Origins 2018 recap

That's me next to Dr. Hominoid, just this past weekend at Origins 2018 in Columbus, OH.  Origins is the one big game con that I try to go to every year.  In part because my brother lives in Ohio, so it's an opportunity for us to get together for 4 days, hang out, and play a lot of games.

This year Origins was special because I was able to show off a brand spanking new prototype of Infamous.  Eagle-Gryphon had to cancel a lot of their events at the con because they just didn't have enough volunteers/Wing People to help out.  But they didn't cancel Infamous, and we ran 4 demo sessions per day for pretty much the entire show.  I personally demo-ed or explained Infamous to over 50 people, and by the time the show was over, I was feeling simultaneously exhausted and exhilarated.

The public response to Infamous was universally positive.  Now, a big part of this is self-selection bias, since the people who came over to try it were probably most likely to enjoy it.  And there's a bit of cognitive dissonance working there too, since they did just spend 2 hours learning and playing a game.  BUT I observed a lot of smiling and laughing, and many people told me after playing how much they enjoyed the game and couldn't wait to buy a copy for their game group or family.  I choose to take them on their word.

Teaching people the game took right around 15 minutes.  Playing a complete 4-player game took another 90 minutes, on average.  We also ran at least one 3-player game and one 5-player game.  There were no particular rules that seemed to trip people up, although it's important to emphasize the timing of Scheme cards.  This doesn't really surprise me, because it's not a particularly complicated game and there isn't too much rules overhead.  I would periodically remind people to check and see if any of their rooms provided helpful benefits during contract resolution - and to hire Mercenaries if they were thin on henchmen.

[CLICK TO EMBIGGEN]

What did people enjoy the most?  Probably the theme, the flavor, the humor, and the smooth mechanics.  As I hoped, players immediately grokked and enjoyed the idea of building a base that attracts specific types of henchmen. I think people really enjoyed debating whether to send their lackey out on contracts to gain the free re-roll.  And people loved grabbing fistfuls of custom dice to roll.  This is not a brain-burner of a game, but there are fun decisions to make all the time and the game is regularly rewarding you with amusing text and great art.  I was particularly thrilled to see some father-daughter pairs play the game and really enjoy it, as I hope to play Infamous one day with my own two daughters (currently 7 and 1 years old).  Thanks to everyone who played, just in case you're reading this.

The state of the game is fantastic.  We just have to make a few finishing touches to the graphic design and hammer out a professional rulebook.  EGG is currently sending out protos to previewers/reviewers, so that we'll have some solid video coverage in time for the campaign.  We have our campaign and stretch-goal plan worked out.  At this point, I'd say with 100% confidence that we'll be ready to launch in early August.

Thanks, Origins!  See you next year.

Infamous: status update

Perhaps not surprisingly, Infamous is absorbing an enormous amount of cognitive and emotional energy right now.  The rules are set, the components are set, and we have a solid plan for the next couple months.  The final stages of graphic design came together very nicely, and I'm desperate to show people how everything turned out.  Here's what the final gameboard will look like (or pretty close to it):



Given the many staff changes that have happened at EGG this past year, I ended up being de facto art director for Infamous, and working directly with both Rob on the final set of illustrations and Kody Chamberlain, our freelance graphic designer.  There are pros and cons to being this closely associated with the artwork of your own game.  On the one hand, I can in some ways ensure that the art and design-work mesh with my original artistic "vision"; on the other hand, I'd prefer to have a bit more distance from this process.

Having said that, I really enjoy working with artists, and both Rob and Kody have given us some amazing work.  I hope that the art and LOOK of Infamous will be a big draw.  After all, looks sell on Kickstarter (maybe even more than gameplay!), so I think it obviously benefits us to have such exceptional, unique artwork in the game which we can splash through the KS campaign.

Our final push to get all components print-ready by mid-May means that we should have new prototypes ready to show off and demo at Origins this month.  Should being the operative word here.  I will definitely be there, as I go to Origins every year with my brother and my friend, Flip.  This year will be special, as I'll get to demo Infamous at the EGG booth at least once or twice every day while I'm there.  I just hope all the pieces come in on time, including the custom dice.

The next big project for Kody and I is to generate the rulebook.  I have high hopes for how good it's going to look, and how well it will exude the theme of the game.  But rulebooks are always a bear, and I regularly wake up in the middle of the night thinking of small edits and revisions I should be making.  For the Clockwork Wars rulebook, I got to work with my close friend (and pro graphic designer) Benj.  Because we were close, I was able to request several revisions and work with Benj until the rulebook felt just right.  In the end, I think that rulebook came out great.  With Kody, there won't be as many opportunities for big revisions (unless we're willing to pay), so I have to be careful from the beginning.

Otherwise, I'm having lots of tough conversations with EGG folks about whether we want to push forward with an Infamous expansion right away, what the content of that expansion should be, and how much it will cost.  From my end, I have a decent amount of expansion material that I think is ready to go; but I understand that investing in an expansion before you even have a sense of how many basegame copies you're going to sell is kind of crazy.  And yet - a lot of KS's have expansions built into the campaign, and it's a nice way to give backers access to additional content if they want it.

I don't know if I've written about this before on my blog, but I often have conversations with my wife about this:  game design and publication is equal parts exultation and stress.  There are many times when I truly don't think it's worth the hassle.  So many (unpaid) hours brainstorming ideas, writing copious notes, trashing those ideas because they're derivative, meticulously crafting prototypes, organizing playtest sessions, selling to potential publishers, showing off your work to strangers, reading about game design, feeling like you spend way too much time thinking about game design.  And then you sign a contract!  And it's amazing!  And then there's a HUGE wait, and after that wait passes, there's an insane truckload of new stressors ready to wreck your sleep schedule.  And for what?  A board game?  A vacuous cultural product that will eventually sink into the trash-heap of humanity's decadence?  One game, amidst the multitudes published every year (over 3000 by some counts)?

The joy comes when you see your game in "the wild" and watch strangers play it and enjoy themselves.  And that joy doesn't really fade.  If your boardgame is good, people can continue to discover it and play years after it is released.  So there's pride and satisfaction and some sense of giving back to this hobby that's given you so much joy, but it really is tempered by this nagging feeling that the cost is just too damn high.