“A note of caution: there is a bit of strong language in this article.”

It’s all super simple. One player commands Moloch robots and has to win couple of battles and in the end to destroy New York. The other player gets deck of The Outpost and has to stop them, has to slow and sabotages them. He needs to do whatever he can to not let Moloch reach New York.

On one hand I had these powerful machines marching towards New York. O, man, I was having fun designing them. I wanted them to be big and deadly. I gave Strength of 3 to most of the cards, I gave Strength of 4 to some of them and I even gave Strength of 5 here and there. Why not, huh? Huge robots that will destroy New York in a heartbeat. The moment Moloch player gets his cards, he will smile, and this smile will mean one thing: “Knock, knock, NY, is anybody here?”

Then I sat with The Outpost deck. O, man, that was fun! I wanted them to be fast, to be sneaky, and to be smart. I gave Strength of 1 to most of the cards. I gave Strength of 2 here and there. I looked at them and said: “You guys are in trouble. Good luck. Try to get out of the shit I just put you in.”

Asymetrical games. That is what I love. That is what I’ve built in Zombiaki in 2003. That is what I’ve built in Stronghold in 2009. That is what I am good at. Watch me. This is me at my best.

I was going to cross over the line with Moloch. I wanted them to be ridiculously strong. I gave them high numbers and then I gave them super abilities. Kill soldier. Protect other robot. Turn off The Outpost abilities. All that crazy stuff. Every single card was overpowered. That is lesson I learned from Michał Oracz – do abilities that rocks, do abilities that are so freaking awesome that players will get crazy. Then think about balance.

I was not thinking on balance yet. I was designing experience. I was building emotions. Moloch has to feel like a train – slow, but unfuckingstopabble.

So I kept crossing the line. I added Modules. Yes, additional parts that you can attach to the Robot to make him even stronger. Just in case you would like to show off. Stuff like +3 Strength . You know.

I looked at the deck and every single card was clearly OP. I loved it.

To The Outpost now. Hey guys, how are you? Not good? Look at you. You have Strength 1 on most of the cards. And you want to stop Moloch, huh? Do you have a plan? No?

Don’t worry. You got me. I’ll help.

You are guerrillas. You will jink battles. You will cheat. You will get Robots back in hand of Moloch player. You will move them to the other city. You will appear from nowhere, blow them and escape. You will block their movement. You will be fuckin’ cheating, because this is your only chance to win. You will loose three battles in a row and then you will hit him in his steel balls and trust me, you will hit him hard.

Yes, your average Strength is 1. I know that, I designed these cards. Yes, you have no chance in direct confrontation. I know that, I designed these cards. But please, stop whining, get a grip and think. Think! I gave you tools to outsmart Moloch. Use them wisely.

***

I had two amazing decks in Convoy. They played so different. I loved them both. And then it took me ‘only’ 6 months of day by day testing over and over to balance this shit.

Effect? I can’t wait for you to try it. I couldn’t be more proud.

Spring 2013, Lviv in Ukraine. I am at board games convention (surprise!). I’ve just played prototype of Mysterium and I am totally blown away. OMG, what a game! I played twice in a row and I have no doubt – I just found a treasure here. Right after game ends I talk with designers and try to convince them to sign a contract with Portal Games. I love the game. I need to publish it. I am not leaving Ukraine without Mysterium. No way. I am not leaving. Do you hear me? I am not leaving without without contract!

'We also have a pirate game.’ Oleksandr says. 'Do you want to see it?’

'Are you kidding? Of course I want!’

There are different port cards, there are different prices of goods in each port, we gather goods, then we sell them in port, we can change ports, we can look for treasure map, we have these pirates cards for role selection mechanism… These are your cards, these are your dice that represent your ships…

They explain me the rules and we start playing. There is a caravan of merchants we need to attack. We are pirates. They are merchants. We attack them. Sounds legit. I can do that, I can sink merchants.

Oleksandr takes all my dice, do the same with his, with Oleg’s and with merchant’s dice, then shakes them all and with no word of warning or any explanation at all he tosses them all into box.

'We battle’ he says with his Russian accent.

OMG. OMG. OMG. He just took more than 20 dice, shaked them and threw into box! OMG. This is awesome.

What a cool idea. These guys are golden.

The idea of tossing dice into box is amazing. It’s fresh. It’s unique. It’s thematic. And what’s most important – it’s fun. Gathering these 20+ dice and throwing them into box… It’s pure fun. It’s like the essence of gaming, it’s like our wildest dreams come true. Take bunch of dice, throw them and see what happened. Brilliant.

I didn’t like the rest of the game as much though. We were struggling with that for couple of months, I was asking Oleg and Oleksandr for changes, but they were pulling project in a different direction. I wanted upgrades, they wanted role selection. I wanted special powers, they wanted port with prices and set collection of goods.

At some point it was clear – we have two different games in heads. Two games connected with this one brilliant idea of tossing dice into box.

This year there will be two pirate games that uses 3d Dice Battle System released. Different games that were born on one common fundament invented by Oleksandr Nevskiy and Oleg Sidorenko. There is mine game called Rattle, Battle, Grab the Loot and there is Pirates of 7th Seas. Both use tossing dice into box. And both take this base idea in a very different direction and game play.

Try them if you have a chance. It’s a pure and crazy fun packed into cardboard box.

(this is guest post by Michał Walczak)

It’s just another average day at Portal Games. I work on new version of our next strategy game. I update rules, I print new cards for prototype, that kind of stuff. I love this job.

At some point Ignacy approaches me and shows me prototype of Tides of Time. Micro game about building macro civilization. Rules can be explained in 2 minutes, you play in 10 minutes and what is most crucial – you want to play again. I love it since the first game. 'Where is a problem here?’, I ask.

Ignacy lays out cards on the table and shows me. There is 5 suits in the game. Some suits are scored more often. Player with three Libraries in hand will score less than player with three Towers. We need to balance this mess.

Numbers! Suits become numbers, everything changes like Matrix. I can sum up values, I can calculate probabilities, I can do math. Yeah, I love math. I turn on my laptop, I open Excel and I start to work. I am so excited.

Soon after Ignacy contacts me with Kristian Curla, designer of the game. And soon after I discover he is mathematician. He works at University. He knows math.

Oh, my. It will be hard to say that I just did some calculations and I know better. He is mathematician. He is shark in this pool.

Anyway, I start working. Towers can’t be stronger than Libraries. Red can’t be stronger than blue. A can’t be stronger than C. I know my job. I fixed everything, the game was balanced, suits were symetrical. Tides of Time fixed. Ignacy will be proud of me.

Actually he wasn’t. After we played he said something like 'It’s boring. You broke the game. It’s not fun anymore.’

Fun. Yeah, I might forgot about fun factor element.

Ignacy wants cards that shake the game. Ignacy wants balance. Ignacy wants more types of cards. Ignacy wants it all on this 18 cards.

Basically he wants me to land Boeing 747 in a phone booth.

That’s what working at Portal is. Doing impossible. So I have math shark on Skype, I have Ignacy in the office. It’s time to work. It won’t be easy, but I will land this damn Boeing in a phone booth. Oh, yes, I will.

18 cards. Time for changes.
Card that scores if you don’t have all suits. Nope, too easy.
Card that works as wild suit. Nope, too easy.
Card that scores each suit you have majority in. Nope, too similar to other strategies already in the game.
Card that score if you have 3 non scoring cards. Nope, it is playing against the goal of the game.
Card that scores if you got more points than opponent. Nope, it’s snowball effect.
Card that copies other card. Nope…
Card that…

I don’t want to sound like complaining but this is hard. You have these ideas for cards, you come up with one idea after another, you put them on the table and you hear over and over 'Nope. Trash it.’

At some point I was asked by Lucas when we are ready with the game. He needed to write rulebook. My answer was simple 'I wish I know.’

We have time tables, we have scheduled work, we have releases planned for Gen Con or Essen, we try our best to do everything as planned. But above that, above planned release date, above marketing and buzz opportunities we have if we get the game for big fair, above all of that is just 'Not good enough. Trash it.’ Mantra that keeps games on play testing tables as long as it is needed.

We wanted Tides of Time for Gen Con. We wanted it really badly. Gen con release is huge for every publisher on this planet. And yet, there was no single moment of me, Kristian or Ignacy saying 'Stop trashing. We need to go to production stage”. We had layout. We had artwork. We had box ready and yet there was struggle, there was testing, there was trashing and looking for best set of 18 cards.

We have them. We have 18 cards. Cards that can shake things. Cards that are balanced. Cards that work in many different ways. We landed a Boeing 747 in a phone booth. Here, at Portal Games everything is possible.

For the past few weeks I have super intense testing sessions. Super intense ass kicking in a fact. I play with the best players I know to balance new faction for Imperial Settlers. That means they beat me over and over. They get results I will never made. Then they look at me like I am this lousy boy who does his best but he just don’t have enough talent. Poor boy, they think. Every time they destroy me and look at me with this look, I want to punch their face and say something like: „I design this game in the first place you smartass!”

But I don’t punch them. I say nothing. I just ask for another game. And I get beaten again.

***

It’s really hard to explain. I talked with many fellow designers and most of them say the same – we can’t play our own designs. We get beaten over and over.

Why is that? Why we, people who know the game the best, people who know every single card, every single connection, synergy, why we are unable to use them and win? What’s wrong with us?

Anyone knows? Anyone?

This is a guest post by Charles Beauvais
You can learn about his game and back it at Kickstarter!

„What are you playing?”, she asked.
„It’s a new game idea I’m tinkering with.” I replied, somewhat distractedly.
„I want to play.”, she said.
„It’s not ready yet.”
The first thing you learn about game design is that your initial attempts are always bad. Not just unbalanced, or filled with unclear edge cases, or too fiddly, but really bad. The opposite of fun.
As such, I always do some solo playtesting before inflicting the game on anyone else. Sara, my wife, is often the first innocent victim of unfinished designs.

„I still want to play.”, she insisted.
„I don’t even know what the rules are yet. I’m just rolling the dice and moving pieces around.” I replied.
„But, you’re coloring!”

***

We had played a lot of Matt Leacock’s Roll Through the Ages, and I thought it would be an interesting design space to explore. In particular, the one side of each die where a player had to choose between 2 food and 2 workers. My goal was to combine RTtA with something like Delve, the solo dungeon-crawl dice game. In my mind, it was „Roll Through the Dungeon”, where the symbols on the dice would be swords, shields, wands, etc.
But, before I could allocate the symbols appropriately, I wanted to get a sense for the probabilities. I replaced the symbols with colors, and now I could roll 4 green, for example, or 2 purple. But what to do with them?
I sketched out a landscape scene: a river, tree, bird, sun, and arbitrarily assigned weights to them – this required 4 yellow, that required 2 green. And this nascent game is what my wife wanted to play.

***
A few weeks later, Sara’s mom (my primary Dominion opponent) was visiting. One morning, Sara woke me up.
„You’ve got to print out more puzzles. We’ve already colored in all the ones we could find.”

***
We’re out shopping, and I pick up a few boxes of crayons that are on sale, half-price.
„Buy more”, advises Sara, but I’m not sure.
„I’m still working on the game, and it might be a dud. I don’t want to be stuck with boxes of crayons.”
„You should buy them while they are on sale.”
„I’m sure crayons go on sale periodically. There’s plenty of time.”
Did I mention this was during September? When all the stores have their back-to-school sales? Periodically is right, I’d have to wait a year before crayons would be that cheap again.

***

„What is that?”
„It’s my coloring for this stained glass puzzle. I’m going to for an even distribution of the six colors.”
„It looks like a clown threw up. Print a blank copy for me, please.”
You be the judge. My version actually inflicts damage on the eyes.

***
Before finding a publisher, I created some copies of the prototype to demo and sell. While „how much would you pay for this game?” is a good question for playtesters, it’s even more powerful when it’s not hypothetical. I started with a print run of 250 dice, then another 250-die run, followed by two 1000-die print runs. That’s 2500 dice, all of which had to be stickered by hand. Each face of each die had two stickers, so, yes, we (with help from our friends) applied 30,000 stickers.
Three of the four corners can be stickered easily. Is it a purple die? Surround one corner with purple stickers, another corner with blue, and another corner with red. Simple. The last corner, however, required the remaining three colors in a specific configuration. For all 2500 dice, Sara was the only person I trusted (other than myself) to do this correctly.

***

I’m teaching the game to some new friends, and I start explaining the color bank mechanic.
„Wait,” interrupts Sara, „that’s not how it works.”
„Yes it is. I’ve changed it.”
„Well this new version is stupid. The last version was much more powerful.”
She’s right. The new version is weaker, but much simpler to explain. New players didn’t understand the old version, and thus didn’t use it correctly.
Game designers aren’t the only ones who find it hard to let go of clever mechanics. It affects early playtesters, too.

***

It’s 8:00 PM. We’ve just had dinner, and we sit down to sticker some more dice.
„I think it’s time.”, Sara says.
„Okay, let’s just finish this batch of dice.”
„Okay”.
We finish the last batch of dice, and then drive to the hospital. Twelve hours later, our daughter is born.

***

„The publisher wants to add a trading phase at the start of each round.” I inform Sara.
„That won’t work. It’ll slow the game down too much. It’ll be a disaster.” she replies.
I also have my doubts. I could see the need for more interaction, but I was worried about slowing down a quick-moving game.
„We won’t know until we give it a try.”
We try it with some friends, who are new to the game, so we introduce trading after they’ve got the basic flow of the game going. And what do you know? It works. It doesn’t slow down the game, it gets players to interact with each other, pleading, threatening, and having a great time. It’s a great addition.

***

There are many emotions involved in game design: elation, despair, pride, and disappointment. But I’d like to talk about gratitude. I wouldn’t have been able to produce this game without Sara’s help and support. She’s guided me through the disappointment of being rejected (again) by potential publishers, and she’s shared the joy of reading great player feedback. She’s supported me in this crazy dream of being a game designer, and I hope I can show the same support in her next ambitious project.