Bringing you up to speed

It's a little odd – despite the fact that I'm not sure anybody is reading this – and if anybody is reading this then there almost certainly my friends – it still feels strange to post up publically about stuff I'm working on.

I've got a great big bunch of rough concepts, neat titles and half formed mechanics but there almost just jottings.  Heck one of them is literally just a title – I know nothing more then that about it but it's a really good title that evokes a certain style of play….

Two projects have got further then that.

The first is my response to an awful game –Innsmouth Escape-  the one that made me actually go "I could do better!" which in no way deserves it's score of 5.8 on board game geek and one day I'll write something outlying exactly why I loath that game so much.

My response is called 'Kill Him You Fools!' – and post some disappointing play testing I benched it as I was not happy with the way it was working and could not see a way of solving the problems.  Yes I'm well aware of the irony of saying 'I could do better' and then failing but I shall return….  Oh yes I shall.

The current project is called Giant Stone Head – and it's very loosely based around Easter Island and the Moai.  Very very loosely based around them.

It's got rather an odd start in life – as I dreamt I was playing a game called Giant Stone Head and really enjoying it – romping around the islands building and kicking over giant stone heads – territory swapping back and forth via really simple combat– and it was such a clear dream that when I woke up I wrote down the rules and made a play test version filling in blanks as I went.

In my first play test that I discovered that my subconscious sucks at game design because it was overly fiddly and had elements that simply did not work.  I don't think we even got to the end of the first game we called it to a halt as it was clearly not working.  Which brought home one of the lessons from the game design course – play the game solo before inflicting it on your fiends.  Just a couple of rounds – pick up pieces – collect resources – move things - see if it all works in anyway or if there are obvious problems.

That weekend I bashed ideas around with Mr and Mrs P - who I was visiting – and the trimming started.  Out went whole chunks of ideas – separate islands, canoes, the "king pieces" and the number of different resources got badly slashed.  We went from version 0.1 to version 0.4 in that weekend. 

I'm now up to version 1.1 the trimming of ideas stopped at about version 0.7 from memory.  Some of these versions even get played more then once – and it's been waved around a good chunk of my gaming friends , a games club and a convention (although I've it's never been played without me there but that's kind of normal at this stage in the development cycle).

I've trimmed the game down to now down to three resources – food, huts, and pigs* – from a starting 9 (from memmory) and the basic feel is still about right.  Quick and nasty combat – able to go from controlling the island to stuck in a corner to back again very quickly.  A split so that doing well and getting Victory Points are not the same – with some feedback mechanisms that mean winning the game is a drag on doing well thus making you more vulnerable to being kicked.  Heck I was even pleased with the way the underlying theme of the game – which is not really about Easter Island if I'm honest – seemed to be reflected in the way the game actually played.

Although every once in a while I find somebody thinking really hard about there move and I have to convince myself that's not a sign I failed in creating something quick but a sign it's deep enough to be worth thinking about.  

I've had some good feedback – some of it very positive and a lot helpful - and I'd come to the conclusion that it was ticking along nicely and I'd reached a stage where I was tweaking the user experience, looking at the cost and utility of different cards. 

All of which was blow out of the water on the last play test I had – which I'll cover another day.

*Just to give you an idea of how inaccurate this game is to the real Easter Island – there are no pigs on Easter Island.  Really important on other Polynesians island yes – Easter Island no.  But I like the card 'Big Pig Feast' to much to let the facts get in the way.