There have been lots of discoveries from the latest playtests! For the first time in my life, I don’t have a lot to say. This might be a pretty short devlog.

We’ve tweaked a few sections of the rules text to include more clarity on the effects that some cards might have on each other and I keep needing to find new ways to tweak my elevator pitch to my poor friends. (I might not have as many by the end of this…) Realistically though, there’s not a lot that I’ve legitimately done to improve the project but I definitely have learned a lot that’ll carry me forward.

Having fun isn’t hard…

When you’ve got a library card! (It also helps when you still haven’t bought a printer in your tiny apartment.) I zipped over to the local library to print off the first set of prototype cards. A second, less fun trip to the mall and I had secured everything I needed for making a physical prototype …and also a potential buyer for some collectibles I’ve been trying to sell. 

People seem to like me. I make friends. It’s nice.

In case you’re wondering for some reason, I printed everything on standard US Letter size paper. I then cut and stuffed each paper card into a matte sleeve as well as some weird, gold print playing cards I had laying around. The gold cards are really annoying to shuffle but they helped give the prototype cards some stiffness since I wasn’t using them anyways. For the surprise tokens, I just grabbed a few colored poker chips and used them instead. In the end, it all absolutely fit within the size of a regular deck of cards and I was even able to carry it all in the back pocket of my tiny, size 2 jeans. 

The physical prototype confirmed a number of thoughts I already had. The setup is lightning quick with Jordan even able to set it all up while I gathered our drinks from the kitchen. However, we didn’t realize that the game can get pretty large when laid out on the table and needed to be adjusted to accommodate it. We’ll need to adjust the table setup in the rules to make it more compact and symmetrical.

Later in the day, a friend of mine hopped online for a digital playtest on Tabletop Simulator as well. I’ll be combining the notes from both tests in the next section.

The Next Section

The issues with losing track of where you started moving on the board continue to plague my very soul. There were multiple times where one of us had triggered one or more Surprises in a turn and got wildly confused with what had even happened to cause it. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing since the brief chaos was enough to wake pretty much anyone if they weren’t staying engaged. Still, it’s not super fun to forget what card you were supposed to flip over because you got hit with a busload of effects. I’m not sure what I’ll do to fix it.

Similarly, I really want to get rid of the physical tokens. I’m all but certain that I can find a way to do that because it’ll make everything down the line much easier. Any opportunity to lower the end cost should be explored and I don’t want to create “Warhammer: The Card Game” after all. That already exists. It’s called Magic: The Gathering.

I was immediately proven right about a potential issue with the “Scrape” card. Right now, it says “Move a Surprise Token to any unoccupied, adjacent space. Collapse the original tile if it's unoccupied.” I had a feeling that the phrase “unoccupied, adjacent space” would lead to some players assuming that that meant “adjacent to your pawn” and not “adjacent to the tile.” Jordan assured me that it was fine as written and, later, my friend proved her wrong. Still, Jordan continues to dominate at this game. My other friend, for his part, also beat me once or twice. I really suck at this, it seems.

I do need to clearly specify that surprises can chain into each other. Every time it happens, it feels incredible for both players if only due to the shock. Also, I need to explain that you can absolutely be suddenly teleported into a veritable Wombo Combo (Headphone warning) of traps and effects. I think it’s cool but the player needs to know what they’re getting into when reading the rules.

Lastly, my friend noticed that, out of the 32 cards available in the deck, he was only able to actually see under ⅓ of them. He suggested trying it with a significantly smaller number of cards, even suggesting trying a game with only one of each card. I’m absolutely going to see what that’s like. It might suck, but I’ll get some good data.

Meanwhile…

Jordan is hard at work with art designs for the current card pool. She’s not a professional or even trained artist so she’s taking her time. I’ve already told her in no small way to keep every single copy of her rough concept art. At some point down the line, we might use them as a fun Kickstarter backer reward. I’m thinking having a unique deck made up entirely of the scribbly little doodles would be super fun.

Seeing as she’s not as committed to making the art as I am to designing the game, we have discussed the possibility of bringing in another person, like a swinger couple in a troubled marriage. And like a couple looking for a third, the most interested party is always the one who’s most willing to pay for it. I have a number of artistic contacts, even one who’s working on art assets for Mice on the Move as we speak. If I need to, I’ll probably need to work something out with at least one of them to bring them onboard financially, but that’s not something I’ll be exploring for a while now.

We’re deep in the prototyping phase now with many, many playtests needed before we do anything more significant. I really want to see more mechanics that play with the rat theme too.

Until next time!

~ Ezekiel