Blogging I've had a few people message me about progress. I've done a terrible job of updating progress here and on the Mana Spirits website. Going forward, I'm going to try to post twice a month with our progress. I say try, because I've seen a lot of people make these claims in the past, then fall off after 5 blogs. Let's just see how it goes.
Please don't take my lack of writing as lack of work or progress. We're actually getting a lot done, just not at any sort of record pace.
In the future, I'm going to try to tie experiences I've encountered throughout this project together with project management experiences in my day job. There were a few differences that I still don't know the best way to handle, and a lot of similarities that helped me.
Rule Book Here's the latest Rule Book. Have a look and please let me know what you think. I've spent far too many hours inside this document that I've lost the big picture view of it.
Testing My friends and I are all getting old. I don't have kids, but a lot of my friends are married with kids. So this year I tried to start an annual guys trip so that we all always meet up at least one weekend per year. This year we went down to Scottsdale, played some golf, went to Top Golf, downtown, ate delicious In and Out, etc. We got two games of Mana Spirits in also while down there.
Game 1 was an 8 player game sitting outside. 8 players is simply too much. If we were all experts we might have been able to finish in time, but it was an overload of information. I realized the game should be 2-6, not 2-8. Also, I've never played outside with the new components, and even a slight breeze would blow the tracking stands over. So I made a note to try to have weighted stands once we go to production.
Game 2 was an 6 player game without drinking. This went much smoother. Since there are 12 Hero cards, my friend dealt all 12 and told each person to choose which 1 of the 2 they were dealt that they wanted to play as. I thought that was an amazing change to the rules so I stole it. Looking at my starting hand, I realized the game wasn't going to go well. I had enough cards to survive, but not enough to really do anything long term. Sure enough, I limped along for about 7 turns until I was put out of my misery. Talking after the game, everyone had the same feeling - they could tell how well they were going to do based on their starting hand.
Here's the difference between Magic. Magic is a pretty hardcore game and largely played 1 on 1. If you have to mulligan 2 or 3 times, you don't feel bad because you are only holding up 1 person and you are playing to win. In Mana Spirits, you are usually not as competitive and you are potentially holding up 5 players, so there is pressure to hold a bad starting hard just to get the game going.
The new rules are similar to the Hero rules - everyone is dealt 10 cards and then selects 7 to keep as their starting hand. There is going to be more time spent while everyone figures out their starting hand and reads the cards, but it's happening simultaneously. Having a better chance at a good starting hand with a decent power curve should give players a better chance in the game. I'll have to test more to see if people are dealt 10, 11, or 12 cards, but I'm happy with the rule now.
Lessons / Changes - Maximum players 2-6 (from 2-8) - Game only requires 50 bottle caps (from 60). - Players choose Hero from 2 dealt (old was to mulligan) - Players choose 7 cards from 10 dealt (old was M:tG mulligan rules) - Clarity to some card text.
I'll go into more detail about these decisions in my next blog on "Issues".
I'm really bad at taking pictures when we were are playing.
Cards Coagulation has done a lot of work on the card layouts. The goals were clear: - Make more room for card text. - Add visual clarity to which type of card you are holding.
I think we've achieved both goals. Having more text space meant we could increase the font size by 1pt, which is always exciting (seriously, it's actually exciting haha). We also brightened the card art as it prints darker than on screen.
Here's a comparison of old and new:
Coag is running through the cards now working on making them even more unique, but I won't spoil that until he's done.
If you haven't seen Coag's timelpase videos of him drawing, check them out on teamliquid or on Youtube. I'll post one here just to get you going:
"How to Play" Video This is my top priority. One of the biggest things I hear is that the Rule Book is so complicated, but once people play they realize it's not hard at all.
If you were going to make a video explaining how to play a game, how would you do it? I'm competent in Flash, so that's about it. I'm struggling trying to find the right balance between filming gameplay and animating it in Flash. Maybe there are better ideas out there? I watched hours and hours of "how to play Magic" and "how to play Hearthstone" and they didn't really help to be honest.
Next Steps & Future Blogs - Tracking and resolving issues in projects - Creating a 15-minute "How to Play" video. - Receiving latest card order (the original order was somehow lost in the mail) - Setting up local testing for feedback through Calgary board game clubs. - Navigating the quotation process with manufacturers
Wow chill, this has really come a long way man, this is so amazing all the work you have put into this. Keep up the good work man! This is too awesome!
Can I donate the cost of the game and get a beta version? I have a group of friends that would want to play. I can't stream it, but I'll get a blog in.
I'm glad to see this post! I was curious on how the progress of it was going and I hope you take me up on my offer! I would love to help out in the digital world
Keep on trucking with this project man and good luck in the future!
On October 01 2015 02:17 BisuDagger wrote: Can I donate the cost of the game and get a beta version? I have a group of friends that would want to play. I can't stream it, but I'll get a blog in.
If you prefer, I can make a beta version for you. The cards and bottle caps would be professionally printed, but the tracking stands, rule book, and box would be homemade. I'd have to charge you the planned kickstarter price ($39 + shipping) and ask that you write a Blog or preferably make a video review.
On October 01 2015 19:49 Chairman Ray wrote: Are you going to add this to BoardGameGeek? A lot of games have their page up during development, and it might help get more publicity.
Definitely. Its going to be the first thing I do after I finish the "How to play" video.
I think the best way to teach people to play, is to have several videos of players playing ranging from brand new to experienced. Maybe? Your hearthstone example is good. When I first showed it to my wife, she was a tad intimidated by it. Now she plays it ALL THE GOD DAMN TIME but in a cute snuggly way which I love about her. =p
You've come a long way man, must feel validating to have persevered through til now. Good luck with the final stages - I'll be looking forward to ordering a pack when it hits production.
It's really fun seeing this progress, it looks awesome as it stands now.
As far as how to play videos go, I don't know that you need a combination of flash/gameplay I think you can pick one or the other and just run with it (I'd guess flash since it will come out sort of hokey if its gameplay only and you don't seem like that kind of dude). In the last year I've started playing a lot of board games with my friends and just watching videos has helped immensely instead of trying to read the rules, though there are definitely instances of "lets just fucking play and come back to it when a problem comes up". Maybe a good start is just a basic rules video thats 5-10 min that's animated and see what the response is. You can always build from that and it's not a wasted effort.
On September 29 2015 23:00 Chill wrote: In the future, I'm going to try to tie experiences I've encountered throughout this project together with project management experiences in my day job. There were a few differences that I still don't know the best way to handle, and a lot of similarities that helped me.
Indeed, you really have come a very long way with this. I've decided that I'm going to be waiting for the Kickstarter to launch and then I'll be just buying a complete set then. Too much money/trouble to spend on printing them all for it to feel worth it to me for just a five or so games with it before a new version comes and I have to consider whether or not printing again is worth it....
You should show more pictures of you guys playing together, that will help people imagine themselves playing it. One shot that would be good is a top-down view of the game as well.
Infinity Wars had a playlist to introduce people to that game. Each video featured a different part of the video game.
One challenge you have is indeed to make this seem easier to pick up than it currently seems to some. A video will certainly help.
I really like the idea of giving each player 2 heroes to pick from and the new 'pick 7 of 10 cards' rule. That makes it a lot more interesting to me than just mulliganing.
On October 07 2015 01:30 3FFA wrote:You should show more pictures of you guys playing together, that will help people imagine themselves playing it. One shot that would be good is a top-down view of the game as well.
This definitely, I have some friends who would be very into this game, but the only close thing they've played would be Munchkin. We play a lot of drinking card games though, and tend to get bored of playing the same ones. I'm not sure how I'd really explain a game like this to them without some visual aid.
Will be looking out for that kickstarter. Hopefully I can get them excited enough to try a beta test on some black and white cards haha
EPT
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