Skip to Content
 

Hello, fellow board game designers!

13 replies [Last post]
Sat, 10/14/2017 - 10:11
Sunseteer
Offline
Joined: 10/07/2017
Screenshot of a Gunfighter playtest session

Hi everyone,

I recently started designing Gunfighter, a casual non-collectible dueling card game set in the Wild West.

As a new game designer, I would be very grateful if someone could read over the rulebook to see if everything makes sense. All playtesters are welcome as well - I currently have the game set up on Roll20.net if anyone wants to join in on the duels.

If you would like to read the manual, please visit this link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tF_QbOczqdSQj-OBynnqM-B6Xq7DVYuoeEkg...

All of the print and play files can be found on the Gunfighter facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/GunfighterCardGame/

Thank you guys for your time, I'm looking forward to being a part of this creative community!

Top
Sun, 10/15/2017 - 02:42
#1
Stormyknight1976
Offline
Joined: 04/08/2012
Welcome

Welcome to the forum. I'll go check out your fb page in a bit and see what you have designed.

I have a friend who also just created a western gun combat game awhile back and I think he got funded on his KS or will be doing a KS soon. Anyways, have fun here and hope to chat with your game project soon.

Stormy

Top
Sun, 10/15/2017 - 05:36
#2
The Professor
The Professor's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/25/2014
Greetings!

Welcome to BGDF!

As you've designed a western-style game, hopefully you've conducted a review of the literature on BGG, namely similar games, such as Bang! and potentially Revolver. I looked through the FB page and the artwork looks quite good and the cards appear to be a clever arrangement of things each gunslinger can do on their turn. As a published game designer, I can offer you a couple words of advice:

1. Don't rush it KS (if that's your plan)
2. Get yourself a reliable and competent developer
3. Play-test it at least 100 times (and preferably with different groups)
4. Blind Play-test at least 50 times
5. Socialize your rulebook for comments and editing

I wish you the best of luck.

Cheers,
Joe

Top
Mon, 10/16/2017 - 18:50
#3
WinsmithGames
WinsmithGames's picture
Offline
Joined: 01/20/2017
Welcome to BGDF! My tip #1:

Welcome to BGDF!

My tip #1: Listen to Joe, on all accounts above, especially the reliable and competent developer.

We thought GameCon was much further along, but consulted with a developer recommended by JR Honeycutt. We paid for six hours of consulting, which included a couple hour long phone conversations, thorough reading of the rules, two hour-long meetings at Unpub, and a playthrough of the game.

The developer charged us $25/hour, so in-all we paid $150 to learn our game needed significantly more work than we thought.

I cannot stress enough HOW important getting a competent developer is. Maybe $150 seems like a lot to you, but the value gained is ten-fold what we paid.

Seriously... get a developer. You will not be sorry. We plan to do this again for GameCon and every other game, once we believe it's in a really good state after much blind-playtesting.

Regarding Gunfighter, it looks pretty fun. The Accuracy mechanic seems well thought out for the theme and the game.

However, the speed/order of play being randomly decided by a die does not seem as well thought out. My expectations would be that actions would be quicker/slower than others. (One way to do it would be to give each Action a Speed, and the highest speed goes first.)

Good luck.
David

Top
Tue, 10/17/2017 - 07:12
#4
joebergmann
joebergmann's picture
Offline
Joined: 12/29/2016
Welcome!

I'm looking forward to checking this out! I looked briefly at the Facebook page and like what you've got so far!

I'm glad you joined the group!

Top
Thu, 10/19/2017 - 21:24
#5
Sunseteer
Offline
Joined: 10/07/2017
Stormyknight1976

Stormyknight1976 wrote:
Welcome to the forum. I'll go check out your fb page in a bit and see what you have designed.

I have a friend who also just created a western gun combat game awhile back and I think he got funded on his KS or will be doing a KS soon. Anyways, have fun here and hope to chat with your game project soon.

Stormy

Thanks for taking a look, I'm still looking for more playtesters so please contact me if you know anyone who might be interested! Also, out of curiosity, what is the name of your friend's game?

Top
Fri, 10/20/2017 - 17:33
#6
Stormyknight1976
Offline
Joined: 04/08/2012
My friends' game

GunSlinger created by Bill Barber.

He is on facebook and also now works for a wood box company where they can create beautiful customized card booster boxes or game boxes with digital artwork and or etched in. The boxes are just amazing. The company he works for is Cedar Valley Box Company.

Stormyknight

Top
Wed, 10/25/2017 - 16:51
#7
Sunseteer
Offline
Joined: 10/07/2017
The Professor wrote:Welcome

The Professor wrote:
Welcome to BGDF!

As you've designed a western-style game, hopefully you've conducted a review of the literature on BGG, namely similar games, such as Bang! and potentially Revolver. I looked through the FB page and the artwork looks quite good and the cards appear to be a clever arrangement of things each gunslinger can do on their turn. As a published game designer, I can offer you a couple words of advice:

1. Don't rush it KS (if that's your plan)
2. Get yourself a reliable and competent developer
3. Play-test it at least 100 times (and preferably with different groups)
4. Blind Play-test at least 50 times
5. Socialize your rulebook for comments and editing

I wish you the best of luck.

Cheers,
Joe

Joe, thank you for your words of wisdom!

Top
Thu, 10/26/2017 - 05:37
#8
Adam Leamey
Offline
Joined: 02/23/2017
Welcome to the community will

Welcome to the community will check your game out.

Top
Fri, 10/27/2017 - 04:57
#9
The Professor
The Professor's picture
Offline
Joined: 10/25/2014
Good luck

Sunseteer wrote:
The Professor wrote:
Welcome to BGDF!

As you've designed a western-style game, hopefully you've conducted a review of the literature on BGG, namely similar games, such as Bang! and potentially Revolver. I looked through the FB page and the artwork looks quite good and the cards appear to be a clever arrangement of things each gunslinger can do on their turn. As a published game designer, I can offer you a couple words of advice:

1. Don't rush it KS (if that's your plan)
2. Get yourself a reliable and competent developer
3. Play-test it at least 100 times (and preferably with different groups)
4. Blind Play-test at least 50 times
5. Socialize your rulebook for comments and editing

I wish you the best of luck.

Cheers,
Joe

Joe, thank you for your words of wisdom!

Glad to help! All the best in your play-tests and editing.

Top
Fri, 10/27/2017 - 17:06
#10
Sunseteer
Offline
Joined: 10/07/2017
WinsmithGames wrote:Welcome

WinsmithGames wrote:
Welcome to BGDF!

My tip #1: Listen to Joe, on all accounts above, especially the reliable and competent developer.

We thought GameCon was much further along, but consulted with a developer recommended by JR Honeycutt. We paid for six hours of consulting, which included a couple hour long phone conversations, thorough reading of the rules, two hour-long meetings at Unpub, and a playthrough of the game.

The developer charged us $25/hour, so in-all we paid $150 to learn our game needed significantly more work than we thought.

I cannot stress enough HOW important getting a competent developer is. Maybe $150 seems like a lot to you, but the value gained is ten-fold what we paid.

Seriously... get a developer. You will not be sorry. We plan to do this again for GameCon and every other game, once we believe it's in a really good state after much blind-playtesting.

Regarding Gunfighter, it looks pretty fun. The Accuracy mechanic seems well thought out for the theme and the game.

However, the speed/order of play being randomly decided by a die does not seem as well thought out. My expectations would be that actions would be quicker/slower than others. (One way to do it would be to give each Action a Speed, and the highest speed goes first.)

Good luck.
David

David, thanks for taking a look! I'll most definitely put the game through some rigorous analysis once the initial playtesting phase is complete.

In light of your feedback regarding the order of play, I've implemented a very simple "Threat" mechanic to the game: whichever player has the most bullets has the greatest Threat and therefore gets to use their action first. Players that tie for the most amount of bullets will then resort to the original dice rolling method to break the tie. This makes bullets even more valuable than before and replaces luck with another layer of strategy. This change has both sped up and improved the gameplay in the last couple of playtests, so thank you for the suggestion!

Top
Sat, 10/28/2017 - 20:38
#11
WinsmithGames
WinsmithGames's picture
Offline
Joined: 01/20/2017
Love the revision! Way to

Love the revision! Way to think like a game designer. And I like tying it to the bullets, weaving threat in with your other mechanics.

Great job, keep up the good work!
David

Top
Mon, 10/30/2017 - 18:52
#12
Sunseteer
Offline
Joined: 10/07/2017
joebergmann wrote:I'm looking

joebergmann wrote:
I'm looking forward to checking this out! I looked briefly at the Facebook page and like what you've got so far!

I'm glad you joined the group!

Thanks for taking a look, hope you'll have time to give it a try!

Top
Sun, 11/05/2017 - 10:40
#13
Sunseteer
Offline
Joined: 10/07/2017
Stormyknight1976

Stormyknight1976 wrote:
GunSlinger created by Bill Barber.

He is on facebook and also now works for a wood box company where they can create beautiful customized card booster boxes or game boxes with digital artwork and or etched in. The boxes are just amazing. The company he works for is Cedar Valley Box Company.

Stormyknight

Very cool, and those boxes are beautiful!

Top
Syndicate content


forum | by Dr. Radut