Back to it...

So the last few months have been productive. Now free of the shackles of a kickstarter campaign, I’ve now managed to get back to designing, which has been awesome. The Colour of Light has really taken shape. It’s nearing a finished game, and I’m in the final phase of tweaking, which can actually take a while!

I’ve had a few more ideas for other games too. I’ve been getting into ‘Roll and Writes’ recently and one particular design has lent itself to that idea, so I’ve been following up on that. Again it’s taking shape, the layout of the sheets have been one of the major components of getting the game right.

There are a couple of more I’m keen to work on but time is always at a premium so it’s just a case of prioritising.

I’m off to a design retreat for NZ games designers in October so the plan is to get as many prototypes in a working state before then. Really looking forward to it.

And I’ll try to be a bit more regular with the updates going forward.

The Color of Light - version 8

It's been a while since I've updated the blog regarding the Color of Light. Having a long break over Christmas has afforded me lots of play-testing opportunities. 

The game has changed a bit since the last update, primarily with the removal of the cards. What I was finding is they were causing some wild swings in the game, especially towards the end. 

Streamlining has been the focus. Instead of players earning cards, now thy can immediately effect theirs and other players' areas, in the form of shields and druidic power. (see below)

It's also meant a redesign of all the incantation cards but it's been worth it. It now plays well.

I removed some powers as well which were confusing and slowed the game down, namely Reserve Ritual and Drain Circle. One phase removed means a quicker game with less downtime.

I've also introduced player hands to give more choice when selecting a new incantation. This has also worked well.

More play-testing is required but the game has come together a lot quicker than IMDL!

New Years, new drive!

2 weeks off during the Christmas period has gifted me with some much needed testing and design time.

The Color of Light dice have worked very well, which is awesome. After several playtests, I've also reduced some of the mechanics around bonus cards, which caused some wild swings towards the end of the game. The new shield mechanics which have been used to replace the cards have worked during playtesting, but I'm going to get it to the table a little more to get comfortable.

Unfortunately, IMDL! dice replacement designs I created haven't been successful. It was quite clear within the first 5 minutes, the experience with either wasn't as streamlined, or importantly, as fun as the dice.

I knocked another mechanic using cards, like Dominion. As the player gains more mech parts, they replace more potent cards into their deck. When they engage, they reveal a card per round.

But again, not as fun. The experience was rather inert. Also it messed with with the engine as the abilities weren't 'reset' in every round.

Shem has pushed me to pursue created my own configurable dice, with assistance from a 3D print designer, so we'll see if that amounts to anything.

In the meantime, I'm going to try another idea with lots of pre-configured dice, like Roll for the Galaxy.. More dice are added to the players pool as they grow their mech. Watch this space...

Mini Welli-con

I had the opportunity to take some of my prototypes along to Mini-Wellycon last week. It's not often I get to participate in 12 hours of solid gaming. (Not just my stuff). It was tonnes of fun.

I got lots of great feedback. The Color of Light is taking shape. Invariably dice games produce vastly different results and during this playtest I was on a run of bad luck. Some slight mechanic changes will be brought in next version, but nothing too onerous. It's the old adage on the last 10% taking 90% of the time.

One of the players that lent their time to The Road Crew broke it. Which is a good thing. That's going to require some intervention to balance it out.

IMDL! played well. All the more crushing that I'm able to progress with the configurable dice at this point. (See the Publishing blog.)

I've got another couple of ideas that I'm chomping at the bit to work on, but spreading myself between 4 games is probably enough (some would say excessive!) I've got to get each of these into a finished state before starting another...

The Color of Light - Version 5

Simplifying the board and adjusting some of the Actions cards made a huge difference. The playthrough of version 5 went really well. No changes required by the end of the game, but more testing is required.

The Color of Light - Versions 3 & 4

It's great to have opportunities to test prototypes. I'm part of a very forgiving gameing group that gives my latest effort a go.

I've managed to make some changes after Thursday's playtest, and give it another on Sunday at a Board game convention in Wellington. (It's Your Move). Improvements were made and the feedback was good.

However, I think the 'tree' gimmick is going to have to go. Although I love the idea of reaching inside 'the tree stump' for the orbs, ultimately it was blocking the board. For some reason, I had this edict in my head that I couldn't have two bags in a game (the other is for the dice.) 

The good thing about play-testing with gamers is that they can then give you a long list of successful games with two or more bags, so I'm going to throw that rule out of the window and try it. Maybe a nice brown leather bag in the centre...

The Color of Light (was Dawn...) - First Playthroughs

I haven't managed to test one of my games on account due to having to wait for a job-lot of dice to show up from China (6 weeks!). Thankfully, Shem stepped up and let me borrow some of his library to test over the weekend.

The Color of Light, (was ..of Dawn) came together really well. Only managed to play it with 2 players, but it played well out of the gate. On to version 3 now but it's just tweaks rather than wholesale changes, which is encouraging. I'll post more details about the game once it's got a few more playtests under its belt. 

I've got some small Wellington conventions coming up over the next couple of weeks. I'll be taking along my efforts to test on the masses. Fingers crossed. Now, back to the guillotine...