Category Archives: The Boards
Lessons Learned From Rejection
The beautiful backside of the cards.
I’ve been designing games for about three years now. While that may seem a long time to some, it in no way qualifies me to pretend that I know what I’m doing. For the most part I come up with an idea and try to make the game fun. All the other stuff, like approaching publishing companies, determining if you need a patent (you don’t!), and even prototyping, I have learned secondhand by people who have gone through it. If you are a game designer I highly recommend you start following game people on Twitter and listening to what they have to say about everything!
Last August I attended GenCon for the first time. I brought a copy of my game, “Dam It!”, along in hopes of showing it to a publisher. Dam It is a light card game where players compete to complete their dam before anyone else. I’ll write more about the game in a later post. I had the chance to meet some great people at GenCon and I arranged a meeting with a certain publisher. I was fortunate to have three friends on the trip who graciously played Dam It one more time before I would have the meeting. Here’s my first lesson learned:
1. If your friends don’t love it, don’t bother.
That night when my friends played my game again they pointed out a few things that they thought would make it better. The interaction was too limited. Late-game options became fewer. And it had a sort of runaway leader problem. So I brainstormed that night and came up with a way to make the game better. But that meant that I could not approach the publisher since I would not have felt right pitching a game that I knew was incomplete. Here’s the lesson: If your friends aren’t enjoying it, and if they are recommending major changes, don’t waste a publisher’s time!
So I met with the publisher the next day and told him that the game wasn’t ready for discussion. But I got their business card and made plans to contact them when I had implemented the changes.
And that’s just what I did. I added two new cards to the game that both focused on interaction and eliminating a runaway leader. The cards worked as I had hoped. When I play-tested with my friends again they all seemed to agree that the game had improved. So I ordered a copy from The Game Crafter and got it ready to send out. I contacted the publisher to see if they would accept a submission and after an affirmative response I sent my little baby out into the world. But here’s the next lesson:
2. Don’t make emotional deadlines.
I must have been hopped up on the GenCon buzz because I had set a goal to send out a copy of my game before the end of October. Why is that bad? Because by setting that goal it had less to do with game development and more to do with my desires of getting published. This goal was an emotional goal. While I met the goal, I didn’t feel like I was sending out the best possible product, even though it was much better than it had been at GenCon. Here’s the lesson: Don’t make emotional goals that aren’t based on game development.
So it was a little bittersweet when I sent the game off. While on one hand I was happy that I felt like I was becoming a real game designer I was also a little disappointed because I knew that the threat of rejection was real.
It’s an interesting period of life when you’ve submitted a project to a company that could potentially publish it. There were days when I woke up and wondered if they were going to play it. I had received an email in early November stating that the company received the game and would be play-testing over Thanksgiving. So of course all day on Thanksgiving I was thinking my game was being played. It actually made for a long day. And then the waiting began, which leads to my next lesson learned:
3. Must… Be… Patient…
Once you submit a game to a publisher you are committing yourself to a life of patience. Think of it this way…
- Publishers receive a lot of games.
- Publishers have to play all those games (hopefully more than once).
- Publishers also actually produce real games, which might require a bit of their time.
So don’t think that once they get your game they’ll open it up, read the rules, and play it right away. If I were a publisher receiving submissions I would likely have a submission queue. So when you submit a game it would go to the end of the queue. You can also look at it this way: how often do you play games? and how often are those games someone’s unpublished prototype? I imagine publishers are in the business because they like to play games. I also imagine that playing only unpublished prototypes could get very old. That means some of their time is also spent playing good, published games. Here’s the lesson: When you submit a game, just forget about it for a while. Contact the publisher on a quarterly basis. And if you haven’t heard after a year, cordially request your game back.
And when you do hear back, try and listen to what the publisher is actually saying. That leads me to lesson #4:
4. All Feedback is Good Feedback
Publishers know what they’re talking about. Odds are if you are an unpublished designer, you probably do not know what you’re talking about. So listen to what they have to say. Of course, if what they are saying is, “We love your game and want to publish it,” then congratulations to you! But if they have rejected your game, make sure you understand why. Some reasons could include:
- Your game may not fit their company flavor (Like sending a zombie game to Haba, for example… bad idea)
- Your game may not fit their budget currently, but they may want to retain the rights to the game for a while.
- Your game may not be developed far enough. They may like the idea, but it needs work that they are not willing to put into it.
- Your game may be broken.
Those are obviously just a few of the reasons why a publisher may reject your game. Here’s the lesson: Don’t get frustrated by a rejection, learn from it! Also – They are not rejecting YOU. They are rejecting your game. Don’t take it personally.
What I learned from my rejection is that the game isn’t broken. It is too random. The feedback I received suggested that I not abandon the project, but rather to continue working on it and fixing its failings. So while my game was rejected, I actually learned a lot during the process. I now have a more well defined path forward with Dam It! And I’m better prepared for the next rejection. So to the publisher who rejected the game, Thank You!
Compounded by Dice Hate Me Games
I recently backed the game Compounded on Kickstarter. It is a really interesting game about building chemical compounds. You’ve got to manage your laboratory bench and build compounds while trying to be prepared in the case of a lab fire. There are 13 days to go on the kickstarter campaign. The project just met it’s second stretch goal at $55,000 raised. I won’t get into the gritty details about the game. So I thought it would be good to share this video instead. It shows how the game is played.
If you think that looks cool then head over to their Kickstarter page and make a pledge today! You can pledge with confidence since Dice Hate Me Games only puts out top quality games and components. This is sure to be a winner!
House of Brews Board Game Night
House of Brews is one of Madison’s rising stars of brewing!
Last night I had the opportunity to check out House of Brews off of Stoughton road in the Madison area. Brett Myers (twitter: @brettspiel) was hosting a board game night there, so I decided to join him. Brett is a published board game designer, gardener, and hombrewer. You can learn more about his game, Nanuk, at the BoardGameGeek page or the page at the Steven Jackson Games website. He is also a co-designer of the forthcoming Lord of the Rings Dice Building Game by Wizkid Games. So, as an aspiring designer it was great to be able to meet Brett in person.
I arrived around 7pm and the group was finishing up a game of For Sale. This is a really fun filler-type game. The game is broken into two halves. In the first, players use coins to bid for properties valued from 1 to 30. In the second half of the game players use their properties to earn income. Income cards are values from VOID to 15,000, with two of each value. At the end of the game players add any leftover coins from the first half of the game to the value of their income cards. The player with the most money wins.
After they finished we joined the table next to us and a few more people showed up. Brett got out the game Dixit by French publisher Libellud. Dixit is a party game that is very similar to Balderdash, but rather than making a definition you’re telling a story. I’ll review it in a different post, but here is a picture of the game:
Dixit Odyssey on the table (image from BoardGameGeek.com)
With ten people it was a really fun game. I imagine that it could be a lot more fun with people you know. Then you’ve got all those inside jokes with people and could have an easier time getting other people to guess your card.
During the game night I had the privilege to try two different brews. I first had the Snug Oatmeal Stout and then the Standing Stones Scotch Ale. Both of these beers were very delicious. The Oatmeal Stout was perfect for a night where temperatures dropped to about 7 below (F). And the Scotch Ale was a perfect beer for playing Dixit with ten people.
House of Brews has another really cool feature. Many of you are probably familiar with CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture). Those are where you sign up and get fresh vegetables and fruits. Well, House of Brews has a CSB. Of course the “B” stands for “Brewery.” Customers can subscribe to receive beer by paying up front for either a 6 month or one year term. You can find out more on their CSB Info page. Sounds pretty cool to me. I would consider signing up if I weren’t about to dive into the world of home brewing.
Overall I had a fun night. It was great to meet Brett and learn from him. He and I may try to set up a play-testing night prior to Protospiel-Milwaukee in March. That would be a great opportunity to get some final tuning done based on his feedback prior to the convention. It was also very nice to meet some other people who share an interest in boards and barley! They’ll be having another Board Game Night at House of Brews two Tuesdays from now from 6:30-9:30. You should join them!
BGR: Archipelago by Ludically
(Disclaimer: I am reviewing after two plays)
The rebels are advancing… quick, sell some exotic fruit!
A chain of islands has popped up in the middle of the ocean. You have the chance to land on those islands and harvest their resources. At first things are great. You’ve got new land, exotic fruit, and you are quickly farming. But beware. The rebels native to the archipelago are getting frustrated with you. A rebellion is growing! If you think you have what it takes to hold the natives at bay while reaping what the land can offer, then you’re ready to try out Archipelago!
In Archipelago players represent Renaissance European powers who are attempting to explore, control, and cultivate the land of the archipelago. To do so you’ll have to harvest the resources that the land is offering, then use those resources to build ports, markets, towns, and temples.
A round consists of an auction phase which determines player order, a “population effects” stage which adjusts the number of rebels on the island, a “balance of the archipelago” phase which has a requirement on a card that must be met lest the rebel population rises, an “actions” phase where players place their action discs to perform different actions, and finally an “evolution card” phase where players either purchase one card and rotate another or rotate two of the evolution cards.
Each player will also have a card that shows them an end-game scenario and a scoring condition. If that end-game scenario is ever met, the game ends. These scenarios include things like how many of a type of building has been built. Once the game is over the scoring conditions from each player’s card are revealed and scored. There is also one scoring condition card for each game that is visible to all players.
Here’s a look at the game setup:
There are a lot of components in this one!
The Upside:
- ARTWORK: this game has very nice artwork. It is fun to just look at the different land tiles. As a designer I appreciate when there are added details to artwork that are unnecessary. This game has very nice artwork in all areas and I can tell that was a focus.
- STRATEGY: There is a lot going on in this game, so the strategic decisions it offers are plentiful. On your turn you can place your action discs to obtain resources, reproduce, hire extra workers, explore, use a market or port, or build something. Trying to maximize your value-per-turn (VPT) can be tough, which is where strategy comes in.
- THEME: The idea of exploring an archipelago and developing the land is a really cool theme. Adding in the workers and rebels, the evolution cards, having to balance the archipelago, and maintaining a market balance all add to the theme. It all seemed to work pretty well together.
The Downside:
- COMPONENTS: There are just too many. I found we were constantly dealing with the fiddly-ness of the game because you have to look at the two markets, the two population boards, the evolution card track, the action circle, the archipelago itself, other players evolution cards, and so on. And it is a little tedious to use the box insert itself during gameplay. The explorer tokens didn’t fit very well in the box. The coins were hard to get out. Sure, we could have put them on the table, but the rulebook goes out of its way to say the box is used in the game.
- TIME: this game takes a long time. I read a BGG thread that said to not bother with the short game since you wouldn’t get the chance to develop the full flavor of the game, but I recommend the short version. With three players playing the medium game it took about 2.5 hours. But it only ended so quickly because we didn’t pay much attention to the rebels and they took over, and thus we all lost, pouring salt in our wounds.
- INDECISION: normally I like a lot of choices in the game. Normally those choices have a clear path forward. In Archipelago it seems like you just gather whatever goods are available and hope to use them. Sure, stone helps you build things. But why are you building them? It just seemed like too often I was choosing an action that didn’t really have any reasoning behind it.
Designer Perspective – What Would I Change:
I think that dropping the evolution cards from the game entirely would make it more fun and less fiddly. That would also mean dropping the “balance of the archipelago” phase. That would be fine since that phase seemed very random and non-thematic. I would also make the game more about the actually exploration of the archipelago rather than the whole “control the rebels” nature of the game. As a designer I have learned that it is super easy to add complexity to games. It seems like that happened here. On the other hand, games often get better when complexity is stripped out and the “fun” part of the game becomes the focus.
Beer Pairing:
Fiddler’s Elbow (Wychwood Brewery, UK): Mostly due to the name (Fiddler’s is close to “Fiddly”), but also because this is an English Pale Ale. I could imagine the English exploring an Archipelago in the 17th century and having to deal with the natives. Plus, I didn’t think this game was deserving of a more mainstream beer. I suppose I should share that I haven’t had this beer. But I feel like I understand the beer about as much as I understand this game.
OVERALL RATING:
While Archipelago is interesting, it is too fiddly for my liking. During my second play we got to the point where we realized we weren’t having any fun. The strategy is present and complex, but the fact that you have to pay attention to so many little details along the way really stole the pleasure from the game. I’ll rate this as a 6 out of 10 according to the BoardGameGeek rating system:
Ok game, some fun or challenge at least, will play sporadically if in the right mood.
Boards and Barley 