3. Playtest #1

2021.06.25

https://stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter-lesson-204-your-idea-is-brilliant-your-idea-is-worthless/

As Ned likes to constantly remind me, ideas alone are nice but worthless. Playtests are a necessary part of the game design process. We made fresh cards and tried them out on unsuspecting family members. To no one's surprise, the game sucked. The piece proportions were all wrong, the scoring mechanism unrefined, and the experience somewhat subdued. We still hadn't come up with a satisfying solution to our end-piece problem. We also started to realize just how important the art direction for this work would be and hadn't come up with a solutoin for that either. The silver lining was that our participants were able to pick up the rules relatively quickly and that there was a satisfying element to completing these creatures.

This first playtest was crucial in getting this "making a board game idea" from a theoretical desire that Ned and I had been talking about since first year of college (7 years ago!) into reality. It also gave me a greater appreciation for the good complicated games that I have played - just how many countless hours of playtesting must have gone on to create an experience that was so seamless?!