#aagame

[archangelalchemist]

Announcing my new project!

I am making a new paper & pencil RPG in the same vein as Dungeons&Dragons, Netrunner, and Pathfinder. To promote the new game I will be posting videos on Youtube as ArchangelAlchemist and blogs here on tumblr about the game world and its mechanics. The first official post will go up on March 26th and new posts will be added on every other Monday afterward. if you’re interested like/subscribe/follow to make sure you don’t miss an update.

[archangelalchemist]

Edit December

Sorry for the late post, life got in the way. In this step I want to iterate and revise my product based on feedback, and then get more testing to do it again. With the information I got from the last step I can see what elements need worked on. This step might not need a lot of instructions but it gets repeated so the information here is still important to good design. Another thing that is good to this step is theme and art. Linking my game with a theme and solidifying that with art will smooth over some of the patchy parts (plus theme is pretty easy to change if it doesn't resonate with the game I am making, which also means while art is good to have I shouldn't spend to long on it).

After doing my first few tests (without altering anything, remember I want a baseline with a lot of data) I will start to see the flaws in my game appear. If they are loud and obvious that's good, that means I have improved from where you once were and they should be an easy fix; if it's hard to see the flaws either I don't have enough data or I've done this for years and know how to avoid pitfalls (Go Me!). Now I'll go ahead and change the game. While I alter the components and game pieces I want to make sure I'm altering the rulebook as well, this way no loose ends wind up making it to the players (remember as more pieces are added the more likely 'Fringe Scenarios' will appear). Another thing I need to check for is if the game is drifting from whee I want it; do the mechanics still give players the sense I want them to, if I have a theme already is it coming through clearly.

After the edits are done I need to see how the populous reacts to the changes with more testing. When the players are playing with the new version of the game I need to be extra considerate to the changes I just made and make sure that there are no issues added. The feedback from this step should lean more positive than my last tests but still have flaws, the more attention I pay to detail here the more polished my game will play, taking it from a five dollar bin game to a top shelf game. After I have edited my game and re-tested it I need to do it again making sure that by the end of this step there are no flaws I can see. A design can always be improved on but at some point I have to ship, so I must work had but not get bogged down.

This step should finish with me having a game with nothing but wonderful reviews by my target audience (Oh yeah, not everyone will like my game but the people I want to like this game should like it). I'm getting close to done now so all the little things are becoming more important than ever.

Last month my game went to a playtesting convention where it got put through its paces. One element I was worried to push wound up being cleaner when there were more elements that cared about it and a major rules change was put in place because one person at the convention attempted to break the game... it worked. Him and his friend turned a game that had never lasted more than fifteen minutes into a 45 minute grind. It was very enlightening and I'm pleased with the changes we made.

Thank you very much for reading, if you have any comments, questions, or want to get started on the next step early (which I advise you do) please feel free to message me.

[archangelalchemist]

NaNoCreateMo

I couldn't think of anything creative that either rhymed or was alliterative with November and dealt with making things so sorry for the lame title. This step is where it all comes together, where ideas become tangible. If you are writing a book during National November Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) you know that the idea is to put your words on paper and get your book written, that's the same thing I'm going for here, getting a game that people can actually play. A prototype is good and it will help you to figure out where there are problems but it doesn't replace the real thing, after all this step is about making something you can get into other people's hands. With the information I got in the last step; major mechanics, game direction and feel, and my target audience's expectations; I should be ready for the public to see it. Before other people can play my game they need to know the rules and that requires a rule book. I'm going to write out all the steps, from the moment the game is unboxed to when it's being put away. I'm going to be extra detailed in this part, probably writing it as I play by myself just to make sure starting elements of the game are towards the beginning and ending things at the end. Not everything I write will make it into the final version (I don't want to overload my players with a textbook) and some parts will be delegated to a 'Fringe Scenario' section of things that don't happen often, but being detailed here will also help to find confusing elements of my game and make them cleaner. I've got a rule book and prototype now I have to find people to test my game, friends and family work for a bit but to really put my game through its paces I need strangers or others who are willing to be brutally honest. Brutal is a major keyword here, with my first playtest my game probably wont be that good and my testers will let me know. I'll take their input and after a couple more rounds of testing I'll modify the game with a new prototype (making sure to change the rule book accordingly) then get back to testing. Yet again meticulous notes about; complaints, compliments, who won, with what strategy, parts of a turn, amount of time spent on a on a phase, on a single player's turn, on the game; will help in figuring out how the game needs to be changed to be the best version it can be (like making sure sure one strategy doesn't dominate, that was my issue last year). Now I made a rule book before testing but for the first few tests I can still help my players along. Talking out the rules the first game or two will make the unpolished areas easier to comprehend. After a few games I should let my players read the rules and only talk when my players have questions (which I should take thorough notes on). There will come a time when I stop talking to my players entirely (but never stop taking notes) and let them figure everything out on their own (I once watched a game for five turns before the players realized they were missing the step that allowed them to score points -_- ). This step should end with a game that can be played right out of the box with people who have never even heard of the game, it doesn't have to be pretty or polished but it does need to make the players want to play again. The next bit is the pretty and polished part making sure players want to pick it up and even buy it in the future. Last month I took a lot of notes from a similar game to the one I'm making and printed mine out on computer paper. I also got a few ideas on things the game was missing so I can't wait to try them out and get other people to see it too. Honestly there was a lot going on personally last month so I'm both disappointed that I didn't do more but also happy I was able to do as much as I did. Thank you very much for reading, if you have any comments, questions, or want to get started on the next step early (which I advise you do) please feel free to message me.

[archangelalchemist]

Outline October

October is going to be the time to outline and prototype, getting my basics down before some of the more meticulous steps. The harder I work here though the better off I'll be in future steps. Before I start getting things onto paper though I should do some research, since I now have a concept for my game there are a few things I should find out before I continue. I need to figure out about other games that have the mechanics of my game. How did they do it? What emotions and age ranges did they try to hit? How well did they sell? Once I have these things figured out it's time to compare them to mine, this will let me figure out how to market my game.

Once I have a firm grasp on the direction of my game it's time to start actually building the game. In the YouTube channel 'Extra Credits' they talk about Minimum Viable Product, this is where a game designer takes the major mechanic of the game and makes something playable showcasing that single mechanic. This will allow me to figure out what part of it works and what does not, too many variables (different enemy types, branching paths to victory) can distract me and make it harder to figure out which parts of the game or mechanic aren't working.

After I test my mechanic a few times (don't give up after a single fail, more attempts means more data) I can start making adjustments to my simple game. A suggestion I heard is to  double or half some of the numbers I am using (2 points? That's going to be 4. Move 10 squares? How about 5?) This way I cover a large range to test instead of going by one until I find the right number (An old phrase I heard is if you undershoot once overshoot the next time so you can get a better grasp on how to aim.) After I make a new prototype with the new information and changes I can go back to testing. Since there are going to be a lot of  remakes in this step I will be using cheap replaceable parts. I should end this step with a lot of notes and a solid idea of what the game my players will see is. Even with all this I'm not done testing or changing up the game. In the next step I'll finally show what I'm making to the public, but for now understanding what the public wants and making my game stick out to it's players is good enough.

Since last month I believe I have decided what game looks the most promising to me. It is simple to understand, only uses a small set of cards, and I own a game that is similar so I can figure out what that game did to succeed  and try and approach that in a fresh light.

Thank you very much for reading, if you have any comments, questions, or want to get started on the next step early (which I advise you do) please feel free to message me.

[archangelalchemist]

Hearthstone Tavern Brawl: Blood Magic - Standard 8/30/17

I lose quite quick while talking about changes to this YouTube channel and my blog, ArchangelAlchemist, on Tumblr

I am making some changes to my YouTube platform which I go over in this video, if you like seeing videos about game design you might enjoy the videos I plan on making. My video on SuckerPunch's inFamous Second Sun and how they create tutorials for it's players is what I will be aiming for in the future. I hope to see you there!

[archangelalchemist]

Preptember

Alright, everybody! It is now September which means I am going to be participating in a board game design competition. While I go through the competition I will be talking about it here on my blog. I will be describing what step in my creative process I am going through, detailing what each step includes, and finally I will talk about how the last month went and how I did compared to that month's goals. This way everyone should be able to follow along on their own creative projects, and keep me on track as I make my game.

September is Preptember for me, a time to prepare for my next big project, in this case, a board game. The first step here is to decide what kind of game I'm making. Is it going to be a deck builder? What about a labyrinth-like maze? Are the players going to be working together or against one another? Could there even be a team vs. team mode? There are lots of questions to ask here so I can't get bogged down. The first thing I need to do before I decide anything is to figure out my main game mechanic (or two if I'm feeling like they work well together). If I start with a theme the game might look nice or sound good but chances are it will be very disjointed to play; as long as I have a good mechanic I can try different themes and settings to make the game cohesive. As long as the game is fun you can make a world to match it but no amount of polish will make someone want to play a unfun game twice. To decide on my main game mechanic I'm going to think of all sorts of games I've played. From Monopoly to Magic: the Gathering, Dark Souls to Mario Kart, I'm going to make a list of mechanics that I liked and others that I didn't. I'm also going to spend a little time thinking about what would happen if I changed some mechanics (both that I liked and didn't like) and what the end result would be on the gameplay. With a long list of mechanics I like I (and a few I don't) I'm going to spend a while mixing an matching the good ones and seeing what game ideas pop into my head, chances are I'll have a couple that stick out to me and I'll need to choose between them. To decide which game I want to go with I'll look at a couple of different factors: emotion, uniqueness, simplicity of play, replayablility, and passion. Emotion is what feeling I want my players to have while playing the game, a lot of designers aim for happiness which is good, a happy player equates it as a good game, but don't forget that some players like difficult challenges and games featuring fear as it's main emotion have done very well in the past. Uniqueness or hook will attract players to the game, despite that age old advice people actually DO judge books my the cover, games too. Simplicity of play will allow my players to pick up the game and intuitively understand how to play it, as the designer the game will seem easier to me than to someone who grabs it off of the shelf so I need to be careful here. Replayablility is important because without this players probably won't play the game with their friends and introduce them to the game, without word of mouth it is very difficult to market the game and make a profit. Passion is a factor for me and me alone, how interested in this game am I? The more I like the game the more energy I will put into creating the game and that effort will shine through to the finished project. Once I have decided on which game I want to make it's time  to start on the next step, prototyping. I will continue next month with Outline October where I will go into detail about how to make a simplified version of a game and start testing. Since this is the first month of this project I don't have a look back yet but I will say that I already have a couple of game ideas that I will start looking into. Thank you very much for reading, if you have any comments, questions, or want to get started on the next step early (which I advise you do) please feel free to message me.

[archangelalchemist]

Steps of My Creative Process

Alright, Hello everybody. Coming up in September there is a game design competition that lasts until February in the city of Champaign. Each month during the competition not only will I keep you up to date about my progress but I will also go in depth about how I go about my creative process. I will specialize in one step of creation each month. The steps and Months will be broken down as follows: September Thought Dump/Preparation, October Outline/Prototype, November Create/Test, December Edit/Iterate, January Market/Publicity, and February Publication/Finalization. There are a few things to note about this list; first you may absolutely proceed to the next step before the end of the month, second if it takes more than a month to finish don't worry about it many stages like November's creation are difficult and will take time, this is just intended to help keep me on track and for any aspiring creatives to follow along with any of their projects and keep pace and ask questions on the way. If anyone has any questions or comments I'd love to hear them. I made this to follow the same time frame of my contest but I have been thinking of adding one or two things to it so with your help I might make this a little more inclusive for next year. I can't wait to hear from you in the following months. Thanks guys.

[archangelalchemist]

All My Irons 6/3/17

I figured I would just make a list of all the things I am working on right now hoping that that it might help to light a fire in me and get to work. I have a lot of projects going on so I was planning on using my Tumblr to record and update my progress as I go. So these are the projects I have going right now:

Work on social media – I'm kind of doing that right now. I also have a YouTube channel (ArchangelAlchemist) where I upload Hearthstone videos at least once a week and sometimes a few other bits and bobs.

Write a book – I'm working on chapter four right now. I just finished the first big fight scene of the book in chapter three and am now writing the end of this bit before the next real arc begins.

Design a game – There is a game design competition that takes place in my city each year. I've competed for the last two years and did okay but this year I hope to at least get an honorable mention in one of the eight categories. I have about four games I want to prototype and test to find out which game is the best one to compete with.