My ants were about to take home a big score:  Kiwi, Lemon, Cookie, half of a PB&J, and then disaster struck! A water hazard into peanut meant I was only a single move away from winning and scoring, but alas, my poor ants died.

Still had fun. Played several games, but that was the most memorable one despite it being a loss.

Excellent to have, worked without issue.

My hunter ate a slime pizza and wacked the evil Demon Lord with a golden spatula and a knife. Managed to win on my first try by getting a lucky double 6 on the final turn of the game. Fun jam game.

Went on an investigation and learned too much of the truth at once. Went insane and died. Had a good time.

Thank You Again!

I'd like to thank each and every one of you for your participation and interest in the first game jam I've ever run here on Itch.io. As you all work to polish your games and get them submitted this week, remember that the there's still a bit more to come after. Here's what's left on the agenda:

• November 1st at midnight the jam comes to an end (this means you technically get one bonus day for any last-minute adjustments).
  • By this time your game should be submitted with all relevant files outlined in the submission details. If you have a build on Tabletop Simulator people can download, please feel free to provide a link to that in the material as well.
• From November 1st onward, community voting will be open for two weeks. During this time play other people's games, rate them, and provide helpful feedback based on your experience. Remember to be kind with feedback, it's OK to point out flaws, but focus on the positives too. A good ratio is two positive things for every one negative one.
• After the community voting period ends, the top finishers overall will be subject to the judges votes. As long as there are at least five submissions, we plan to examine the top five games and pick our top three from among them. Otherwise, we will look at the top three and vote on them accordingly. This process will also take about two weeks to complete.
  • Once our voting has concluded, winners will be contacted via itch.io so that they may contact us to receive their prizes. Reminder for groups, we'll be contacting the person who submitted the project for this, it's up to you guys after to distribute prizes and such after the fact.
  • Finalists will also be contacted as part of a special bonus which we're still holding off on announcing, but trust me, it'll be cool ;)
  • After we've contacted everyone, you'll have 48 hours to respond. If you fail to do so, we'll assume you forfeit the win and adjust the prize distributions accordingly.
• The jam will officially be over!

It's been quite a journey and I hope all of you have had fun and continue to have fun

 Thank you again for being a part of this,

-Jon and the Tabletop Creator Crew

How's Everyone Doing?

As we move toward the end of the jam I hope you are all having fun and sticking to your goals for getting your game finished by the deadline. It's OK if you're still not quite there yet, but this is the last week you should really be messing with anything big on the mechanical side of things. Remember, right now your focus should be playtesting and refinement. After that, get your rules and whatever incomplete art you have as polished as possible. It's OK if you aren't a professional artist, your game isn't being judged solely on how it looks, but nicer looking games will have a slight edge when it comes to community voting.

Anyway, I don't have too much to add this week. Instead, if you need help with testing or need feedback on your designs, drop a line here or on the Discord. People are willing to help out if you ask, but they won't know you need help if you don't. Keep at it and don't lose heart, you're so close to the finish line and I believe in all of you!

Until next week,

-JS

Thank you for your participation! We have folks from all around the world participating and that's really cool. We are looking forward to trying your game :)

Sounds like you have a plan and that you're making steady progress to get yourself to the finish line. Keep up the good work!

Heya Folks!

We're half of the way into the jam and I hope everyone is having fun designing their game. As we work our way through the week, many of you are likely to begin playtesting if you haven't already. This week's thread offers advice on playtesting as you continue to refine your game idea. Without further ado, let's dive into that now!

Playtesting Advice

Now that many of you have a solid idea as to what your game will generally look like, it's time to make sure it's fun to play and works well as a game. Playtesting is a vital component of game design and is a step that can't be skipped. Even if you're testing with barebones cards, that's fine, art and all that comes during the polishing stage once we're confident in our design. And you guessed it, we become confident through testing and iteration.

Even though this jam asks participants to create a solo experience, ideally, you'll be testing with people other than yourself. The reason to do this is to collect better feedback. Since you designed your own game, you know it best and are likely to overlook aspects that may be in need of tweaking. If possible, our first tip is:  Ask others to play your game.

Remember, Tabletop Creator allows you to create files for Tabletop Simulator with ease as well as printing if you prefer physical components. Personally, I find digital testing to be cheaper and easier as I'm able to adjust content and iterate on ideas much faster as the testing process reveals places where my design my be weak.

If that's not possible, you can still test on your own. But if you do, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Your game is too hard! - Like I just said, you know your game best as the designer, and as such, if you think your game is too easy... it's not. I promise that once other people get your game in their hands, it'll be harder than you anticipated. If you find it too easy, go a step further and make it just a little bit easier than that and you should be in a good spot.
• Look for the fun - Above all else, your game should be fun. If there are any aspects of your design that aren't contributing to the fun--get rid of that stuff! Strip away anything extra until you're left with a lean, but fun experience. From there, it'll be easier to add more to the game if that's needed as this process will reveal potential flaws in the design.
• It's actually fun to lose - I know, I know, this runs counter to what most people expect, but it's true. I've found that if a solo game can only be won about 40-49% of the time, people will be more willing to come back for just "one more game" as the games will usually be close. Even for more luck-based games. Don't be afraid to let your players fail, but pay attention to how often that's happening as you test. If you're only losing, or worse, only winning, you probably have a problem in the design.

That's it for this week's post. I've been enjoying all the updates in the Discord but don't be afraid to post here as well. What advice do you have when it comes to playtesting? Has it revealed anything interesting to you about game design so far? Let us know in the comments and I'll see you next week as we work to finish testing and move towards a polishing stage.

Until then, happy creating!

Excited to have you on board! It's great to see people trying new things and I'm sure your game will be quite fun :)

Heya Folks!

First off, a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has signed up for this so far. All of us judges and the Tabletop Creator crew are super excited to see what kind of games you end up creating. That's what this week's check-in thread is all about! We want to see your progress and give everyone a space to hold themselves accountable for meeting their progress goals. But first, make sure you stop by the FAQ page to see the updated information as we had some good questions lately.

In this thread, start with a short introduction. Tell us if this is your first time designing a game or if you're a seasoned veteran. But not just that, share one or two other bits about yourself. This could be anything you'd like:  your favorite color, book, movie or game; what you do for a living; other hobbies you have like sewing or mountain climbing. Whatever you'd like us to know.

Then, share what progress you've made so far. It doesn't matter how much or how little you have, offer a small taste of what your project might end up looking like, or at the very least, what you're shooting for. This can help you to get early feedback on your idea as others do the same. Even though this is a competition, we're also here to learn from and support one another. That means if you're stuck, it's OK to post that too, but be sure to explain why your stuck and what kind of advice you might be looking for.

For those of you who might be stuck. Take a deep breath and give yourself a day to not think about this project. Go do something else that you really enjoy and then come back the day after and see if that doesn't help with your creativity. Often, when we get stuck, we just need a little break to reset and then we can fire on all cylinders. Of course, this thread should be a great source of inspiration too.

After that, I have a couple of questions I'd like you to answer in your post. Ready?

• What are your goals for the week? Goals should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and of course, Time-Bound. These are called SMART goals and will help you reach the finish line with the jam project. If you've never used this method before, I encourage you to give it a try during this jam. Most of what these mean are self-explanatory, but if you need more info on how to set SMART goals, you can find that at this link.
• What game(s) inspired the game you're trying to create for this jam? How are they influencing your design decisions? This is a great way to highlight other awesome games and help inspire anyone who might be stuck.
• How do you like Tabletop Creator so far? This one is pretty straightforward, tell us what you've been enjoying about the program so far and anywhere it might be falling short (who knows, our awesome community may know the solution to your issues).

That's it for this week's check in. I hope it's going well for everyone, and as always, happy creating!

Let's Get Ready to Jam & Toast!

Heya folks, I wanted to put together a resource page to get you started on your game design journey. I know it can be intimidating to make a game from scratch. However, I believe in each and every one of you and want to give you all the tools you might need to succeed. In this post I'll be sharing FREE resources along with a few tips and tricks to get you started. This post won't be locked, so if you have anything you'd like to add to help out your fellow designers, please include them in the comments.

Resources

Solo gaming is bigger than you might think, but at the same time, you may not have had the chance to play one yourself. For our first resource, I'm including an almost hour long video that goes into depth about what solo board gaming is, what kinds exist, and how you might go about designing your own.

However, I don't want to leave you without a playable example. While it doesn't meet the criteria of this jam, here's what I was able to accomplish with just a deck of playing cards with Blackjack Bounty. I hope that by poking around in my game (or even giving it a try for yourself), you'll be able to gain insight and inspiration for your design. Remember, you're game doesn't have to resemble solitaire--it can be any genre as long as it follows the rules.

Now that you have an idea of what you might be doing, it's time to talk presentation. Tabletop Creator has plenty to offer built-in, but it's not an art tool--its job is to help you compile layouts and make swift edits to content with its more advanced variable features. As a result, you might find yourself in need of art or illustration tools. I've recommended Canva already as a great place to create assets, backgrounds and other elements you might need for your game's design. Here are a few other useful tools:

• Pixabay - This is a stock image website that has everything from photos to illustrations to vector-based art. Do be aware that this is community curated and some stuff sneaks on to the site that shouldn't be there, but as long as you exercise common sense (if you see Sonic, for example, obviously that's not your IP) you'll be safe to use nearly anything you can find there.
• Kenny's Board Game Icons - While Tabletop Creator has an icon library, you may want access to more. Kenny has so many amazing free resources for all type of game designers and he didn't leave board gamers out.
• Notion - For teams, Notion is a great way to keep everyone and everything organized. You can also create your rulebook and export it as a PDF here as well. It's free but there are premium options so do be aware. That said, Google Docs is a good alternative if you don't want to mess with something fancier.
• DaFont - Looking for fonts? Look no further. The link sends you to a pre-setup search for 100% free or public domain fonts that you can use commercially. You might have to do a bit of looking to find the perfect font for your game, but font is an easy way to make your game look and feel even better.
• Pixlr - Don't have Photoshop? Don't want to mess around trying to learn GIMP? Here's a free, browser-based photo editor in case you need to remove backgrounds or make simple edits. This is another one with premium options, but you shouldn't need them.

I could list more, but this should be plenty to get you started. As I mentioned earlier, if you know of some great free resources that you use and would like to share to help everyone out, please include them in the comments below.

Tips & Tricks

Those of you already in the Tabletop Creator Discord may be familiar with my alternate identity:  The Design Doctor. While not all of the lessons I've provided there may be applicable to this jam, the basic design principles found in this playlist are bound to help. I strongly encourage anyone who hasn't done much graphic design to give this playlist a look as it covers the basics in about 20 minutes. This goes double for anyone who's thinking of a text-based design.

In either case, these principals will come in handy when you're ready to assemble your rulebook. Remember, you have access to modern tools in a digital era so take advantage! Your rulebook should be a PDF, Google Doc or Word file. All of those can have internally hyperlinked text and bookmarks. Utilizing these convenience features will help your players navigate the material and make the presentation even better.

Finally, don't neglect playtesting. Tabletop Creator allows you to export for printing but it also allows you to create files for Tabletop Simulator. If you have access to that, you should use it to test. It's easy to set things up or share the files with friends and family, or even the people participating in the jam. Do not be afraid to reach out and ask for help from your fellow designers, whether it be for testing or just general knowledge questions. We're here to learn, grow and challenge ourselves together. While there are prizes on the line, that doesn't mean we shouldn't all strive to lift each other up.

For now, this is Jon Spencer wishing you the best of luck in the jam and happy designing!

Thank you for your question--no, they do not all have to be the same size and shape. As long as the cards do not exceed 48 in total and they can be printed on a consumer printer (A4 paper is about your max size), you're good to go. As a reminder, your rulebook is not considered a "card" and is its own thing, so don't be afraid to use that creatively either.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q:  Are duplicate "cards" considered one or multiple cards?

A:  Every "card" added to your game is considered a unique entity towards your 48 card limit. That means if you want 5x of a specific card, then that would be five cards towards your total of 48.

Q:  What counts as a "card"?

A:  A "card" is any component created in Tabletop Creator. While most people will want to utilize playing, tarot or more standard card sizes, technically boards and other components may be created (who said a card can't be round? I sure didn't!). With that in mind, projects should remain accessible. If you can't print it using a consumer printer, it's not really within the spirit of the jam and we ask you refrain from creating elements of those sizes.

Q:  Is my rulebook considered a component?

A:  Yes! Please creatively utilize your rulebook. We don't want to see 2,000 page+ rulebooks, but if you want to include a map or some other visual element within, go for it.

Q:  Is AI art allowed?

A:  This isn't explicitly banned but it's not encouraged. The rules clearly state that you should own the rights to whatever content is included in your project, so AI art based on creative commons content is technically OK. However, recognize that there is a community vote as part of the jam and many will judge AI-based projects harshly.

Submission Information

Recently it was asked if games should be submitted in English or not. Yes, please include an English submission for your project. However, you are welcome to include other languages in addition if you'd like. Otherwise, here are the other submission details:

When submitting your game, please include the following:

* A PDF copy of your cards using the export function in Tabletop Creator for physical printing

* A copy of your cards for Tabletop Simulator using the export function in Tabletop Creator

* Rulebook in either PDF, Word or Google Doc format (remember to credit anything you might need to, including yourself somewhere in this document)

All games must remain free or PWYW until the end of official judging and the winners are announced in November. This is to ensure that everyone is able to play and vote on the games accordingly. After November, you are welcome to switch your game to a paid product or do whatever else you'd like with it.

Reminder:  For teams, whoever submits the project is the one we'll contact for prizes if applicable.

---

Questions were asked and answered in the Tabletop Creator Discord. If there are additional questions and answers, this topic will be updated accordingly.

I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the game in spite of some initial difficulty with learning the game. In case you didn't know, the PDF is fully hyperlinked and bookmarked for easier navigation, that might help you in the future if you're unable to print it out. Thanks for leaving a comment and sharing your experience!

I appreciate your interest and have also recieved your email. I'm not home at the moment but I will be later, once I'm back I'd be more than happy to send a copy your way.

Looking forward to your review! :)

I can't thank you enough for the kind words!

Yes, I see what you are saying here. I will make a note to check these items and see what revisions are possible for the next update.

For mutated, it should just be stats but I didn't specify so that's on me. Honestly, whatever makes for a more interesting encounter is fine though.

Thank you for playing my game, I'm glad to hear you still enjoyed even with these frustrations. Let me apologize for any confusion up front, I'm no stranger to the fact that my first ever game has a few kinks in it lol. Comments like these seeking clarification are very helpful as a result.

Let's first address the aura. Always rule in your own favor. If you'd actually gain a disadvantage from a benefit, that's not intended.

The mutated scenario is actually one I've heard before and something I should add to the FAQ and mutated explanation section. You should combine with the first non-event creature, so in this case this combination should have been invalid. As a result it created this wildly unfair encounter.

I hope that clears things up and once again thank you for enjoying my game in spite of some issues. Hopefully, if you play again, it'll go a bit more smoothly.

I greatly appreciate the support so thank you! I really hope you have a wonderful time with the game :)

Good news, I discovered the issue. A setting got accidently ticked that had temporarily disabled the sale of the game for a short period. I have now undone this and the expansion is available normally again. I likely would not have noticed this for some time without you letting me know so you have my appreciation. As mentioned, please feel free to email me for a complimentary copy of this (or any of my paid work really) if you would like one. Thanks again.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I will investigate this problem and sort this out as soon as possible. I'm not sure why everything except the preview is not loading on the user end when things are working for me on the admin side. I may need to talk with Itch.io staff. In the meantime, if you would like, please email me at jonspencerreviews@gmail.com and I would be more than happy to send you a complimentary copy for bringing this to my attention.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments on my game! I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed it as well. I agree with a lot of your feedback, this was the first game I ever made like this so I know there is room to improve it. Initially the scope was bigger but I had to scale back, some of that stuff being added back in through revisions and the currently available expansion.

In any case, I greatly appreciate you taking the time and giving the game a go. Hope you continue to enjoy it and any of my other titles if you choose to try them as well.

Sure thing, have fun!

No worries, I can make you a plain copy but the pictures will still be in there. This will allow you to print B&W with little issue but will use a little more ink than my other printer-friendly editions. I'd remove the pictures entirely but this rulebook was written with them in mind as reference for the competition so I don't have a better solution beyond rewriting the whole book itself. Anyway, keep your eye on the page and I can get this uploaded tonight (give me maybe an hour or so).

EDIT - Got to this faster than expected, please redownloaded the zip file and you should find the new BW rulebook :)

Thank you for your question. Currently there is not a printer- friendly version of the rulebook. I originally created this for a contest and at the time I wasn't permitted to make a printer-friendly edition.

That said, if you really need one, I can make one for you sometime tomorrow or the day after when I'm home. At the moment, I don't have access to my computer with this file, which is the only reason for the delay.

Wow, thank you so much! I'm glad to hear this one has become a staple for you and really appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment and review for me. I have some more planned for this project, so look forward to that when I can get around to it ;) Let me know if you have any ideas for the game too as I'd love to hear 'em!

Sure thing, and thanks for being open to feedback! If you do update the game, like I said, I'm always happy to take another look and update my thoughts :)

No problem, give yourself some more credit though. Anyway, have a nice day :)

Yeah, done. It messed up the formatting anyway on the page.

1. Just because I didn't physically write for all 10 games doesn't mean I wasn't playing along in my mind. Does that mean they aren't as strong of an experience as they could be? Probably. The additional games weren't meant to be play reports though, I was testing game length, content distribution, and overall feel. I understand that you chain events together and work to make sense of the prompts. Remember, I'm not new to this, I just don't think that the prompts always connected together well. This is subjective, my opinion, and reflected in my review. You are welcome to like the game and disagree with my review, again, a lot do.

2. I didn't? The game tells you it can. Everyone has different views on safety rules. I mentioned it for those who might care, I personally didn't think I needed them for this game, but again, it doesn't hurt that they are included. That's all I meant by it.

3. Sorry it didn't come across, I don't know what to tell you. I don't know what you want me to say. I've played a lot of journal games from English Eerie to Alone Among the Stars, some games hit better than others. I'm not trying to suck anyone's enjoyment out of this game, I even advocate that people try this one for themselves anyway because I didn't feel great about the negative review, I wanted to like it, I just didn't.

4. I don't think the game needs to add a ton of guidance, I'm being unclear here. I just think, as it currently stands, the moment-to-moment gameplay doesn't always necessarily help the player keep good forward momentum. This ties back into pacing. If nothing has happened to my character and a major event tells me that something dramatic has shifted in my character, it's hard to come up with and justify what that is. This is the core of the complaint here when I talk about "guidance". I'm saying that previous events,  or lack there of, don't always help to inform the current situation, which I think hurts the game.

I appreciate your compliment on my general writing. If you think what's missing, let me know. I mean, feedback is always valuable.

In regards to tweaks. A. ii. No, I understood, from a player perspective, in a game like this you don't want the player to have too much "upkeep" and depending on how the numbers are adding up, this requires the player to keep track of a lot of things at once. It's not difficult, but too much of it can be a barrier to a more general audience, which in this game's case, would likely hurt it. The exact number would need a lot of playtesting too, I just think there's a more elegant solution, but the concept of your idea here is sound.

To point B I mean to convey that the level of work that would be required to switch formats as you suggest would mechanically influence the game a lot. In that way it becomes a new game. Additionally, some of what you suggested would be a lot of additional work for this title.

Hope that makes more sense.

Before I address your comments I just want to say I appreciate you taking the time to read my longer review and providing a response asking for further clarity. I'll do my best to address each of your comments in full here.

1. Yes, of course, you are correct here. Even in my own game where I visited the museum, had I gone back the next journal day and had the exact same prompt, I would have been able to make this a unique encounter. I did not mean to imply otherwise. My main point was that there isn't always a reason for why I'd be having repeat encounters (strictly prompt, not content), or very similar encounters, sometimes multiple times in a row. It's one of those things that doesn't always make sense narratively or breaks pacing. After simulating 10 games, where I did everything but the journal component, I was finding it difficult to always justify why the events were occurring in the way they did.

To provide some additional context, when I play games like these for review purposes, something I think Peter is aware of, I tend to write up bigger stories that make selling the game easier. I write professionally, so for me, this is the easiest way for me to showcase how the game can create a fun experience. I don't think San Sibilia is dreadful at this or anything, but I was finding an issue with the general nature of how/when events are triggered. Which takes me back to the issue of pacing, my primary complaint.

2. Just want to clarify, I am cool with safety tools. I said in my review it was a nice inclusion, I just didn't think this game in particular needed explicit safety tools. As you mention, you don't always feel a game needs this kind of thing, so I would hope you understand that I'm not condemning the game for having them. It's the opposite; didn't think it needed them, but cool that they are there.

3. I have tools like this and am well versed in these sorts of games. However, my reviews and play reports that are public facing ALWAYS demand that the game stand on its own with no outside assistance if that's how it's advertised. In San Sibilia's case, this applies. I want my thoughts and opinions to be honest and reflective of the general experience someone might have if they just picked the game up right now and played. I'm an avid solo player with a ton of GM experience, so I don't think that was the issue in this case.

From the review, I do mention that I might have gone outside the game's intended method of playing, however, the game owns some responsibility for that. I shouldn't need to use anything beyond what the book tells me and if playing x or y way hurts the game in a meaningful fashion, I would hope the gamebook would make a recommendation to guide the player in the right direction. I do acknowledge that I might have hurt my initial experience by how I framed my first game, and of course, this is on me. It's why I also "played" 10 more games, to ensure that this first game wasn't the only issue. Perhaps it is not obvious in the way the review is presented, but it's not like I did all of this in one sitting.

4. I agree with your sentiment and the intent here. However, there's a big difference in building tension that feels good and huge swings in variability. In my initial game, the play report one, the game went on for an obscenely long time. Had I played all 27 turns, I would have far exceeded the expected playtime which I was already over at just 8 entries. I gave up at this point because I wasn't jiving with this run of the game, but after seeing how much was left (something I thought might motivate me to continue), I just called it there because it was too much. Any tension had long melted away at that point, and I struggled to see why the heck this guy would just lounge about in this city for months and months.

On the other end of things, a game ending after 5 turns, where all but turn 4 is a MAJOR event feels equally bad. At this point nothing has happened, and as a result, the game has failed to provide any clear direction to me the player. "You change the city" as your first event, followed by "You change the city", followed by "A Change of Heart" tells me nothing. I have no frame of reference to work off of, even if I really flesh out my character. It's awkward and feels frankly terrible as a player.

This issue extends into the average length games though since these big events can occur any time. Even in those, I would often have major events occur once, or even multiple times, within the first few turns. Pacing is important, building that beginning, middle, and end in a game like this matters. Since there really isn't a "game" here, it's strictly a writing exercise, I expect the game to provide a bit more structure and consistency in how it paces out events at the very least. I'm not saying every game needs to be a set length, but a swing of 5-27 turns is way too big, with the big events occurring in a way that's simply too random.

It's all good, I hope I was able to clarify my thoughts a bit better for you here. San Sibilia just didn't come together for me, and that's a bummer, but that does happen. Obviously a lot of people disagree! So I'm in the minority. However, sponsored or not, my review reflects my honest and genuine opinions across the whole experience. For my readers, that's what they come for, so I don't want to betray that, which I hope you can appreciate. As for leaving reviews, I tend to only leave positive ones on this website, I feel terrible when I leave a negative one. That said, Peter asked me to, and I thought it would be dishonest if I didn't follow through on it. Still, I gave a final rating of 3/5 stars. I think there's a good game in here, but it just isn't quite put together enough for me to genuinely recommend it.

I'm a game designer and writer so I'd love to look at your game advice, so let's just do that real fast since I'm here anyway.

A. This is something I think really needs to be addressed from a designer prospective. Your solutions:

i. Absolutely, this is an easy solution but I do agree it hurts the tension you mention. Still, it wouldn't be bad to let players have this kind of control as an options, a variant way to play.

ii. I like the idea of this solution, but think it would be burdensome to manage as you have laid it out anyway. Still, something like this, a "fixed" interval system would help the game immensely. It would allow the major events to come at more paced times, but not in an overly predictable way. This would solve the pacing problem.

iii. Great idea but this would fundamentally change the game from a mechanical perspective. I think they could just get away with having an additional/alternative chart. That way you can mix and match a little to customize your experience. This has the added benefit of not being that much extra work either, whereas your idea would be a lot of work in this game's case. Better solution for B.

B. Varity solutions. See previous. To address your primary comment though, I don't think the D6 context chart is a bad idea, though for this game a more universal chart with larger option selection (say a D12 or 2D6), would probably be better if implemented. Otherwise, again, I think that the game would be fundamentally different and Peter would have to undertake way too much work. In short, more than this and it would just be better for Peter to make a new game.

Anyway, thanks again for the comment and I hope this finds you well :)

EDIT - The creator put out new rules to help with the game's pacing, one of my biggest complaints with the game. I've had a chance to give them a go and found it helped with the experience of the game. As such I gave a higher rating. I appreciate the creator taking my feedback seriously too. You can still find my original comments unedited below for reference. I know a lot of people really like this title, so keep on enjoying :)

The creator of the game reached out to me and asked me to do a review for my website. You can read that in full here. For those who don't want to, let me give you the TL;DR.

I was really excited to give this game a go. The rulebook looks great, the rules are pretty clear (provided you read the whole 12 pages in advance), and I could feel it sparking my imagination even before play. However, once I actually played it...

I recognize in my review I made some "mistakes" in how I framed my story and character, not that I broke any rules, but seemed to play in a way the game didn't anticipate. Putting that aside, the game went on for a REALLY long time, to the point where I quit part way through. Now, this was also an anomaly which isn't reflective of an average experience either.

So I did the sensible thing and simulated a bunch of games. I took care to read every prompt, but didn't write them all out like I did for my first game. I also noted when the "bigger" events occurred and game length. A clear issue emerged in game pacing. Either games were outstaying their welcome or were comically short, both resulting in a lack of general direction. On average, the game felt mostly fine, but the randomness of how journal entries work really holds the game back.

It's a shame, but I couldn't like this one as much as everyone else seems to. I don't expect perfection out of a game, though I have to be honest when something just isn't working for me. As a result, I couldn't give it the 5 stars I wanted to, but I still think the game is interesting enough to check out if you are curious. Wishing the best for the creators, hope they see their goal through and maybe even improve the game a bit alongside a print release.

Appreciate the comment and question! There's a reason the Joker variant was a scrapped beta version, which I mostly included in here for fun. I'm not at all surprised it made the game a lot easier for you (though having the Jokers show up with any consistency is somewhat surprising, you must be quite lucky), but as long as you are having fun, great!

As for your actual question, please note the final sentence in its section (pg. 13 in the regular book):

"If the Joker should appear from your draw or in your reserves you get to reap all the rewards without any of the work! Choose any 2 bounty rewards, remove the Joker from the game, and shuffle the discard thoroughly back into the deck."

So if you have a Joker appear as a lead it's an auto clear, which is obviously stupid strong. You may choose to trigger this effect later if you have an open lead you want to just set it in, but that comes with its own pros and cons, I wouldn't recommend it personally.

Thanks again for taking the time, I hope that helped :) Please let me know if you have any other questions.

https://jonspencerreviews.itch.io/blackjack-bounty

Look forward to seeing how things shape up :)

I'm glad you enjoyed the game, thank you! What you've said is incredibly kind. Really appreciate you taking the time to comment and review as well :)

Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the game and took the time to comment and rate :)

Blackjack Bounty is Released!

ALL FREE COPIES HAVE BEEN CLAIMED - Thank You For Your Interest!

I've been designing games and releasing them on itch.io for some time now and I'm really happy to announce this latest project. I had a lot more help with the polishing phase than normal and think you'll be pretty impressed if solo games are your deal. What's more, the first 20 people to give the game a shot can do so FOR ABSOLUTLELY FREE by claiming a "Community Copy" on the game's page! Need a little more info?

Overview

You swore that you’d never return to that life ever again, but here you are. Forced between a rock and a hard place, either you hunt down the list of bounties placed in front of you or you’ll have one more hole in that ol’ head of yours when they lay you down for a dirt nap. Your past has finally caught up with you, and you can’t help wonder, has your luck finally run out?

Blackjack Bounty is a solitaire card game that uses Blackjack, or 21, as a base. In the course of the game you must hunt down several bounties or die trying. You’re an experienced bounty hunter though, and you still have a few tricks up your sleeve. That said, it still may not be enough, but if you’re lucky, you can finally return to the peaceful life you’ve almost gotten used to.

To win the game, simply capture all bounties by playing enough cards or by making enough 21’s (Blackjacks) without going over (busting). It may sound simple, but it’s actually quite tricky!

What's in the Box?

Depending on if you download the full color version or the stripped down black and white version, you are getting a rulebook approximately 15 pages long. The rules fit on about 4 of those pages with the rest being dedicated to a detailed play example, optional variants (including a scrapped beta version of the game), and a full glossary of every keyword in the entire document. Additionally, the PDF has built in bookmarks for easy navigation.

As a separate document you can optionally download play sheets (color and B&W as a single PDF) which allow for easily tracking your skills using a coin as well as setup guides for how the cards should be positioned at game start. This is completely supplemental and therefore not included in the primary document.

What You’ll Need

To play Blackjack Bounty you need the following:

• A basic understanding of the game “Blackjack”, sometimes referred to as “21”
• A standard deck of 52 playing cards (jokers removed)
• Some dice, several tokens, or a sheet of paper (recommended are 2 four-sided dice or 2 six-sided dice as well as a ten-sided die. It’s less wasteful than paper and easier to manage. My examples will assume you are using dice.)
• This rulebook

The Making of Blackjack Bounty

If you want to learn more about how and why I made the game, please read the devlog I posted. You can find that here.

Check the Game Out Here!

You can view more information and download the game via its page here. I would greatly appreciate any and all feedback via a comment or rating if you have the chance. Thank you for your time and consideration :)

I'm glad this feedback found you well, I was worried about how this might be received to some extent. That said, it's great news you are receptive to feedback and eager to actually make some changes. If you want to run anything by me, please feel free to reach out. I have several contact methods mentioned on my stuff, so don't hesitate :)

Helping out was no trouble! I just happened to see your project and thought it was cool, sometimes that's all it takes. Since I just had a bunch of folks help with my project, I was also in the mood to help someone else. It sounds like I was able to do so.

Wishing you all the success,

-Jon

A Good Death Review

Alright, so I know I told you I'd write a comment and rate the game tomorrow but some plans fell through for tonight so I decided to give this a go instead. I played a few games, and have some feedback for you as a result. Let's start by getting the boring stuff out of the way.

All of my comments are for the game's initial release after zero revisions on 5/25/21. Some, if not all, of my comments may be rendered redundant or unnecessary after any updates. Future readers please consider this carefully before deciding if this game is for you or not, as well as for your overall rating if you give one (if these things are addressed, you should definitely rate higher).

Some Revisions Needed BUT... (Boring Designer Stuff, You Can Skip This if You Want)

As I said on your original posting, I really like the way your game looks and how it's laid out. It's also pretty easy to get the idea of your game, there's some great appeal there. However, when I actually jumped into the game I noticed a few things that should be addressed.

First, there are a few spelling/grammar mistakes. It's all very minor stuff like:  "A notable figure in the annuals of your people." where you meant to use "annals". Not a big deal, but the few mistakes there were jumped out at me. I'm certainly guilty of this happening even when I have multiple people run edits for me, so this is a "boring" comment more for your info than anything else.

I also feel like you could simplify and clarify the phrasing:  "...cannot be contested or escalated, nor cost glory to accept." This is wordy and caused some confusion on an initial reading, as in I had to read it over a few times to ensure I was following your instructions well. If I had to suggest an alternative I would maybe use:

"Automatically accepted but does not cost glory."

Lastly, you half mention this, but some clarity on what happens if you go negative glory would not be missed. I often would purposefully let my glory drop to the negative values since it seemed that there was no penalty as it would just count as "0", meaning I incurred no risk for many turns of the game. It's the one aspect that just needs stronger reinforcement rule-wise.

Overall, the clarity of the document is there and you certainly have a good level of polish for a 2 page game. I think you did a great job, especially for your first time at this!

Points of Praise

Now that we've gotten the boring stuff out of the way, I want to go over what I think "A Good Death" does well. It's always nice to hear some positive stuff before any negatives after all.

Beyond what I've already said above, the biggest success here is the theme and presentation. You are killing it here. I loved setting up the character and really felt the creative juices flowing when it came to inspiring the narrative component of the game.

Finally, the game is pretty quick to setup and play for the most part (more on that shortly). I was able to play the 2 games I did in about an hour, answering the questions posed each turn to myself before proceeding with the next turn. There's a level of cinematic flow that exists here, which I liked.

Problems

Unfortunately, here's the part nobody really likes to hear. I want to stress that I think you have a GREAT foundation but there are some flaws that really put a damper on the experience for me.

1. Setup
2. Mechanics Vs. Theme
3. "Difficulty"

Setup

The first issue I have is with the game's setup. The whole "Ace of Spades" thing feels convoluted. I would almost rather it were something like this:

"Set aside the Ace of Spades and then thoroughly shuffle the deck. Afterwards, randomly insert the card face up about 2/3rds or half way into the deck."

This satisfies the idea of what the Ace is meant to do (add an alternative way to end the game for pacing). As it is, this mechanic is largely redundant since I never got even close to nearing the deck's end. It was also the only part of setting the game up I actively disliked both times I played. My solution still requires the player to slow down the setup process, but is faster to reset and more realistic for what I believe you are trying to achieve. I managed to go at least 1/3rd to half of the deck in each game.

Mechanics Vs. Theme

Under the current rules there is a pretty bad clash when it comes to "A Good Death's" mechanics compared to the theme. Narratively, I am totally with the game, but the mechanics often tell me to do something different. Allow me to explain.

Right now the best strategy for "winning" this game is to ALWAYS take risks and roll for glory. In fact, take glory whenever possible. Nothing else matters. Hit 0 health or strength? No problem, it's going to happen anyway and the only value in having the game go longer is on the narrative side, or if you don't have any glory at all.

If I let the defenses fall or the people die, I'm not punished in other words. That's why I would propose these mechanics are given a second look. However, I don't want to leave you high and dry, so here's a few suggestions on how you could maybe fix this disconnect.

• Have the player lose glory after certain fixed intervals of health or strength the first time they are hit (for one or the other, both seems like it would be too much without another adjustment). These should be constants. You start at 50 in each so maybe at break points 35/20/5.
  • To this point, you could offset this new setback and even have it apply to both statistics if you gave the player a free fate or something "minor" like that. This basically gives a chance to win the lost glory back but with some risk. Additionally, a "loss" is fated in that regard, so this thematically is just much more consistent and makes more sense.
• Add some additional setback for failing a contested roll. Right now if you fail with any 1's or 2's, all that happens is you lose a glory. Maybe 5 points in one of the two stats if you have none. Meaning, there's basically no risk to the player to roll. They "win" on a 3-6, or in other words 2/3rds of the time. Even though a 5 or 6 is what gives the glory, a 3 or 4 is a positive result as it is effectively the same as accepting with zero downside.
  • What makes this worse is if you save up a bunch of fate and just roll all your dice in a big go. Even one 5 or 6 nets you something as the 1's and 2's are overridden. If you get really lucky, you just net a ton of points, with again, no risk.
• Accepting your fate is a wasted action, always. There is no reason to take this and is thus wasted space in the rules. Either cut this (the boring option, i.e. bad thing to do) or add a benefit to the player for doing this. I would just give the player a fate point, since again, your loss is fated. It's thematically better and gives this action a reason to exist.

These are just the first things that popped into my head when playing, I'm sure there are other little tweaks and changes you already have in mind but I would strongly consider some combination, if not all of the changes I list above.

Difficulty

This brings me to my final point. As a direct result of these two problems, the game is way too easy. I never had less than 5 glory, each time ending closer to the 7+ range. On the one hand, this made the narrative cooler which is what this game is doing well, so that's a win. However, it made the game very boring as a result to actually play. I basically knew I could win by doing x, y, and z.

Naturally, in a game that wants you to focus on narrative first, I shouldn't have been trying to "win". People are going to do this though and I can promise you it will result in folks revisiting this title with less frequency. I was already tapped after 2 goes, so while I am speaking personally here, I also have data from my own game creation experiences to back this up. Most people don't mind if a game is "harder" as long as it feels fair. Whether it is or not doesn't matter usually.

I almost feel like you could make losing more appealing by changing the 0-2 range from "being forgotten", to only being remembered by some fringe group of scientists or something. This paragraph is entirely subjective and just my personal view. I'm also not a typical player as I'm playing as a fellow designer and trying to break your game on purpose. Honestly, this is up to you, but I would at least look at this a little more closely.

Final Thoughts

"A Good Death" was a great first step forward in putting yourself out there which I find very commendable. I sincerely hope my comments are received as constructive and aren't discouraging to you. The game felt like it needed a little more time in the oven with some outside playtesting.

WITH THAT SAID...

• The game was created in 48 hours as a challenge (something you should mention on the page since that makes this more impressive)
• This was your first public go, you are going to make mistakes. I certainly did. Take those and improve for next time (and here, because nobody is stopping you)

To the consumer questioning whether to play this game or not:

Yes, give it a shot! Especially if this gets updated.

In spite of what I've said, I still think there's a quality product here, and if what I've mentioned is addressed, I can see it being popular in the journaling crowd. I believe folks should always see for themselves and judge accordingly, but if anyone is on the fence you have my answer.

No problem :)