2019 has been a slow year for me. Not that I haven't been busy; far from it. Just that there hasn't been a lot in the way of breakthroughs. Unfortunately, the Manaforge expansion has taken a bit of a back seat for now. Not that I've stopped trying entirely, but I figured I'd put my ideas on hold for a bit, see if some time and distance helps to bring things into perspective. Maybe a different point of view is what's needed to overcome the block there. I have ideas, for sure, but I'm getting a little frustrated that nothing is quite clicking together the way it needs to. Players should be excited about improvements to the game, but all I've felt with my tests so far is that the extra mechanics have made the game more complex without making it more fun.
Instead, I've been putting my time lately into Sky Pirates. I've made very little in the way of rules changes to it lately, but I have had lots of time to think about the comments and such I received while I was having it playtested. I incorporated a little bit of the feedback from those into the game.
Mainly, though, I've been focusing on getting a good-quality copy of the game made. To that end, I've been rebuilding the game files for Sky Pirates to fit into the sizes that The Game Crafter wants. It hasn't been easy; printing the cards and such for my own local use didn't need quite as much detail on the files; why worry about bleed area when perfect cuts are guaranteed? So there's been a lot of reworking going on.
However, that work has just paid off. I've placed an order for one high-quality game prototype to be sent here. Hopefully that one will come out good; I'm going to use that one copy as a proof of sorts, seeing what else I need to change in the game files. Once that's done, I plan on ordering a larger batch... probably somewhere between five and ten copies. Many of those will go to the Indie Game Alliance, to be sent out for blind playtesting. I'll keep one for my testing, of course, and probably give a couple out to close friends so they can test it as well. They're nowhere near the final version of the game, what with incomplete rules and placeholder art and everything. But it's enough that I can spread my net, so to speak, and get a whole lot of feedback on the game. And that's what it needs. You can never have enough playtesting.
That's it, for now. I was hoping to get more feedback on my games at Prototype Con, but so far that has been delayed. I know there's also a big prototype convention coming up in Atlanta in a couple of months. I probably won't be able to get there, but hopefully I can send a couple of my prototypes that way and have someone else test them. And, of course, there's the Dice Tower convention in July. So I have avenues for more feedback on the horizon. I just need a bit of a push for right now. Here's hoping my beta game copy comes out good. :)
Instead, I've been putting my time lately into Sky Pirates. I've made very little in the way of rules changes to it lately, but I have had lots of time to think about the comments and such I received while I was having it playtested. I incorporated a little bit of the feedback from those into the game.
Mainly, though, I've been focusing on getting a good-quality copy of the game made. To that end, I've been rebuilding the game files for Sky Pirates to fit into the sizes that The Game Crafter wants. It hasn't been easy; printing the cards and such for my own local use didn't need quite as much detail on the files; why worry about bleed area when perfect cuts are guaranteed? So there's been a lot of reworking going on.
However, that work has just paid off. I've placed an order for one high-quality game prototype to be sent here. Hopefully that one will come out good; I'm going to use that one copy as a proof of sorts, seeing what else I need to change in the game files. Once that's done, I plan on ordering a larger batch... probably somewhere between five and ten copies. Many of those will go to the Indie Game Alliance, to be sent out for blind playtesting. I'll keep one for my testing, of course, and probably give a couple out to close friends so they can test it as well. They're nowhere near the final version of the game, what with incomplete rules and placeholder art and everything. But it's enough that I can spread my net, so to speak, and get a whole lot of feedback on the game. And that's what it needs. You can never have enough playtesting.
That's it, for now. I was hoping to get more feedback on my games at Prototype Con, but so far that has been delayed. I know there's also a big prototype convention coming up in Atlanta in a couple of months. I probably won't be able to get there, but hopefully I can send a couple of my prototypes that way and have someone else test them. And, of course, there's the Dice Tower convention in July. So I have avenues for more feedback on the horizon. I just need a bit of a push for right now. Here's hoping my beta game copy comes out good. :)
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