#wizard dodgeball

[allusgeeks]

Initial Impressions: Wizard Dodgeball

Initial Impressions: Wizard Dodgeball

Jeff & Megan check out Wizard Dodgeball, from Mind the Gap Studios; on Kickstarter through March 24, 2015.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peternewland/wizard-dodgeball-relaunch?ref=allusgeeks

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[indiehangover]

Wizard Dodgeball Returns to Kickstarter

@MtGSPete's Wizard Dodgeball Returns to Kickstarter #indiedev

Wizard Dodgeball has made it’s way back to Kickstarter!

Wizard Dodgeball, a game that is pretty much exactly what it sounds like (Dodgeball, but with Wizards), originally went to Kickstarter in August of last year. Ultimately, the game was not successfully funded, unable to raise $42,000 by September 2nd. Peter Newland learned a lot from this experience (read his thoughts on this initial…

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[indiehangover]

Wizard Dodgeball Art Preview

Wizard Dodgeball Art Preview

A few days ago, Peter Newland made a pretty cool reveal on Twitter ahead of the relaunch of the Wizard DodgeballKickstarter re-launch. Peter revelaed the first piece of artwork associated with the update of the tabletop game. One of things that had been mentioned during the first failed Kickstarter was a need for more illustrations. If this piece is any indication, I have a feeling we will be…

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[bowtiecat]

Wizard Dodgeball Kickstarter Has a Week Left

Later at PAX this week, we're taking a look at Wizard Dodgeball, a unique tabletop game that mixes a magic based setting with the nostalgic, painful, and painfully nostalgic moments in P.E. class.

Players move their five Wizards along a grid while tossing, catching, and (obviously) dodging balls. Eliminated players can come back when balls are caught and it looks like it can be a lot of fun in its short sessions.

We're highlighting the Kickstarter as it has a week left and some much needed progress to make, but we look forward to the finished product in any case.

[the-ace-space-race]

Is Quidditch the only wizarding sport?

[cah]

Episode thirteen features Wizard Dodgeball, where two players use magic and spells in a game of old-fashioned dodgeball. The game is designed by Peter Newland.

For more, check out mindthegapstudios.com. Peter can be reached on Twitter at @MtGSPete.

For more, read their interview with Jared Rosen after the cut.

JR: So, tell me, where's Wizard Dodgeball at today?

Peter: I'm currently getting the final quote from Ad Magic and getting ready to lauch a Kickstarter project for it depending on how the Deathmatch turns out. I had a quote going in to the competition but a couple of components have changed in the meantime and I need to get all of my numbers in a row to avoid the "surprises" I've seen a few Kickstarter projects run into. 

JR: How'd you feel about the Deathmatch overall?

Peter: Overall, it was good because I made a few friends out of it. It was a little frustrating with the limited communications since Gen Con but I know CAH is pretty busy. Would have been nice to know the judges' comments soon after the judgment but, I had a chance to get the game in to the hands of a couple of judges that are local to Seattle so managed to get a bit more feedback.

JR: Did you agree with what the judges said about Dodgeball? Was there any gap in communication?

Peter: I'm not sure if anyone else felt this way but they seemed a little harsh on mine. Mike Selinker did tell me that they "hadn't been very nice" (I think that was the quote) when I ran into him at a coffee shop. I think the only comment I agree with was that there were too many numbers on the cards. I've got to give credit to Derek Guder for his suggestion which lead me to the revision I made to the game before PAX East. Wizard Cards only have two numbers on them now: movement and spell ability. The range and modifiers have been removed and the new components include custom D6 that have ranges from 0-5, 1-6, 2-7, and 3-8. Players now just have to add up dice and compare numbers without also adding or subtracting even more numbers. Also simplified range from a stat to zones on the board.

JR: Any particular reasons why, you think? Did anything from the production feed into that tone?

Peter: Reasons why I changed the range stat? I hadn't noticed until Derek tried it that I had doubled up on the effect range had in the game. I did notice the game was a bit tedious to make sure your wizard was in the exact right spot and that was slowing the game down. The comment about the rules didn't seem fair as the game has been printed and played a few times with only needing a couple of clarifications. And those clarifications were put in well before the Deathmatch as the game has been available since April 2012. In some of [the judges] playing it they said the game was fun and easy. Just before Gen Con I had gotten the Father Geek Approved award for the initial version of the game. The version during the Deathmatch had no initiative track and waaaay better art.

JR: And why wizards? Why dodgeball? Why wizards and dodgeball?

Peter: The wizards were just what I started with. I was working on a spellcasting combat game using dominoes as the components which kept ending in a lot of ties and not a lot of excitement. Then accidentally put a couple of prototype boards together and looked at it and thought "dodgeball." That was the solid core I needed to move forward with. I like the idea of wizards doing something that is a very basic sport. Before I had heard of Blood Bowl I had wanted to make a fantasy football game. So that idea was still stewing around waiting for a good opportunity.

JR: What kind of wizard has the biggest advantage in dodgeball? Hedge, Istari, space, Rowling...? How much wizard research went into discerning this?

Peter: No research was involved, really. Just liked the idea of the stereotypical wizard with their big beards and hats running around in gym shorts setting balls on fire to lob at each other. As far as advantage, I tried to balance out the wizards between being really good at magic and really good at physical abilities. I envisioned the older, wizened wizards still being able to take on the more active, younger wizards.

JR: Yeah, tell me about all the wizards. What was it like developing them?

Peter: As far as the game goes, the wizards all started off as numbers. I figured out the size of the board from the official American dodgeball regulations and knew I wanted the attacks to a: be ranged based and b: wanted the ball throwing and spell casting to work nearly the same way. Additionally, I looked over NBA jerseys to figure out a numbering and color system to make it easy for a player to identify their wizards. Once I had all of that, the names were flavor text that I had fun coming up with. Some of them are named very loosely after people I know, some have names that are a variation of a word that deals with magic. As far as wanting to use wizards instead of some other type of fantasy character? Magical types are the only ones that can do magic and basic physical things. Having a bunch of warriors playing dodgeball doesn't conjure as funny an image, to me.

JR: What strikes me about Wizard Dodgeball is that it's taking hard numbers, almost Dungeons & Dragons-like, and makes it super accessible right from the get-go.

Peter: Right, that was kind of the point. I'd always wanted to have to adventuring groups go head to head, maybe even some sort of "king's tournament" or whatever.

JR: You just went with rubber balls and prismatic sprays instead of swords and shields.

Peter: Well, no prismatic sprays, but, right. Really inspired by memories of playing DnD and the accessibility of Munchkin. And again, the cards did start very stat based. There were numbers for range, attack and dodge modifiers (both physical and magical), movement, and spell ability. So, nice and simple for people that already play DnD and related, not so much for the general population. Now the cards have 2 numbers and some colored squares to represent the dice the player needs to roll.

JR: Did you favor spellcasters during your DnD sessions, as well? Because I always liked their progression better.

Peter: I remember favoring silly combinations. Probably my favorite that I rolled up was a halfling barbarian. But, wizards were always really strong characters in the books I read. Elminster, Raistlin, Gandalf, etc. Even with my fond memories, I'm not sure how much DnD I've actually played, come to think of it. When I introduced it to some friends, I had played a couple of times in college and, being the one that was the most experienced with it, I was the DM for a campaign that lasted a couple of years spanning dnd 3 and 3.5. It's really different experience on the other side of the screen. Another thing I wanted to mention about the actual judging is that I was terrified when I walked in there. I started sweating again watching the episode. Also, I don't think my pitch was very good so, in that regard, I can understand some of the disinterest of the judges. For whatever that's worth.

JR: Did you get the pre-show jitters?

Peter: Maybe a little? I felt mostly relaxed before I went in there. But, walking into the room and seeing the arrangement with the lights and the camera that felt like it was about two feet from my face just made me panic. I think I went through my pitch with at least a minute or two to spare. The mistake about player initiative just really made me shut down, I think. Pretty sure I was thinking of competing PC parties since that's what Wizard Dodgeball is.

JR: Had you ever been in front of a camera before?

Peter: I don't think I have. I've been in front of groups before and I was terrified in those moments, too. The only time I've been fairly comfortable in front of groups is from behind a drumset. Even then, it's sort of hiding.

JR: Do you play the drums?

Peter: I used to, but haven't in a long time other than the occasional track for my wife's music. But, public speaking, yeah, that's terrifying.

JR: Do you think having that knack for rhythm helps when you're thinking about the flow of a board game?

Peter: I don't think so. I think being a controls engineer is probably the tie in, though. Analyzing and breaking down a system and then creating the rules for that system to work. Crap, I'm going to be doing a panel and Gen Con. Somehow when I put that together I forgot it was public speaking. When I think of panels I think of sitting in them not in front of them. Hopefully there will be a table to sit behind.

JR: Just pretend everyone else is a wizard. And that you are also a wizard.

Peter: I'll give it a try.

JR: You've actually been developing Dodgeball for a long time, right? What kind of iterations has it seen since you started?

Peter: Not really? I mean if something's broken or can be better I'm definitely going to fix it. But, the initial game was developed in about 3 months and made available for print and play. The two major revisions the game has had since 2012 were getting rid of the initiative track - that you can see in the gameplay video on the game's website - and the latest change of zone based range. The initiative track was superfluous and bogged down the setup but doesn't really change anything about the game. The zone based range gets rid of some tedium and math but, again, doesn't really change the game other than making the play quicker. Other than those two (and fixing spells based on the zones/custom dice), the only changes have been clarifications in the rules as you don't know what you've left out until someone asks. In between I just have tried to play the game as much as possible while also working on other designs. And only after the Deathmatch did I really get back to trying to play it with more people. Once I had made the game available as print and play and mentioned it to a couple of publishers that wound up not being interested I was just moving on to the next design. One publisher dismissed it by saying they didn't do sports games because he wasn't sure if Europeans even knew what dodgeball was.

JR: To be fair, that publisher probably got *destroyed* in a dodgeball match.

Peter: It's very likely. I think I knew going in that dodgeball was going to be a tough sell to the board gamers you see giving people that like football a lot of grief. I hoped the wizards would make it more palatable.

JR: Overall, was the whole journey of deathmatch a good experience? Did you feel like it was a net positive?

Peter: Yes, definitely a net positive. Getting in the finals of the Deathmatch and then getting the Father Geek award just before Gen Con was the encouragement I needed in that maybe I'm doing something right. Plus the other reviews that people had posted around the same time frame.

JR: Any advice for up and coming designers going forward?

Peter: I've been thinking about this question as I knew it was coming up from reading all of the other interviews but I'm not sure I can add much. Play a lot. Have a support group of designers. One thing that's been a big help to me is the Extra Credits series as a whole but, in particular, the "Fail Faster" idea. I'm not sure I had heard that before but it really stuck with me. I wasted a lot of time with my first design (a family adventure race about space pirates robbing a museum) because I would try to figure out in my head the best solution to whatever hang-up I was running into. And, as expected, I'd present it and it wouldn't work and the cycle would repeat. It took me three years to finally feel OK about that game. A regular group is great for that because you have to prototype something for the next session. The group I run meets every two weeks so it's a fairly quick turn around to see if it works or not.

[blankwallgames]

PnP wednesday 4

There are two things to note about this PnP Wednesday before we get to the game.  First it coincided with the start of the summer semester so I had less time to devote to preparation, thus Hexasea did not get finished, partially due to lack of time and partially due to testing Mod Podge as an adhesive.  The Mod Podge was a bad idea because it induced a heavy amount of bowing to the board pieces.  Second I decided to switch the format.  First I’ll talk about the GBU for playing the game, then I’ll talk about what went into making the game.  If you like the old format more let me know, I’m flexible about these things.

A word about my feedback style, GBU stands for Good, Bad, Ugly.  Good is what I think made the game worth my time to print and take to the store and what the players at the store really latched onto.  Bad is something that isn’t a huge detraction from the game but could be reworked in order to help smooth out game play, or functionality, or what have you.  Ugly is something that caused a player to stop playing the game, get upset at the game, or really give that vibe of “I’m not into this”.  These are meant to be constructive and ultimately I focus more on what can be fixed rather than what is amazing because If I like it the best feedback I can give is “I like it” and there are plenty of review sites out there that will gush over the good parts.  I try to do feedback rather than just a strict review so I want to give actionable information because if I put the time in to get a game from digital file to a playable item it means I think it is either really good or at least has the promise of being really good.

Lastly here is what the store looks like on Wednesdays, the day I take the PnP's up.  I can usually get two or three plays through of each game.  If you look at what I your games are competing with you can see why I try to spend some quality time making them look good before I bring them in.

Enough of all that, on to the game!

The Playing

This week I took Wizard Dodge Ball, by Peter Newland, to the store and you can find the files here.   Wizard Dodge Ball is a skirmish game with a twist.  Players take turns activating their units with the goal of knocking out the other player’s entire team.  Like a traditional miniatures skirmish game each character has a set of stats for attacking, moving, and defending and the players use dice to resolve attacks and dodges.  The twist comes in how you attack.  This is dodge ball after all, so you can’t just attack whenever and however you want.  In order to attack you have to first get a ball, and after you throw the ball you are effectively giving ammunition to your opponent so there is a good bit of strategy in when and how you throw the ball.

The Good

The theme is probably the strongest aspect of this game.  Not just in that the theme is interesting enough to draw players over for a look, but also that Peter managed to pull it off so well.  It really captures the feel of dodge ball in a great way.  The catch mechanic in the game is just as clutch as it is in a real game and also keeps the more powerful physical wizards from just overwhelming the board.  Another aspect of the game I felt was pulled off really well was integrating the spells into the game.  They feel like an integral strategy element and not just a pasted on effect.  Over all the game is really solid and I think that it would absolutely shine as a mobile app game because the one thing about dodge ball that the board game couldn’t fully capture is the frantic nature.

The Bad

Two things stood out to the players as “oh I wish they had done this” aspects.  First is the team drafting.  Currently the game is set up so that you shuffle all the wizards together then alternate drawing the top card, preserving the order of draw, in order to make your team.  The order is important because it determines the turn order for the wizards.  It is called a draft, but really there is no draft, just randomness the whole way through.  Some player choice would have gone a long way there.  The players and I had some ideas that I will get to in the designers observations.  Second the turn order tracking system is a bit clunky.  You currently set the jersey cards over next to the board in a line and track the turns, the spell use, and so forth.  It gets a bit messy and pulls your eyes away from your characters and the board to check and one of the play groups found it a bit distracting but everyone agreed it was a detraction from the game, not so much as to make the game unplayable, but enough to be slightly irritating.

The Ugly

Almost all the ugly here was in the rule book.  There were numerous times we had to make judgment calls on relatively minor things such as when a spell lasts for a turn does it come back to your hand at the beginning of the turn or the end?  Using the word dodge for physical and magical also led to some confusion/consternation.  Then there was the throwing rule.  When you throw the ball it flies in a straight line, and if you are throwing the ball orthogonally to your character it is easy to measure, but if you have to throw at any angle they rule in the book has some convoluted rule for balancing straight movement with 45 degree angle movement that we ended up spending way too much time trying to make work.  Eventually we just went with 3.5 style square counting along a straight path to determine range.  The other big issue we had, and this actually caused a player to hand his team off to someone else, was figuring out exactly what the spells stat did.  Eventually we pieced it together through the written description, the how to play, and the number of spell markers per spell provided.

Wrap Up:

Wizard Dodge Ball is a great game that is very well designed.  It really captures the feel of playing dodge ball and balances on the edge of silly and serious play very well.  The game felt very well balanced and we didn’t find any overwhelmingly broken tactics.  Ideally I would love to see this turned into a mobile app with some character ownership and maybe online league play because I think there is a HUGE amount of potential here.  Pick it up and play it, you will have a lot of fun with it once you muddle your way through the rules, just make sure to play with some friends who don’t mind hashing out the vague bits in agreeable ways.

Designer Observations:

To fix the parts we felt needed polish I would suggest the following.  Instead of total random distribution of characters how about you shuffle the wizard cards then deal out the top ten in one of two ways.  5 to each player, or all ten face up on the board.  Then players actually draft their team.  If you do the 5 and 5 method then each player would look at their initial 5 pick one then pass the other 4, do this until both players have a team of 5.  If you use the all ten face up method then you do the same thing only it is a Rochester draft style instead so each player takes turn picking a wizard until both players have a team of 5, very similar to the way we picked dodge ball teams in middle school! Either way would put a lot more player choice into the game and allow players to feel like they have a little more control, while still keeping the randomization that keeps the game a bit fresh.   As to the timer issue it is a tough one because we liked how the timer would impact your choice of who to throw a ball at.  It was much more important to take out a guy who was going next since it would give you two activations in a row, as compared to taking out a guy who had already gone.  One option would be to do away with the jerseys and just make two sets of 5 tokens numbered 1-5 and then the timer would be on the wizard stat cards themselves.  This would give you one less place to have to look at for information and could help speed up the game a bit both in play as well as in set up.

Making the Game

Honestly there is not a lot to say for Wizards Dodge ball.  It was a very well put together pnp file.  The cards had excellent spacing and it was quick to make and prep.  We learned that our laser printer could actually print to the 110 lb card stock if we messed with some settings so I didn't even need to glue anything.  Unfortunately I didn't look at the board before I had Dominique print it so I didn't realize how it was duplicated across the pages.  It ended up being mostly okay I taped it together and as you can see in the video it looks great, unfortunately the light paper made it slide around a lot Especially when players slid the tokens across the taped lines. 

If you get the 110 lb card stock I would suggest a double thick layer to help give enough thickness to easily pick them up, and I would also suggest mounting the board on something a little heftier than standard printer paper.  Cardboard would probably do, but you will need to make it foldable as the board is rather long.  The rest of the cards are not manipulated enough to need anything to heavy and shuffling the 110 lb stuff is pretty simple.

If you have any questions or advice feel free to leave comments.  Thanks for reading and watching.  Next weeks Making the game will be far more robust as Hexasea was kind of a beast to make, but had some interesting things I would like to discuss.