Crosstown Traffic

Since Heidi didn't arrive until after Matt's playtesting session, and she tends to be the photographer, we have no photos of the event. So here's a screenshot of Matt's description on the Expedition Prototype Con website, just because it looks all official-like.

Crosstown Traffic got an excellent, hard-hitting critique from several players. Matt was especially looking for a better reward system for the drivers, and a lot of good ideas about that were shared. The components and basic play mechanisms were praised, and various suggestions were discussed for production.

Besides some great game-testing, Matt really appreciated the roundtables about Kickstarting and approaching game publishers. He left with his brain extremely full.

Games We Tried at Expedition Prototype Con 2017

Matt and Heidi played many wonderful games at this year's Prototype Con. Some were further developments of games we tried at last year's con, others were new to us. Here's a sampling...

Panoramic: In Wonderland (Card Game, Set Collection), designed by Gary Stishan, 5 players, 30 - 60 mins
"Players compete to build a vast picture of the World of Wonderland. Players create sets of panoramic cards (42 of them) from their hands and place them on the table creating a beautiful picture of Wonderland right before their eyes. On a side trek, players hunt for collectables their persona (character) craves. For instance, the White Rabbit collects clocks. The Mad Hatter collects of course, Hats, along with 4 other characters. When the clock runs out, players tally up their points and the winner is declared the heir to the Throne of Wonderland!" We played this game last year before it had an Alice theme. At that time, the panoramas were strictly horizontal. Gary said our comments caused him to add the vertical aspect!

Thespianage (Tile Selection, Semi-Cooperative, Take That), designed by Will Kenyon, 6 players, 30 - 60 mins
"You’re all aspiring actors and stage crew for a local theater group, about to put on the play of the season, and it’s time to start rehearsal. You hope the play is a success, but more than that, you hope you’re the star of the show. You also want your Crush to be the star alongside you. And that person you hate, your Nemesis, well… you hope they bomb. Without bring the show down, though. Of course. Thespianage is a tile selection and placement game of intrigue that plays 3-6 people in about an hour. Ages 12+"

Clockwork Renaissance (Historical, set collection), designed by Michael Blascoe, shown by Ana Blascoe, 4 players, 30 - 60 mins
"Set collection game with a moving-gear board, set in early 16th century Florence, artists racing to recreate the machines drawn by Leonardo da Vinci. Players gather plans, collect engineers, tools, and materials, and assemble their machines, then test run their results." See those gears? They really turn! They are wood with laser cut art on them, extremely cool. Oh, and Heidi won, by gathering materials and tools and building a skilled team of engineers who could create da Vinci-designed parachute.

Suicidal Cabbages (Card Game), designed by Bryan Kline, 6 players, 10 - 30 mins
"Turn yourself into coleslaw! Suicidal Cabbages is a card game for 2 to 6 players. Each player plays as a head of cabbage trying to end their life in a blaze of glory by shredding themselves into the best coleslaw ever made. Cards in the game can represent objects that do damage to you (knives, chainsaws, dynamite, etc.), or ingredients that go into your coleslaw recipe (mayo, vinegar, pepper, etc.). When one player reaches zero health, the game ends and each player scores points based on their current health and the ingredients they have in hand. The highest scoring batch of coleslaw is the winner!" Heidi gathered the ingredients to make a Thai coleslaw, which really sounds delicious. We suggested they include the full recipes with the game.

Pandora's Box (Set collection, point-to-point movement, hidden objectives), designed by Barb Hirschfelder, 2-4 players, 1 - 2 hours
"In Pandora's Box players take on the roles of major Greek gods who are competing to have the most influence on which elements will be captured in Pandora's Box. There are 6 positive elements, such as hope and piety, and 6 negative elements, such as war and betrayal. Through playing these element cards and moving their minions around the Greek settlements circling the Aegean Sea, they will collect cards matching their objectives and gather converts, represented by population cubes. When their minions visit the famous temples, they will gain alliances with minor gods, who will help them add element cards to Pandora's Box, and soon the Box will get full. When the box is opened, points are earned for matching objectives. Then Pandora will exert her revenge (deducting points) or her reward (adding points), depending on whether more positive or more negative elements have been placed in the Box." We didn't actually get to play this game, but it looked fascinating.

Barb had many of her games at the con. She loves dogs, (her company is 3 Dogs Games), so we played two of her doggie-related games.

I do not recall the name of this game but it features weiner dogs made of hardware (wing nuts make great ears and tails), with a flexible chain middle (think Slinky Dog from Toy Story). As you walk your dogs through the park, they literally get tangled with eachother!

Puppies in the Park is Barb's other dog game, in which you must quickly grab treats out of a doggie bag to lure your dogs forward to the finish line. When the squirrel tile appears, you must should "Squirrel!" and quickly grab the toy squirrel (in Barb's hand in the photos) to end the round. Quick-moving and fun!

Powerstones (Strategy, Tile-Laying, Drafting), designed by Michael Mihealsick, 5 players, 25-35 mins
"Dig up contraptions from ever-changing scrap piles, build them into your engine, and power them with arcane Powerstones. Generate the most energy with your engine to win the Academy's accolades! Powerstones is a hex tile-laying game for 2-5 players, where you acquire new tiles using a modified Winston draft. Balance your resources and diversify the elements in your engine to optimize your energy output!" Fast-paced and fun; one of the test players made a good suggestion about adding steampunky art of the contraptions. The names of the contraptions were highly entertaining. Michael had another game, too, that was not on the official schedule:

Lexicon: Riddle of the Stars is a two-player drafting and set building game in which an alien language is being decoded. We suggested he add an actual translation of the alien graphemes to satisfy our curiosity.

Scribbletown (Roll-and-write city building), designed by Zack Hiwiller, 4 players, 30 mins
"Players work from a pool of common dice to construct the most valuable cities by drawing roads and buildings on their city in the most efficient way." Reminded Heidi of Quadropolis but you get to draw too.

Fixed Fight Night (Betting game), designed by Tom Young, 2 - 4 players, 20 - 30 mins
HITMANagement's description of this game on the website sounds completely different from what we played - perhaps it evolved between the time of sending in the description and the actual convention. We played a boxing game in which we faced off in pairs and bet on the fights. We revealed cards to show our moves (punching, dodging, etc) and see which move beat the other. It was unpredictable and a lot of fun.

No Man's Land (Programmable Actions/movements ), designed by Nick May, 2 players, 10 - 30 mins
"Since the invention of the urinal in the 19th century, there has always been one unspoken rule, NEVER stand next to another person. This micro-game (it fits in a mint tin) consists of a row of urinals in which players find themselves on opposing ends. Their objective is a simple one, place action cards to maneuver around the row while avoiding ending an action beside the other player. Each time this happens the offending player receives a pink urinal cake disc. 3 discs and they lose." This was entertaining and not as gross as you might expect. We suggested he could create companion games themed around the ladies' room, the family restroom, etc.

Barterville (Worker Placement), designed by John Carter, 3 players, 1 hour - 2 hours
"In this post-apocalyptic hellscape, there is only one place of true refuge... BARTERVILLE! You represent one of five gangs poised to take control over Barterville. Through raising the settlement's food reserves, taking out local raider camps, and constructing buildings you can find out once and for all who runs Barterville!" We played this last year too. Matt says that John eliminated the worst aspect of the game since last year (scavenging was way too risky) but also the best aspect (the powerplay between good and evil). John promises that the good/evil powerplay will be used in a future game.

Pizza World (Set collection, memory, take that), designed by Andrew Haigh, 6 players, 30 - 60 mins
"Players are master pizza makers looking for the finest ingredients in a market. Each player is given several shopping lists of ingredients to collect. Unfortunately with a limited number of ingredients in the market, getting the ingredients you need may not be easy, especially if another player got there first. Pizza World is a game about completing as many personal and shared shopping lists as possible, some 'take that' elements and remembering where you last saw an ingredient - although they might not be where you thought. Make friends, or not, as you compete for the ingredients you need." The 3D printed pizza slice place markers are adorable, and the game board is the size of an extra-large pizza. Mouth-watering.

Garage Wars (Deckbuilding with Euro-Style Elements/ "Amerithrash"), designed by Evan Erwin, 2 - 4 players, 30 mins per player
"A strategy game about hiring mechanics, repairing vehicles, and owning a garage." Matt thought the thematic elements were very well wedded to the game play, and the component design was great. His biggest critique was that the game was too short. Evan is hard at work with some good ideas to fix that issue.

New Game to Bring to Prototype Con 2

Prototype Con is back! Matt and Heidi will be there February 24-26, 2017. Matt will be bringing his newest game, Crosstown Traffic. Here's a glimpse of the traffic building up along the road:

Dice Tower Con

Dice Tower Con is a 5-day 24-hour board gaming convention that takes place in Orlando in July. We attended the 5th annual DTC as first-time attendees/volunteers this year. Thousands of gamers attended, so there was always someone awake to play with! Here are Heidi and Matt, posing in front of hoards of enthusiastic board gamers.

Unlike Prototype Con, where everyone was sharing their games-in-progress, DTC is mostly for  playing published games. However, we did get to try a few interesting prototypes like these:

Back to Back is a martial arts game in which you and your partner work together to defeat the bosses and their gang members. It was pretty exciting and we did manage to pull together a win at the last minute, but it was close! On the right you can see Peter Davis, the designer. He is from the Colorado Game Designers Guild.

Drunken Sailor is a game in which the bartender must serve sailors and pirates their preferred drinks to keep them happy and win the gold. The game caught Matt's eye initially because it uses gold pieces similar to those in Dead Man's Hand! Designer Barb Hirschfelder had created these clever treasure chests for storing the gold. We also played another of Barb's prototypes about building a zoo in the Tower of London (based on the history of the Royal Menagerie). Barb blogs at 3 Dog Games.

Of course we also had a great time trying out Dead Man's Hand with lots of new players. The game recently criss-crossed the country on a road trip from Florida to New Mexico and back. By the time it reached DTC it had new rules scribbled on most of the cards... a little hard to read but a lot more interactive during game play! Our new friend Tonya described the game as being multi-leveled, both simple enough for kids or casual gamers, but with details interesting enough for more serious players, in the way that a Pixar movie appeals to kids but has the subtler jokes build in to entertain adults, a fun comparison. A memorable moment was when a security guard stopped by to watch us play. We invited him to join in but he regretfully told us he was on duty.

Matt says "It was great to make contact with so many gamers and receive cutting edge criticism and welcomed praise for Dead Man's Hand. Everyone's input will lead to a strong appearance at Prototype Con next year. Besides that, it was lots of fun! It was great seeing old friends, making new friends, and playing games with all of them. Kudos to Kelly Adams, whose game Veggie Garden we saw at Prototype Con (just after she literally dreamed it up) which is now in production from Quick Simple Fun Games! Thanks to Rudy Currier, another Prototype Con friend, for donating Pirate Attack for the DTC raffle. I was also happy to touch base with Brian Fiore, demoing his Wendigo Games prototypes."

Of published games, we played Celestia, Quadropolis, Holmes, Splendor, Kodama, Hanabi, The Grizzled, Sushi Go, Fluxx, Ticket to Ride (United Kingdom), Carcasonne Over Hill and Dale, Spike, The Mansion of Madness, Tzolk'in, Code Names, and watched some interesting game play of Scythe, Medina, Forbidden Planets, and Kings of Air and Steam.

Thanks, SUP Guild!

We went into Prototype Con blind, not having any idea how we'd measure up or whether we'd be accepted, but it turned out to be an overwhelmingly positive experience. We found that the unfinished quality of Vehicle and Dead Man's Chest was perfectly normal in that setting, and that they fell in the middle range of "doneness" compared to other games being tested. Everyone was incredibly generous with their knowledge and constructive with their criticism. We learned how much we still need to learn about gaming culture and industry, but we also gained the confidence that we can do this! Thanks to SUP Guild (the Superior Unpublished Prototype Guild) for creating this event. We hope to attend many more.

Pieces of Eight: Dead Man's Chest at Prototype Con 2016

What people were saying about Dead Man's Chest:

"Good interaction. The wheel is an eye catcher!"

"I hated it at first but once I got it I thought it was lots of fun."

"Please, please, please tell me it comes with that hat!"

"It feels so authentically pirate! Is this a traditional pirate game I didn't know about?"

Vehicle at Prototype Con 2016

What people were saying about Vehicle:

"I love this, it's a really fun game."

"There's a lot of strategy element once you get deep into it."

"We need more crashes!"

"It made me think. Not a lot of games make me think."

"Your feature of having the race go underwater is great, I haven't seen that in any other game and i've played a lot of racing games."

"I would definitely add this to my game collection."

Games We Tried at Prototype Con 2016

The creativity at Prototype Con was amazing! Matt and Heidi thoroughly enjoyed play testing a multitude of games, some nearly finished, some midway through development, and at least one dreamed up the night before and scribbled onto bits of cardboard (samples from The Game Crafter) in the morning! Here is a selection of the games we tried. We hope that many of them will come to market and be available to you soon.

PIRATE ATTACK, designed by Rudy Currier. 2-10 players, 30-120 minutes.
Players play pirate ships, then upgrade their ships and hurt other players ships with cards. When an attack card comes up players attack each other. Witch Doctors, Fortune Tellers, Magic Shop, and Tavern Cards can all be bought to help players build their ships up and to destroy their enemies.
Here's a video review I found of Pirate Attack on Just Got Played.

HONEY WARS, designed by Andrew Smith, 2-4 players, 30-45 minutes.
It’s a beautiful spring day, the flowers are in bloom, and there’s an epic battle waging beneath the petals. Honey Wars is a card and dice game with a strong, "Take That" mechanic. You and your fellow players control hives of bees, working to build your army while blocking your opponent’ efforts to do the same. Use cards to attack your opponents, defend your hives, harvest honey, and WIN THE WAR!
Honey Wars has a Kickstarter campaign going live on March 1, 2016. www.honeywars.com 

 

VEGETABLE GARDEN. Kelly Adams was not on the official schedule, but we loved her newly invented game, Vegetable Garden. Different veggie cards (carrots, cabbage, tomatoes, and peppers) let you rearrange the cards with different mechanics, allowing you to strategize maximizing your score. Simple but clever, and really fun! And the most amazing part is that she dreamed the game overnight and created it that very morning.

TIME TROTTERS, designed by John Carter, 2-5 players, 45-60 minutes.
A card game that involves strategy and collecting themed around time travel. You play a handful of time tourists that kicking dinosaurs and causing paradoxes left and right.
www.timetrotters.com

HIGH NOON: DEATH COMES TO TOWN DEALING DEADLY BULLETS OF DEATH, designed by Rob Yates, 2 players, 20-30 minutes.
Decidedly delightful dueling deckbuilder. Using the buildings and townsfolk, the daring desperadoes duel to the death on the main street of Darrenger with an array weapons and tactics. Players can use members of their posse to attack their opponent or send them out to work one of the many locations in the town to grant bonuses or increase their wealth.

BARTERVILLE, designed by John Carter, 2-4 players, 45-90 minutes.
Set in a post-apocalyptic setting. Barterville is a mix of a worker placement and city building game You play a gang leader trying to garner the respect necessary to run Barterville. You do this by sending your minions to gather enough resources to build landmarks in your name. However, the Wasteland is a dangerous place rife with Radiation, Raiders, and Rust Storms.
@johnhexcarter 

IT'S OVER, designed by Simon MacDonald, 1-6 players, 45-90 minutes.
In “It’s Over” you and your friends will be playing the surviving members of Lake Prince. You will have a certain five turns to accrue and play Resources to permit your Survivor to survive the current Doomsday. Once you survive the Doomsday, it’s over. No. Wait. No, it isn’t over. Sorry about that. After you survive a Doomsday, the new day dawns and another Doomsday appears. All your accrued Resources have been used up by the previous Doomsday, and you must repeat the cycle. Each new Doomsday applies different effects and damages and reduces the teams overall Hope, so it will help to be versatile and adaptive in order to play. The game is over when all of the Hope has been reduced to zero, when all of the Survivors die, or when your team has failed or met a condition based by the Challenge.
It's Over on Facebook

PANORAMIC was not on the official schedule, but we enjoyed trying it out. It was a picture-building game, similar to the sub-game in Tokaido.

HAUNTED, designed by Jim Moss, for 2-5 players, was not on the official schedule, but we like it enough to buy a copy of this finished game. The cards create a multistory haunted house; you turn them over to search for treasures. Collect four treasures to win the game. Game play included fun mechanisms like a flashlight that lets you peek at two cards at once, and a hidden staircase to let you skip ahead to an upper floor.

TAXI, designed by Paul Weintraub, was not on the official schedule, but we gave it a test drive before getting in our own vehicle to drive home. We played the easy level on the city streets of Baltimore (the harder New York level includes one way streets). We had to pick up passengers and get them to their destinations quickly before they got annoyed and reduced our tips or jumped out of the cab to walk instead.

DESIGN PANEL: Besides all the actual gaming, we attended the Designer Panel with Tom Vasel, Robert Burke, Richard Borg, Zev Shlasinger, Richard Launius, and Steve Avery, to hear words of wisdom about publishing games.

Prototype Con 2016

Matt will be attending the inaugural Prototype Con, February 19-21, 2016 in Kissimmee, Florida, where he will be playtesting both Vehicle and Pieces of Eight: Dead Man's Chest.

Check out Prototypecon.com.

Great feedback from Phil

Playtesting Vehicle at FlaMinGoCon, South Florida's mini board gaming convention.