A Gathering of Strangers

That was a whole lot of fun!! I was able to make the trip down to Salt Lake City on both Friday and Saturday. I had never attended A Gathering of Strangers, or any game convention for that matter, before, but I really enjoyed it and can't wait for next year!

Friday I presented my game, the Armor of God, in the guild competition. It went pretty smoothly. There were 2 groups of 5 judges (from places like FRED Distribution, Out of the Box Games, and Games Unplugged), so the game was played twice. Then the judges rated the game following Mike Compton's Evaluation Form (find it on baordgamegeek here). A total of 8 games were entered into the competition. I'm not sure what place I ended up taking, but it wasn't in the top 4. Not really a big deal though. I mean, I didn't really expect to win. There are a whole lot of great games that the members of the guild design. It was just great to be a part of it and I can't wait to get the feedback from the judges. I'm sure it will help me improve the game a lot.

There were a few highlights of the weekend that I wanted to touch on. After the judging on Friday, Carey from FRED Distribution approached me and asked about taking a copy of the prototype to Armor of God home. In other words, he's interested and thinks it's a pretty good game! No guarantees that they will publish it, but success!!! Part of the purpose of the competition was to get publishers to see the games from the guild and hopefully get them interested in the games we had to offer. Carey was also interested in Mike Compton's game Bandits of Persia! It's exciting to see that publishers have an interest in games designed by guild members!

Also on Friday, Seth picked up the finished painting that Scott has been working on for Hagoth!!! Here it is!!!

He brought it to the Gathering. We both had prototypes of the game as well and we got about 10 people to demo it during the weekend. Ryan from The Board Game Guy was very excited! We're getting closer and closer to being ready for production!!

Lastly, I wanted to add that there was a lot of free stuff given away by all the publishers and game stores on hand. On Friday I won a brand new copy of Dominion Intrigue!!! I ended up playing it 3 times that evening (I even won the first of the 3 games, which was pretty big because I don't thing I won anything else during the 2 days). It's a great game!

All in all, I just loved the convention. I got to meet new people (another guy from here in Logan, now we'll have 4 of us here that design games). I got to play a lot of games. And I found someone interested in another one of my designs. Really, what more could I ask for from 2 days?

Armor of God Resurrected!!!

Well, I've recently been working on the Armor of God. Originally it was a game for two players only. Phil at Covenant Communications said that two players games aren't likely to be accepted by them for publication. Plus the Guild is having a competition that will take place during A Gathering of Strangers this year (July 10 & 11)! So I started redesigning the Armor of God so that it would play with 2 to 4 players.

I was able to have it playtested on Tuesday the 9th at the Guild meeting. That was great! I didn't play. I just explained the game to the four who volunteered to play it. They enjoyed playing, said it was fun and that it kept them involved. They also had a lot of good feedback that I've gone through and incorporated into the design. I love having a group of people this close that are willing to play others games and help them improve them.

Also, I was searching around online for images that I might possibly use to at least have a decent looking prototype to take to the competition (so far it's just been 3" x 5" cards cut in half). I came across some awesome artwork! Tony, in Kaysville, designed some Armor of God cards for his young men and young women. I contacted him and he gave me permission to use his artwork in my prototype!!

Here are 2 of the cards that I put together using his stuff. I'm no artist, but having Tony's artwork definitely made these (hopefully I haven't detracted too much from his stuff)! Thank you Tony!!



I just finished sending my files to Steve at BluePanther yesterday. He's going to print the cards for me. That way I'll have a hopefully really nice looking prototype.

At A Gathering of Strangers a set of judges will play all of the entries in the competition and they'll choose a winner! The judges come from the world of publishing, and elsewhere. There are no guarantees that anyone, not even the winner, will get their game published, but it's never bad to have those in the industry look at your game.

Paid to Play: A Review

I wouldn't call myself a critic or anything like that, but I am enjoying reading about game design and how to attempt to make money with it. And I thought I'd share what I thought about Paid to Play by Keith A. Myers.

He offers a lot of helpful information. Some of it is just logical, but you don't really explicitly think about it. For example, he has a section about where a game comes from or The 3 Core Concepts. These include:
1) A Name or Phrase
2) A Theme or Story-Line
3) Game Play/Thought Process
For me anyway, I think I've had games come from each of these, but I never really thought, "Hey, I could turn that name into a game." Thoughts and ideas just kind of spring up and I attempt to grab them. I have consciously thought about, as LDS/Mormon themes are my focus, "That (theme or part of the Book of Mormon) would make a great setting for a game." But I don't think I've said to myself, "I've got to think of a new theme or story line from the Book of Mormon to start a new game." Again, I think it's just something that we do but don't explicitly know that we do it. Nonetheless, it's good to get it explicitly spelled out for us (for me anyway; I know it will help me in future game designs).

Overall, I can say that I took several things away from the book that I think will affect what I do in designing my games in the future. For example, the section about writing rules had a lot of good guidance, steps to take in the process of writing it all up and important things to keep in mind as you do it (like date each document file and don't delete previous versions). One thing he said he doesn't suggest is trying to write the rules document at an early stage of game development. I can see where he is coming from; there will probably be a lot of tweaks to the gameplay and rules as you continue to develop and playtest. I do think it a good idea to write up all your ideas and how the game plays from the beginning. This will really help flesh out ideas and it makes it easier to see if something will work, even before actually attempting it in a playtest. Many times I've had some, what I thought were really good ideas as to how the game would work, only to find, as we (my wife and I; I'm so glad and thankful she puts up with stuff like this) sat down to try it all out, that some of it didn't work. So, the initial step of writing it down and kind of working through it all helps with that. I guess you shouldn't attempt to write the whole rules document, but just how the game will work and what will happen.

He had quite a bit about connecting with publisher and getting your game in stores. This was probably the least beneficial part for me (but I'm an extreme case). I don't foresee myself publishing games as he suggests, but there were still valuable insights that he had to offer in that section of the book. I do think a lot of it will be valuable as I attempt to self-publish most of my stuff. For example, I think more about how the box will look that I eventually will use to package my game. The three Ps: Placement, Packaging, and Pricing will be important to keep in mind when I get to that point.

He also gave good information on how to get your game copyrighted to protect what is yours.

Lastly, here are a few one-liners I thought were good:

• "No matter how your game is created, take time to come up with the best name possible."
• "By drawing up a long-term, well-thought out financial plan and budge accordingly, you have a head start on moving forward with the best possible vision."
• "As a closing note about self-publishing, I want to add, that while it may be an all-consuming job, it is in my opinion, the best industry there is. Every day, hopefully, you will go to work at a job that you truly love."
• "I have had the most success with games that are innovative, combined with something familiar."

I enjoyed the book and know that I learned quite a bit from reading it.

We've Got a Plan

So we've had quite a bit of activity on the Google Group lately. It was pretty much started when Chester (boardgamegeek profile) found us and joined in. He is very fired up and excited about getting something like this (i.e., Mormon themed games) out for publishers and distributors to see and pick up. We talked on the phone last night for a little over an hour about the idea. It goes something like this:

A Co-op will be created (we'll call it something like Zion Game Designers International (ZGDI)). We will hook up with the LDS Booksellers Association (become a member) and start attending their annual convention (happens in August; we'll be shooting for the convention in 2010). At the conventions we will have a booth where members of ZGDI will display their games. Members will bring games that are 'Ready for the Box.' If it isn't ready to be sold, then that is just what it is - not ready to be sold. Those at the LDSBA are there to make plans for the entire next year - decisions will be made on what goes into what store and what publisher will buy what game. Prototypes don't need to be professional in appearance, but they need to be functional and the game needs to have all the bugs worked out and read to be sold. That's another part of where we come in as a group, we'll be vetting games and helping get them ready for the LDSBA. This will give us access to the publishers and distributors in the LDS world of books, and we hope to get them to adopt new game designs as well.

He explained it to be sort of like an Essen-type setup: a convention where designers come with hopes of hooking up with a publisher. We'll be there for publishers and distributors to see us and our games. The Co-op will give us a chance to save on costs (all costs split by those of us who are members of the Co-op) and also provide us a way of letting the publishers and distributors know that we will always have quality products for them to consider. In essence, as a Co-op we would put our "stamp of approval" on the games that the members bring to the LDSBA conventions.

We also hope to be able to showcase our games at the Gathering of Strangers (that will hopefully happen this summer here in Utah). We hope to be able to go there with some games ready for others to play. Then we can get LDS people's feedback on the games and have that for 'market research' to back up our pitches to the LDSBA.

Anyway, it's a lot to take in. It makes me very excited though. I hope we can get this all set up and ready to go. I'm especially excited that someone other than me is excited to give quality Mormon themed games to the world!

Thanks to Chester for this brilliant idea!!

Board Game Designers Guild of Utah

Well, I've been a member of the Guild for about 6 months now. I've only made it down to SLC for 1 meeting. I find it hard to take trips on a student budget (especially when I've got my wife and 5 children to worry about, you know, home, food, clothing, etc.). Anyway, the Guild has an official logo that was in the works for a little while. Here it is:

Very, very cool! Ryan Laukat, a member of the Guild, designed it (here's a link to a little about Ryan). He's done work for a few games: Bridge Troll (designed by Alf Seegert, also a member of the Guild) and a few cards for Dominion.

There is a Yahoo Group for the Guild and also a website.

It's a lot of fun and very informative being a member of the Guild and being able to interact, if only through the Yahoo Group forum. I feel that I've been able to learn quite a bit already. I can't wait to be able to attend meetings more regularly. I know that that will be an even better learning experience. Anyway, Phil from the Guild proposed a game design competition to culminate in play-testing the results during the first April meeting. Those who choose to design a game have to keep within the following restrictions:
1) Player decks of cards (up to 30 per deck)
2) Must employ either square or hexagon shaped tiles (up to 40 squares or 30 hexagons)
3) No six-sided dice (unless they are used differently)
I started working on a game that would match these restrictions. I've found that it's a lot of fun having certain restrictions placed on the design process. When I first found out about restrictions that would be placed on me in this endeavor to design LDS/Mormon-themed games, I didn't really like it. But now, I find it a lot more enjoyable. It give me some boundaries and guidelines. Alf provided the Guild with a great article that he found online that relates directly to this: here.

In the game I'm working on, players take the role of a group of "-ites" during early parts of the Book of Mormon when the split happened that created the Nephite and Lamanite nations. The players seek to build the greatest army and the most righteous nation. They do this by getting control of the Sword of Laban and the Brass Plates. I'll write more when things are more put together.

Simplicity vs. Complexity

I've been involved in attempting to make my game designs better (this is pretty much what I am always up to, but it's been a little more with school out for the holidays, this gives me more time). Anyway, I've come to realize a couple of things that I just wanted to put down here.

Firstly, I've really enjoyed designing Peril in the Promised Land. I like the game a lot and think it has a whole lot of potential. The problem has become that it requires a lot of play-testing and tweaking. I don't have a lot of time to do these things so I'm not sure how quickly the game will evolve and progress. I want to see it happen, I just don't have the time or resources right now. But I think this is mainly due to the fact that the game is very complex. First off it's a cooperative game. This means that a system has to be designed that challenges the players, who are working together. Normally there is some balance because players compete against each other. We have a pretty good system. Sometimes I just wonder if it's too difficult to overcome and then, how to make it a little easier. Not an easy task. Secondly, there are a bunch of rules. I'm still trying to put together the rulebook. It's very time consuming! And every time I explain the game to someone else, I think to myself, "wow! there are a lot of things to remember!" With this complexity comes more time to make sure it all works together "perfectly."

On the other hand, simpler games don't require the same time commitment (in my limited experience thus far anyway). We've currently got Hagoth: Builder of Ships that we're working on. It's competitive and a whole lot simpler. I've been keeping track of the rules as we've designed and played the game. I've just about got the rulebook put together (ready for review by friends anyhow) and it's only 3 pages long! Quite a difference. I'm struggling through the rulebook for Peril in the Promised Land and it's already 5 pages long, with several more to be added.

I guess I'm throwing this all out because I've pretty much decided that I'm going to attempt for now anyway, to work on designing less complex games. You know, the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle. Sometimes simpler is better (as long as the game is immersive, and therefore fun)!

Tweaking & Iteration

Yesterday I was able to play Peril in the Promised Land with a couple of friends. It's interesting how getting other people's perspectives on the game is very insightful. I have felt like the game is in a pretty good stage. I think things work pretty well and it's pretty balanced. Then they had a few insights as we played and after we finished (we lost!!) that really were completely logical and very helpful in making the game a lot better (at least it seems like it will be, I need to play it more with the changes to see how it all works). I guess you can tweak a game and go through iteration after iteration and, my question is, how do you know when you've finished or reached an end? Like I said, I thought things were good, but now, I wonder if other changes can be made to improve things. How much should a game be play-tested? How does one know that the game has reached an end of the design phase and needs no more tweaking?

On Board Game Designers Forum someone asked a similar question (here). Some of the response is that you can't really say how many times a game needs to be play-tested before it is "ready." It's important to make sure you are changing things up each time you play-test. One response in particular said: "remember your trying to break the game through your playtests try and find strange loop holes and other such things that will need changing to prevent certain outcomes or maybe even new strategies that you think need defined more so they may work." I hadn't thought of it that way before, but I think it is true. Each time I am able to play one of my games with a new person I get a lot of new insights that I hadn't even thought about before.

As a result I think I need to get my games to "a good point." Then I need to enlist several people at different times to play-test, with me as a player and with me as a spectator. Then I'll be able to get lots of different perspectives and the play-tests won't be the same all the time. I can also take it upon myself to attempt to play differently every time my wife and I play. It will reveal new things that haven't come up before.

I'm so glad that there are so many people out there willing to share their insights and experience, and that the internet offers us a place to do that.