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Calgary26003 Posts
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ZhFyklU.png) Well, at least this hasn't changed... yet.
I believe it's been about 2 weeks since my last post. In that time, the game has gone through 2 further revisions, and we've been able to play one more test. More about that below.
1. Lore
Poll: I read the story section of board game instructions.Sometimes. (34) 39% Never. (29) 33% Always. (21) 24% It depends on the length. (3) 3% 87 total votes Your vote: I read the story section of board game instructions. (Vote): Always.
(Vote): Sometimes.
(Vote): Never.
(Vote): It depends on the length.
The lore of the game has been more or less finalized. We know who all the Heroes are, why they are each fighting, and what the purpose of the war is over. That has little to do with the actual game, but it does add a little flavour to the Hero you are playing in each game.
All Heroes will eventually be named, but for now we just refer to them by their class name:
Good: Assassin, Berserker, Blacksmith, Paladin
Neutral: Naga, Pirate, Shape Shifter, Ranger
Evil: Necromancer, Shadow King, Summoner, Wizard
There are two pages explaining how these kingdoms got to the state they're in. It also explains how each Hero has interacted with each other before the game. Coagulation has drawn a map showing the major locations, which we will add each Hero's position on afterwards. Finally, each Hero has a 3-6 sentence synopsis explaining their alignment, current location, and what they have invested in this fight.
I'm very hesitant to release this lore document to the public yet. Maybe a few Blogs down the road I will start releasing pieces of it to get some feedback.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/M40Dv6f.jpg) The lore certainly won't be for everyone, but I think it will add a little something to the game for some people.
2. Progress & Design
We have a Design Premise document explaining the tasks left before we actually produce this game. Things still change weekly. Right now there are two big pushes happening in parallel:
1. Finish all the card art (Coagulation)
2. Complete all alpha testing and finalize the rules (Chill)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/5IpLHYh.jpg) Coagulation summed up his progress in this fancy graphic. Chill... not so much
Coagulation's art pace is unreal. If we keep at our current paces, I think he will have the art ready before the rules are finalized... which is a pretty bad situation to put the project in. I'm trying my best to figure everything out, but play tests are still the limiting factor.
The design goal of the game is very simple: a 4-player game should take 1 hour and average 3 drinks per person. The game works in its current state but it absolutely doesn't meet those goals. It typically takes >2 hours and you end drinking 4-5 drinks per hour. With each revision the game becomes less complex and a little quicker to complete.
Coagulation and I are turning to TL for feedback:
50% of the cards in the game are Minions - creatures that sit in the playing field and attack, defend, and use Abilities. Some Minoins are humanoids (Orc, Archer, Monk, etc.) and some of them are Monsters (Kraken, Gryphon, Wyrm, etc.). Another card type is Equipment, which are cards used to power up your Minions, giving them bonus stats or Abilities (Gauntlets, Blessed Runes, Dragon's Claw).
That leads to our question:
Poll: Would it bother you if your Kraken was using a sword?No. (25) 51% Not really, but you could probably improve the system. (18) 37% Yes. (6) 12% 49 total votes Your vote: Would it bother you if your Kraken was using a sword? (Vote): Yes.
(Vote): Not really, but you could probably improve the system.
(Vote): No.
The alternative to Equipment would be some sort of magical Enchantment, Imbue, Crystal, etc. There already are Spells in the game, so I want to be careful not to confuse players about card types. Also, I have to be careful to avoid words that are already in existing card games, which makes it tricky.
3. Testing
Somebody in one of my past Blogs recommended these card sleeves. So I went ahead and got two packs of them. I also bought 5 packs of playing cards and printed the 42 pages of cards again. The result is a deck of cards that can finally be held and shuffled like a real deck of cards, as opposed to the paper cards we were playing with before.
I'm getting incredibly good at cutting out paper cards. I estimate I've cut out ~500 cards by hand (scissors) at this point.
I colour-coded all the cards so it makes it easier to see what your opponent has on the field. I also added "Rev XX" and "Card #YYY" to every card, which makes it easier to identify which cards need to be replaced when they're printed.
The results of this new deck are below:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/4iBJ0Kn.jpg) "Is this for your Blog?" "Yes."
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/ECmGure.jpg) "You need an action shot!" My friend is wearing my vintage 2003 WCG shirt because it's the only large I had.
That game took 3.5 hours to finish and resulted in everyone getting destroyed. I removed some things that were slowing down the game, made a few more cards overpowered, and built the rev.0.10 deck, ready for testing again.
4. Computer
My computer's CPU has been overheating lately, so I bought some thermal paste and compressed air and am going to see if I can get it fixed properly. I've never replaced thermal paste before. So even though it seems simple enough, if you don't hear from me for awhile, assume I messed up my CPU and lost everything.
Thanks for reading and thanks to all the people that have provided feedback and comments. I've tested out some people's ideas and some have worked out really well - Thank you!
 
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Lol about the CPU paste I've heard you ought to use a razer to remove the old paste, and then I think use rubbing alcohol to gently remove the rest? I can't remember, but like you said it didn't sound like too big an issue.
I think the harder part will be placing it on correctly. You need to use a surprisingly small amount of paste to allow for proper disbursement of the liquid, and you have to place it down from one side first. After the first side is touching, you can lower the opposite side, as to make contact via slant and squeeze all the air out in one direction. This is also the technique used for microscopes when setting up a thin water layer to inspect.
Edit: Yeah I don't know what I'm talking about. Good luck with it anyway~
Edit: Coagulation has the work ethic of a demi-god.
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Calgary26003 Posts
On April 08 2013 05:13 CecilSunkure wrote:
Edit: Coagulation has the work ethic of a demi-god.
Yea, it's pretty humbling.
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just gonna leave this here
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Ahb46is.png)
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I'm not sure to understand... why do you mention "drinks per hour" about the game? It doesn't sound like a drinking game, but rather serious stuff, so that part kinda confused me. Or is it a way to say "we had a talk waaaay too much instead of actually play in those tests"?
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I applaud your dedication!
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Calgary26003 Posts
On April 08 2013 06:41 Alaric wrote:
I'm not sure to understand... why do you mention "drinks per hour" about the game? It doesn't sound like a drinking game, but rather serious stuff, so that part kinda confused me. Or is it a way to say "we had a talk waaaay too much instead of actually play in those tests"?
One of the game mechanics is taking drinks. Just because it's a game with drinking, doesn't mean it can't be well thought out and well designed.
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By "serious" I meant the atmosphere that you seemed to allude to in the lore part, and the art ("drinking game" would spontaneously bring merrier stuff to mind for me ^^'), rather than a "easy/casual games, serious/true games" silly distinction. Thanks for the clarification and sorry if the confusion offended you.
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Calgary26003 Posts
On April 08 2013 08:10 Alaric wrote:
By "serious" I meant the atmosphere that you seemed to allude to in the lore part, and the art ("drinking game" would spontaneously bring merrier stuff to mind for me ^^'), rather than a "easy/casual games, serious/true games" silly distinction. Thanks for the clarification and sorry if the confusion offended you.
No problem.
I went back and forth on this a few times. I think a drinking game should be loud, easy, fun, bright etc. That didn't really fit what we were going for. So this isn't a drinking game you teach your friends and then jump in 20 seconds later. It takes a little bit of effort (not too much) to learn and there is some strategy to the game. I think the art reflects that well.
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On April 08 2013 05:13 CecilSunkure wrote:
Lol about the CPU paste I've heard you ought to use a razer to remove the old paste, and then I think use rubbing alcohol to gently remove the rest? I can't remember, but like you said it didn't sound like too big an issue.
I think the harder part will be placing it on correctly. You need to use a surprisingly small amount of paste to allow for proper disbursement of the liquid, and you have to place it down from one side first. After the first side is touching, you can lower the opposite side, as to make contact via slant and squeeze all the air out in one direction. This is also the technique used for microscopes when setting up a thin water layer to inspect.
Edit: Yeah I don't know what I'm talking about. Good luck with it anyway~
Edit: Coagulation has the work ethic of a demi-god.
Make sure you get pure rubbing alcohol if you want to be absolutely safe about it. I think last time I did it I just used 90% and it was fine, but ideally you want to be using 99%.
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Yeah this definitely went from a drinking game to a game game. Any games can be played with drinking and usually are but drinking games have a different mindset all together.
Thats not a negative by the way, just a different direction to where you started. Game art looks amazing and sounds like it will be a lot of fun.
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Ok chill I take back all the bad things I said about equipment. If Cthulhu wants to wear boots of silence who the hells gonna stop him right?
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did you get the names of the places on the map from world of warcraft?
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Calgary26003 Posts
On April 08 2013 10:40 Roe wrote:
did you get the names of the places on the map from world of warcraft?
Nope, are they similar? I've never played WoW.
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On April 08 2013 10:52 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On April 08 2013 10:40 Roe wrote:
did you get the names of the places on the map from world of warcraft? Nope, are they similar? I've never played WoW.
The only name that's obviously identical to a Warcraft location is the Dark Portal. That said, a lot of the names they threw into WoW are pretty generic anyway.
Wow, Coagulation's art skills really do just blow me away.
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Kind of curious about the hero class split between the good and evil classes. One side comes across as entirely martial in nature, while the other is spells all day every day. Is this intentional asymmetry or are the heroes mechanically similar despite their different flavour?
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On April 08 2013 10:52 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On April 08 2013 10:40 Roe wrote:
did you get the names of the places on the map from world of warcraft? Nope, are they similar? I've never played WoW.
Northwind being in the north sounds kind of like Northrend
Honor Hold is a place as well, and Underground City sounds like Undercity which is an undead city 
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I really think you should add parts to the game that aren't mandatory (like the drinks, like an added piece to spice things up) and keep them separate from the rules. I like where the game is going though, I think this is awesome and I'd love to see how things pan out. You guys are doing an amazing job with this game. How do you plan to make your rules in a way that they are both clear and precise? It seems like the rules are a bit vague.
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I can see why most people are not bothered with a Kraken using a sword. I was there when i first started playing board games first year of college. But the more i play, the more i realize that a better board game always avoid having such clunky combinations. They either gona rule it out, or having some clever mechanics to solve such special situations. It shows how deep the development team have invested their effort into testing the game and creates interesting angle to attract new players.
Best of luck 
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Calgary26003 Posts
On April 08 2013 11:06 Tamburlaine wrote:
Kind of curious about the hero class split between the good and evil classes. One side comes across as entirely martial in nature, while the other is spells all day every day. Is this intentional asymmetry or are the heroes mechanically similar despite their different flavour?
Originally we had the 12 Heroes finalized by the time we decided we needed some sort of lore. The lore moved some people we originally envisioned as good to the bad side and vice versa. For example, I always imagined the Assassin bad and the Wizard good until we completed the lore.
The design process went like this. Of course it was iterative, but:
1. Make some Abilities that seem cool.
2. Group them together in ways that make sense.
3. Try to apply a theme to that group (defensive, offensive, luck, speed, etc.)
4. Create a Hero archetype that represents the theme.
5. Have Coagulation look over the Heroes and debate them for about a week.
6. Reach a new set of Heroes.
7. Coagulation wants to draw a "cool" Hero. Put him in the game and delete an old one.
8. Test the game and realize 50% of the Abilities are OP.
9. Rework the Abilities.
10. Finalize the Hero names.
11. Write the lore, determining who is good and who is bad.
I think the story naturally dictated that the bad side have more magic. The good side has a larger standing army and more control over territory. To combat that, the bad side developed more powerful magic.
In terms of gameplay mechanics, there is nothing really similar between the good and bad Heroes. If you didn't read the lore or look at your Hero's art, you wouldn't know if you were playing a good or bad Hero.
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Calgary26003 Posts
On April 08 2013 11:32 docvoc wrote:
I really think you should add parts to the game that aren't mandatory (like the drinks, like an added piece to spice things up) and keep them separate from the rules. I like where the game is going though, I think this is awesome and I'd love to see how things pan out. You guys are doing an amazing job with this game. How do you plan to make your rules in a way that they are both clear and precise? It seems like the rules are a bit vague.
I'm not sure. I've been having Trozz read over them often and give his suggestions. I've also been carefully watching the feedback question "How long did it take you to start the game". I don't feel they are vague in the latest rev... but I wrote them :X
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Wow, this is turning out pretty cool. Coagulation's art is awesome
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On April 08 2013 11:46 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On April 08 2013 11:32 docvoc wrote:
I really think you should add parts to the game that aren't mandatory (like the drinks, like an added piece to spice things up) and keep them separate from the rules. I like where the game is going though, I think this is awesome and I'd love to see how things pan out. You guys are doing an amazing job with this game. How do you plan to make your rules in a way that they are both clear and precise? It seems like the rules are a bit vague. I'm not sure. I've been having Trozz read over them often and give his suggestions. I've also been carefully watching the feedback question "How long did it take you to start the game". I don't feel they are vague in the latest rev... but I wrote them :X
Haha well I bet everything will end up fine. I just remember Yugioh having some of the most confusing and easily misunderstood card effects EVER, so I'm sensitive to that after spending the greater half of my youth in Yugioh lol.
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Based on the picture it does look like you could definitely simplify the game a little bit!
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it's fun you do that, my neighbour has been designing board games for france and international shipping for a large part of his life but has now stopped
he used to work with top guns in the EU industry I think
he actually designed a couple drinking board games he told me the other day
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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/iICH3w3.png)
bump
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![[image loading]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lil27wefcP1qdshi4o1_400.gif)
Coagulation you're my hero.
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EPT
