Playtest: Zeppelin Armada - Phase 3 (Some Explanations)

Fred Hicks, one of the guiding lights at Evil Hat Productions, has a good post about the game that I and my family have had a chance to play test, giving some evocative quotes and summaries about the game from some of the other play testers.  I wanted to take a moment to post again about the game, but from a slightly different perspective.

The other day, a neighbor who had seen some of my playtest posts asked me what it was I was doing.  The idea of this kind of game and the design process, including play testing, was outside of his experience, and, as I looked through his eyes and his questions, I could see that my writing was completely in a foreign language for him.  Whether or not it is coherent enough for people more on the inside of gaming is not for me to say, but I though I would do my best to, as a post script to the whole experience, try to more expansively describe what the playtest experience was about and what was this game we were playing.

I won't claim that I am such a good communicator that anyone will be able to understand from what I write, but I hope that I can be more clear and more detailed in this capstone to allow this to be more accessible and more understandable. 

And maybe it can, in some small way, bring people more towards the world of game playing that I enjoy and that the game, Zeppelin Armada, represents.

So, let me define first what my role was in the game design process, and then explain what the game itself was about (while protecting the still in development intellectual property of the game).

Games and the Design Process:

Games are part of almost every human culture throughout time.  Many games have been with us for a long time and they take lots of different shapes.  Some are games we play as children with various amounts of rules, such as tag, Red Rover, Sardines, hopscotch, 4-square, etc.  Some of these games require a certain number of people of equipment, but the knowledge of these games are pretty much passed down on the playgrounds of the world, if not from parent to child.  Other games like Chess, Checkers, and a million card games (poker, bridge, spades, hearts, canasta, pinochle) are more formal in their components (a board, chess pieces, decks of cards, etc.) and rules.  Many of these games are hundreds or even thousands of years old in their origin.

Then, we also have more modern games that we have grown up with.  Their age may be measured in perhaps a century or decades, but we know them well and love them.  These are games like Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, Stratego, Clue, Life, etc.  Generally, they are considred "board games" because their central feature is that there is a board that is the center of the game's action, and while there may be cards, dice, and game pieces to move around, the board definse the game for us.

If you think about how many games there are (maybe how many are just stuffed in your closet or on a shelf in your basement) you begin to realize how many games have come and gone.

And yet, we love games, and creative people love to make and sell games and new ones continue to appear.  Some are destined to be classics, many are destined to entertain for a play or two and then gather dust.

Yet, how is a game made today?

While I don't think there is a single "scientific" process, there are definite phases of development which a successful game has to go through.  It starts with an idea from an individual or group of designers who want to do something through a game.  The idea may start as a particular mechanic (way you play a game) or theme (what the game is about, like Clue is about solving a murder mystery or Monopoly is about making money) or some combination.  From the basic idea, you have to come up with the medium of play (a board, cards, dice, hand gestures, whatever), determine the goal (have the most money, capture the king, get around the board first, etc.) and form the rules (who goes first, how are pieces moved, when is it somebody else's turn, etc.). 

That can be, you might expect, a lot of work.  There can be, I think, a lot of trial and error.  From moving from the starting idea to a rough outline of why you play (goal), how you play (rules) and where you play (medium [e.g. on a board]) is a lot of work.  And, of course, once you have all that done, the designer can think that it all makes perfect sense.  But, until the game is explained to and played with other people outside of the design group, there is no way to know if the game really works and really is fun.

So, you have to start testing the game, and thus, the playtest. 

Typically, I think a game goes through an "in house" playtest.  That is, the designer or design group plays with people they know and explain and guide the play.  This is good, because the designers can be challenged to explain and clarify issues about how the game is played and to start to deal with design issues which they may not have thought of (what happens if two players are in the same space?).  The down side of this, is that because the game is still under the direct control of the designers, it is hard to tell if the game will work out in the real world. 

Have you ever noticed how many times you learn a game because someone explains it to you, rather than reading the rules?  Games often are transmitted much more easily from an experienced player to a new player.  Rules are looked up in novel situations, and to settle disputes, but often, most players never read through the whole rule book.

However, with a new game, the game will not spread far if the designers have to go and explain the game play to you personally.  Instead, they have to be able to write rules and provide components (board, cards, dice, whatever) that are sufficiently clear and self-explanatory so that someone whom the designer will never meet can buy the game, read the rules, and play and (most importantly) have fun.

So, that is why an external playtest is important.  The external playtest releases the rules and components to one or more outside groups to review and play on their own.  Then, as they run across things that don't seem clear or that don't seem to work in a game, they can give feedback to improve the rules, or to improve how the rules are written, and to improve and hone the game.

Some games will go through multiple external playtests, so that the game play and written rules can be really polished and ready for eventual marketing.

And that, of course, is the next move.  Once playtest is over and the game is "done," then the work begins.  You have to figure out how to manufacture the compoents (rule book, board, cards, dice, etc. etc.),  How to assemble those components.  How to package the game.  How to pay for the labor that goes into all of those things, and establish a market, and figure out storage, shipping, and pricing.

And eventually, people have to learn about the game, play it, like it, and most importantly, buy it.  That is, if you are doing this commercially.

And, since I am not actually either a professional or amateur game designer, I probably left out some steps, but, I think you get the idea.  The process of creating a game is pretty complex, time consuming, and potentially costly.

So, where did I fit in as far as this new game, Zeppelin Armada?

Me and the Playtest

My family and I were selected to participate in the initial external playtest of the game.

How did this happen?  Well, I keep tabs on a few blogs by smart people who do interesting things.  One of them is Fred Hicks, whom I mentioned above, and one day he mentioned that he was looking for playtesters for this new game in development by Evil Hat.  On impulse, I responded with my interest, and I was one of the first five who responded in the manner he requested.  We got added into a google group which was created to manage the external playtest process, and within days, I had access to the draft rules and the files from whcih I could create the essential components of the game to try it out.

This was my first time as a playtester, and it was exciting to be part of a creative process which is going to result in a game that goes out to the public.

So, what we had to do was, of course, play the game.  We also had to record how things went in the game and respond to a questionaire each time we played.  In it, we addressed specific questions the designers had about how the game went, and also had an opportunity to give opinions and observations about what we liked and did not like about the game.

We sent all that in (by e-mail) and our input, along with the other testers, is all be considered in a redraft of the game. 

We will be participating in a second round of testing which will examine the revised game.

And let me just say, as an aside, that the information super highway really makes this process a lot easier than it has ever been.

And what do we get paid?  We get credit and thanks in the printed materials when the game comes out.  For a small game company like Evil Hat, the reward is really to participate in the creative process.  If successful, we might get a copy of the game, but that is not really the point.  The point is to do something fun and constructive with interesting and fun people.

All in all, it has been a good experience.

The Game Itself

So, what is the game?

It is not a computer game.  Nor is it really a board game.

It is a game centered around a fun theme: Zeppelins and villains. 

Zeppelins were, for a short time, an important civilian and miliatry form of air transport.  During the 1930s especially, they fueled people's imagination and romantic sense of travel, adventure and scientific progress.  While the Hindenburg crash did not end the Zeppelin era, per se, it took the shine off of it.  Still, many look back to that time and cannot help but imagine wild and amazing adventures centered around Zeppelins.  This is especially true because the Zeppelin Age was also the age of the pulp fiction hero.  From detectives (think Sam Spade) to masked vigilantes (like The Shadow, or The Green Hornet) to space heros (like Flash Gordon), this era of pop culture burst with amazing adventures of derring do and mad science.

So, the idea of the game is to take your flagship and fleet of Zeppelins and rule the air.  You play not as a hero, but rather as one of several competing villains, the kind who would have given Flash Gordon or Doc Savage a run for their money.

Each player gets to choose a villain and his or her flagship, and then builds an armada to take down the other players and rule the skies.

The game is a card game, in that the play centers on cards, but not from a traditional deck, with traditional cards in suits (hearts, spades, etc.).  Instead, the cards are a combination of game pieces, like those you might use in Risk or Battleship, and game effects, like the Chance or Community Chest cards in Monopoly.

Besides cards, there are a few other things needed which come, not with the game, but from things you are likely to have around the house.  Some dice (traditional cube, six sided), a coin, and some counters (could be beads, stones, or other coins), just some things to help keep track of stuff that is going on in the game.

After choosing a villainous flagship, each player gets a number of Zeppelins with which to start an armada.  Rather than a board, each player has a formation of Zeppelin cards.  They have to be around the flagship, so that, at any one time, the most there can be down is a three by three square of Zeppelin cards, centered on the flagship.  Each Zeppelin has different qualities that help define how good it is in battle.

Each player then also gets a hand of cards.  These cards may include additional Zeppelins that can be played, as well as weapons with which to launch attacks on rivals, characters that can be played on Zeppelins to make they work better (for yours) or work worse (for your opponents), conditions that change the way the game is played, and events that can help you or hurt your opponents.

The game proceeds in turns, and each player gets to make decisions about how to play cards, discard cards and draw cards.  Attacks against fellow players are frequent, and really, the ultimate point of the game.  You are trying to be the last one standing, just like Risk, for example.

The game, once you get the rules and understand the different qualities of Zeppelins, etc., plays pretty fast.  Still, a whole game goes, generally about a hour and a half. 

It is a very directly competative game.  You are trying to directly beat the other playes by eliminating them (again, like Risk or Battleship).  If you play in the spirit of fun, it can be great to blow up your opponent's vessels, play a card to escape certain destruction of your own airships, and to try to be the most daring and merciless villain to cut a swath of destruction through the skies.

We are very much looking forward to trying out the new and improved game and doing what we can to suggest any additional changes that will help bring it out of testing and into production so that someday, not to long from now, anyone can pick up a deck, pull together a few things that are around the house, and engage in a battle royale for control of the skies.

I hope, in my long winded, way, I have explained what I have been up to and why.

Play on!

Playtest: Zeppelin Armada - Phase 2 (interlude)

Here's a link to see Ian and Fiona playing the game when they were getting along.  Thanks to Fred Hicks for posting.

Playtest: Zeppelin Armada - Phase 2 (Game 1)

Monday night I, my 11 year old daughter, Fiona, and 13 year old son, Ian, sat down and played a full game of Zeppelin Armada.  We decided to add an additional 10 damage counters to our supply (I had started with 20) based on Ian's experience when he yoiked the game the other night.  Our experience was different, however, and we did not need them all.  We had few wounded Zeppelins, but lots that got just blown out of the sky.  Also, we added a coin for a coin toss as well as the miniature golf arcade token, which we used as an indicator of a bonus a particular Zeppelin flagship could apply.

Every player starts with a flagship, and each flag ship is commanded by one of the pulp villains in Evil Hat's Spirit of the Century (SotC) RPG univerese (two male characters, Dr. Methuselah and Der Blitzmann; two female characters, Rocket Red and Princess Cyclone; and one non-human, Gorilla Khan(!!!)).

So, with our full kit assembled, we set to play.  We randomly dealt our flagship cards and Ian got Dr. Methuselah, Fiona got Princess Cyclone, and I got Rocket Red.  As a quick diversion, we consulted one of my copies of SotC and checked out the stats and pictures of Dr. Methuselah and Rocket Red.  Princess Cyclone appears to be a new creations, and had no picture we could find.  However, Fiona set to remedy this, splitting time between the game and drawing her own illustration of her Martial Weather Witch.

We each got to draw our starting Zeppelins, and Fiona and I each had very fast fleets, which put us on top for the card capturing mechanic of "yoinking."  We rolled to see who started first, and Ian started us off.  Position and order are important in this game, as, for one thing, it determines who can attack whom and when.  Clockwise around the table, there was Ian, then me, then Fiona.  I could attack Ian with my right (he could retaliate with his left).  I could attack Fiona with my left and she attack me with her right.  Her left was posed against Ian's right.

We began with good natured table talk and helpful advice to each other as cards were getting played for the first time.  Ian, after having carefully absorbed the game already, was the clear person to beat.  Fiona and I had a lot of tit for tat attacks against each other, especially after Ian got an early card that blocked all attacks from my right against his left.  Strategically then, I made the fateful decision to try to take out Fiona (yes, picking on my little girl) to try to get to Ian).  Fiona, concentrated a lot of attacks on me, although she also split and hit Ian too.  All in all, though, the battle was one sided from the beginning, because as Fiona and I blew each other out of the sky, and Ian jumped in and caused us problems, Ian built a bigger and bigger armada.

Strategically, I would have done better to try to encourage non-aggression with Fiona, and in fact should have figured out how to support her as a proxy against Ian, since he was immune pretty much to my attacks.  Well, it was fun just blasting away with big Zeppelins and explosive, electrical, kinetic, etc. attacks, and to pull out Events and Reactions that helped frustrate and confound your opponents.  Late in the game, we started seeing some Characters (basically special "crew" that can get placed on Zeppelins, though not all are actually helpful (and you can play them on your opponents)) appear.  Too late for me.  Between Ian and Fiona, I was crushed a little over an hour into the game.  However, I had crippled Fiona pretty bad, and Ian, as Dr. Methuselah seemed triumphant.

Then, the fact that it was after 9 pm and a brother and sister faced off against each other began to show.  This is a very personally competitive game.  There are no abstract winning of tricks or lucky cards.  You decide to do things (like attack) to specific opponents.  Tired and grumpy kids turn out to be frustrated by the course of such a game, and Fiona felt that her brother was smugly unbeatable, and decided, after a couple of turns of playing with me as advisor, that she no longer was interested (and that Ian was mean, and he always wins games, etc. (she is, after all, 11)). 

So, I took over Princess Cyclone.  I gave Ian a run for his cards.  I even made his flagship "flip" first.  This is another mechanic where instead of being destroyed, the first time a flagship takes a certain amount of damage, it transforms into a weaker version of itself, but keeps on fighting and commanding the fleet.  Despite this satisfying outcome, Ian had my, now borrowed, flagship flipped the next turn, and soon, my defenses were spent and he blew me out of the sky.

So, this write up is not about the formal technical aspects of the playtest, though I have hit upon a few points.  This is more about how things went and what social (and emotional) impressions we had.  In general, everyone had fun.  Ian, as winner, had a lot of fun.  I had fun, despite being the biggest loser.  Fiona, had some fun.  She liked the theme, and early on, when it was anyone's game, she enjoyed it.  However, there is a lot to keep track of, and as the game grew to be one sided, with things falling Ian's way again and again, she had less fun.  This was, of course, impacted by the fact that she was tired and the game was going late.  Normally, she would not walk away from the table, but, as you all probably know, siblings are often simultaneously best friends and bitter rivals.  This is true for my kids.  They have a lot of congruent interests and can get along incredibly well.  They also can fight like cats and dogs, use inappropriate words and inappropriate force with each other, and generally drive each other (and their parents) crazy.

So, mixing that with a new and highly competative game, was a little explosive.

That aside, the test went well.  The game proved to be very playable and fun.  The theme is imaginative and goofy and exciting.  The mechanics work well.  There are important mechanical and social issues to consider in building your tactics and strategy in the game.  We have a few observations to share with the designers, and hopefully, our thoughts, with those of the other testers, will make it an even better, polished and exciting game.

Now, my next planned test would be to include my dad, who arrives with my mom tomorrow, in a test this weekend.

We shall see.

Yoinked!

So, in the new prototype game from Evil Hat (http://www.evilhat.com/), Zeppelin Armada, the designer uses the term "yoink" to describe a particular card seizing mechanic used in the game.  At first, as I read the rules, I thought this might be a quaint informalism that might get polished out of the rules.  However, I soon realized that it was a very important and particular term of art.  And, as you will see, my son easily adopted the term (and the ethos) so I would say it's a keeper.

Sunday I had intended to get in a game of Zeppelin Armada and report a playtest thereafter.  One thing and another and the day got to busy and we were scheduled to have dinner with friends at one of our neighbor's houses that evening.  We took some games, though we usually end up just chatting after dinner, but I threw in the game components, just in case.

Later in the evening, while we were sitting around the table talking, I heard my son shout from downstairs in our neighbor's basement "Fireball!"

I realized, that my carefully assembled game had been yoinked!

I did not get to observe, supervise or record the play, so it is not likely a great playtest from a scientific point of view.

However, within an hour I did an audio recorded interview using my smartphone and discussed what had happened with my son and sent that off as a first installment on my promise to playtest.  Ian had some interesting observations.  As we play more, we will see how they develop for us.

And, just as a preview of "the future" we did do a full playtest Monday night.  I just need to write it up . . .

Playtest: Zeppelin Armada - Phase 1 (Assembly)

Evil Hat Productions (www.evilhat.com), an independent game publisher with many local ties to the DC Metro area is developing a new card game, which I and my family have been selected to playtest.  This means that we will give the game a workout through playing several times and providing feedback.  The tentative title of the game is "Zeppelin Armada" and that may be more descriptive than poetic, but it gets the job done.  Part of playtest is to give feedback on every aspect of the game through actual play and reaction to the game by players, so if we have a "better" idea for any part, we can certainly suggest it.

We have not yet played so far.  Today was simply assembly.  The deck consists of 100 cards, and the playtest package came as several digital files, including rules and images of the cards (just text and numbers, art and design is coming later).  So, first, I had to assemble the cards.

Fortunately today, I happened to be cleaning out the computer armoire, so I came across enough pages of light cardstock to print the cards on.  It was something of a task to cut all 100 cards out with scissors, but, thanks to another resource I had on hand, I did not have to worry about how exactly precise I was in cutting up the cards.  My son, Ian, has, left over from his days as a Yu Gi Oh enthusiast, a bunch of card protective card sleeves.  Basically, they have a clear cover and an opaque back and hold a card so it is not damages by prolonged use.

These held my cut up cardstock easily and made the sizes uniform, no matter how uneven I had been with the scissors.  Towards the end, I had to scrounge around for the last several sleeves (Ian is not the most organized with his things, but then, he is his father's son).  In the end, I had two different colors of sleeves, but enough so that the distinction won't give away the card.  Also, I did not need sleeves for five of the cards, which are double sided.  I printed them on the cardstock and folded the front and back together, gluing them with a glue stick and then cutting them out.  These double thickness cards should be sturdy through the playtest and they are never put in the deck, so it does not matter that they are a little different.

Reading through the rules, besides the card sleeves and the card stock, I have to come up with some counters that track damage to individual Zeppelin cards, some dice to keep track of maximum Zeppelin speed, and a coin (used for one or more special powers associated with some cards).  This does seem a bit fiddly, but no more than many other popular games (e.g. Magic the Gathering) that center on cards.

Looking over the different kinds of cards, what they do, and examining the rules, this looks like a fun game with some interesting possibilities.  I can't wait to sit down and play.  One of my "selling points" to get a playtest slot was that I would include my kids in the play, so we got feedback from the 11 and 13 year old set.  I am pretty sure that Ian will love the game.  I am not sure about Fiona.  She loves to win games, but I am not sure if this will be too fiddly for her.  We shall see.

Tomorrow will likely be the first play.  I hope to report soon thereafter.

A new leaf

This is my second regular blog.  The first, though I had a few good posts here and there in the last years (especially my narrative about my anniversary trip to Paris last year) it has become hard to manage, especially since it is blocked at my work place (like I am expected to work at work; who knew?).

Anyway, I might get a luchtime post in here and there with a blog with better access, so, I am launching this somewhat pretentious sounding blog now.  I hope it turns out well enough.

My first topic is going to be a playtest of a card game in development that I am participating in for Evil Hat Productions (http://www.evilhat.com/).  This is a non-collectable card game with a fun Pulp Fiction theme: Zeppelins!

More in my next post.