Shush! I'm Working!

It's amazing what counts as work these days :-)

Yesterday I spent the morning starting to go through the rules of the submissions I have requested, they've not all arrived, but those that have arrived I can take a look at. It's much slower going than the first pass, I have to read the rules, figure out in my head how I think the game will work and then make a decision. So far I've asked for prototypes of three, and rejected two.

At lunchtime I stopped to print, cut out and write some new cards for Network in time for an afternoon of playtesting with Paul. I had a new idea that I wanted to try out, I was worried the game felt a bit too random, a bit out of control. Also, I was worried that a run away winner could not be caught up. Paul and I spent the afternoon trying out variations on that theme. The version we ended up with at the end of the afternoon worked really well two-player, I've not had a chance to try it out with more yet. I had a really good afternoon, Paul make a great playtester (load of really useful ideas and insightful probing of potential problem areas), and it was nice to just hang out playing games - while working!

Today I did a bit more on the submissions, then I had another idea for Network. I printed, cut out and wrote some more cards. Tomorrow I'll solo them to see if they work at all, and try it with three and four (virtual) players. I hope to try it with real people on Sunday and Tuesday next week. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out with both three and four players.

In other news, I've now lined up meetings with the manufacturer and my small business advisor for next week, that'll be all three of the meetings I wanted to organise sorted.