Daniel Solis

Yay! I just got the feedback form results from the Belle of the Ball playtests at UnPub3. The data below is split between quantitative responses about the game's length, ease of learning, and so on. The qualitative responses get a sense of context for the player's preferences in gaming and what they liked about this game in particular. At the end are some findings and possible courses of action I could take in response to this data. Many thanks to Car Trunk Entertainment for scanning 35 handwritten feedback forms from the show! QUANTITATIVE DATA Overall the data was positive. Most said the game was easy or very easy to learn, which for some was possibly a negative aspect. Also many found the game length to be appropriate, though several comments in the qualitative section wished it was a little longer in a four-player game. A surprisingly small minority didn't care for the theme. I say "surprising" because I expected a core gamer audience to be a little ...

Heyo! It's been a while since I've done many podcast interviews. I was doing a TON in 2010-2011 promoting my games or the 1000 Year Game Design Challenge. This time around things are much more casual. Here are some recent appearances that you can put in your ear holes. The Dice Section 12: Survive I stop by to visit my good friends at the Dice Section to chat about the current events of gaming and to play a rowsing game of Survive: Escape from Atlantis . We also talk about the current iteration of Belle of the Ball and how it was refined from a particularly rough playtest last Fall. Jennisodes 143: Sidekick Quests James Stowe, Lyndsay Peters, and I team up to talk about Sidekick Quests , James' adorable webcomic about youthful adventuring sidekicks. Lyndsay and I are still tinkering with the card game. We talk about our design goals, how the game works, why it's great for kids, and list several of the cute D&D-inspired quests in the game. Look for more on S...

Dicecards are a lovely little concept that takes the notion of dice-on-cards to the next logical extreme. Well, "logical" may not be the adjective that comes to mind when you see the sheer plethora of dice and randomizers that appear on each DiceCard. playing cards polyhedral dice pirate die fudge die werewolf roles other games distribution dice meeples elements die weather die RPSLS die treasure map target compass poker chips craps dice dreidel crown and anchor slots die dominos letter tiles short straw zener card runes tarot coins and Writer's Dice! There are so many interesting data sources in each card. The mind reels. REELS. So back the project!

In 1324, Musa I, the king of Mali , set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca. Unfortunately, the Mali empire left behind few written records, but we do have the eyewitness accounts of Musa's extravagant procession of 60,000 people and animals. All carried large quantities of gold bars and gold dust that were given to the poor along the way. In fact, Mansa Musa singlehandedly depressed the value of gold across the Mediterranean for decades after his pilgrimage (and supposedly inadvertently helped fund the Italian Renaissance). I've been fascinated with this story mainly from a science-fiction perspective. I'm reading Iain M. Banks' Culture novels which mostly concern an interplanetary post-scarcity utopia. It's kind of like if Star Trek's Federation, the Borg and Kahn all teamed up to make the universe a happier, more peaceful place. I'm mostly interested in seeing how citizens of the Culture value their time and possessions when neither are in scarce supply. ...

» Download PnP PDFs: Rules and Cards UnPub3 was a great experience and I'm really looking forward to the next show. Belle of the Ball felt very well-received and I spent most of my time running demos at my table. I kind of pride myself on being a demo-machine, but this was an even more prolific event than usual. By my best estimate, I demoed Belle of the Ball somewhere around 25-30 times to around 40 people. Several were repeat players who wanted to show the game to their friends. Feedback from the attendees was excellent. One attendee said that she would have bought a copy from me if I had one with me. Another attendee insisted on paypalling me $10 for a PnP. Meanwhile, I've had couple publisher responses that I incorporated into the second day of UnPub. I call this Prototype O-2 . The main issue regarded the lack of tension in Prototype O. In Prototype O, players had room in each party for four groups and five cards in each group. This created a leisurely pace with ...

One of the things that came to stark relief after UnPub3 is how much the designer being present at a playtest can influence reactions to that game. It's a mixed blessing. The immediacy of your feedback is great for rapid prototyping, but it's hard to decouple the feedback to your game from your presentation of the game. Take for example the Alien-themed deduction game I posted about last week. I brought it in my back pocket as an unofficial side project to Belle of the Ball. If I saw people milling around and I had a couple minutes between tests, I would ask "Hey, want to play a 5min game?" They'd say "sure" and quickly draw a crowd. In a hushed voice, I start the magic trick. "You're trapped on a derelict space ship with a hostile alien entity. Only one of these items will let you escape. You're trying to figure out which it will be." I shuffle the deck and continue. "There are only 13 cards in this deck. There is a wh...

I'm back from UnPub3 with plenty to talk about, so this will spread out over a few posts. Trust me, there's plenty to discuss regarding Belle of the Ball , but I wanted to cover some of the more general interest stuff first. Case in point: The Panels! First up were the designers who have had their games at past UnPub events and have since been published. From left to right we have John Moller hosting the event, Ben Rosset with Mars Needs Mechanics , Darrell Louder with Compounded , T.C. Petty with VivaJava , Jason Tagmire with Pixel Lincoln , and Jesse Catron with Salmon Run . There was also a publisher panel which focused on how to approach publishers and the value of Kickstarter to fund your company's ongoing bottom line. From left to right we have A.J. Porforino of Van Ryder Games , Bryan Fischer of Nevermore Games , Chris Kirkman of Dice Hate Me Games and Dan Yarrington of GameSalute . I live-tweeted the panel discussion with quotes, but I couldn't ...