Post by Zoql in Scrappet Kaiser Princess - A 1p board game. Now playtesting!

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Welp I decided to test it anyway. So during a quick game, here are my thoughts:

- I think it's the white font on blue bg, but I didn't notice that the Binder showed my Ego and Bucks until midgame. Is it possible to show these numbers always? Like in a corner? If that's too much work that's fine
- Definitely add a way to view what cards are in DSD's deck. Or even letting us look at the card back (which is a deck reference, albeit a somewhat cryptic one) during the planning phase would be fine
- Not a big deal, but I kind of wish the playground cards showed up in the playground instead of in the binder tab so it's easier to see what's changed. I almost missed out on a strong card because I didn't see what was in the playground until I was ready to start the day
- I assume the next day screen would show Mindy and her current friends? Bc I would love that. I haven't made full Smug Mindy/Ultra Mint art other than her face, but I think I'll do that so she can show up during the late game. I'll put that along with full sad kid art in the art folder tomorrow.
- Speaking of which, is it possible to have a Home space that all the tokens start on, or would that be too much trouble?
- Also I like the idea of losing a friend and seeing their token still there (with the sad art) but not being able to interact with them. Would that be possible?
- Bug: I lost my Starter card and I did not lose Jessa during the final round. (I had Rotten Puddle and it was in the Playground for a couple rounds. On Day 6 I sent her there with nothing to pick it up, but Teenagers ruined that. Yet during the final day she was still my friend and gained me a buck.)
- There should be something at the end explaining how the score was added up because I don't trust it lol. I got 72 pts this first game and if I remember correctly I had 50 Ego, and at least 40pts in my binder (Lumby, Carl, and Dog Bower's Dad were there with a couple 7s). That doesn't include any bucks I had or Jessa still being there (even though she shouldn't have been)
- Will you be adding the endings from the rulebook as well?
- Also will you be adding the full Event card art for each event? The new art should add a lot of fun flavor, and also has references to three other Bruised Ego characters.

One final suggestion for before I go to bed: The Binder is supposed to be a gift for Mindy's birthday, and is given to her at the start of the game. So at the beginning of the game, before opening the starter card, is it possible to show the binder with the 4 friend photos in it? Then we follow that up with the photo of Mindy receiving her card? If the binder part requires some more art on my part, I can easily do that I think

Zoql3 years ago (2 edits)

Played a couple rounds on cheat mode, mostly to see the screens for designing. But I do have a few concerns:

- I lost a friend when I wasn't supposed to. Only the first time you hit a specific Ego level will you lose a friend. I had dropped below 25 due to Carl's effect, then went back up to 28. At 25 it told me to lose a friend again, which shouldn't happen. When you have two friends left, the next point you would lose friends would be at 35 ego.
- I haven't tested it yet, but I noticed it in the earlier prototype. You can lose multiple friends in a single round as well. Since the 35 and 40 points are so close, it's common (in my playtests) to lose those last two friends in the same round.
- Mindy should still be able to trade at the Playground
- Just reiterating how the final score is calculated: The amount of Ego you have + the number of Bucks you have + 10 per each remaining friend + the total strength of all cards in your Binder. I did a max point, Jessa-only run and only scored 105 points when I should have scored 171 points. I'm not sure what about the score is missing but something isn't adding up. A max point, all friends remain run (theoretically bc I messed up) should give 114 points BEFORE binder scoring, and my score with the cards I had should have been 145 (I lost a friend so I actually had... 150?), whereas I got only 98 points.

Also, not entirely related to the digital version, but I edited the rulebook a bit. I reduced the FAQ and added all the clarifications concerning specific cards in the card list area. Some things that haven't come up yet I have clarified there, like stuff about Eggbert and Rotten Puddle.

Anyway, here's a quick screen design for planning screen 1 (action selection screen):

The right third of the screen would generally remain the same for both planning screens (I'll edit this with more screens as I finish them), and nothing interactive should be in that area (have the tokens start in the Home space). Whenever your cursor goes over a particular card or object, the relevant card or information should appear in the area where Mindy's ability currently is. This way, players know exactly where to look each time they want information.

The binder is a quick mockup, but if the sizes are good for you, we can just use that

Planning screen 2:

I forgot to add the Day on the first screen and a Ready button but they should roughly in the same spot as here.
I mentioned on the first screen that nothing interactable should be on the right side, but on this screen, players should be able to drag cards from the binder to the kid they want. I considered doing the same with Bucks, but that would have been a little cumbersome.

MeBID3 years ago

Here's a newer build with some issues fixed and some new graphics for the first few screens.

https://mega.nz/file/V8UXzQYS#LIeS-vb-51SIXcPaU817NGKeaVPpr2ct-Efm1OzZ3YA
I'm still working on the alignment for the kid inventories, but let me know if the stuff that's closer to the design images are incorrect.
Those two screens are the most complicated, so hopefully I'll be faster on the future ones.

Some bugfixes
- Jessa should be able to go anywhere with Bossy Bestie now.
- Jessa should unfriend properly if you lose your starter.
- The unfriending of the others should work as expected now.
- Score should be added up accurately (you were only getting 1 point per card instead of the card's strength).

Plus
- All card art added.
- Event cards added.
- New fonts.

As far as I can see, Mindy can still trade at the playground. The only two scenarios where it won't happen are:
- Automatically if she doesn't have the strength + bucks + ego to trade for any of the cards.
- The player presses cancel when she doesn't have enough strength + bucks and they don't want to spend ego.

After seeing the event cards, I wonder if maybe you'd like to do a two stage approach to showing some of them.
Looking at Intense Dodgeball as an example, the texts imply Spliff is at the playground, but it's possible the player didn't send him there on the day that the event is drawn or that he's even unfriended at that point.
I was thinking in the reveal screen that currently exists, instead of showing the entire card, just show the blue part that explains the event. And then before the scene the event affects, if it's effect actually applies, reveal the entire card.

Zoql3 years ago

This is pretty good! I'll need to make screens for the parts for the playground and whatnot but it's pretty cool!

- I forgot to add a DSD deck reference when I designed planning screen 2. That could be added by just showing the reference when hovering over "Alley"
- I agree about the Events. It's fine in the board game because you know they're just random cards, but in the digital version it should try to reflect the game state a little better. This suggestion would be more work and is a little unnecessary, but it would be fun it the texts animated... Anyway, did you need me to send a separate image for each Event notification?
- I'm currently working on a nice title screen and an actual logo (the Scrappet Kaiser logo is for the card game not the board game lol), but after that I'll try to whip up a design for trading and pocket-to-binder stuff... If I have time after making a tutorial video, I'll see if I can make a nicer duel screen as well

I have to admit, I was fairly skeptical about this digital version being done before the deadline, but this is actually coming along very nicely! I'm impressed! You've got a lot done in such a short time. I still have a few concerns though... I do like how the automated rules make the game move much faster in the digital version, and it's definitely more accessible too, but I put a lot of work in the presentation of the board game version. In the digital version, you miss out on little touches like physically removing photos from the binder (this could be done digitally, but I think it would slow down the pace of the game), or being able to put Griswald together, or flipping over Mindy's phone for the next notification...

I guess what I'm saying is, when I submit this game to the jam, I'll be putting files for both versions in there, suggesting that the board game version has more character while the digital version is more accessible. I hope Kyle plays both versions, but if he were to choose just one, I would nudge him toward the board game and try to help him with the rules from the chat since I plan on being there

Zoql3 years ago (1 edit)

This took longer than I expected but I love it. Here is the title screen/box art

If my scrappet doodles didn't make it clear enough though, I'm really bad at drawing shoes

EDIT:

A few things I noticed while playing the digital version: The description for the Store and Playground mention "coins" instead of "bucks."

Anyway, here are some screen designs:

Playground trading:

And the screen for moving cards from Pocket to Binder:

MeBID3 years ago

That's awesome!

For the events, if you have all the parts as individual elements then I could probably whip up a quick animation for the texts.

Zoql3 years ago

Alright, I made an Event folder in the link and will be dropping off the parts in there.

By the way, I started writing up the submission page for this game, and while I suppose it doesn't matter too much, I'm not sure what to classify this project as. It's a board game, but it's not yet a physical game, and also has a digital version... Also I'm pretty new to this and I want to send you this key to the game page so you can be a co-creator and can add your own screenshots/update the game files without having to go through me, but I don't see a way to send a private message here... Um... I think I'll also drop that in the event folder

MeBID3 years ago (1 edit)

Sweet as. I've grabbed the key and linked up if you want to remove it to avoid others doing the same.
Edit: I'm not sure it lets me do any editing/uploading though.

Zoql3 years ago

Okay I think I figured it out. I uploaded a new link in the folder

MeBID3 years ago

Looks like that one worked.

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