Sarah Trice 🔜 Unpub

I think I’m going to be bringing my grocery store game off the shelf and giving it another go. I’ll have to track down where the cards for it got to. Aside from my town builder with one playtest, this one has maybe 2 or 3 playtests to its name.

I just finished planning the first part of the point system for 135 front & back cards. Now, it is time to figure out which front goes with which back. Remember, this is just the planning. I still have make/remake most of this. And I still have make the question cards. This is just 1 game. I’m fine.

I need to playtest the updated versions. I should practice what to say for teaching the instructions. I guess it is just nerves of not sure of how some of the games will land or if it will be remotely fun idk. Most of my testing is solo outside of Unpub so it is hard to know if it is good or not.

Less than a week to Unpub and I feel vastly unprepared. I mean this happens every year. But yeah a mixture of nervous/excited, I have so much to do in these last handful of days leading up to it. Need to post pics and descriptions of the games to the gallery. I need to finish making some of them.

-redo some of the place cards
-add the point system to the cards in pencil
-playtest the point system
-try variations of the point system out
-try out the variation where you use the paper for more than just writing
-try out no interaction with other towns

Any that don’t get done, test/do at Unpub

Unpub prep for Where Do We Go?
-finish making question cards
- playtest it at 3-4 player counts
-figure out how much paper you want to bring along for it
-cut more yarn
-playtest it with yarn variation
-playtest it with paper scraps variation
-pack pens, pencils, eraser & sharpener

Don’t mind me. Just gonna test another game. Let’s playtest Grass? *should be working on her other games and not starting another game design* “But, but it grass tho..” “Make sure it works first; then we will see.” “Okay.”

I’m look forward to seeing more of games too!

Thanks, I look forward to seeing your games too!

^^Or currently, that’s the gist of them. I might bring along the shelved grocery store game & the deduction game, but I’m not sure yet. The deduction game falls apart mid test usually. Grocery store game, I wonder if there is too much on the cards, among other things.

Where Do We Go? (Town Building)
Draft, Flip & Write, Storytelling

Wait (Hiking)
Roll & Move, Storytelling

Capsized (Preventing Boat from Sinking)
Reflective, Solo, Tile Laying

Build You Up (Learning different ways to support someone and then practicing them)
Role Playing

I think this Unpub I might have the most games that I’ve brought with me. I have a hard time sticking to one idea for awhile.

Btw, Where to Help is now called Where Do We Go?

Thanks. I’d have to check my times later. I don’t quite remember what time I booked. I know I have 4 hour and 2 hour block. Last year, I think I got overstimulated playing a short party game for 4 hours so I opted to get a 2 hour one. It’s a Friday block and a Saturday block.

The other is called Build You Up. Most dungeon games you are trying to do damage to monsters. I’m going sort of more realistic? Like how to fight being tired? Or how to support someone with level 1 autism using the fruits of the Spirit. This one is untested so idk if it works.

The city builder is called Where to Help. It’s a flip & write storytelling game. Players are building their own towns to meet their townspeople’s needs. Drafting cards over a week’s time; you must decide where they get their needs met. Where do you get education? You only have a gas station so far.

Work and less talking about games so that they get further along.

It will go when I haven’t playtested either with other people. I’m a little nervous. The grocery store game has been shelved for now, as well as a deduction game that I’m not sure if I talked about on here. I tend to talk about my games, but a lot don’t seem to get very far, so I’m trying to do more

I have roughly 2 newer ideas in the works for Unpub: a city builder and a non-traditional dungeon fighter. The city builder storytelling game I’ve playtest it solo as a 2 player, it played in 40 min. The non-traditional dungeon fighter, I’m still finishing the prototype for it. It’s hard to know how

Is losing interest in your prototype after one playtest normal or could it just be low attention span?

I playtested my game. It went well. I then saw a better story engine made by someone else and lost interest. *Compares fully made game to first playtest of a game* that’s probably not healthy

sure, why not

Stuff like this is what I think of. Again, I don’t really know what is common practice or if this is more prototype oriented than playtesting.

I’m not sure if I’m qualified, not sure if I have enough playtests under my belt to give advice to others. I do solo tests on and off, but I don’t do a lot of group tests unless I’m at Unpub.

You Are in a Propaganda War — Here's the Proof YouTube video by Lakepointe Church

www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1bx...

How do you design structurally? Ex if you pull trading from Catan & a paper from Yatzhee what does the in between look like? When designing a game, what are some of the things you go through to make 2 separate mechanisms mesh together? Is it a lot question asking/decision points? Or something else?

Rn, I'm still in the design and research phase. I'm comparing my idea with existing games and referencing the overlap and checking what is the ideal playtime for the audience would maybe be. There are a lot of examples in this family of games to pull from. It's crazy coming back to this design space

That feeling when you are working on your first game & you are looking at it like hmm...yeah that's totally a medium weight bgg game lol, continues working on said game. Just the amount of stuff going on...it's probably medium. If it somehow is medium light, I'll be surprised. Prototype not made yet

It's essentially having 2 casts of the characters not 1 cast of characters. Mafia/werewolf/clue etc. all follow having everyone is a suspect. But in like Scooby Doo or Nancy Drew games, Scooby & the gang and Nancy Drew & her friends, they are a separate cast from the suspect list that are good guys.

Or I got out of the forum mafia scene because I started feeling convicted that it is wrong to lie or tell half truths. So if I was ever to design a mafia like game again, one of the main hurdles was getting around the lying piece. I think I know how to do it now. So like Scooby Doo, Nancy Drew, etc.

Somewhere between Mafia style games & Mysterium, but I think I talk about my game ideas too quickly & then fizzle out. But designing forum mafia games was kind of where I got my game design start, so it's familiar territory to me. I've avoided it for awhile as lying doesn't mix with Christian values