 http://bit.ly/2bNy8eO Good Day Internet! Recently we’ve reflected on the journey of designing and developing Pulled into Darkness and we realized that a lot (if not all) of the success we’ve been having is directly related to playtester feedback. That may sound obvious, but in our case the feedback implemented didn’t require any refining. The playtesters told us how they’d like to see the game change, we did it, and it worked basically flawlessly. In retrospect though, it wasn’t just a matter of waiting for the right suggestion to come up to fix our game, as we had received feedback on these subjects many times before. We had tried the suggestions, it didn’t work and we moved on. What was new to us was realizing that every time after trying the first few implementations that didn’t work we no longer took the feedback into consideration as much as we should of. Furthermore, although we may have tried a few implementations of the suggestions we received, we stopped working at it relatively quickly and were complacent in the fact that it could not work nor was it a match for the style of game we were making. This was all despite the fact that we continued to get suggestions regarding these same topics over and over again. So this week we’re going to go over these mistakes in the hopes that they will help designers who may have also fallen into this trap. We’ll also give some information on the results of actually properly implementing playtester ideas, and give credit where credit is due; to the playtesters (who after all are usually right). But before we can give praise and reflect more on what we should have done, we’ll need to go over what we did wrong in implementing playtesters’ ideas/feedback in the categories of Special Powers, and Scoring and End Game Trigger for Pulled into Darkness.  http://bit.ly/2bggNsc Special Powers From the game’s inception and earliest playtests, players wanted special powers. Personally, we didn’t think special powers belonged in the game as we designed it with simplicity in mind. However, playtesters consistently asked for space/sci-fi themed special powers so we decided to give it a try. Our first implementation of unique special powers was the use of a separate card to be played on a single spaceship when it was (hopefully) most beneficial to the player. This implementation made the special powers practically useless and a distraction from the game for a few reasons. To start, each unique power was better at different stages of gameplay; for instance “Lasers”, which allowed you to shoot down a spaceship beside you, was usually best at the start of a round; whereas “Worm Hole”, which allowed you to teleport from one space to another, was much better in the middle of a round. For this reason, we weren’t sure when they should be allowed to be played without restricting player agency too much. To try and solve this problem we restricted the special power to a designated captain ship, doing so lead to a larger problem of once the captain ships were removed from the game (which could happen suddenly and unexpectedly) you could no longer use your special power. This only lead to more player frustration and solidified in our minds that special powers didn’t belong in our game. From that point on, when we received feedback regarding adding special powers we usually responded with we tried it and it didn’t work. Months later after consistently receiving feedback that special powers would be a cool addition, we started to question whether or not there was a way to implement them that wouldn’t ruin the game. After a suggestion from Peter Hayward, we decided to give it another try by adding two one-time use cards that could be used in place of a standard command card. These cards allowed a player to move first (instead of simultaneously with everyone else) and knock down any spaceship they ran into, which was a common special power suggestion. The result was the game gained a new level of strategy and more meaningful choices without a finicky system to resolve those new cards.  http://bit.ly/2bfavd0 Scoring and End Game Trigger Originally, Pulled into Darkness ended when there was one player left with multiple spaceships orbiting the black hole (who was declared the winner). Although this model was somewhat focused around player elimination, we thought we were okay because the game was relatively short (about 30 minutes). However, players (particularly those who were game designers) were not so happy with it. They also didn’t like how near the end of the game when there’s less spaceships that the level of excitement drops off dramatically and that the “Down” card (which forced you closer to the black hole and your ultimate doom) was frustrating and unnecessary. Based on feedback, we decided to try scoring to make it a little more interesting for players who only had one spaceship. Once again though, we implemented this idea poorly. Our first implementation included a scoring system where the further away from the black hole your spaceship was the more points you got, but we kept the same end game trigger of there being only one player with multiple spaceships on the board. It was quickly realized that this type of scoring system only made the problem of players not wanting to play their “Down” card more prominent, so we reversed the scoring so that the closer you were to the black hole the more points you got. However, keeping the end game trigger ensured that the game still fell flat. There still wasn’t enough going on at the end of the game so the scoring system seemed arbitrary and just didn’t feel right. So once again, we reverted back to the previous version and each time the scoring suggestion came up we basically shot it down with, “We tried that and it didn’t work”. Just like the special powers suggestion, the scoring suggestion came up many more times and it wasn’t until months later that we decided we were willing to give it another try. I brought the game to Protospiel Michigan where the scoring suggestion came up and once again I told the playtesters it didn’t work out. The next suggestion was to try it with a new end game trigger, which for some reason we never thought of trying. We then played a game where it ended when a majority of the spaceships had been removed from the board and you scored more points the closer you were to the black hole. Doing so made the gameplay a lot better and this was without the one-time use special power cards (which were actually added later). As I playtested it throughout the rest of the weekend, we started to receive comments that people wanted to buy the game without us even having to ask and were told at the Snakes and Lattes Designers Night to look for a publisher. When we did add the one-time use special power cards, it only made the game that much better and increased the number of playtesters who thought the game was publishable.  http://bit.ly/2bCJGlF Conclusion
We’ve previously discussed listening to playtesters and making sure to apply feedback, especially if it keeps coming up. However, we never really discussed in detail the idea that if you apply that feedback and it didn’t work that maybe it wasn’t because it was bad feedback, but that your implementation was poor. Reflecting on our journey with Pulled into Darkness we realized that we failed to implement feedback properly in the above mentioned areas and then didn’t continue to work on figuring out a way that would work. Our thought was that we applied the feedback the way it was presented to us and it didn’t work so we’ve done our job. We wrongly assumed that anyone who was suggesting the same kind of idea after the fact didn’t understand the logistics of applying the feedback or wanted the game to be something that it is not (which sometimes is the case). The work that we should have been doing to make those suggestions work ended up being done by our playtesters (which we’re very grateful for) despite it not being their responsibility. Looking back, we realize that this reflects poorly on us designers and is something we will be aiming to fix to make our games and our game design knowledge even better. Once again, we are very thankful and grateful to the playtesters who initially tried to tell us to try new things and helped us implement those ideas so that we have a game that is publish ready. We couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks for dropping by! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Take Care! Kevin
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 http://bit.ly/2bF76cW Good Day Internet! Last week we took a look at some lessons from Protospiel Michigan. This week, we’re moving on to lessons we learned from attending our first Gen Con! Overall, the experience was great and we had a lot of fun: we played some games (including our own), met great people along the way, did our best to explore the entirety of the convention areas, and stayed under budget somehow (probably because we only bought two games the entire weekend). From this amazing experience we came up with 10 takeaways that every new attendee should know before their first time at Gen Con: 1) Book Early We booked our Gen Con hotel about a month after initial registration opened as our plans relied heavily on Allysha’s dance training in Buffalo the week before. We got a hotel about a 25 minute drive away with a free breakfast for me, which we thought was pretty good at the time. The drive down and back each day was clear, even on Thursday when we arrived during rush hour. However, as soon as we started walking around the Indiana Convention Center (ICC) we immediately regretted our decision. Gen Con involves a lot of walking with a backpack for water, snacks, and games, which quickly becomes tiring. Having the ability to go back to the hotel to take a nap during the day, or to leave some of your items there is very valuable. It also gives you the freedom to individually decide when your day ends (instead of having to facilitate everyone’s bedtime needs), plus you get an extra hour of gaming activities in each day. Luckily, there are many hotels close to the ICC (many with skywalks that connect them directly to the ICC) that if you book early enough you can get into. They basically sell out immediately though, so make sure you’re waiting for the housing portal on gencon.com to open, or booking a room via another route ASAP. From what we saw, you’ll be paying close to $200/night (approximately $50 more/night than what we paid) plus about $25/night for parking at the hotel. Despite the extra cost, we’ll definitely be going that route next year (and I’m pretty frugal).  Allysha thought this was nice, but not nice enough to make up for the longer walk to the ICC. 2) Parking is Quite Excellent If you do stay further away like we did this year, driving to the Indiana Convention Center and finding parking isn’t as much of a nightmare as you may think. There are plenty of parking garages and lots near the ICC (as in multiple in every block) with varying rates. We paid between $12-$30 for parking each day, depending on the day, how long we stayed, and at which parking lot. We highly suggest researching the parking lots ahead of time at downtownindy.org. To get a spectacular parking spot and avoid walking multiple blocks to get to the ICC, you’re going to have to get there pretty early (about 8am or earlier on Thursday and Friday). The furthest we walked was about 6 blocks on Thursday, and personally, I thought it was worth it as we got to see some awesome architecture on our walk to and from the ICC. Allysha, with a sore back, begged to differ. On Saturday and Sunday though you can definitely afford to sleep in (which we did) as we were able to get a parking spot in the mall parking lot a block away from the ICC at around noon both days.  http://bit.ly/2bpQRLV 3) Do a Recon on Wednesday Gen Con is MASSIVE. The Indiana Convention Center is 2 floors and covers 1.3 million square feet. Gen Con takes up all two floors of the ICC, many of the meeting rooms and lobbies of the 8 connected hotels, plus part of Lucas Oil Stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play. It is easy to get lost and overwhelmed, which we did during our recon on the Wednesday night. Luckily, there are program maps, plus general layout and Gen Con specific maps littered throughout the convention center. Take as much time as needed to walk around the convention center, get yourself acquainted with the maps, and ask questions on the Wednesday night to prevent stress come Thursday morning (especially if you have an early event).  http://bit.ly/2blMZ2R 4) Don’t get Intimidated by the Will Call Line When we arrived Wednesday night for our recon the Will Call line was approximately the entire length of the ICC, and then looped around some. We heard rumours of the line being 2 hours long and that they’d stop accepting people in line at 10pm so we decided we’d take our chances Thursday morning instead. When we arrived Thursday morning the line was only slightly smaller. We asked how long it would take and were told about 45 minutes, which we almost couldn’t believe. Turns out, 40 minutes later we were at the front desk grabbing our event tickets. Next year, we’ll definitely get our event tickets on the Wednesday evening (even if we do have to wait a little longer) to get it out of the way and give ourselves some extra sleeping time.  If you have booths you want to hit, make sure to get yourself acquainted with this map on Wednesday. 5) The Exhibitor Hall is a Dreamland We already mentioned that Gen Con is massive, and the Exhibitor Hall is one of the biggest spaces at Gen Con. There is so much going on and it was so hard to not spend all our money in the first half hour and instead simply walking by most booths to check them out. Allysha may be the one with ADHD, but we both felt like a kid in a candy store wanting to see, try, and buy everything. In terms of what you’ll see there, you’ve got: tons of publishers demoing and selling games, a lot of “geek” accessory and clothing booths (gaming table manufacturers/sellers, dice rings and geek jewellery, t-shirts, onesies, etc.), plus an artist section for both artists and writers. For a lot of Gen Con attendees this is Gen Con, and you can definitely tell by the crowds you’ll run into there (explore in small bits if you’re claustrophobic or have anxiety). However, it is only a small portion of what makes up the totality of Gen Con halls and events. It was definitely a high point for us, but we’ll probably only spend one full day, maybe plus a half day there next year because there is so much to do and see elsewhere too. If you are looking forward to a game that is releasing at Gen Con, or has a lot of buzz around it, we 100% recommend going in early on Thursday. Seafall by Plaid Hat Games sold out in a matter of hours! Our lovely friend Jonathan Lavallee also premiered his game J’accuse! at Gen Con and it sold out by Saturday (of course we got a copy), leaving many others empty-handed. If there’s a game you’re interested in get it early or it’ll be gone!  http://bit.ly/2b33QUJ 6) Seminars are Debatable We originally signed up for a lot of seminars and events, waaaaay more than we probably ever would have been able to attend. After doing our own research before the event and finding this guide (which is very useful and covers different items than we are here), we decided to cut down our seminars and events for the weekend. After cutting down, Allysha ended up with 2 scheduled seminars on Thursday and I had 3 scheduled. At the end of the last seminar on Thursday, we decided to not attend anymore for the weekend. For us, the seminars didn’t give us enough (or any) new information to justify them taking away an hour and half of our day (one hour for the seminar, plus 3o minute travel and waiting time). There was simply way better ways for us to spend our time and make connections with other gamers, which what we really wanted to do. That being said, if you see a seminar on a topic you know little or nothing about and what to learn, then you may want to check it out. As far as we know, they’re all free and you can’t beat that.  http://bzfd.it/2aY0HU0 7) Avoid Spacing out Your Schedule too Much It sounds very counterintuitive, but if you have multiple events at the same location you will suffer from splitting those events up. For us, we decided to split up our First Exposure Playtest Hall (FEPH) gamemaster slots to one each day, which ended up being a terrible choice (for us). We would have been much better off doing them all back to back and save the travel and setup time (about half an hour at least each time). In total, we could have saved at least 2 hours and not have been as worn out from walking around so much if we had done it all back to back. Of course, if we had a hotel that was connected to the ICC, this may not have been such a big deal as we also wouldn’t have had to carry around our prototype all day. Still it would have been nice to get all done and then get rid of that burden on our backs for the rest of the convention.  http://bit.ly/2bwxf9p 8) Hidden Open Gaming There are a lot of open gaming areas at Gen Con; there’s the games library (which you need to pay for, but then can stay as long as you like from what we understand), others are small events that are usually ticketed, some are just open tables in lobbies where people decided to start playing (usually pretty loud), and somewhere there’s a designated open gaming area (for free) that we didn’t find until Sunday. Turns out it was located in the tunnel connecting the ICC to the small part of Gen Con that is in Lucas Oil Stadium. It was Sunday, but it seemed to be a very quiet area (a nice bonus) due to it being tucked away from the rest of the convention and not having any secondary entrances/exits. We were fine without it this year, but will be taking advantage of it next year. Open gaming times are 8am-2am Thursday-Saturday, and 8am-3pm on Sunday.  http://bit.ly/2bm3NFD 9) Explore the Food and Architecture of Indianapolis Beyond parking lots and garages, downtown Indianapolis seems to be littered by great restaurants and amazing architecture. Although not a part of Gen Con, the nearby restaurants are often main highlights for frequent attendees as they get to get away from the mayhem of Gen Con, relax, and catch up with friends over good food and drinks. We had the great fortune of being invited by the first playtesters of Pulled into Darkness on Thursday at the FEPH, Aaron and Tara, out to lunch on Friday at Yard House. It was a fantastic time, and I only wish we had more time to try out all the draught beers they had on tap. Additionally, there are many outstanding food trucks that take over part of Georgia street for the weekend to provide quick meals to attendees. Some actually even spill over onto South Capitol Avenue and are less busy despite still having great food and the farthest one being maybe 50m away from Georgia street.  http://bit.ly/2b2W653 10) Don’t go to Dick’s Last Resort This is a public service announcement for attendees going with young children or for those who just don’t appreciate or can’t handle the humour and kinds of shenanigans that go on at Dick’s Last Resort. Dick’s Last Resort is one of the closest sit down restaurants to the Indiana Convention Center that looks to be something like a rough around the edges jungle themed cafe. However, it’s the kind of place you would suspect those who think Cards Against Humanity is absolutely the funniest thing ever would not be able to get enough of. Their motto is “service with sarcasm”, but it’s usually just crude. For example, part of the experience is a server coming by and placing/forcing a paper hat with some sort of “funny” insult on your head. The nature of the “joke” varies, but at least a few are something you would expect to see on a Cards Against Humanity card. It was also clear that they weren’t general remarks but were personally made to put on your head, so if you do have issues and insecurities with yourself watch for that. You can take your “hat” off but the waitstaff may or may not comment about how you are “being rude”. We actually watched someone who had young children walk in and immediately walked out after hearing the server getting the restaurant patrons to yell “You suck!” to a patron to wish them a happy birthday...good choice on her behalf. So if you have young children or struggle with Anxiety, mental illness or other personal insecurities, we highly suggest not going there as it can be stressful and demeaning in your eyes. And if you love that kind of humour, knock yourself out. To Conclude:
It’s been over a week since Gen Con finished and it feels like we still haven’t caught our breath. Last night we were at Snakes & Lattes Designers Night playtesting an updated version of Pulled into Darkness and this weekend we’re helping to run Toronto’s first prototype convention: ProtoTO. Designer tickets are sold out, but there are still plenty of playtester tickets available for those who want to help design the games of tomorrow. Many of the participants are published designers, including Eric Lang, Chritopher Chung, Paul Tseng, Daryl Andrews, and Francois Valentyne, or are playtesting games soon to be published. We’re going to be exhausted by the end of it, but it should be a great weekend. Next week, we’re going to get back into game design posts with “The Playtester is Right...Usually”. Thanks for dropping by! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Take Care! Kevin Good Day Internet! Welcome back! We hope you had a great July :) Our July was very hectic, but also quite enjoyable. Part of our many July travels included heading down to Protospiel Michigan from the 15th-17th. This was my second Protospiel in Michigan and third overall. During the weekend I learned a few lessons, and was reminded of some that I failed to recall from the previous year. Hopefully the following list will help to improve your prototype convention experiences (and remain fresh in my mind for next time).  http://bit.ly/2aI5zjn 1) Bring a Sweater This has nothing to do with the weather, which was quite hot all weekend, instead, it has to do with convention halls trying to make sure visitors don’t overheat by blasting the A/C. The downside to this is that by the time the sun begins to set it stops being refreshing and starts becoming uncomfortably cold. Every evening I was forced to wear my bright yellow jacket to keep warm (even then my hands were very cold and I looked forward to getting back to my hotel room to warm up). To be honest, I should have known better, but bringing a sweater never crossed my mind when packing. Beyond a sweater, I was very happy to have a water bottle that I could fill up in the bathroom after the water jugs emptied (taking one of the provided glasses to do the same just doesn’t feel quite right). Snacks were another great thing to have to survive until the typically late lunches and dinners, and I just found out this year that the area is licensed so you can bring in some beers if you’d like (it’s an easy way to make friends assuming you’re sharing).  http://bit.ly/2bfCVEG 2) Dinners are a Great Time to Connect My plan was the same this year as last year: when I got to Michigan I went and bought enough groceries to last the whole weekend. That turned out to be a mistake (something I should have known and remembered from last year). My thought process was that by not having to go out for meals I would get in more valuable playtesting time, but I missed out on the lunches and, especially, dinners with large groups of great designers and publishers. So although I managed to maximize my playtesting time, I missed out on the other half of what makes Protospiel so great: making connections. Of course, I did have the chance to make connections during playtesting, and I met a lot of great people. In terms of meeting publishers though, I didn’t. I played exactly one game with a publisher over the whole weekend, but never actually talked to them directly. Part of that is my fault for not seeking them out, which is something I definitely need to work on in the future. Next year I’m going to bring some extra cash and expect to go out a few times for meals. That way I won’t only get the bonus of making those connections, but I can potentially negotiate getting one of our games in front of a publisher after our meal. From what I’ve seen, it seems that groups that go out together for meals always come back and immediately sit down to play a game by one of the designers. I can only assume that happened by discussing it during their meal.  http://bit.ly/2baxMjY 3) The Best Designers ask Questions This is something we’ve been touting for a while, but it comes to light every prototyping convention: There is no shortage of people with (strong) opinions on games at these conventions (including the game designer). Opinions are fine (you’ll always hear a wide range of opinions on your game(s) at prototyping conventions), but when a designer asks for feedback and then defends their game to no end (especially experienced designers), it’s very tiring. When I see a designer looking for feedback by asking more questions, writing them down, and processing/working them out, I get excited about the development of the game (regardless if my feedback is taken or not). This indicates to me that they are open to trying new ideas that they may not like but instead, may be good for the game. More importantly, it indicates that the designer is passionate about making the game the best it can be, and making themselves the best designer they can be. That’s the kind of designer you want to be. The one who is eagerly asking questions for feedback and willing to try new things. If you make it to Protospiel, Unpub, or another prototyping convention, pick the brains of the designers and publishers on general game design and the world of publishing. There is a lot of great knowledge out there so take advantage of it (at Protospiel Madison 2015 we got to pick the brains of Jay Little which was awesome). Your game, and your knowledge of game design will improve by leaps and bounds.  http://bit.ly/2avViYV 4) Conventions are Better Together Somehow I managed to be the one person out (literally) near the end of the convention on Sunday. Everyone was in game or mid-discussion for playtest feedback, which I didn’t want to interrupt. Last year I went down with three other people (including Allysha). This year I definitely missed them and especially Allysha for the times when I didn’t know what table to head too (when they were clearly all full), and when I needed someone to bounce ideas off of. Find someone to bring down with you to these conventions. It’s a great time for everyone (including playtesters who have never playtested games before) and it’s so much better to have someone you can always just hangout with and discuss ideas. July was hectic and August is only slightly less so. We were in Buffalo from July 26th to August 2nd for dance training for Allysha (there’s a reason we’re called Dancing Giant Games). During that time we headed out to meet Dan of Letiman Games in Rochester to do some playtesting and I headed down to playtest some games at Spielbany on the Saturday in Albany. At Dan’s we had the privilege of playing the very cute Gadgeteers which will launch on Kickstarter at the end of the month. Spielbany was a much smaller gathering than usual, but still a great time with some great people (and we still highly recommend it). We’ve also been working on revamping Swept Ashore and making minor adjustments to Pulled into Darkness.
Speaking of which, we had a great time at GenCon this past weekend and specifically playtesting Pulled into Darkness and Swept Ashore at the First Exposure Playtest Hall. We met a lot of great people and learned some lessons there too, which we’ll mention in next week’s recap blog. Hopefully our hiatus wasn’t too long for you guys, it’s really great to be back! Thanks for dropping by! If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter. Take Care! Kevin |
Kevin CarmichaelBoard game designer and developer discussing the ins and outs of game design. 
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