Greetings, Fellow Card Game Testers And Other Users Of The Illustrated Piece Of Paper!
Coming in with a report from the couple-of-days-long test of the current version of the Western Shores card game project.
Cards blanks were filled, sheets were printed, cut, sleeved, and brought to some experienced players' attention for a few sessions of a couple of hours each.
This is the way.
To measure certain balance aspects, and also to receive feedback based on first impressions and thoughts on the matter.
Illustrated by @silver.art like most of the game is and will be, Wolf pack had some visual problems. The print made the wolves themselves look too small to recognize well enough. Solutions have already been planned but this post is not about the visual.
It's about the game design itself.
And here is the list of changes made after the first day of testing:
Too long — solution: reducing the number of rounds the game is intended to be played from 18 to 13;
Food resources too abundant — solution: reduce the number of Farm cards in play but also find other Food sinks;
Two of the Heroic Characters were imba — solution: Nerf the Storyteller and the Trickster by fixing their abilities — in one case, reducing the effect, in the other — postponing the end result of the card's activation;
More Population needed in the early game — solution: Add a worker to the starting pack, add more Population providing cards to the market...and fixing the costs shall remain as a last resort;
Infinite loop possible — solution: add a cost to the action so that it is not worth repeating the effect more than a couple of times;
Expensive cards cluttering the market slots — solution: Introducing Tiers and a way to move from one stage of development to another;
Lack of synergies — solution: design some synergies.
More...perhaps next time.
Other tests later lead to some deeper analysis and major decisions I shall work on...whenever I find the time again but I shall mention them next time. Perhaps some ideas shall meanwhile be better shaped. Or not. But most-likely yes.
Good luck and Have Fun!
Repeated Message:
If you're not familiar with the game project, let me tell you it will be, at first, a card game about Vikings exploring the Great Unknown.
And here's what we've got digitalized on NFTshowroom:
Valkyrie by @silver.art;
Frozen Mammoth by @silver.art;
Temptress by @silver.art;
Jormungandr, The Sea Dragon by @silver.art;
Dragon of the Woods by @silver.art;
Frost Giant Outlook by @manoldonchev.
And there's the #westernshores tag to bind them in a single collection.
Peace and Exploration!
Yours,
M.
