Brandon the Game Dev

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. Just here for Highways & Byways updates? Click here.

---

Play-testing is so critical in board game development that I’ve dedicated several articles to the subject. Yet I’ve never seen article that deals with one of the biggest issues with play-testing: being able to tell the difference between signal and noise. You can’t believe everything your play-testers tell you, even though a lot of game developers will give you a coy response if you say that directly.

First, let’s have a refresher on good play-testing practices. The most important rule is write down all the feedback you receive during play-testing. Do this even if you’ve heard the feedback before, even if you think it’s stupid, and even if you know the feedback is wrong. Play-testing is ultimately about testing the subjective experiences of people playing your game. Every opinion – however misinformed you may believe to be – is a data point. As in rigorous scientific experiments, data points are to be gathered accurately and then interpreted later. By treating play-testing with a scientific mindset, you won’t risk losing valuable feedback because you got your feelings hurt.

It’s also a good idea to have a clear objective when you start a play-test. Some objectives I’ve used for testing Highways & Byways are “make sure Byway Cards communicate the location of roads clearly” and “gather data on the balance of Event Cards.” If you’ve made a recent tweak, having objectives going in helps you gather relevant data. Choose something to pay extra close attention to, such as balance, communication, or accessibility. All this said, there are no hard and fast rules going into play-testing. That is why recording data is important – so you can dispassionately review what people say at a later time.

When it’s time to review play-testing results, here are some guidelines I follow…

3 Times Play-Testing Feedback is Probably Not Useful

The player clearly does not understand the game. At some point, no matter how simple your game, you’ll have someone who doesn’t read the rules. Or perhaps you’ll have someone who can’t pick up the game from playing. Or perhaps even you’ll have someone who understands the game perfectly in a vacuum, but cannot form a coherent strategy to save their life. If you’ve got 20 play-testers and 1 of those 20 suffers from one or more of these issues when no one else does, the feedback is likely addressing an issue with the player and not the game.

This can be caused not by necessarily having a “dumb player,” but simply by having a distracted player. If someone is tired, stressed, or otherwise emotional, it might be hard for them to pick up your game and recognize that they are having a hard time picking up your game. Sometimes people just don’t “take” to games for some reason unrelated to their intelligence or well-being. It’s like that with me and Agricola (but you keep that between us two – I’ll lose my game dev card if you let that secret out).

When people don’t understand the game, they can give you all sorts of negative or neutral feedback that seems nonsensical or left-field. You may be able to tweak the game to make it communicate more clearly, and you should always ask yourself if that is the case. Yet if you believe the player is truly at a loss for understanding, try running their feedback by some other play-testers. If the other play-testers say “this player does not understand the game,” then it’s probably okay to disregard their feedback.

The player is providing feedback related to the tool you’re testing with, but the game itself. Whether you’re using a physical prototype with pennies for tokens or Tabletop Simulator, play-test versions of games often don’t look pretty or feel quite like the final product would. If you know that you’ll be changing the game to have better components, don’t worry about comments on your bad components. If you will be passing hands of cards around the table in real life – don’t be upset when people say “it’s hard to pass hands in Tabletop Simulator.”

Important caveat: always play-test anything that goes into the final version of your game.

The player is wildly pitching ideas. In general, if your game is on the right track, I find that you’ll get far more comments than questions. If you get a play-tester who has all sorts of ideas that don’t match up with the direction you’re taking the game in, that might be a sign of three things. One, they could be legitimately good ideas which you should consider. Two, they might not understand the game – see the previous point. Three, they might be pushing their creative instincts and desires on to your project. If that last one is the case, that’s got more to do with them than you. As always, I suggest you run wild ideas by other play-testers if you’re not sure.

3 Times Play-Testing Feedback is Definitely Useful

The feedback is regarding an issue that is both tangible and objective. If a player says “you’ve got a typo” or “this card could resolve in an undesirable way, watch me do it,” you must pay attention. When you get specific feedback about issues that are clear-cut, that’s as useful as it gets. Thank them and fix the issue next time you make a version. You don’t need multiple people to confirm these sorts of issues.

Multiple people have independently said the same thing. When it comes to matters like balance or fun, it’s really hard to know what is best. There is no clear answer like the ones for typos or loopholes. When multiple people say “I feel like this game isn’t balanced so well,” it doesn’t matter if your game is balanced perfectly in an Excel spreadsheet according to infallible mathematics. When a good portion of your play-testers feel like something’s wrong with your game, then something is probably wrong with your game. In fact, “majority rule” is one of the best ways to gauge the quality of your game when it comes to matters of taste.

Feedback is associated with actions that confirm the feedback. Imagine a player spends a minute or two organizing their hand, slowing down the game, and they say “you know, these cards are awfully fiddly.” It might be a problem if they took a minute or two without saying something. It might be a problem if they complained it was fiddly but only took a few seconds. Yet if both are happening at the same time, then something is up. Likewise, if a player says, “I don’t know what to do here,” and proceeds to make an absolutely bonkers strategic error, then your game may need clarification in some areas.

Despite my scientific rigor in recording feedback, there is a reason I refer to play-testing as The Art of the Play-Test in a prior article. The guidelines above are made to help you determine when play-testing feedback is useful and when it is not. Yet I can offer no certainty, no absolutes, and no rubrics. The decisions you make here are where game development becomes an art form – a matter of taste, judgement, and care.

---

Most Important Highways & Byways Updates

• Chugging right along in play-testing. I need to make some minor updates to balance and polish the game a bit, but everybody who’s tested it so far has liked it. That’s rare and I’m thankful.
• James has delivered some card art templates. It’s nothing flashy and it’s nothing that shares particularly well. Despite this, please understand that this is the basis of our workflow from here on out, making it good progress.

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways.

Just here for Highways & Byways updates? Click here – it will take you right to the updates at the bottom of the page.

---

With Highways & Byways public play-testing fully underway, I’ve got the delightful advantage of having never had a “no-show event.” I had a lot of those when I was creating War Co. and trying to get people to play with me on Tabletop Simulator. A lot has changed since then, but the biggest factor here is that I have a much stronger network.

Let’s define something real fast. A network is a group of people who either care about you or about what you’re doing. So what does my network look like? I’ve got a lot of networks that coalesce into a greater whole. I’ve got an active Discord server for game developers and other creative people. It’s got 773 people in it last time I checked. I grew it by asking people individually if they wanted to hang out with other creative people. I also use Twitter and Instagram a lot, but especially Twitter since it’s more conversational. Even when I’m not active publicly, you can bet I’m talking to people behind-the-scenes via direct messages.

Don’t worry too much about the specific channels you network on – there are lots of ways to network. However, if you want to build a great network, you need to follow five basic principles:

1. Keep it positive.
2. Be genuine.
3. Be friendly.
4. Pay attention to people’s true desires.
5. Care about others.

This is Dale Carnegie stuff right here. It’s nothing new. I didn’t invent these principles. I’m simply here to remind you to pay it forward when you create a network of board gamers. You need to actually add value to people’s lives, and the best way to do that is to be positive, genuine, friendly, in tune with their desires, and caring. People are smart and they’ll see right through you if you’re just trying to make a sale. If you try to make their lives better, you will generally be received in a positive light even if you’re not charismatic.

5 Easy Ways to Network in the Board Game Industry

Let’s get down to specifics. You want to know how to easily reach out to others so that you can build an authentic following of board gamers who want to help you succeed. You also want to reach out to reviewers, bloggers, podcasters, streamers, experienced game devs, and myriad others who can assist or teach.

Here are five ways you can do that. You don’t have to do all five. Pick one and try it out for a few weeks and see if it’s a good fit for you.

1. Jump into board gaming conversations on Twitter.

Twitter may be the one place in the world where it’s okay to jump into the middle of a conversation without it being weird. In fact, the medium encourages this behavior. Follow some people you’re interested in. You can find people to follow by looking at the people who follow sites like Board Game Geek or popular board gaming podcasts.

Once you follow people, read through your timeline and start replying to others with friendly comments. You want to jump into board game related conversations. This is a good way to get followed back, and the fact that you’ve started a conversation opens the door to further conversations down the line.

2. Browse the #boardgames tag on Instagram and leave friendly comments.

Similarly to Twitter, Instagram is a hive of activity for board gamers. A lot of people post pictures of games in their collections. Browse the #boardgames tag and find pictures games that you have played and enjoyed. Like and comment on the photos to start a conversation. You might make a new friend this way!

3. Find Facebook groups for board gaming and participate.

Facebook is the most important social network and it will probably remain that way for a long time. While you can reach out to board gamers by sending friend requests, I think the best way to approach Facebook is to get involved in board gaming groups. Use Google and Reddit to find board gaming groups that you’re interested in joining on Facebook. Request to join and then start talking to people there.

4. Play-test other people’s games.

Play-testing is a really valuable service and providing that service is one of the best possible things you can do for a game dev. This is time-consuming, and I admit that it’s not something I can do a lot. However, if you do have the time to do it, play-testing will make you friends not only with experienced game devs who can mentor you but also other play-testers who might test your games in the future. Keep an eye out for opportunities to play-test by monitoring Board Game Geek and relevant Facebook groups.

5. Go to conventions.

Last but not least, cons are one of the most reliable ways to network. You can’t spend very long at a con without running into another gamer. Opportunities to make new friends and help others out abound. It’s expensive and time-consuming, but many people believe this is the best form of networking in the board game industry.

---

Most Important Highways & Byways Updates

• Highways & Byways public play-testing has gone well.
• I’ve gotten single-blind play-tests with players from the United States and abroad.
• I’ve opened up the Highways & Byways play-test version to my Steam friends. You can access it by adding “superfzl” as a friend on Steam and adding the Highways & Byways workshop item.
• I’ve rebalanced the Event Cards a little bit so players don’t get so many “don’t move” events in the game.
• The board has been cleaned up slightly.
• James has developed construction card art. He has more art in the works.
• I’ve requested two manufacturing quotes – one from Long Pack Games and one from QPC Games. It may take some time to receive responses.

Dev Diary posts are made to teach game development through specific examples from my latest project: Highways & Byways. However, this week is purely an update – educational posts will resume as normal next week.

---

It has been about five months since I first started working on Highways & Byways. Just this last week, a lot of things finally clicked.

First things first: I am ready to play-test publicly online. If you are interested in play-testing Highways & Byways, click here to join the Facebook group so you can get notified of the play-testing events. In fact, we’ve already had a few play-test sessions and had a great time! I’m getting some really valuable feedback!

In order to play with us, you will need a Steam game called Tabletop Simulator. It does exactly what you’d expect it to. It costs $19.99, or $9.99 if you get lucky and you find it on a Steam sale.

How Highways & Byways Works

I’ve made lots of vague allusions to what Highways & Byways is, but now let’s get down to specifics.

Highways & Byways is a 2-4 player game that takes around an hour. It’s fairly lightweight and it’s the kind of game you can play with people at a casual game night or with people who never play games at all. It’s a game that includes and does not intimidate.

The whole point of the game is to take an epic road trip. It’s essentially a race game. The objective is to drive all your assigned byways and circle back home before anyone else. Your route is determined by your byways and each game you get different byways, which are determined by drafting at the beginning of the game. Over the course of the game, events and construction cause you to reroute, think on the fly, and strategize.

This is a game that you can play casually and with no real knowledge and still feel like you’re having a good time. It’s also a game that you can really learn the nuances of and become proficient in strategy and counter-play. More on that later, though, since I want to show you what it looks like.

Highways & Byways Visuals

James Masino is steadily working on most of the art, but the board itself is done. I’ve shared it below so that you can appreciate the quality of his work.

You’ll notice that the state boundary lines are extremely accurate, as James really bumped the lamp to get the right mix of realism and beauty. He’s the only guy I know who pays attention to things like the border irregularity in western Kentucky for a Photoshop layer that winds up being hidden anyway.

We’ve worked hard to take 72 real scenic roads and make them communicate well on a board. When printed, the board will be about 25 by 20 inches (or 64 by 51 cm), so each of those circular spaces is large enough to comfortably fit a piece while still keeping the approximate outline of the real roads. To keep the game nice and accessible, we stripped all text from the board and we instead refer you to locations using Byway Cards like what you see below.

We’ve also considered some other accessibility aspects. For one, you don’t have to be an American or know any of the state names to play this game. None of that knowledge is necessary. When it comes time to order a quote from a manufacturer, I’ll be sure to ask for pieces that are big and easy to use. Oh, and we considered color blindness, too…

Highways & Byways Basic Rules

You can find the full rule book online here. The rules still need a little tweaking here and there to truly optimize the game, but what you see there now is basically what it’s going to be like in the box.

Here are eight choice sentences that sum up the rules succinctly:

• The first player to drive the entire length of all Byways depicted on their Byway Cards AND return to their Start Space is the winner.
• Each player selects a Vehicle. Each Vehicle has a special ability. Special abilities grant cars immunity to certain Events or allow for faster movement on the board.
• Each player will end up with 14 Blue Byway Cards and 2 Red Byway Cards.
• Each player takes a Travel Marker and places it on the Byway depicted on the Byway Card just received. This is so all players can quickly and visually see where they and their opponents will be going in the game.
• Once all players have 14 Blue Byway Cards and 2 Red Byway Cards, they each must do one and only one of the following:
  1. Discard 1 Red Byway Card and remove its Travel Marker from the board.
  2. Discard 2 Blue Byway Cards and remove their Travel Markers from the board.
• At the beginning of every driving round…draw a random Construction Card. Players may not travel on any highway spaces which contain the letter depicted on the construction card.
• Each player may move up to six (6) spaces per turn.
• When all 5 Construction Card slots in the bottom right of the board have been filled…each player must pass their Event Card hand to the clockwise player.

What’s Left to Do?

Quite a bit, actually. I need to do tons and tons of play-testing with people from around the world. There is still quite a bit of art that needs to be created. Of course, I’ll want to raise funds on Kickstarter for the manufacturing process. Then I need to figure out how to sell the game afterward. If I had to give you an estimate on when I think the Kickstarter campaign would be, I’d say “first quarter of 2018.” Don’t pin me to that yet, though!

---

It’s my very good pleasure to share all these updates at once with you. If you’d like to get involved, I’d once again like to direct your attention to the Highways & Byways Facebook group. Sign up there, because that’s how we’ll coordinate games going forward.

That’s all I’ve got today. Time to get this show on the road!