday afternoon. Should actually be good fun doing that for a while.
The bookings for the 90 minute sessions has now been opened up, so I have booked a second slot, this time on Sunday morning -- should be about done by the time the family arrives!
...
damn I forgot, got a bit overwhelmed with something else
But here's what I'll be bringing for my 3-hour slot...
Nightlancer prototype from TGC
Wow! That looks very professional!
How did you find The Game Crafter for quality/price/service?
I can't speak about The Game Crafter, but on a related matter I was excited to see that Ivory Graphics are about to launch a print on demand games service in the UK. I doubt they will be even close to offering the range that TGC offers (initially, at least), but if they are at least reasonable, it will be great to have an option here that doesn't involve transatlantic shipping. I'll definitely be visiting their stand at UKGE to see what their story is.
Thanks for the info - I'll race you there!
Hi guys.
The UKGE this year is an huge event for us at Playmore Games, as we're demoing Dized for the very first time for the grand public. Dized is an interactive tutorial that will allow players to learn the game by actually playing it, instead of first having to learn the rules from the rule book.
You'll find us at the booth A9 where you're very welcome to experience Dized for yourself. We would love to get feedback from the designers and publishers ...and obviously tell you more about the product. :)
How did you find The Game Crafter for quality/price/service?
Quality is great. There were just a few small slips on the printing alignment, but well within safety zones, and the quality of the printing is all-around high.
Price is high if you want to try to publish through them, but I think for print-on-demand prototypes it's fair.
So that was some weekend. The preliminary figures I have seen for the Expo was 25000 attendance, which was comprised of 12500 unique visitors, so this is all massively up on last year.
I spent a lot of time in the Playtest Zone, with a couple of sessions of running games of Boogie Knights, several goes sitting in on other people's prototypes, and some time spent helping to draw in victims/volunteers for the tables.
I was delighted to meet Iamseph and Dravvin, though we didn't get very much time to talk, the whole thing being very busy.
Oh yes, I also managed to get a play of a prototype for a party/social game I had only recently created and hadn't managed to get played beforehand, and was delighted that it seems at least viable, so is certainly worth working on.
As a rookie game designer, it was also interesting to attend the Wyvern's Lair event, which involved 12 designers pitching their games to a panel of publishers, seeing what they did right and wrong, and what questions and feedback they got from the publishers. I also learnt a lot from a chat with Gil Hova after (and during) playing the excellent new Guilds of London, as he deconstructed elements of it -- and some other games.
Quite a weekend overall, and I've refreshed my enthusiasm for game design.
Onward!
Hey good to meet you and dravvin too.
Sorry I didn't get to play your game polyobsessive, I got a chance to play dravvin's game (sorry I can't remember the name) and I think it has some good potential there.
I managed to get an extra playtest of Nightlancer in the open gaming area as well as the playtest slot I booked.
It *is* a bit of a struggle to get playtesters, since my game is a niche in a niche in a niche (that is, a long game, a complex game, and a cyberpunk game) but I'm happy to say that when I get them everyone seems to have fun. I got some good feedback on some features that need a bit of fine-tuning too.
(this also fortunately revealed one major flaw that makes it very un-fun on the rare occasions that it comes up, but I've already got a fix for that)
It was great to meet you guys too - sorry I didn't get to play either of your games though I did have a go on some other prototypes.
iamseph - your game looks very professional! Love the printing and your play testers all looked really engaged when I dropped by. Glad you got some good feedback (and a fix!) from the event :)
I think I need to focus more on 4-player variant. Definitely going to try 5 card hand limit and 1-2 card pick up per round - some great feedback. Thanks :) I definitely underestimated veteran coop board gamers. Just shows how important it is to test the game with the right people (I've mostly tested with occasional gamers and as a result have spent the past couple of months reducing difficulty - obviously I went too far).
I missed the Wyvern's Lair event - any specific feedback / lessons learnt that you can pass on polyobsessive?
J
I think that the big takeaway from the Wyvern's Lair was that when pitching, you need to get your game's vital statistics in the first 30 seconds: how many players, how long it takes, the objective of the game, and who the target audience are. There were some really good presentations, but most of them left some or all of that information until much later, or omitted it entirely and had to be asked.
The event was very friendly and supportive, though, and word is that Peter from ITB is planning to announce that he has signed some of the participants (at least that is what he said on Twitter), which is awesome for all involved.
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I've got an extended slot booked for 13.00 to 16.00 on Sunday for my current main prototype Nightlancer
I've also got a regular slot booked in for 13.00 to 14.30 on Saturday (you're allowed to book a second slot as of today).
I'll also be around to join a few other playtest sessions for the daytime on both days. I'll see if I can get some quick pick-up players in the evenings in the open gaming area too.