Patterns start to emerge

This month brought more testing of the board game with it.

This time I managed to get 4 games tested while observing the players during their games, and noting down potential pressure points and issues that could lead to stalled games. One such issue being the ability for a player to ‘undo’ the move another player has made just before them. Having this be possible leads to a feeling of what the first player did, didn’t actually matter. And since I want the player to feel a certain level of agency during the game, this has had to be solved. Currently my choice is to do what a lot of other games do, and make it so that specific reactions can not be done in the turn immediately after. This situation is very similar to a situation in the classic game GO, where a move that leads to an immediate repetition of the board state is considered an illegal move.

With the playtests done during this session and the ones from the session in July 2024, I am starting to get a better sense of the strengths and weaknesses of the current iteration. In the end the addition of using cards to guide the players options have proven quite popular, even if the numbers I have initially gone with are not fine tuned. I used the previous amount of board pieces I 3D printed to be a limiting factor for how many of a specific piece is available, and this is also a point where adjustments need to be made. For the next test I am considering limiting the options of some of the more open-ended options like the 4-way and 3-way connecting pieces that often gets picked over other options when adding to the players own path, as this allows them to keep their options more open, and I need to test if having less access to them influences the players’ decisions.

This time around the cloud pieces, I added the last time, actually saw play, and the players seemed to enjoy them, although some wordings I had put in the rules were confusing and needed rephrasing. This is a minor issue and a simple fix for now. But it will be interesting to see if the clouds continue to be used by the players. I do need to remake the pieces to be more transparent as even though the rules say the piece below is ‘inactive’ for pathing when the cloud is present, it is still important for the players to know the connections the piece offers, as the validity of an adjacent piece needs to still be matching in case the cloud piece gets moved away.

The next update might be level design focused as I am heavily considering doing something for Blocktober this year.