I previously mentioned in the post First Public Playtest that there is some difficulty in teaching the game to new players who are generally unfamiliar with competitive card games. There are quite a few nuances in these games that someone who has a history of playing competitive card games, even at a casual level, will be able to understand and take for granted a time when they didn't understand some basic concepts.
I tried what I mentioned in the post in creating a quick 3-5 minute play through of the mechanics of the game before teaching people the draft portion and playing the "real" game. I tried it with a few new players, and where it did succeed in it's goal, the general feedback was that it made the game feel simple and shallow due to how short it was. I'm not sure if there is a psychological aspect to learning the "game within the game" in 5 minutes that causes this, but it's obviously taking away the richness in decisions that the game has to offer.
Through some good feedback that I got after posting the call for playtesters, I've decided to try packaging the game with a "Basic" and "Advanced" mode. What this essentially entails is that the "Basic" game will be taught and played with balanced pre-constructed decks that are made up of a majority of the cards currently in the game. I've removed one of the elements from the mix (Shadow, since it has cards that specifically need the Aether Stream and Nether Pile to function correctly) and created 4 pre-constructed decks where 2/3 of the deck is made of one Element and the remaining 1/3 of the deck is a complimenting Element. I also picked out two Awakened to be used for each deck, and added their items to the decks. This brings the decks to 20 cards each, one of four different factions, and the ability to learn the mechanics of the game and explore the interactions of the different elements without needing to make those decisions in a draft format.
After playing the pre-constructed decks a few times, players should be able to move onto the Advanced Format, bringing in the drafting mechanics, a completely new element, 1 new Awakened for each element, and be able to have the cards interact in ways they previously have never seen.
Initial testing of these pre-constructed decks has gone pretty well, and forced me to re-analyze and tweak some cards to have even better interactions with certain Elements that I had yet to do.
In addition to this change, there was also commentary on the importance of multi-player. It should be no secret that I've designed, tested and balanced this game primarily for a 2 player game. Competitive card games of this nature just work best in the 2 player format. The game can easily be played as multi-player, but you have the problem of player elimination in a game like this. If 3 people really want to take out the 4th player, there's generally not much you're able to do in a 3 on 1 pileup. Table politics become a very important factor in situations like this, almost more so than the cards that are in your deck.
Now there are some formats that were suggested and that have been used to try and "fix" this multi-player problem in games with player elimination. Predator/Prey is one of those, where you can only attack the person to your right or left, but I've never been a huge fan of that format because you're not able to have a significant impact on the person who is trying to eliminate you from the game, and if the person who is supposed to be attacking them is failing at their goal, that makes your goal even harder.
Another suggestion that was brought up was a format where you only need to eliminate the person to your right/left to win the game, but you can attack or assist any of the players in the game. This is interesting from the concept of having a different goal than each other player, but also giving you the ability to prevent someone else from winning the game by knocking out a completely unrelated player if you're willing to spend the resources to do so.
The format that I am most interested in trying to balance would be a 2v2 Team mode, which is what I tried out last night. I haven't got all of the specific details worked out as far as the number of Awakened that should be played per player (1 or 2) or if you should be able to eliminate one player from the team, or if you need to knock down both players to zero essence in play to defeat them both at the same time, but it was very straightforward for people to know who their allies and who their enemies are, and know what areas you could sacrifice when you think/know that your partner is going to be able to back you up. No real backstabbing to take place in this format, but I'm not the biggest fan of that political nonsense in games anyway.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Looking for Playtesters!
Here is the post the I made at both boardgamegeek.com and bgdf.com looking for playtesters. I'm also posting in here for anyone who might read this blog but does not frequent those two sites, as well as for posterity sake.
What is Affinity?
Affinity is a deck-building game for two to four players about magic-wielding characters who are battling it out for power among five different factions. Each player controls two characters, called Awakened, who are affiliated with a single faction. These Awakened cast spells, manifest Elemental Constructs and use complex items to defeat other Awakened. Defeat all of the Awakened that oppose you, and you win!
Aw man, another deckbuilder?
Before you continue, you should know that in Affinity there are:
No Victory Points - Unless you consider crushing your opponent as a Victory Point.
No weak starting decks - Each time you start the game you will draft a new and unique deck to start the game with.
No random pile setups - All of the cards are available for use in Affinity every game.
Affinity is not a Collectable Card Game (CCG), but the play of the game is similar to drafting and playing a CCG much more than other deckbuilders. At it's core, Affinity is a head-to-head competitive game.
Sounds cool, what can I do to help?
Over 200 hours have been put into closed playtesting this game, now it's time to get that number closer to 1000. The time has come for some good old-fashioned blind playtesting to be done on Affinity!
I'm looking for the game to be playtested primarily with the 2 player version of the game, as that is what the game has been primarily designed and balanced around, but some playtesting in 3 and 4 player would be good as well.
In addition, I've got the rules typed up, but I know that they are far from perfect. Please, please, please point out anything that doesn't make sense, could use clarification, or if (and likely when) you come across something that is not clearly explained in the rules.
If you're curious about some of the changes and thoughts that have gone into the game until this point, feel free to browse the development blog here.
Any person, or group of people who helps with this project will at a minimum have my gratitude. Past that, and depending on their level of involvement, you can recieve credit in the rulebook and a free copy (or copies) of the game! (Subject to opinion, but I'm a fairly generous person.)
ALL FEEDBACK IS WELCOME!
Game Details
2 to 4 players (2 players recommended)
10 minutes to learn, 30-60 minutes to play (Faster play the more familiar you are)
Game Components
-15 Awakened Cards
-15 Item Cards
-12 Aether Surge Cards
-60 Construct Cards
-30 Spell Cards
Affinity Rules v1.0
Affinity Cards v12.0
Affinity Cards with color titles v12.0
Additional Notes:
When printing the game, it would be extremely beneficial to print each different element's cards on different color paper. The time that this saves in visual recognition when playing the game is immensely important.
*I have also provided a copy of the cards with colored titles, but I would advise against printing the game in full color unless absolutely necessary in an effort to save people's ink cartridges.
I have not provided backs for the cards, as the way that I normally playtest card games is to put standard pieces of paper into card sleeves with old CCG cards for backing.
The images on the cards are playtest images only, and are not the final art for the game.
If there is anyone out there who would like to assist me in creating a Vassal module for the game to assist with the playtesting process, please PM me!
What is Affinity?
Affinity is a deck-building game for two to four players about magic-wielding characters who are battling it out for power among five different factions. Each player controls two characters, called Awakened, who are affiliated with a single faction. These Awakened cast spells, manifest Elemental Constructs and use complex items to defeat other Awakened. Defeat all of the Awakened that oppose you, and you win!
Aw man, another deckbuilder?
Before you continue, you should know that in Affinity there are:
No Victory Points - Unless you consider crushing your opponent as a Victory Point.
No weak starting decks - Each time you start the game you will draft a new and unique deck to start the game with.
No random pile setups - All of the cards are available for use in Affinity every game.
Affinity is not a Collectable Card Game (CCG), but the play of the game is similar to drafting and playing a CCG much more than other deckbuilders. At it's core, Affinity is a head-to-head competitive game.
Sounds cool, what can I do to help?
Over 200 hours have been put into closed playtesting this game, now it's time to get that number closer to 1000. The time has come for some good old-fashioned blind playtesting to be done on Affinity!
I'm looking for the game to be playtested primarily with the 2 player version of the game, as that is what the game has been primarily designed and balanced around, but some playtesting in 3 and 4 player would be good as well.
In addition, I've got the rules typed up, but I know that they are far from perfect. Please, please, please point out anything that doesn't make sense, could use clarification, or if (and likely when) you come across something that is not clearly explained in the rules.
If you're curious about some of the changes and thoughts that have gone into the game until this point, feel free to browse the development blog here.
Any person, or group of people who helps with this project will at a minimum have my gratitude. Past that, and depending on their level of involvement, you can recieve credit in the rulebook and a free copy (or copies) of the game! (Subject to opinion, but I'm a fairly generous person.)
ALL FEEDBACK IS WELCOME!
Game Details
2 to 4 players (2 players recommended)
10 minutes to learn, 30-60 minutes to play (Faster play the more familiar you are)
Game Components
-15 Awakened Cards
-15 Item Cards
-12 Aether Surge Cards
-60 Construct Cards
-30 Spell Cards
Affinity Rules v1.0
Affinity Cards v12.0
Affinity Cards with color titles v12.0
Additional Notes:
When printing the game, it would be extremely beneficial to print each different element's cards on different color paper. The time that this saves in visual recognition when playing the game is immensely important.
*I have also provided a copy of the cards with colored titles, but I would advise against printing the game in full color unless absolutely necessary in an effort to save people's ink cartridges.
I have not provided backs for the cards, as the way that I normally playtest card games is to put standard pieces of paper into card sleeves with old CCG cards for backing.
The images on the cards are playtest images only, and are not the final art for the game.
If there is anyone out there who would like to assist me in creating a Vassal module for the game to assist with the playtesting process, please PM me!
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