Things only play testing will tell you.

The things that only playtesting will tell you.
So one of the key things about playtesting is to look at things in actual game play.. Sometimes you have an idea of "Hey this would be an awesome card... there should be three of them in the deck" . What happens during playtesting is that you find that the card you thought should have been 3 in every deck really should be only one because it changes the game play.

So yesterday my good buddy Mike came over to pay test Invoke. We must have played 6 games.. Something that we discovered was that the deck was too small with 108 cards. Mainly because those 108 cards have been split up into the three decks. The result was that we had to shuffle the discard pile often. Now that is not too bad, but when you consider that the game is best played with 3-5 players each with 7 cards in their hands.. With additional 2-30 cards in play at any given moment. That does not leave a lot in decks... and that is only one round.. Sp I am going to have to make more cards types.. And increase the number of the cards.

From a game design point of view what this does be making the game harder to ship mainly because it's larger.. The printing cost also goes up. ... So it's all about testing different amounts of cards and comparing the price.

The Print-N-Play version 

So the Print & Play version of Invoke is still on its way. I'm thinking that I want to get that out as soon as possible. With the understanding that the rules are going to be located on the website. (make the printing of the rules option) because there are going to be lots of changes over the next few months. I have also decided that I'm going to wait a bit longer for the kickstarter.. Though I have had some success with the cards so far I and really wanting to have more momentum in the social media area first.

Can't sleep so I'm working on the cards.

It's really early.. I can't sleep.. My cat "KittyNinja" decided it was time to add a few extra holes in my arm! So now I am awake and I cannot fall asleep. So what does an artist do when he cannot fall asleep? He gets to work!

So what I am trying to do is get the Print-n-play version of Invoke ready.. What I want to make is make it so that anyone with a printer or access to one can download my game, print it out and play. The idea is that those people who are doing so are going to have to play with someone. It's advertizing! And as far as I am concerned if someone is too broke to get the real version of with the new cards (And trust me... I would have a lot more games on my shelf if I was not broke all the time) they are more than welcome to have the Print-N-Play version..

So you know here is difference between Print-N-Play version of Invoke & retail version.

• Retail version is going to be in rich colour with all the glorious art.
• Print-N-Play is going to have my website over all of the element cards.
• Retail version is going to be printed on really nice cards.
• As far, as game play is concerned they will be exactly the same l! It's also important to point out that I am not going to make a print and play version of any of the expansions at this time. 

If all goes well there should be a Print-N-Play version of Invoke sometime next week 

If you are following me on twitter , Facebook or Google + and you would like a copy please let me know and I will add you to the list of people who get the first download.