Scoundrels

randyo wrote: But the concerns raised in this thread are considerable; it puts to light all the realities of game design and creation. There are plenty of logistical decisions that will make this "not for someone". Cost, playtime, not into aggressive games, number of players needed, rules confusion. It's not a game that will be pulled out every other weekend because of those logistics. That's the game I've made. But I believe the audience is out there that would enjoy my game. I chose this site as my first foray into board game communities because the site named seemed appropriate to Scoundrels. I think many of y'all would like this. But time and Kickstarter will tell! The hope is people will buy it cause it's pretty, and then after playing it, will say: Oh, that was fun, too!

I absolutely do not want to discourage you in any way, but this paragraph does not bode well, in my opinion. I may be misreading the bolded part, but it looks like a red flag as far as game design goes.

If you are not familiar, I STRONGLY recommend you read Jamey Stegmaier's blog about game design and specifically Kickstarter. stonemaiergames.com/kickstarter/ He is very friendly, knowledgeable, and has a lot of good advice that I think you would benefit from.

Also, I realize you've had this game in the works for "2 years," but that is sort of vague. Is that 40 hours a week for 2 years, or occasionally on weekends for 2 years? Game design takes a lot of work and a lot of refinement beyond just the first great idea.

Haha, that statement you bolded is the cynic in me. Art sells games. I completely agree that it doesn't make a game good. But many people dismiss or take interest in a game based on its visuals. "Oh! That game had a ton of time spent on its art, it must be good." Ugh. I think we can agree people places like here are the exception. So while I hope that my game will sell on its gameplay merits, I am cognizant that I'm more likely to get backers because it's a fun looking pirate game. I stand confidently behind its gameplay (I'm personally more interested in design than art) but that won't do a lot for most people.

One thing that's happened with kickstarter and tabletops becoming so huge is that reviewers won't accept kickstarter prototypes unless it's a paid preview. I want to send out a few prototypes to reviewers so that you won't have to just take my word for it, but it's either gonna cost me, or I have to figure out who I should send the game to.

In that vein, I'd love to hear where you all go to for reviews. What other youtube channels or blogs or websites do you trust, big or small? I can't afford to pay for a paid preview on Dice Tower, so I'm gonna aim for a few smaller folks.

And if anyone is a PnP person, let me know, I can send you a copy of the game. I'd like to offer the PnP as a $3-5 tier on the kickstarter, but for now I'm selectively sending out some copies.

I'd also love to play the game with any F:AT folks in the San Francisco area. I'll be going to DunDraCon in February for probably that Saturday or I can drive to where you are!
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Jamey Stegmaier's blog is super informative, I found that a couple months back and have been reading it!

I responded to Gregarius's concerns and criticisms on my blog post:
http://fortressat.com/blogs-by-designers/4807#josc91965

The randomness of the game, and bad hands, are legitimate concerns, but they are also a core conceit of the experience I've been fostering. I hope my post justifies the decisions I've made.

To answer how many hours? I don't know. It's not 40 hours a week as it's not my main gig. I'd say it's been about 2-3 hours a week most weeks, with every couple months a good 20 hour binge-week of work. So, maybe 500-600 hours between playtests, art, writing, brainstorming?

I do really appreciate your feedback and responses to Scoundrels. They point out things I may or may not be aware of, but they also reflect the importance you place on certain aspects of the game. As a designer, I am conscious of the importance of feedback. My only goal is to be fair both to the criticisms of others and my own aspirations for the game. So thanks again for the time and care you've given to responses!

Hi folks, thanks to your feedback, I've been working on a couple different things:

-I made art for cardboard ship pieces! I actually really like these, maybe as much as the ship models. I'm also looking forward to drawing the ghost ship. Anyway, this'll make prototypes more professional for reviewers. I've been researching making cardboard pieces, so that'll be happening later this week.



-I designed and tested a 3 player variant that works surprisingly well! It's a different type of game, but I removed all the quests and most of the treasure, and now it's last man standing or first person to bury 4 points of Infamy. It's also easier to dig up treasure to keep the game going. Anyway, it was a 45-60 minute game, holds much of the appeal of the full-game, and was pretty enjoyable to me. I'll want to test it more times, and with others, but I was thrilled that it wasn't terrible.

The one downside is that it loses some of the cool epic nature of the longer full game.

I might also try a variant for fewer players where you go 2 rounds before drawing, thus creating more of the dynamics of the full game.

Aight, looking to write another blog soon, too.

Cheers!

I officially want this game. Love the art. Don't dumb down the game just to make the time shorter. Make it work with the existing stuff in there, but shorter. Epic does not always mean long - Cyclades is 1.5 hours MAX and it's epic as Luke Skywalker and Fat Bastard's lovechild.

boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/157403/black-fleet

Ruh Roh Shaggy

boardgamegeek.com/video/55675/black-flee...eet-wet-retirement-s

Yeah.

I follow SUSD and saw that when it appeared. I'd love to play it some time, cause people definitely seem to like it. I almost had the chance last week but it didn't pan out. It makes me nervous how similar it looks to Scoundrels, but well, nothing for it. 2014 definitely seemed the year of the pirate. Hopefully there is room for a few of these games!

As an aside, it was very nice to hear that you're liking the ship art! I ended up learning a bit more about ships and lateen sails and Barbary pirates in trying to make each ship unique.

Box art! Not gonna say how long this took me, cause it was a long time. But I think it was worth it.



Working on videos/kickstarter too, hopefully I'll launch the kickstarter as soon as end of this month if I can finish the dang videos.

Cutting together an entire playthrough with overlays of movement and battles. I was hoping to just present it via video and camera closeups, but the 2 cameras were of vastly different quality. The game is an hour and fifteen minutes, and I'm going through and making little after fx comps showing battles, etc. One really cool thing with annotating the entire game is that I've got a bunch of sweet infographics of things like player movement, and frequency of battles, etc.

Blue tags are movement, green are actions, orange are bids, red are new/special cards, the columns are battles.


And here's all the ship movement from the game.


Also made this teaser with the hi-quality shots. Closer and closer to kickstarter. So much prep.