I've not been going regularly to playtest meetups since before Covid - I've been to a handful, but that's in comparison to generally about one a month beforehand. But then the lovely Naomi and Callum, designers of Platypus, and friends and helpers at the UKGE Playtest Zone, decided to reestablish the Oxford meetup at a pub around the edge of the city, a location that is much easier to get to for an out-of-towner like me than the city centre would be.
So we've had two meetings so far, taking place on the last Wednesday of each month. The meetups are a bit shorter than other ones I have been to, with the structure so far being two slots of an hour or so each. We have so far been fortunate to have several attendees each time who hadn't brought games and just wanted to play, which makes it far easier to make sure everyone who did bring a game can get it tested.
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| Bits of three prototypes: Boogie Knights, Reign of Terror, and My Name Is... |
I've been on a bit of a run of trying out old, shelved projects, as I was musing back in my post in April. I have tried out two of the games mentioned in that post and one other, so I think I'm doing OK on that front. The aim of the tests was what one of the other designers described as a "vibe check", it was kinda like throwing part-cooked spaghetti at a window to see what sticks.
Reign of Terror is a game that I threw together long ago as a possible party favour at a French Revolution themed event, and is a hidden role game where multiple players can win or lose according to their individual role. I playtested and revised it a couple of times, but I didn't persist long enough to get to a place I was happy with. The game worked OK in this test; the players enjoyed it overall, but some elements were unclear or inconsistent, and it was a bit frustrating in places. The concept was a hit and the flow of the game was good, so maybe if I can tidy up the messy bits, it could become something to take further. It does have the disadvantage of four players being the minimum count for a decent game, so that's a limitation for testing and potential pitching.
My Name Is... is about memory and mental agility and I am truly terrible at playing it. The game is great at inducing both pain and laughter, sometimes simultaneously, but has a potential issue with timid players - if nobody is brave enough to challenge other players over their mistakes, nothing happens in the game. In its current state, tracking what cards people have in their stacks can be a big issue too - though with more players (we had only three, which I think is the minimum) that is likely to be less, though there would be other challenges coming into play. All in all, this feels like it is one or two small rule changes away from being "done", but I don't really have inspiration. Maybe this is one I should talk to one of my game designer friends about possibly turning it into a co-design.
This week I got Boogie Knights out. This is the first game I ever took to a specific playtesting event, and I have a real soft spot for it, though that may be a problem, preventing me from either letting go of it or making a dramatic change. Shockingly, it has been seven years since the last revision I made to the game, so this fresh look was long overdue. The game has, practically from the start, been enjoyed by players in general, but has just been a bit hollow, with actions being frustratingly unavailable, periods of play being repetitive, an unexciting endgame, or any number of other flaws at different stages of development. My players this time played the game in the spirit that is intended (it's pretty much a family game with gentler conflict than you might imagine), found that the game is basically OK (as usual - engagement was good) but the discussion afterwards came up with a whole lot of potential avenues to explore.
All in all, I think I will be spending some time on Boogie Knights and seeing if I can address its current flaws. I mean, I'm seven years older, and a load more experienced, so maybe the game has a chance...
