First play test party recap.

Yesterdays party went even better than expected. We had a good time, played a bunch of games and discussed the game at length. Every one was eager to play again, so you can expect another testing party in a couple of weeks.

What was needed to get ready for the party?
Obviously people were needed. For this I just asked friends if they would like to come play and I also put some messages on Facebook. This was a bit difficult because no one had played my game before so they had to trust that I knew what the hell I was doing and it would entertain them for hours. A lot of people also have lives to live so not many people can spare their free time to come analyses a game for me. One should also expect that several will be a no show due to unforeseen circumstances.

What about the pieces?
In total we had created 2 decks, each with 6 cards for testing (which we chose out of 300+ cards). I had to print out 360 cards, obtain 6 small pizza boxes, print 6 battle boards, 24 flotilla cards, 24 flotilla markers, 3 instruction sheets, 8 surveys, and make several vessel markers as they were deployed during play.

The cards were by far the most time consuming. That doesn't count making them in advance and just sorting through them. Matt did spend a good portion of his free, and not so free, time constructing these decks. I had also spent a total of 12 hours making each card in Photoshop, printing them all out and then cutting them each out. Some of my skin was even starting to peel way after cutting cards for so long.

Was it time well spent and worth it? Hell yeah, of course. The testing was a blast and I learned a ton.

So lets get into what happened!





Before people showed up.

After people showed up.

Eight people had wanted to come to the party, however due to weather and car issues only 5 could make it. But five people isn't bad. We had two games going on at once. Merphy vs. Pha and Jenn vs. Abby. Later in the night, when people didn't need me or Matt to watch them as much I played against Kyle.

We had constructed two deck types. One is a human deck that Matt appropriately calls "United we stand". The other deck he constructed is a Machine deck that currently is nameless. Matt started with the machine deck to try and get a handle on them. He then made the Human deck, which I feel turned out better because he had a bit of experience and knew what to expect with the second deck.

The Machine deck focuses on two aspects. The first is the idea that Machines build upon their dead. He added in a bunch of cards that had an ability called 'Salvage' which is the ability to pay the given amount of resources to have the card come back to the players hand instead of going to the graveyard. The second focus is on drones. These are easy to bring out and often band together to create a protective force.

Kyle, Abby and Pha played with the Machine decks.

The human deck had pretty much one focus. Rank up. This ability allows the player to pay the given resource cost to increase the stats and abilities of a given card. Here is an example:

 Rank Up [2]
 Rank 1: 2/3
 Rank 2: 2/3
 Rank 3: 4/5, Preemptive strike

In this example we see that in order to use the ability we need to pay 2 resources. This is currently shown in the brackets [ ]. By paying that two your vessel will then turn into a 2/3 vessel. You can continue this until the vessel can no longer rank up.


 By the end of the night Kyle had won our battle with a Machine deck.
Merphy had won his battle against Pha. Merphy used the Human deck.
Abby and Jenn's game didn't last long as Jenn's parents, my parents-in-law, arrived.

To start the night I had read the instructions to every one and let them attempt to play the game with out any help from me.

Obviously this didn't work, especially since it was the first time I wrote instructions for the game so other people could play.

I had missed some valuable information, such as placing your flotilla on the battle board before the game started. (oops!)

I also didn't have anything in the instructions that explained abilities such as Rank up, preemptive strike and the rest.

Another important fact I forgot is that when any one attacks both players attack at the same time. In other words, if Merphy decided to attack with his 4/2 vessel, against Pha's 2/2 vessel both would be destroyed.

But now I know what to fix and to keep a keener eye out for next time.

I also didn't run the instructions by any one before the testing, as it wast he last thing I did. Next time I'll have some people proof read it to see if it makes sense to them.

After reading the instructions and seeing that people aren't going to be able to play, I then just explained the game as they played. I explained Sector mode and who to go about playing in that mode while they were in it and I explained Territory while they were in that mode. I did mention the modes do change, although stay relatively the same.

Doing it this way made the game much easier to comprehend with only a few hiccups.

by their second battle, Merphy and Pha were practically pros a the game. That second battle didn't even take long to get to.

Kyle and nearly no problems either. Kyle had played the game before so he knew how to set up and get going early. The only things he had issues with (and that I had not thought of before) was the ability to play traps.

As I had thought Player1 would play traps on Player2's turn with the resources that Player 1 stock piled from their previous turn.

Kyle had suggested that instead a player should be able to discard for resources during any ones turn, and then play traps.

I agreed to this, feeling that was a much better way of handling that. He then proceeded to kick my ass.

What did I get out of this?


Pha, Kyle, Merphy, Matt and I had a long discussion about the game. I think it ended up being a 2 hour discussion.

One of the big topics was how Humans felt over powered compared to the Mech deck. The reason for this being the Ranking ability didn't feel like it costed as much as it should have. The other problem being that the Machine deck was trying to go two directions at once and didn't go far enough either way.

Other issues with this was that Pha didn't know what Salvage was due to my failure in explaining it. But either way the deck didn't capitalize on that ability enough to make it much of a game changer.

We discussed how to change the Mech deck to fit its goals more by creating more cards and swapping out cards that didn't fit the bill. The goal of the Mech deck being: They gain victory by building upon their dead. In other words when a mech is destroyed it should in some way help advance the whole.

We had discussed that there shouldn't be cards in which the board is cleared, unless it clears all vessels, including your own. Many of Pha and Merphy's battles ended in a stalemate due to these cards. Instead we decided making more trap cards that allowed the flotilla to defend itself more. Also adding an ability for flotilla where you pay X amount of resources for the flotilla to shoot a beam that deals 2 or so damage to a vessel or a row.

As it was traps needed to be deployed where your flotilla was sitting, then you'd have to move away from it. Much like one would set a mine. However, Merphy suggested allowing flotilla to put traps in adjacent hexes to increase the use of them and effectiveness of them. I personally loved this idea and will be implementing it the future.

We also decided to change how battles are fought, slightly.
The change is one can move into a hex occupied by an enemy. Move is not to be confused with Warp, I'll explain.
So if some one moves into an adjacent hex, occupied by a enemy then the one who moved attacks first. The first attacker can't move their vessels, but can orientate them before attacking.
Let me give you a bit of reference here. When a battle starts in territory mode each player places their vessels down on the same board in the first 3 rows closest to them. While doing this they can't see where their opponent is placing their vessels. Once all of the vessels have been placed the entire board is revealed to every one and battle continues.
Since the first attacker already moved to get into the same hex they can't move again to re-position their vessels. However, they can choose which direction the vessels will shoot. The attacker attacks and then the opponents turn begins.

What about warping?
Warping is an ability all flotilla can do which allows them to move anywhere on the map. Moving only allows you to move one hex.
Warping also ends your turn, so if you are warping then you are fairly confident about your fleet and its ability to destroy the enemy.

Well that's the sum up of the party. Yeah, I know, not much of a sum up with how long this is, but a lot happened.

I can't wait for next session, which I believe will happen in two weeks. Until then I'll be adjusting the decks to work better. Checking on the art work. Scouting for more artists and programmers and overall working my fingers to the bone.

Check us out @:

https://www.facebook.com/FleetCalamity

https://twitter.com/HalfHeartGames

Thank you for reading!

2nd Playtest - Fleet Calamity

Welcome back!
 
Yesterday I had Matt Oberdalhoff over and my friend Greg.  We had a few goals in mind for the testing: Ensure that the game ran smoothly enough so people can play the game from start to finish, make sure the instructions were clear enough and minimal enough to get people playing and not needing us to clarify multiple times. Lastly we wanted to see how balanced our slapped together decks were.

 

Playing the game all the way through was not a challenge at all. We had a good idea on what will happen for various decisions being made and this play though just reaffirmed us.

When Greg and Matt sat down to play it was a little rough on what to do, for Greg, but quickly Greg started to destroy Matts fleet.

I had some concerns about the fog of war before this play test that were made less concerning. Before I dive too much into that let me explain the fog of war within my game.

 

(That's Greg acting calm and collected in front of the camera.)

The fog of war within my game is visualized by the divider between the players boards. Each player can't see the other players flotilla. After 10 moves the fog of war is removed and the players can see each other.

Its just like battle ships if you could remove the top board after so many turns.

So why is this a concern and why do we eventually remove the fog?

Answer: If no one can see each other there is a possibility that no one will find each other. The players could be going in loops forever trying to find the opponent.

Well, with four flotilla on the field people tend to rush the enemy and find them within 2-3 turns, especially with the ability to warp. If one player doesn't move and the other only moves forward once a turn it will take them 6 turns to find the enemy. However, all this doesn't really account for a player with only one flotilla.

Hence the fog of war is removed after so long (currently 10 turns). This allows for the players to end the game and not circle around the map forever.  In other words if Greg were to continue on his path of dominating destruction against Matt's feeble deck then Matt couldn't just run away constently and make the game last forever. Instead Greg would know exactly where he is and choose to warp to him and take him out.

Currently, out of the two play test sessions, no one has needed the fog of war to be removed. But longer play test sessions may prove that the fog of war may need to be removed sooner too.

In addition, We will make cards that prolong the fog of war, shorten the fog of war or even bring back the fog if it is already gone.

Ok, so I talked enough about did the game play smoothly and yes it did. But what about the instructions?

Well, that needed to be made slightly more clear. Greg had not played this game before, at least not more than one battle, taking over for some one who had to leave. So he was pretty fresh to the game, especially the beginning of the game.

Here is how we explained it  (or approximately how we did)

1. At the start of the game place your flotilla within the first two rows closest to you.

2.  At the beginning of your turn you may draw 7 cards.

3. You may now choose to warp and end your turn, or continue your turn. (he chose to continue)

4. Discard cards to gain resources. 1 discarded card = 1 resource.

5. Deploy vessels, traps or upgrades.

6. Move one hex.

Generally he understood fairly easily. The only thing he got confused was the discard for resources and the deploy vessels. And here's why: We had intended that you discard all your unwanted cards first, then you deploy various things. However, some cards would allow you to gain more cards after playing them. With the way we explained it Greg and Matt couldn't discard more cards to bring out other cards after their initial discard and deploy phase.

Solution? Simple, Make steps 3-4 your 'Main phase' in which you can contently do those actions over and over until you no longer can.

Once a battle broke out we then had to explain how that worked, which got a bit more confusing. Here is how we explained it:

1. You are now in battle and the game switches to territory mode.

2. Place your vessels within the 3 rows closest to you.

3. Whoever didn't start the battle goes first (because moving is the last thing you do in your turn).

4. Draw until you have 7 cards.

5. Main phase.

6. Move/orientate.

7. Attack.

8. Your goal is to attack and destroy his flotilla (which is on the territory map).

The first thing that threw off Greg was the Territory mode. He didn't understand why we were changing the map. Thus we explained that Territories are like a micro version of each hex within the Sector mode.

He then asked 'Whats sector mode?'

I then replied that Sector mode was the last screen he saw, with all of his flotilla.

Once that was explained he seemed to get it and move on with his turn.

He then got confused again by us saying Move and orientate. So I explained to him that vessels will shoot in a straight line, thus you have to choose which direction they will fire. Also, just like flotilla, you can move them one hex to better position them. I had also explained that the flotilla within the territory map can also move but only one hex at a time.

From there Greg played like a pro.  He knew what cards would work well and actually found some nice strategies within the cards that we didn't know existed. There was just one thing we forgot to mention and explain. We didn't tell him that flotilla can warp out of battle, but takes two turns to do so. (you can imagine this by having your vessels deployed. To warp you need to bring them back into the flotilla and warm up the engines. Then, next turn you can jump). Greg never warped from battle, but Matt did.

 

Now for the last bit of business, the decks. They were terrible.

Why? well Matt and I spent little to no time making these decks. We had created a series of vessels that were fairly weak and easy to bring out along with a few more difficult ones. We also added some more thought out upgrades and traps and slapped them all together. We didn’t put much thought into this because we wanted to see the game in action as fast as possible. The decks still worked for their intended function though.

The issues were that they were unbalanced, favoring the humans. Mechs had none of their abilities that made them a formidable force and the upgrades and traps didn’t work very well with how we changed the game to work.

We knew these cards weren’t going to hold up for long and we have been preparing for the switch. Now that we have some hours under our belt playing the game and making it run smoothly we can finally address the decks and make them enhance the experience and work with the game rules.

Next saturday we will have a play test party with brand new decks that Matt hand picks. Along with those we will print out several extra cards so people can swap in and out cards to change their strategy or just try new things.

Lastly, one new bit of info!

We have a programmer! His name is Ryan. Right now he is just reading the GDD and card lists to get an idea about the game. Next Saturday he will see it in action and then begin his work on making the game digital. I can’t wait to see his progress!!

If you are interested in helping out leave a comment or find me on facebook, twitter, or google+. My name is Matthew Hagen and I thank you for reading!

Take care

Art of Fleet Calamity

 Well that was a brief overview of the game. Lets get to some art!

Above is a Manipulator. These aliens are the oldest of all the four races. Manipulators are special in that they don’t rely so much on vessels to fight the war, but instead use upgrades and traps more than anything.

 Here we have the other alien race, the Outsiders. These creatures are brutal, taking over the bodies of their prey and using them against their own people. The image shows one Outsider taking over a human body.

Lastly, for the 2d art, we have a human. The humans are unique in that they can rank up. When ranked they may grow stronger and gain new abilities.

All the art above was created by the talented Alonzo Canto. You can see more of his awesome art at http://alonzocanto.blogspot.com/

Go check him out. You will be happy you did!

Lets move onto Flotilla

Above is a work in progress of the human flotilla. These models will be used to represent your flotilla as you move about the battle field.

Next we have the Machines battleship flotilla. The Machines are the last of the four fleets battling for survival. Machines scavenge parts of their fallen to rebuild and improve those still in the fray.

Finally we have the Machines resource ship.

All the models are still being worked on so what you are seeing are all work in progresses. The Machine battleship is the furthest along, at least for now. We may decided to go a different direction with it, or add more stuff, but right now we are thinking of just giving it a texture and calling it good. There is plenty of other work to be done instead of lingering on this one piece.

First couple of steps - Fleet Calamity journal.

This blog is documenting my progress as I make my first game. I have a bunch of help from friends and family and I'll list them as this blog goes on so you know what they contribute and how we go about things.

First off, what is this game?

Well its a computer game where Battleship meets Magic the Gathering.

Sound cool? Well I hope so, cuz I certainly think so.

A quick overview of game play:

Each player starts with four Flotilla; Two battleships, one civilian ship and one resource ship. These ships hold your vessels, which are basically creature cards from Magic.

Your goal is to destroy the opponents Flotilla using your vessels, traps and upgrades. But first you must seek out your opponent by moving about the hex grid.

As it stands a turn looks like this:

1. Draw cards or warp. Warping allows the player to move to any point on the map, not just an adjacent hex.

2. Draw until you have 7 cards in your hand.

3. Discard to gain resources.

4. Play vessels, upgrades and/or traps.

5. Move. This move can only be to an adjacent hex, no further.

There are no resource cards. Instead, to gain resources you must discard. Discarding one card gains you one resource. Two cards gain you two resources and so on and so forth.

So what do we have done?

Well the basic game play is fairly solid. We have created a tangible prototype with temporary cards made of card stock and a play area made of  unused pizza boxes.

We have a bunch of cards for Humans and Machines set up too. We are focusing on these two factions and making sure the game works properly before expanding out to the other aliens. We are starting to play test with people not associated with the game and soon, once we feel we have a pretty solid game on our hands, I’ll be searching for investors to help fund our need for programmers.

My friend Matt Oberdalhoff has been helping me develop this game and really tweaking the finer points to make sure its easy to understand, fun to play and quick to get into. He’s helped a ton on keeping me on track and making sure I don’t add too much fat, especially in this early stage.

I myself am Matthew Hagen. I started developing this game about a year ago while in school. I picked away at it as I learned the ropes of game design while working at a game studio locally. I really am excited to present this game to you all and I hope you are all happy to keep checking in as I update this blog.

As I progress I’ll keep this blog updated. It may be slow in the beginning as more non visual stuff is being developed, but it will pick up more as art is produced, and programming magic is cast!

Take care!

P.s.

Blogger didn't like me adding pictures to this post, so next post will be featuring that.