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Calgary25986 Posts
Hello!
What is this?
Coagulation and I have been making a card game for almost the past 3 years. You can see the FAQ at http://www.manaspirits.com/faq
Thank Yous
I want to give a big thank you to the people that have gone above and beyond to help test and improve the game:
- PsyonicReaver - Getting live feedback of people playing the game for the first time was incredibly valuable. We made a lot of big and subtle changes based on that live stream.
- Adam H - Adam did a line by line review of the rule book and gave valuable feedback on what was confusing. One of the biggest changes he suggested was renaming "Exhaustion" to "Fog of War", which is more on theme for non-creatures.
- Nezgar - Like Adam, Nezgar did a full read through of the lore book and gave his critique. I took a lot from his feedback, but unfortunately, updating the lore hasn't been a major priority.
Beta Testing
I'm fairly disappointed with the online beta testing turnout  Funny enough, when I released the Alpha version of the game, we had a lot of feedback given, even though the game had no artwork and was horribly balanced. But now that the game is in a really good place, it's been hard to get people outside of my circle of friends to play it.
If you'd like to try the public print and play beta, you can find everything you need here: http://www.manaspirits.com/beta/ If I can do anything to help get you started (like quickly getting anyone up to speed on the basic rules), let me know.
In the coming weeks I'll be releasing more Mana Spirits promotional content along with Coagulation, which we will use to hopefully get some boardgamegeek guys to take a look. I've been hesitant to show the game on bgg early, because I've heard they can be quite critical. But the game is in a really good spot now and is ready to be out in the public.
I've played a few games with my friends recently, and was very happy with how they went. a 3-player game is about an hour, which is where we've always wanted it to be. Also I've played quite a few 1v1 games with my wife. There's simply no substitution for beta play testing - you can imagine every situation possible, but once you're actually playing, imbalances and overlooked interactions come into plain view immediately.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/dLdBztF.png)
The test version of the tracking stands in action.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GG2tOap.jpg)
Early game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/8UKzIwE.jpg)
Mid game.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/eWqUDWK.jpg)
This is probably around turn 5 or 6. I had a slim shot at a comeback, but shortly after this it all started going downhill and she just simply overran me with too many powerful Minions
What's Next?
In the short term, Coagulation has been doing timelapses of the latest artwork he's drawn. The timelapses are really amazing to me. We want to overlay some artwork and gameplay commentary overtop of the video to explain a little deep about Mana Spirits, but haven't finished. It's planned for Monday!
I've started getting prices from manufacturers. The short story is that it's financially viable, but the kickstarter campaign will likely have a pretty high funding goal (like ~$20,000). I'll continue to work the numbers.
I don't expect any more changes to the core of the game. We will simply be tweaking stats and effects as a result of testing. September will be testing month. I'll be play testing pretty hard with familiar friends, and will be reaching out to board game clubs in my city to see if they'd be willing to spend an evening testing the game. Honestly, fresh eyes are always more valuable than testers that are familiar with the game.
Thanks for reading, and look for our kickstarter launch in fall of this year!
 
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It's such a pleasure seeing this come together...
There has been one question, though, that's stuck in my head for a while now and I'm not sure whether it has been addressed yet:
How do you plan on handling distribution and localisation? In which countries will this be available?
I know a lot of people who would be excited to test the game or support the Kickstarter if they get confirmation that the game will be available in Germany or other non-english EU countries.
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I just sent you an email checking up on you and then I see this. Haha.
I'm hoping to do another livestream in a month or so. I'm trying to get some guys that are brewers at a local brewery together to play. Should be interesting to say the least. These are guys who are NOT gamers in any shape or form so getting them even slightly interested is a good start though.
Keep at it. It's a great idea for the ever growing "social" drinking crowd. This brewery owns a bar, if these guys like it, they said they might do monthly tournaments or something akin to that. Could be a way to start spreading the word. Good for you. Good for the bar to have a reason for people to come and spend money there, etc. I'll keep you updated.
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Yep, please let us know when the KS is happening!
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Hey Chill first off I absolutely LOVE mana spirits~! After following your blog posts I jumped at the chance to download and print out the beta. I'm an experienced table top and competitive MTG player and this game was perfect to introduce to all my other gaming friends.
I've played a lot of games ranging from 2-6 players with a mix of players who drink and do not. So many of my friends are waiting for me to let them know when the kickstarter goes live so they can back the project!
One suggestion that I sent over with my beta feedback but figured I'd post in here as well is the "snowball" effect of one player getting too much board presence to deal with. This is probably around turn 5 or 6. I had a slim shot at a comeback, but shortly after this it all started going downhill and she just simply overran me with too many powerful Minions One thing i'm noticing is a lack of ways to stall someone from getting too much board presence and just killing you. Maybe adding in a couple board wipes or ways to temporarily prevent creatures from attacking to allow stabilization and to reward people for not over committing.
Just some food for thought. Keep up the good work and I can't wait to get my hands on a finished copy~!
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There usually isn't a way for someone across the board to do anything to stop someone getting too big if he has inexperienced players on either side.
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Calgary25986 Posts
On August 03 2015 01:37 Nezgar wrote:
How do you plan on handling distribution and localisation? In which countries will this be available?
I know a lot of people who would be excited to test the game or support the Kickstarter if they get confirmation that the game will be available in Germany or other non-english EU countries.
I'm looking after distribution and logistics  Unless the game is extremely successful, I'll be shipping the finished games from China to my home and then mailing them out.
Unfortunately, I don't have the capability to handle multiple versions It will be available to all countries, but only in English.
On August 03 2015 09:06 Psyonic_Reaver wrote:
I just sent you an email checking up on you and then I see this. Haha.
I'm hoping to do another livestream in a month or so. I'm trying to get some guys that are brewers at a local brewery together to play. Should be interesting to say the least. These are guys who are NOT gamers in any shape or form so getting them even slightly interested is a good start though.
Keep at it. It's a great idea for the ever growing "social" drinking crowd. This brewery owns a bar, if these guys like it, they said they might do monthly tournaments or something akin to that. Could be a way to start spreading the word. Good for you. Good for the bar to have a reason for people to come and spend money there, etc. I'll keep you updated.
That sounds amazing! If there's anything I can do upfront to help out, let me know. I could put together a homemade boxed version for you guys to use. I could also put together a quick start video for you (something I've been meaning to do for awhile) to blast through the rules in <10 minutes.
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Calgary25986 Posts
On August 04 2015 09:30 TheRealNanMan wrote:Hey Chill first off I absolutely LOVE mana spirits~! After following your blog posts I jumped at the chance to download and print out the beta. I'm an experienced table top and competitive MTG player and this game was perfect to introduce to all my other gaming friends. I've played a lot of games ranging from 2-6 players with a mix of players who drink and do not. So many of my friends are waiting for me to let them know when the kickstarter goes live so they can back the project! One suggestion that I sent over with my beta feedback but figured I'd post in here as well is the "snowball" effect of one player getting too much board presence to deal with. Show nested quote + This is probably around turn 5 or 6. I had a slim shot at a comeback, but shortly after this it all started going downhill and she just simply overran me with too many powerful Minions One thing i'm noticing is a lack of ways to stall someone from getting too much board presence and just killing you. Maybe adding in a couple board wipes or ways to temporarily prevent creatures from attacking to allow stabilization and to reward people for not over committing. Just some food for thought. Keep up the good work and I can't wait to get my hands on a finished copy~!
Hey! Appreciate the kind works and encouragement.
I will say that I agree with your analysis, but that it was actually by design. In the original revisions, we had a lot of ways for people to wipe and stall. Players felt frustrated that everything they worked to build could be wiped out in one turn. Moreso, essentially resetting the game meant it became a marathon - we had 3 player games taking 4 hours.
What I've tried to do is add more Abilities and Spells that can help allies. The idea is that when one player is snowballing, the table realizes it and actively works together to stop him - The players beside whittle down his weaker minions, while players outside of his combat range harass with Spells and Abilities. The reworking on Events also impact snowballs.
I'm not saying it works every time, and there will definitely be games where someone gets an edge, gets to level 3 early and runs away, but I think that should happen. I've seen a lot of games where someone has a very impressive board on turn 4 or 5 and I've thought "there's no way to stop this" only to see the board state completely changed 3 turns later. So I haven't seen snowballs be a huge factor so far, but I'd be interested to talk to you more about it.
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Great to see another update! GL!
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Living the dream Good luck!
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I found some friends to beta test with finally! I'm sure we'll all like it and will be excited for the kickstarter release. I'll give you feedback once we play a little bit this week
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Calgary25986 Posts
On August 10 2015 03:36 Juliette wrote:
I found some friends to beta test with finally! I'm sure we'll all like it and will be excited for the kickstarter release. I'll give you feedback once we play a little bit this week
Sweet Let me know if you have any questions or need any help. Coag and I are just revising to rev16h. They should be live in the beta Google drive by the end of the week.
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I remember reading some of your first blogs about this game when you were initially designed it - I guess that would have been about three years ago based on what you said in OP. I think it's cool as hell that you worked on it all this time and from the pictures you show of the game laid out on the table - it presents itself really well. Some friends of mine and myself play Magic the Gathering a fair amount, and I could see playing this every once in awhile if we wanted to get do that and get fucked up at the same time, haha.
Good luck dude.
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I tried to beta test this weekend, but my friends (none of who are gamers) thought it looked too complicated. I should probably have marketed it as a complex boardgame that involves drinking, rather than a new type of drinking game. They were expecting a somewhat more involved form of Kings.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/BV8SBmU.png)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3jBmmI4.png)
