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AnCon 2014
- hotseatgames
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I had not heard of this con before, but it's only a couple of hours away from me and it's geared to playtesting new stuff... so I'm taking my new game to demo.
Anyone else going to this?
I just realized I signed up to demo my game for 10 hours straight... I'm not sure how I'm going to pull that off.
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- hotseatgames
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I'm trying to work out how my demo setup will go. Here's the deal; the game is now 3 or 4 players only. A short game is 4 rounds and takes 2 hours. Med. game is 6 rounds and takes 3 hours, and the full deal is 8 rounds and takes 4 hours.
You need a couple of rounds just to figure out what's going on and to start to see how things work. It's not a filler game by any stretch.
So my question to you is, do you think it's better to just start everyone at the beginning of a 4 round game and either let it go to 4 rounds or possibly cut it at 3? -OR- create some artificial mid-point where they already have some stuff that they theoretically acquired, and have them start at round 6.
I am inclined to have them start from the beginning and just cut it off early. I want as many people to try it as possible, but at the same time, I want them to see enough of it to actually form an opinion. One of the influences of this game was Chaos in the Old World. You just don't figure out CitOW in 1 hour.
Thoughts?
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hotseatgames wrote: I just realized I signed up to demo my game for 10 hours straight... I'm not sure how I'm going to pull that off.
Adult diapers.
Not knowing anything about your game outside of being influenced by CitOW is hard. If you've posted elsewhere about your game I missed it.
That said - Would it be possible to create a mini-scenario? Some sort of short term goal that gives the players some sort of direction? Your pattern is 30 mins per round, so what does the game situation typically look like after the first round and can a scenario be created from that?
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A four-hour demo of an unpublished and new-to-me game would be hard to sell me on. I can do a lot of things in four hours of game time.
If you can figure out a highlight scenario, or jumpstart the action somehow, you could increase your turnover (so you get more eyes on the game), and hopefully not impact the effect of the game too much.
If you have extra copies you could even run the short demo and let the new converts play a deeper game after they're hooked and you're running new groups (space permitting, of course).
Hopefully things go well for you there.
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- hotseatgames
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It's called City of Lycans. It's essentially an ameritrash worker placement game. Each player builds an economic engine while trying to tear down other player's engines.
Round for round you gain in power as you build more businesses and get race upgrades. Also, the later rounds tend to be bloodier, so perhaps I should construct a "full game" demo consisting of the last 3 rounds.
On the other hand, if they get into it, having the game abruptly end might just give them a bad impression.
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What's the expectations for the attendees? Are they going in with a Wine Tasting mentality where you get an ounce and move on then come back to the ones they like? Or a Wold Beer Tour where you're downing pints at a time and by the end of the night its all a blur? Are people expecting a short sample for your prototype or long session in other words?
The website is blocked here at work so I can't read up on the con.
Personally I think a more limited scope is the better approach, dropping a player into a game where everything is on the board is overwhelming. An early short term goal starting off from the beginning provides some direction for the gamer, what good "first steps" are in other words. And personally, if I were attending a convention where there are tons of prototypes to experience I would like to sample and then move on and then try to setup an appointment to come back to really dig into the ones that interest me by playing a full game. I'd start fidgeting if a game was eating up limited time without a way out, especially if the game wasn't engaging me.
With each race having different traits, strengths and weaknesses could each race have their own short term goal to accomplish that would also highlight different aspects of the game?
I'm just spitballing some ideas here.
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- hotseatgames
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Each race has one or two things that they excel at, and if those things are capitalized on, the player increases his chances of winning. When you don't play to your race's strengths, winning is pretty UN-certain. I know this because I've done it; I tend to play every race like they are werewolves, and that doesn't work.
Maybe I should start everyone at the beginning, and explain that after 2 rounds they can quit or play a 3rd round. By then they will see how things work; no one may have attacked anyone yet though, unless they are just being reckless to see how the combat works.
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Maybe after round two "The villagers rise up" and people go to combat against random villagers so they get a feel for that. Whoever survives the villager's attack passed the tutorial or something.
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- hotseatgames
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This is a modern city, and the "villagers" are FOOD. They don't rise up. They get eaten up.
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