Challenges in Game Design - Time

A full time job, kids, friends, gaming with friends, spending time with the spouse, staying fit, and game design. Does any or all of that sound familiar? I believe that many aspiring game designers, especially those who developed their interest in the hobby as an adult can relate to if not all, at least a few of these. Take for example the fact that I started this blog post last night while sitting down with my wife to watch a movie. I know, not the best way to focus, but we don't spend enough time together so when she invited me to sit by her how could I refuse. Now, the next night, I am at the hospital awaiting my son to come out of surgery for an appendectomy. Another not so great way to focus, but gives my mind something to do besides worry. I know the Lord will take care of him so I just need to take care of my mind. Thus I right this blog post about the difficulties in making time to pursue my dream of getting a board game related business going by designing a board game to add to my currently very small list of products.

I have spent quite a bit of my time it seems listening to any number of board game pod casts, reading blogs, scouring the internet, for all the information one needs to successfully get a game to market. In doing so I have an ever growing list of things that need to get done. Before my game can be launched, I will need to not only finish designing the the game's functionality, but also, fix and move our website, find and coordinate with a graphic designer, organize play test groups - both for blind testing and supervised, find a manufacturer, get pricing, design packaging, get the word out by building a following not only of my company but of our coming products, and quite a few small details that each of those entail. Beyond all that, I will need to accurately determine manufacturing costs and construct a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to meet those costs. Ultimately I may try to recruit a publisher to help me get this game to market but that will only help with a few items and only if they like the game enough to take it on.

Now I ask you, besides the obvious wait until later items, manufacturing, publishing, fund raising. What do you work on first? They all have to be done, the website is crucial not only for promoting and selling the new game but I do have products already and I can't neglect those. With limited time though I also have to finish the design work of the game. So I hope in reading this I have not discouraged your own goals, many people have done it, and quite a few have done it successfully, at least that is how it seems based on the podcasts. I also don't want you to think this is an easy endeavor more fail than succeed but my experience is that those who fail did not do so because of a bad idea but rather bad execution. I am thinking that in this industry or any industry for that matter you cannot take shortcuts on any item in the aforementioned list. Each and every item will take time and probably many, many, hours in some cases weeks or months to get done correctly. In the end success will depend on the time you put in to it.

If your reading this blog looking for the trick to manage your time. All I can do is give a couple suggestions that I find helpful. I am definitely learning. I have tried and like the Pomodoro technique, it is a good way to allow you to focus on items for short periods allowing you to make progress while still being able to squeeze in those things that distract you. It just allows for life and distractions to not break your concentration. You have to determine to make time, each day or time will fly by without any real progress. I try to make a point each day of getting at least something done even if only 30 minutes of work. Progress is progress and it all counts. I would also suggest a private area a way from the family room to work if you have it. I plan to set up an office for myself in the home I will be moving to soon. Schedule your time and be organized. I use OneNote it is the perfect app to keep all your ideas, plans for your product, keep links to resources on the web, and sort out your rules.

In the end it will be a slow sludge to finish if you don't manage your time well but the most important thing is don't give up. That is what I tell myself. If you truly love the idea of your own product on the market, and I do. I have managed one product so far that was received fairly well and it is worth it. If you can afford it I would suggest finding people who love the game as much as you and solicit their help. It is tempting to want to own the whole thing but if I could find people who would be willing to help rest assured I would be most willing to talk. Bring your talented friends in, offer them a piece of the pie it will be more rewarding and they will provide accountability to keep on task. Keep on

Comments, questions, and Suggestions welcome.

Game Review - Drum Roll

I seldom see anymore the little tickets I remember so fondly when I was a kid for discounted or free entry to the circus. I believe Barnum and Baily was the most common, but there there was Ringling Bros, and Circus Vargus. I don't even know if these exist anymore. I know none of my kids have been to a true traveling circus. In all honesty I don't even know that I went to the circus myself as a kid, but I do remember having many opportunities. Maybe that is why we just don't see them much anymore. I think it must be the difficulty in getting animals around and caring for them. Now it seems only carnivals appear anymore. That said I can appreciate the entertainment value of a good circus simply on knowing what must have gone into making them good, and the danger involved with working with wild animals and high wires, staples of the Big Top. This is the theme of Drum Roll, the Big Top, complete with animal trainers, fire eaters, clowns and of course Ring Masters.

Game Length:
OK, I only played this game once, it was also the first full game played by each of my three friends who joined me. One friend, Mike, whom helps out with Game Night at the church spent some time before hand reading rules, watching videos and just trying to get a basic grasp of the game before we started. (such dedication, I prefer to make my friends suffer through the rules with me so we can more fully appreciate the game.) His efforts did help get us started but we still made many trips to the book and it was slow going for the first round of the three the game requires. Even with Mike's pre-game prep our game took nearly 4 1/2 hours, ouch. I do believe though by the time we were done we were moving pretty well. Final round scoring and end game bonuses add 15-20 minutes depending on the number of players so just because you are done with the final round (pre-Performance actions), does not mean you are done.  The game I states that it will be 90-120 minutes, and with 4 people fully knowing what they are doing I think 120 is the minimum. 90 minutes? maybe with only a couple players, well versed. Game length gets a 7 out of 10 where 1 is a blink and a 10 is full nights rest, or in this case unlikely full nights rest.

Complexity:
Few games I have played have anything on Drum Roll in the complexity department. There are many actions, many goals to achieve, lots of math, lots of iconology, just LOTS to this game. Now I have heard of games that are more complex, and I will reserve some space in my rating for the day I take on some of those monsters but this game will get an 8 of 10 out of me in this category.

Mechanics:
There are quite a few mechanics, maybe not types of mechanics, ie drafting, dice, resources etc. But there are several. I would say the two primary mechanics are worker placement and Resource management, the first round of your first game will be LONG! Basically you have three tokens (can't remember if these had a name or not, I think they are just action tokens) to pick one of several actions, 5 of which are different resources. The others are Ticket sales (money), Investing (a random card that provides a one time assist either during the game or in scoring at the end), Hire Performers (pick a performer from several face up options, Hire help (a different selection of cards providing multi-use benefits). After the workers are placed players take their selections in order of placement, execute actions provided by their help, use investment cards and distribute two of their resources. Actions of the workers, investments, and resource distribution are all optional but they also have limits on use. Overall I say they work well together. Nothing really felt extraneous, except maybe the ring master since we had the expansion and completely forgot about him; could be because when we finally realized he was not being used we discovered we did not have his cards in the game (probably left on the table at Mike's house during the initial prep.). 7-10

Theme:
The name, board design, Icon-ology, Color pallet and terms are very clearly a circus, however, I am not completely sure what the resources are in this game. There are five, and each performer is required to have a minimum of one and at most three to perform at the end of each scoring round and not quit your circus. You do not want them to quit, because you have to pay them before they go and that would be a waste. If you get all three on a performer they perform very well, if only one, they perform poorly, what the cubes mean and why they are colored the way they are, I have no idea, it made no sense to me, it worked for functionality though and, the rules probably said what they were but it was not my game and it was not important enough for me to look. Apparently the performers are very generous when they are successful because if they perform very well you have the option of cutting their pay to 1 from whatever it was in exchange for fame instead of the reward you gain at end of the performance. That is another thing, why would one performer doing very well accept a cube of whatever in order that another performer does not have to be paid, or be paid less???? Cubes have no inherent value in the game other than to meet the requirements of the performers to do well. Art is nice but some of the mechanics make no thematic sense, regardless of how they enhance game play. 5 of 10. I would rate it even lower, maybe a three but just looking at the board and cards it does look circus-y and the board actions do fit the theme well.

Rules:
Rules are another weak spot of this game, Drum Roll relies VERY heavily on icon-ology and though my friends and I are pretty good at deciphering most of these types of things there were still many items that we had to do internet searches for (thank you BoardGameGeek) in order to figure out. With all the cards this game has it could definitely do with an Icon Appendix or card almanac or both, not just the brief description of a few cards on the back. The expansion is not a lot better. We were however, able to play, and it cleared up as we gathered momentum in the latter two rounds so they apparently were not unusable. 5 of 10.

Alpha Gamer:
If there is someone in the game who is an Alpha Gamer and knows what they are doing then yes they can put their two cents in. I believe however since some actions are taken simultaneously they would be somewhat less controlling unless you ask their help, in which case it is not a true AG assist. A person could greatly reduce the affect of the AG by simply being ready to place their worker when their turn comes. Since there are quite a few things in front of you a person would have to know what all your cards do in addition to their own in order to take over and I just don't think most folks even the most controlling could pull that off easily. I rate the AG effect where 1 is: you might as well go out for a coffee during the game since you won't get to make any of your own decisions, and 10 you will beg anyone and everyone to give you help and only then will the AG bother to pull themselves away from their own thoughts. 7 of 10

Quality:
Drum roll is nice, cards are still a bit thin in my opinion, (OK, I really have high standards for cards) but they are adequate, not bad since you really don't handle the cards much and only the investment cards actually sit in players hands and often they are just face down on the table. Wood squares for resources, and standard if not small cardboard tokens for money and discounts. Board is solid, well organized and themed well, but the scoring track around it is a bit small since even last place was wrapped around the board during scoring. 6 of 10

Strategy:
Strategy abounds in Drum Roll, many decisions to make. Do you flip your performer for the fame and discount or do you keep them up for the benefits? Do you go for more performers, or max out the ones you have? How many end of game goals can you, should you attempt? Do you want to build money or resources? Should I utilize help, investments or just depend on ticket sales and performances? Many options, planning ahead for future performances, cycling performers, cycling workers, discounts, end of game bonuses, and probably a few things I missed. All while trying to make sure you can pay your performers and not lose fame which is ultimately the way you win. I really like the meat in this game because it's these types of games that really keep me engaged. 9 of 10

Game Play:
Each player gets a play area mat that serves to keep your resources, remaining workers, and the little location card for this round. I am not totally sure it is necessary and you could probably save some table space by not using it. The game is made up of three rounds that are made up of at least 5 turns to prepare for the end of round performance (Scoring) of each player, though players can vote to gain a 6th round to prepare and again to get a 7th round all be it with a slight penalty. We generally voted for the 6th round but never the penalty round. In the final performance round the extra turn was voted down and we had to score without that extra turn. Funny though the guy who broke the tie to skip the extra turn came in last. Each turn prior to the performance, players place tokens on one of the nine action spaces until they have used all three actions, however not all the resources are going to be taken as only one per player can be taken so to take more than one you will have to hope other players choose not to take one. In the second and third performance rounds players usually have investments and helpers to assist with resources and thus taking the board option is much easier. The winner of our game actually got negative points in the first round and was almost 10 points behind but ended up winning with big second and third round scores so don't get discouraged with a bad start. The first non resource action space is ticket sales, you gradually increase your ticket sales each prep round by moving up on this track. Ticket sales are money, money is how you pay your help and your performers. The second action is investments these are cards that can provide you end of game bonuses, extra actions, extra money, or a variety of other one time assists. I used these quite a bit and combined with the 4th and final action help I found that I needed to make few trips to the resource spaces on my actions. the 3rd action Hire Performers is arguably the most important, your performers need to be chosen carefully, first you want them to match, your location piece, or at the very least match the upcoming location piece (each round, you push your token to the left player and they have that for the next round). You match them by their symbol in the upper left, They also have a cost and salary, typically the same but the cost can be discounted if they are not hired right away. Also they have their required cubes to meet the best performance and if you already have those then it would make it easier to fill them up before scoring. Lastly there is Hire Help These are cards you can choose from and they provide you with resources, change the resources you have, provide better scores, or better money. Lots of possible assists. Keep in mind though if they have the same name you can only use one of them per turn.  Once you learn all the cards, which will probably take at least a couple plays there is lots to like and it moves pretty smooth. Yes it's long but I think that is due to the many actions and the long scoring periods. There is so much to do in the scoring round especially in the final round that it is truly hard to track if everyone is adding it up correctly. In fact, if you have someone who struggles with thinky scoring you might want to make a point of helping them out. The game does suggest each person score in order so you can track but it is pretty time consuming to do it this way. I will rate the game play a 7 of 10. I would rate it higher but that scoring can be difficult to get right and thus in a close game might leave doubts on accuracy for some.

Replay-ability
The game has lots to do and many ways to play. I definitely want to play again and could see playing many times. It is however, the play length that might limit my plays as you might want to get an early start especially your first time. Be patient it does clear up in your mind and future should be pretty fun and always changing. 7 of 10


Play Tips:
1. Hire Help and DO NOT forget to use them, some can be used every turn. They are very important and there are end game bonuses to go with them.
2. Investments, at least a couple per round can help you focus your play
3. Last Performance round, pay very close attention to the several end of game bonuses these will likely make or break you at the end in final scoring. The person in our game who got the most of them won while it was only a few points between first and last before we scored them.
4. Build up your money during the round in which you flip the majority of your performers, for me it was the last round while the winner flipped most of his in the second round and had little to pay in the third round. Remember you don't get the benefits of the flipped performer but you do get to score them so obviously early flipping means early points and late round salary discount which helps. The round you flip them though you still have to pay their full salary and without their benefits this can make a very expensive round.
5. When hiring or planning to hire performers keep track of what your opponents need in their location not only for your future planning but to determine if you should hire right away or if you think it safe to wait. Each action is resolved in order so if someone puts their piece there before you they get to hire before you.


Conclusion:
Well that's it hopefully not too much detail. I didn't want to leave anything out. In our first game I took the investment route, once I discovered the potential of those cards. However we did not know what many of the cards did and when I finally managed to find out I may have already played them wrong or missed an opportunity to fully benefit. Since the game was not mine I will have to see if I can get one for myself at a good price so I can bring to my game table at home some time. If you like meaty games, and don't mind sitting back and just engulfing yourself in options this is a good game for you. It is definitely in the "Euro" style of games with very little player aggression and the only luck is in the order the cards come up and that really just provides variety. Overall 7 of 10. Good Luck, and may your circus be everything you remember a circus to be.

Kingdom Builder Review

Recent days have shown me that perhaps my many years of gaming dominance is no longer a concern to those I call my friends. There was a time when winning was pretty much expected, if we played a game, any game, 10 times, myself and one other person in our group would likely win at least 4 each, give or take. Leaving the last two or three games to be split between the other 5-7 regular game night friends playing with us. I know this sounds like bragging but hey facts are facts and I am pretty sure that few who used to play during that hey day with me would not disagree. But alas, those days seem to be over. Though I would like to think I am in a slump and those days will return, I truly believe it is simply a case that the Seahawks just finally improved enough to compete for the championship. (yes, I know they finally won the big game but 10 years ago, I would never have thought it.) Friends, who seldom used to win, I won't mention their names but they know who they are, have begun beating me it seems with all to great a frequency and it hurts, much like watching my beloved Broncos take a beating to (in my mind anyway, the lowly Seahawks). Not just a squeaker but a thrashing. To be honest I can't even say my team gave it away it was ripped away by Seattle's very impressive defense... But I digress. Suffice it to say I am still hurting. I will move on. I cam to this conclusion this past weekend when I again had an opportunity to play Kingdom Builder.

Now Kingdom Builder was a Spiel De Jahres winner, considered the big Kahuna of Board game awards by most. I can see why it earned the reward and though that may have played a part in my purchase decision the following review is based solely on my play experience. I do tend to frequently purchase expansions with games especially if they will allow more players and that is why I will include the crossroads expansion as part of the review.

Game Length:
Once you know the rules you can expect to play for 45-60 minutes when playing with 4 players. Though we did have the expansion to play with 5 players our players were rotating on this game night and we only played with 4 but the number of players does effect game length. I would say each player accounts for 10-15 minutes of play time depending on the amount of analysis a player applies but unlike many Euro style (non-conflict, non-Dice) games this one is has limited options in actions and thus you really would have a hard time justifying over analysis. So count on 15 minutes a player to be safe, that lines up pretty much with what the box says. We played the game four times with four rotating players each time with at least one new player and consistently finished in under an hour.

Complexity:
I would say the complexity of this game is what makes it a wonder. Not that it is complex, in fact it is actually a very simple game, It provide enough variation that each game will likely be different even after though even after quite a few plays. I would give it a 4 of 10 in complexity where 10 is for players who enjoy being brain drained when the game is done and one is Slap Jack.

 Mechanics:
Kingdom builder has essentially only one mechanic, and that is build settlements, only one card per player per turn and that just tells you what areas of the board you can build on. The Expansion does add a few additional items but even there you gain some new pieces that essentially act like special settlements. Throughout the game you can gain a few special placement abilities to help you accomplish the games scoring goals. Scoring goals are, in the base game three randomly chosen cards that tell you how to gain points in this game and proximity to the castle hexes on each board area. The expansion adds a one to four more scoring goals depending on how many expansion boards are in your game. We determined out game board parts at random chosen from the 12 or so they gave us and only ever go one of the four expansion boards so we had only four scoring goals in our games. I like the mechanics but they are pretty simplistic and not many of them. I would not mind a little more. I will rate the mechanics of this game a 5 of 10. This rating is just my opinion. A one is confusing and perhaps pointless mechanics while 10 would be smooth interlocking mechanics with great choices and variety of actions, that fit the theme.

Theme:
Well the name of the game is Kingdom Builder and building settlements is what you are doing. That said you do not have to connect to the castles on the board, you do not have your own castle to build, you have no armies, knights or adventurers, so who's Kingdom are you building? There are castles and yes you do gain extra points for being near those castles but you can build throughout the game never getting near one of these and still win. The art implies you might be peasants during the medieval times but I don't know that all peasants were part of a kingdom then.  I would say the theme is loosely attached I will give it a 5 of 10. 1 is checkers (theme???) and 10 applies every aspect of the game to the theme and I could not picture the game fitting any other theme.

Rules:
The rules are pretty simple, we were up and playing in 10 minutes in fact they were almost too simple, if there is such a thing. We read the two possible actions,1: required: place three settlements 2: Optional: do any or all of your optional actions; and wondered if we were missing something. It could have at least explained that you would gain the actions during the game. We deduced it by the way the game set up but it was not immediately clear in the rules. Expansion rules were just as basic. Both sets of rules explained the scoring cards they came with in detail and we had little trouble getting started. 8 of 10

Alpha Gamer:
Yes, these guys can put their two cents in, though you can mitigate this by having your move ready when your turn comes and its time to show your area type card. Once you show it you might receive some Alpha Gamer advice, wanted or not.

Quality:
To be honest I am not an art aficionado (heck, I am not even sure I can spell it).  But I can say the art is not confusing, looks neat and fits the intended them. The castles may be a bit over details for the small space they take kind of looks like a bunch of icicles. Board parts are thick and sturdy, though the cards are a bit thin, definitely want to put sleeves on the area cards if you are going to be playing a lot. The settlements and expansion pieces are wood and decent quality. I will give this a 7 of 10

Strategy:
This is where the game excels. In fact this is the games saving grace. If not for the strategy of where to build settlements using your actions and special actions in combination with the end of game scoring goals the game would fail completely. This is why we played four time in one night and why I expect it will be be coming out again soon, well that and one other thing. 7 of 10 is how I would rate it. I know I said strategy is this games best part but in a longer game this would not hold water and so it is combined with its game length that makes it work.

Game Play:
Well I pretty much already went over this, essentially you must play at least three settlements then you can execute additional actions if you have any those would let you move an existing settlement in some way or place an additional piece. Game ends at the end of the round in which one person plays his last settlement. Each player has 40 settlements and in the expansion they gain a few bonus pieces. Typically you can expect you will not get more than 10 or so turns so make them count. I know you have enough pieces for 13 or more turns with the expansion but with extra actions someone will end the game sooner. I will give this game a 7 of 10 in total. If we are still playing it 6-8 months I might push it up a notch.

Conclusion:
I can tell this is a good game because I want to keep playing in spite of the fact that as of yet I have not won. In fact I have not even been close, 2nd but a distant 2nd is the best I have done. Not sure why I cannot seem to solve this game. It's not hard enough to be the complexity, and even so I usually do best at complex. There is no real luck to speak of other than the area cards but wise play can manipulate those to your benefit frequently. My suggestion is don't lose track of the end game scoring goals and pay attention to the points per settlement ratio as you playing pieces. Hopefully I can finally report a win on this soon. I wish you greater success.

Game Review - Dungeon Roll

Let me start by saying I am not a huge fan of games that rely heavily on luck, and Dungeon Roll did nothing to change that. Now that being said, I also can appreciate a game that is done well regardless of what mechanic it implements. I don't have to love a game to appreciate its qualities. After all, I understand that luck is an equalizer in many deeper games and provides a little unknown to be in the game thus providing the game more replay-ability and can give less experienced players at least a chance, sometimes.

Dungeon Roll officially provides enough pieces to play up to four players, though we did manage to play five with it at least once, with the biggest concern being that we might not have enough treasure (it wasn't a problem the one time we tried).

In our experience Game length is around nine minutes per player, which would definitely put it in the filler category of games. We played it several times this weekend and still had time to get in some heavier games each night.

If I were to rank its complexity on a scale of 1-10, with one being: easy enough that we all knew what we were doing in the first 10 minutes, and  first game was pretty much the listed play length and 10 being it took over an hour just to read the rules, first game was more than double its estimated play time and it took several plays to feel we knew what we were doing. I would rank this about a 3. yes very easy but not the easiest game we have played.

Some games are designed with mechanics that result in many choices and can suck up extra time depending on the players you have participating because they feel the need to fully analyze  every option to make sure they make the best decision at least in their opinion. This "feature" of the game is often referred to as Analysis Paralysis or "AP". One friend in our game managed to prove that Dungeon Roll is not totally devoid of this feature, though most of us did not see how, as most of us seemed to know what he should/would do long before he did it. I would say it is quite possible one could over think this game but I doubt it is common. I would rank it a 4 on an AP scale.

Dungeon Roll has some very nice and easy to read Dice and the Hero cards have nice art. The cards though, are a bit thin and warp easy. You really don't handle the cards much since they generally sit on the table in front of you and don't get handled much, so the cards should hold up okay.

The Rule book is small but was easy to read and the hero cards had their own separate booklet for descriptions. We did have the first hero expansion in our game and it has its own little hero booklet. The expansion did not really add anything new to the game except more heroes which is nice for variety but there are no new rules. The rules did not answer all our questions, though with some reading, and re-reading and group consensus I think we figured out most issues. The Hero books didn't really do not do much for the heroes they really said the same thing as the card but with more words. We had questions about one hero that seemed like it would be an obvious question but we could not find the answer, online, in the booklet, nothing. We did not let ourselves get into the situation that we had questions about but I know people will.  In case your are wondering, the hero is the Archaeologist. At the end of the game it says return 6 treasure back to the box but no where does it explain what you should do if you use too much treasure during the game and don't have  six left.

Another gaming phenomenon is the Alpha Gamer, this is the gamer/gamers that feel it is their job to help/steer all the other players in the right direction during those players turn whether they ask for the assist or not. Some even feel it is their right and if not strictly forbidden in the rules they will be offended if you suggest that they not do this. Luckily our group does not contain many of the latter but the former does exist and Dungeon Roll with all its pieces being visible to all the players on the table is VERY susceptible to this type of gamer. So if you have this type of player you might want to decide how many "practice" rounds you want to have before stating that each player play his own dice. The fun of Dungeon Roll I believe is in the competitive part which is limited and fully eliminated if all the dice are played by everyone.

Strategy is what keeps me coming back to a game. If there is enough to keep my mind engaged on my turn then I don't mind playing it. If the Luck factor is so strong in a game that no matter what you do you really have little chance to win if luck is not on your side I will quickly tire of the game and it will be relegated to the back of my gaming shelf. Dungeon roll is about 50-50 and thus it qualifies as a game to pull out occasionally but the luck aspect is kind of high for me. That said the luck is also mitigated by the short play time making it a decent time filler between bigger meatier games.

Now with all that said, the play of the game is simple enough. Each person gets three turns and when everyone has completed their three turns you want to be the one with the most experience. Dungeon Roll is a push your luck game and thus gaining experience is directly related to how lucky you feel you are when you get deeper into the dungeon. You start each turns with 7 dice each of which has 5 different hero Icons and one scroll. The Scroll is essentially one chance to re-roll some of your and/or  the dungeon dice. You roll the dice and that is your party of adventurers to go into the dungeon with. Each level of the dungeon you clear is worth one more experience you can leave the dungeon with this turn. I say you "can" meaning if you try the next level you will leave with nothing if you fail to defeat the monsters that you face. The monsters you will face are determined by the roll of the person to your left. They will roll one dungeon dice per level of the dungeon you are in, so level 1 rolls one die, while level 5 rolls 5. There are only three kinds of monsters plus the dragon. You only have to face the dragon if you accumulate 3 or more dragon icons during your time in the dungeon. Each dungeon die only has 3 sides that you will have to fight and each hero face on your party dice with the exception of two is strong against one type of monster, the Champion, has all the heroes' strengths, and the thief is strong against chests meaning he can open all the chests in a given level. Chests and potions are the two other sides of the Dungeon dice besides the three monsters and the Dragon.

You defeat monsters, open chests, and drink potions by spending (placing in spent pile known as the graveyard) hero dice. Chests when opened cost you a hero per (unless you use a thief) and will provide a treasure that can provide you with a variety of items, from extra experience to items representing more adventurers. The last thing on the dungeon dice is a potion, more often then not it does not seem to make a lot of sense to use a single potion since you have to give up a dice to use it. You give up that dice to gain one hero die back on any face you want, so you can convert a scroll to a hero but but only if you have at least one hero in the graveyard. The upside is any hero can drink as many potions as you have available in that level of dungeon so you can convert any hero die to three heroes from the graveyard  if you have three potions. Lastly, there is the dragon, as mentioned before you fight the dragon for extra experience and treasure when ever you have three or more accumulated dragon faces. You must have three different hero faces (not scrolls) to defeat a dragon, so be sure to keep a variety of heroes with you as you travel deeper.

Well that's it. Dungeon roll is simple game, with a little more meat than many filler dice games, ie Zombie or Pirate dice. I personally find it almost too simple though several members of my gaming group really liked it. One in particular who won every time no matter how far behind he was on the last turn. He needed what we thought was pretty much the max possible points on the last turn of the last game we played and managed to have potions after potions roll for him as he went down further giving him his party dice back almost every level. That is where luck really showed its ugly face. But that is how the dice roll sometimes. C'est La Vie. I give this game a 5 for what it is on scale of 1-10. May the monsters be generous and scarce on your adventure.

Challenges to Game Design - Functional

I have to say I really like creating new games, not computer games but good old fashioned cardboard, tokens and cards, board games. I like getting together with friends like those shown above and testing my mettle against them by solving the intricate challenges built into any of a number of these types of games. It seems like lately I have been conceiving a new game almost every two to three weeks. I find myself looking for ways to build a game around specific subjects, mechanics, and goals.

In recent months I have conceived no less than three different games; a deck builder/worker placement dungeon delve, a drafting/worker placement race to build a kingdom, and even a multi mechanic game about game design. The most former of those being almost ready for play testing. I spent much of the previous several years developing and almost completing a Football game that uses real NFL player stats and True to life game mechanics... That is where the title of this Blog comes into play. To be a product designer of any kind, games, Software (my day job), storage boxes (my first product to actually get to market was the Mage Cage), clothes you have to be able to solve many, many challenges. OK, I have no experience in clothing design, but I imagine you would face the same challenges. Some challenges are functional, some are financial, others are artistic, or logistical, some are even personal. Coming up with mechanics is my specialty connecting concepts to function, heck I think I am even pretty good at planning, mapping out the path to get from conception to retail. The latter comes from my experience getting the Mage Cage to market (that was fun adventure, I will have to post that story in the future.).

For this post I will speak of the first challenge Functional. Technically first challenge is coming up with an idea but if you don't have an idea yet you are not yet designing a game.The Football Game, which for now I will refer to as the Football Game, because it has changed names a multitude of times, is my first adult try (I created a fully functional game as a teenager, another story for a later date) at designing a game. It is at the same time my favorite and most hated creation. I think of it as my favorite mostly because it plays really cool, "cool" meaning "realistically" not well and that combined with my love for Football and my honest belief that as of yet no one has made the perfect Football incarnation for the table top makes it the game I most want to finish, well did want to finish. Do not get me wrong I will finish it. I have just finally come to the realization that if I refuse to work on my other ideas until it is done it may be another year or two before any more of my ideas make it to market. Why, you ask if it plays well, do I say that? Good question. The simple answer is, it's too slow. I have yet to come up with a way to keep the realism of football while streamlining the game play to a point where it can be finished in the desired play time. Ideas pop in and out of my head every few days but none have yet solved the problem. I am close. Who knows maybe it will be with me at convention in the near future, but I must progress at something or risk being stuck indefinitely. Functional challenges for me are fun. They are the meat of game design.

When designing a game you must consider things like complexity, is the game going to be meaty with lots of mechanics and/or objectives or is it going to be simple and fast, a race to the end; fluidity, do game actions roll smoothly and sensibly from one play to the next or is there a lot of player analysis slowing things down; Game length, idle time, player interaction, Theme and many other things. I actually have a list of consideration written down that I review when working on these games. Is there a perfect solution? I seriously doubt it but like baking different combinations and quantities of the same list of ingredients can combine to make most people happy but some will like some results better than others and vice-versa. Ultimately, a successful game will appeal to the largest variety of people.

The second key to functional design, in my opinion, is market niche. There has to be a place in the market for you game if you want a hit, which I do. Yes, there can be many other games of the same type if your game has a cool theme or a different mechanic but it probably won't be a hit it will just be one of many at best you can only hope for decent sales but it won't stand out. Sorry, the market has no room for another "hit" Zombie game no matter how unique the mechanics. Find a niche that plays well and like nothing else out there or whose theme has yet to be done right and that is the makings of hit.

No matter how much I like my game ideas, no matter how cool others think they sound. I will not release a game that does not meet these basic criteria and that is why the Football game I very much want to see released will await that epiphany.