That was totally
great time with my friends! They give me valuable feedbacks for improving my
PnP game! I have several students in CA major and they are all female.
I think my theme and game style are attract female then
male. About 80% of them said the game was too passive. They liked details but
some of them expected more dynamic mechanics.
Here is my Exit Question list;
How many time you played? Once? Twice?
Once.
Most people play once. Whole game designed at least 2 phases, because double
champion will be the winner of the game, but they did not understand the rule
correctly. After I explain it, they realized the rule.
=
Make sure the important rule should be more dominant part of my rulebook.
Do you want to play it again?
Fortunately,
they want to do this game again! They like the game because not much
complicated and not too long.
Do you understand how the play? Rules?
Not
completely. They did understand almost of the rules, like 70%, but they could
not play good enough at the beginning. They could not start the game because
they confused about the game setting.
How I
put the grids on the board?
Are
there extra grids for every player?
Who
goes first?
What
should I first?
Mostly, they did not understand the setting
part of rulebook.
If you understand the rules, can you play it
easily? If you don’t understand the rules, what is the most confusing part?
Turn order?
Sadly,
no one figure it out until I explain. One of my friends played it completely
different way. She took all of the grids and put on the side of board and
picked it up and placed on the board. It is also nice way to building a route,
but it is not my intension…
How do you think the level of game? Super easy?
Easy? Normal? Hard? Confuse?
The
people who did not understand the rules said it is normal level because they
could not understand the rule easily. Rest of people said easy but agreed with
the others’ opinion. They also said the game mechanic is pretty simple and
easy.
Which element do you think fun? Shark? Whirlpool?
Reef? Or Wave direction?
They
trilled when they flipping the grid. The most popular one is Red Shark trap and
whirlpool trap. They said the first one is horrible and second one is annoying.
Do you feel the game is fair?
In
this game, grid order decides everything. So, they felt helpless because
player’s decision did not much affect on the game. I think player still have to
make decision like moving or replacing the grid and this decision brings a
critical affects to the entire game.
This game theme is surfing; do you think it is
suitable with the game style?
They
did not realize the theme because the prototype game has very minimalized
illustration.
Do you have any suggestion? Advice?
The
most critical problem is the player who reaches the final gird, right before
the goal piece, did not know what to do. The directional arrow on the gird does
not connect the path correctly, so that makes the player confuses. Also no one
interrupt the player’s way, so literally the player who reaches the grid
located on right before the goal gird will be a winner automatically even if
the player did not reach the goal yet.
And
another problem is each player has her own boundaries. The player did not have
to interrupt other player’s path and did not have to go further than 4 girds.
This problem makes the game really flat and boring.
So, following suggestion of my friend;
reversing the start point.
Goal
point will be the start point, and the start point will be the goal point. This
is very simple and effective way to fix the problem. Additionally, in the start
point, all player must start on the same point, each player choose the
direction randomly and play. The direction should be opposite way from the
destination, so it helps to use more space of game board.
Also, one more suggestion is point system.
To
solve the boundary problem, all of player must collect several points before
reach the goal. It is nice way to lead the player goes further than 4 grids.
