BoardGameJam 2014

So what IS a boardgamejam?! In a nutshell, it is an event held every year in Toronto where you attempt to do is to make a boardgame over one weekend (2 days). So what can be done in 2 days? In this post I will talk about our (Justine + me) experience jamming out a game. Here is a summary of the game we created followed up by our experience throughout the event

Chicken Coup

A game with ~30 cards for 3-5 players that takes ~20min to play. In Chicken Coup, each player are secretly placed in either Team Chicken or Team Fox where they now have to earn points for their team.

Coup_art

Chickens earn points by hatching eggs while foxes earn points by eating chickens. Cards are played into the coop and the game ends when all the cards are played.

In addition to gaining points throughout the game, each player has to guess what team everyone is on. You get extra points by guessing the correct teams of the other players. At the end of the game, either Team Chicken or Team Fox wins. Continue reading →

#3 CAH Deathmatch :: Cottage Playtest Changes

From July 28th to August 2nd I managed to both go to the cottage while getting some solid playtesting done with a close group of friends. With Outer Earth in its mid-late stages of development, I am still looking to fine-tune the mechanics present in the game.

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Changes that were made + rationale:

  • Reduced initial start Action Points 3 –> 2
    • With prior changes to the game allowing you to accumulate more action points and planet capacity, starving the player with less action points made for a bigger struggle and satisfaction of evolving your company throughout the game.
  • Each industry card on a planet gives 1 Victory Point
    • There were too few victory points earned throughout the game in comparison to the end scoring. To even it out, every industry card gives 1 victory point in addition to the victory points gained for meeting certain criteria (If the industry matches the planets industry + if you manage to get a set of the three different industries (primary, secondary and tertiary) connected on a planet).
  • Remove 1 Action Point industry investments
    • The action of discarding a card to place into your industry stock face down was not used at all throughout the playtest, which made me question the mechanic. Playtesters felt that cards were more valuable as auction bids and connections than endgame stock investments. Now the mechanic is simplified with the remaining cards in each players hand count towards the endgame stock investments.
  • Create more influencing planet modifiers
    • The planet modifiers were a nice mix of drawing cards, victory points and stock modifiers. Throughout the playtest, there was always a way more buzz around modifiers that included stock changes, additional victory points/action points/planet capacity. On the other spectrum, modifiers that allowed you to draw cards seemed “boring” as you could easily do that with your own action points. All the modifiers will now have a bigger impact than what you can do on your turn with a single action point.
  • Changes to the cost of closing planets
    • Should the game penalize a player for closing a planet earlier than its planet capacity? That is a question I have been thinking about. Closing a planet early gives you an ability (Draw a card, Planet Capacity or Action Point) at the cost of losing the potential point gain of the planet. Is the lost victory point potential a big enough of a penalty or should there be a bigger penalty (-1 VP/an extra AP/Not possible to close planet) if a player tries to close a planet early? As for now,  no penalties and players are allowed to close ANY planet for 1 Action Point regardless of how many industry cards there are on the planet.

 

 

 

#2 CAH Deathmatch :: Travel, Lodging and Gen Con Badge

Initially I did not have any plans of attending Gen Con. This also meant that I had nothing booked at all for Gen Con when they notified me about being one of the finalists! In my submission to the Deathmatch, I had stated that I was not attending Gen Con but if I was selected as one of the finalists, I would book everything ASAP, and that’s what I did!

With less than one month before Gen Con, booking a reasonable hotel at the core of Indianapolis was close to impossible. As I was looking around and doing research on the event + place, I learned about the Gen Con housing block (which was by now all sold out + too late for a waiting list). After a day of looking, my girlfriend and I settled on a hotel ~15min away by taxi. Hopefully we won’t miss out on all the action!

Another update on the topic, we ended up buying two tickets for the Gen Con Shuttle Bus service! It is a great new service that runs consistently throughout Gen Con from  7am-3am Thurs, Fri, Sat and 7-8pm on Sunday. Both tickets ended up costing ~$100.

There is also a ~15 hour greyhound bus ride we have purchased from Toronto – Indiana. Lots of time to go over and practice my pitch/get some sleep…!

 

 

 

 

#1 CAH Competition Update: Hush Hush

On the night of July 22nd, Cards Against Humanities sent me an email notifying me that Outer Earth had been chosen as one of the 16 finalists in the Deathmatch! I (+ 500 other contestants) was getting quite anxious to receive the information (Since it was supposed to be revealed on the 15th!) of the finalist pick and I finally got a response + was chosen as one of the top 16! The email also mentioned that we should keep the information on the down low until further notice so I refrained from people beyond close family and friends.

Some arrangements that I did right as I found out that I was a finalist was to book time off from work(so that I can actually go and present Outer Earth at Gen Con). As a barista at Thor Espresso Bar in Toronto, I greatly appreciate how flexible my schedule can become to accommodate unexpected surprises like this. I also had to put a freelance branding gig on hold for Lateral Office until after the Deathmatch competition.

As of now, my core “to-do” list includes:

  • Booking plane tickets, Gen Con badge and lodging.
  • Getting my passport from my parents.
  • Apply for a US visa (Since I have a Norwegian passport + Canadian Permanent Residence card, a visa is required).
  • Create a PDF presentation to quickly, easily and visually explain the game at the Deathmatch presentation.

Another hopeful list I would like to do before Gen Con:

  • Add more randomness to the Galaxy deck through Global and Planet Modifiers.
  • Look into modular board parts for easy game layout.
  • Refine the rules further.
  • Lower the planets initial capabilities so that there is more of a buildup throughout the game.
  • Create a refined mockup version of both the planet and industry card.
  • Create a PDF presentation to quickly, easily and visually explain the game at the Deathmatch presentation.