Here's the latest version of the Tangata Manu board. It has 2 less rows than the last version and I added the spaces for Draw and Discard piles. The game plays very nicely now. The original version took a long time before players started releasing boulders to squish the other climbers. Now it happens much faster. I also feel there is much more overlap of trail travel on this board. I don't think the game is too long anymore but I have only play tested it with two players and 3 players so far. I still need to try a four player game a few times.
This would be too expensive for me to produce on my own so I'm about ready to start shopping it to publishers. I'm sure it will meet a lot of the same dead ends that my other games have run into.
click the image to enlarge it.
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4 comments:
Hiya Bobby,
Beautiful board again. You say that you're about to start shopping it to publishers but that you've not had much luck in the past - how many times have you played it? And with how many people?
I must have played Border Reivers over a hundred times before I published it, and with around twenty or thirty different people, and I think in hindsight that was probably not enough - how do you do your playtesting?
Cheers,
Jack
Thanks - I feel this game is ready to go. Even with very little play testing. Most of my play testing is done first by myself then with the family and then with friends. I'll also bring these games along to any game nights I go to. We host a game night the first Saturday of every month so I always bring out a prototype or two. This game's only been played about 20 time at this point with maybe 7 different people so far. I would play test it more if I could find more play testers. This is a very straight forward game. Some of my games just feel right when you're playing them. This one only seemed to have the one problem develop so far and that was length of play. Now that it's shorter it flows much better. Most of my game designs have been fairly simple. Quick to learn games. I try to give people a lot of choices with very few items.
Hiya Bobby,
I think you're right - a lot of it comes down to feeling the game is 'ready'. If you're able to get to that stage quickly well done - that's a very handy skill :-)
It takes ages to get one of my games ready (mainly down to lack of experience), and sadly time is a luxury I don't have at the moment.
Cheers,
Jack
Time is the biggest problem. Work all day, wife and kids in the evenings. And then there are all those other hobbies and chores!
I also have to devote time to my T-shirt company, do freelance artwork and my licensed line of fairy art.
Another problem I have with game designing is that I have too many concepts. I currently have the following prototypes fully play tested and ready to go:
Peg Leg's Plank (Planksters)
Battlin Bones
Broadsides and Buccaneers
Hatchlings
Dueling Dice
Cutthroat
These were all created in about 3 months.
I have way too many other ideas for games I know I'll never get them all done. I have to keep a journal of concepts, mechanics and themes. Actually I guess they're on notes scattered all over the place.
Dueling Dice is most likely going to be produced as a licensed game. I'm waiting for the licensor to play the game and approve it. This would be my first published game. I was trying to self publish Hatchlings but it's proving to be too costly. I might self produce Peg Leg's though.
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