Yesterday saw the very first test of my latest design, Conglomerate. For simplicity's sake, I did not include the event cards I have been internally debating which I spoke of in my last post. Sadly, after less than fifteen minutes it was clear that I had completely failed to emulate the key economic concepts for which I had been shooting. Specifically, I had wanted to bring the tension of both complementary and substitute goods in a marketplace that was controlled head-to-toe, soup-to-nuts, A -to-Z solely by the players' actions.
The test consisted of three players, including myself. I quickly ran away with the game by focusing on an oil-heavy strategy while the other two players went after farms. The problem with this is that there was no actual demand for oil, as no one had built so much as a single car or office and only a couple of apartments were constructed before the game was almost over as I'd achieved 67 of the necessary 100 victory points while my opponents were barely in double-digits.
On an upnote, I do think the game is fixable and have high hopes for its potential. I believe this game could eventually carry a satisfyingly complex web of strategies with a relatively simple rule set.
Also tested yesterday was the latest version of Television Executive. This new version played much more quickly by using a draft game style instead of the previous bidding mechanic. There is still a major speed bump, but I have identified it and think I know how to effectively deal with it. I'll have the next version of it done today and might be able to even get in a quick test or two of it.
Conglomerate's next version will take at least a week, as the changes I've chosen to make are non-trivial both in terms of rules and in terms of components. In the meantime, I'll post a picture of the board I made for the first version of it, as it was no small effort and now I'll have to throw it out completely.
The test consisted of three players, including myself. I quickly ran away with the game by focusing on an oil-heavy strategy while the other two players went after farms. The problem with this is that there was no actual demand for oil, as no one had built so much as a single car or office and only a couple of apartments were constructed before the game was almost over as I'd achieved 67 of the necessary 100 victory points while my opponents were barely in double-digits.
On an upnote, I do think the game is fixable and have high hopes for its potential. I believe this game could eventually carry a satisfyingly complex web of strategies with a relatively simple rule set.
Also tested yesterday was the latest version of Television Executive. This new version played much more quickly by using a draft game style instead of the previous bidding mechanic. There is still a major speed bump, but I have identified it and think I know how to effectively deal with it. I'll have the next version of it done today and might be able to even get in a quick test or two of it.
Conglomerate's next version will take at least a week, as the changes I've chosen to make are non-trivial both in terms of rules and in terms of components. In the meantime, I'll post a picture of the board I made for the first version of it, as it was no small effort and now I'll have to throw it out completely.
No comments:
Post a Comment