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.

Backing a project .. First hand experience!

So As you know I'm working on this card game called "Invoke" , and I'm planning on starting a Kickstarter campaign sometime in the near future. I'm sure that I'm going to be able to get the funding that I need to finish the game but.. I only have one shot to do this correctly on Kickstarter

So the first thing I did was find all the podcasts I could find on the subject. Lucky for me there was a podcast called "Funding the Dream" That actually is about funding board games on Kickstarter.. How lucky am I that such a podcast exists.? Now being an experienced podcaster myself I realise that all the good podcasts are independent. So I gave it a shot!! I learned TONS!! So if you are thinking about starting a Kickstarter project, you need to listen to this first..

Here are some things that I learned

Plan plan... Look at all the aspects of what you want to do the marketing, Design, Manufacturing and how you plan to deliver what your backers so rightfully deserve!

Get social media revved up early!! I'm starting now... and if you are reading this then something is working!

Back someone else's project...

So that is exactly what I did today.. I booked three projects! Kingdom, Earthdawn 4E, and Japanese the game!

First thing I noticed was a message from the makers of Kingdom thanking me for my support and all I baked them was $1.. Cool huh.. I think that it's really cool that I get to interact with the people who designed the game. I like their project and I think that the ultimate product is going to be amazing!

So I sent a message saying that I would love to interact with them on twitter and offered my twitter name @artofpaint

and within a few seconds I got a reply from them on my twitter feed.... (wait they just responded to my last tweet)

Ok Back!! Wait.... Another tweet

OK back!! The point is that there is an actual conversation going on there. The guys at Black Locust Games responded to my inquires right a way.. And I'm only a $1 supporter. The conversation was not "Hey give us more money" either.. It was about how passionate and proud they are of their product. At the time that I'm writing this they don't have the funding they need but I'm sure they are going to get it. It was the artist.. How to find the Print-n-Play version of the game that will at least give you an idea of how the game plays so you know if you want to get the full version.

Visit their Kickstarter Page and help them out .. if nothing else let others know about this amazing product.

At this point, I want to mention that I'm not getting paid for this promotion. They did not ask me to write this blog post. But what I am getting out of this is the knowledge of how I want to treat my supporters when it's time for my kickstarter campaign. Thanks guys... If I run into some more money in the next 31 days.. I will up my backing category to something nicer ... If nothing else ... I know where my next disposable bit of income is going :)

Links

http://blacklocustgames.com

http://richardabliss.com/funding-dream-kickstarter-podcast/

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1281146833/kingdom-0

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1374838500/japanese-the-game-a-language-learning-card-game

Off Topic ... Geek wisdom!

So the other day I was thinking about about being a gamer ... and anyone who follows me on twitter knows I am really big on equality! So I started to make a few images that crossed my mind.