Game Designer Wannabe

So, last night a fellow BGG'er pointed me towards Scream Machine. Quite sadly for me, this game bears many resemblances to my Theme Park prototype. Both games are card based. Both games have palyers competing for customers based on their preferences for different ride types. Now, there are some differences. My rides have far more attributes than those found in Scream Machine. Customers' preferences are also based on more factors. However, the similarities between the two games are just too close for my comfort. I've been told I shouldn't necessarily abandon the prototype, as there is room within a genre for overlapping games. It is a decision I will be struggling with for a little while. More importantly, this reminds me that I must be more diligent in my pre-prototype research. My pre-Theme Park research uncovered Roller Coaster Tycoon, but not Scream Machine. Had I in fact seen it, I would definitely have not put so much time into it, or at least made sure to differentiate it more.

I've gotten hooked on Amun-Re, and have been playing it heavily over at Spiel By Web. Wanted to see if you guys would like to join me for a private game amongst ourselves. The game in question can be found here and is named "Game Designer Wannabe - 01" (the password is "rellekmr". If you haven't been to SBW before, you should check it out. The web interface for the games they have there is generally well-thought out and the games are not real-time, but the equivalent of PBM, so its not difficult to get a game going and play during your random spare time.

So, because of my crappy car I was unable to attend a playtest with a group of game designers this past Saturday to which I had really been looking forward. Not only was it an opportunity to meet other designers and see what interesting things they might be working on, it would have been my first chance to get some playtesting done in quite awhile. Being wholly occupied with school the past month or so has instilled a persistent restlessness in me. Since I did not get to playtest my games with them, I shall attempt to do so with you who so charitably read my blatherings-on.

Below is a compendium of links which employment of will let you download the rules and card images for Programmer: Battle for Bandwidth. But before you do so . . .

The version I am providing is the version that I originally submitted to Out of the Box. Since then I had changed the game significantly, and then showed it to Z-Man Games. Zev from Z-Man said the game had too much going on. The version he saw was non-trivially more complex than the Out of the Box version. Therefore, the "perfect" version of this game likely lies somewhere in between the two. I have detailed feedback from Zev and everyone else there that day on the Z-Man version, but Out of the Box did not provide any specific feedback on why they did like my prototype. This is what I am seeking from you.

You are of course not required to give me feedback (how could I enforce it?), but it would certainly be appreciated. You can either post your feedback as replies to this posting, or e-mail it to GDW at the domain name for this website. The most helpful feedback will include both what you dislike and what you like. Instead of just saying "You should do it this way . . .", try responding in the form of "I don't like the way you did it because . . ." Thanks in advance for any feedback you do give.

Also, I retain intellectual property of these files, and they can only be used for the purpose of evaluating this game. Don't try selling it. (Not that anyone seems to want to buy it right now.)

My suggestion is to print the cards on cardstock, cut them out, and stick them in CCG card sleeves so that they can be easily shuffled. Anyways, hope you like it!