In the fourth installment of Dave Eng’s game design journal he discusses his experience bringing Air Sloop to Metatopia for playtesting.
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At this point I decided that Sloop was in good enough condition to bring to my local playtesting event called Metatopia. It takes place in Morristown, NJ. This was really the first time that the game was played by a group of people who had never seen the game before.
As a result of attending Metatopia I was able to get some REALLY good unbiased feedback from the crowd. One of the important points made by the playtesters involved the so-called board. As the map gets larger and larger from laying cards down the competition to interact with other ships or became less and less.
Other playtesters indicated that the grid of cards didn’t look like a river. At that point I considered dumping the theme all together since I was more attracted to the mechanics than the theme of the game.
Overall playtesters enjoyed the multi-use cards. But there was still something missing with the game. Something that I was looking for that still made the game easy to play but provided more depth and tactical strategy.
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About The Designer
Dave Eng EdD, Principal is an intellectual and creative educator, designer, and researcher who combines games, theory, and technology. Dave has played games for most of his life. As a result he studies game design, creates games, and teaches others how to use games for education and learning. Find out more at www.davengdesign.com
Fun Fact: Dave has been seasick in every time zone.
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