Battle Golems. How to develop a board educational game and what it costs ...

Are you a cool game designer lover nastol? Have you come up with a cool game and are sure that millions of people will play at least 200-300 people? Then this story is for you. And also for all the others who are interested in how the development of board games is based on a real example and why you should not take up this process without the necessary preparation.



Some introductory information - to publish a board game you need to sell into slavery or sell an idea to a publisher and receive royalties from a circulation or at a time or act as a publisher yourself, investing your personal funds and raising funds for a crowd campaign at sites like Bumstarter or planeta.ru . Further in the text there will be many pictures, stories and the instructive moments. “We” in the text is our family team - me, my wife and son. All together - the project PROSTROBOT.

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Now I will start the story on the example of our game " Battle of Golems. We learn to program robots " In 2014, my son and I invented a game (it seemed to us then that it is unique) about the Golem robots, which walk around the field of individual cells, are controlled by external cards-teams (principle of action programming) and fight each other.

The game was originally a spectacle:





Having tied this game to the methodology of teaching performers in elementary school, we rubbed our hands and confidently came out on Bumstarter with confidence in our genius . And expectedly failed.

The reason - self-confidence, lack of experience and the wrong approach. In two years of subsequent development (yes, for two whole years), much has been rethought and redone.

Game positioning and target audience

At first, the game was positioned as an educational one. The target audience was blurred, channels of information were also not selected. “Algorithmic game” didn’t tell people anything, the market for educational games was filled with an inexpensive cardboard technique, and for geeks-table players this direction was simply uninteresting. Although the game was well perceived on the tests by both children and adults, and on the game stores later, both of them joyfully “drove” around the Golem field. We also did not take into account the competition - when people began to ask how the game differs from Roboralli, RoboTurtles and CodeMonkey, we were stymied with the answers.

What was done during this time? The most important thing is that the name of the game was made saying: “Golems battle. Learning to program robots. Next, we divided Central Asia into children and table players. It was decided to focus on children and parents who want to give children an "education". It was decided to build the design of the game, and its testing. Nastolchikov, too, do not forget, but for them the game is positioned as a fun strategy with short fights for 2-4 people. Answers to the questions on differences were also found, from recognizing the similarity of solutions to identifying the unique features of the game. The game universe of the country of Cybertania and the history of the Battle itself was invented.

Graphic design game

The original design of the game was based on the legend of the Czech Golems and was trite with it. A bunch of semi-legal art, Golems in appearance are very reminiscent of the Czech creatures of Rabbi Loew and the gloomy setting.



The search for materials and attempts to do everything on their own led to a rethinking of the game for the use of maps, the field of cards in the form of cards and the Acrylic golems (laser cutting). It was decided to use plastic containers and stickers as a box, which caused a storm of delight and a bunch of ironic remarks about the sale of the game in “borscht containers” and that a bottle of Czech beer should be put in there.



The presentation of the game at the Author's igroteka winter Igrokon 2015 confirmed the view that the design should be changed. Everything was redrawn in brighter and more optimistic “childish” colors (we still have 8+), new characters were created - Golems-Paroboty, new design of cards was tested on children and mice , which in 2016 once again changed.



As a result, the main characters of the game have become steampunk-robots made of clay.



The latest tests (Autumn gambler 2015, Igroteki in Moscow, Kiev, Kiyv Maker Faire and in their own city) have made more adjustments, and the printing house will have the last word. We promptly reflect the process of design change on the game site and in our groups in the VC and FB and are now preparing materials for the printing house for its requirements.

Therefore, saving on design and thinking that the images "pulled" from the Internet will not work for users. Think over all the details, from the possibility of making your graphic ideas to licenses for images and fonts!

Game concept and game design

The original concept is the Golem team, 2-3-4 players, the presence of cycles and conditions, the battle on the playing field of cells. Again, the 4x4 field, and 6x6, and a small set of commands - forward, back, turns, kick and defense. We begin to test and get a dull g ... that the game is uninteresting and not replayable. Pure technique. We start experimenting and introduce new teams into the game (tested the Take command), obstacles and decide how many teams are needed, etc. As a result, we think of a single mode - puzzles. Further obstacles - barrels, walls and water appear. Barrels. break down, the walls form a maze of games, and the water "drowns" the Golems with a player error.



To ensure that the conditions and cycles are not available all the time, we remove them as “bonuses” and introduce an element of randomness in their use. We also introduce two types of cycles with 2 and 3 repetitions and two types of conditions - Attack? and there is an opponent? For the loss of bonuses add game cubes for each player.

We start playing and ... Players can drive their robots across the field to infinity. Therefore, we add to the game line-counter rounds. This option is well described in the article Bearded Blog .

The shortcomings in the article are also well described. Therefore, we continue brainstorming. What is missing is the diversity of the gameplay. What are the problematic components of the game - the round counter and the cubes (everyone forgets to throw and move them).

We break the playing field into pieces - 4x4 and 3x3. We get parts of a modular field from which you can make various combinations and even play scenarios. We plan a field from the dense laminated cardboard. We enter the Luck Cards, on which the current Bonus is written. This is more technological than the line and the cubes, and also solves the problem and forgetfulness, and additions (it is enough to introduce new Bonus cards into the game).



Obstacles are also not ignored - we add ladders and barrels contents. Now the player needs to think about whether to break the barrel, since it can contain both useful content and a bomb. By the final chord we change the behavior of the barrels, allowing the Golems to move them.



We also introduce different types of Golems - swordsmen, spearmen and axes, as well as introduce the characteristics of Impact, Distance, Number of Life-Cracks and the size of the “brain” of Golem. The strategy of the game for each type is different and now requires different tactics. Also, the game stopped killing (due to the age audience and the Golems simply crack and fail, which now allows you to put into the game their recovery between battles and battles with the qualifying grid).



View the current gameplay at the link: youtu.be/xh_uW-lD3tk

The latest version of the design and configuration of the game:

Rules of the game

Never do as we lohanul wrong done and write the rules qualitatively BEFORE the game will be presented to the public!

The first version of the rules was not something terrible. It was impossible to play on it. Claims were on a large volume, not structuring, complexity of perception. The current edition of the rules is the fifth in a row. Having admitted our mistakes, we began to act smarter - the rules were copied and given to the players for a test. And from them was going to feedback. And even now minor changes are made to the rules, as players sometimes have situations that we thought were impossible (such as what happens if two Golems want to simultaneously enter a cage with water and can three Golems swim in the river at the same time and how can they get out ashore or can a spearman pierce two Golem opponents at once or choose whom to beat).

Feel free to add illustrations to the rules and plan them for publication in the form of a high-quality booklet, and not just one piece of paper.

Publisher

Publisher search is a separate song. Independently publish the game is not difficult enough, especially if you need a “childish” rating - these are problems with printing houses, certificates and other things. Therefore, it was decided to "sell" the publisher as the authors of the game for a fee. But it didn’t grow together - a major game publisher first horned us with “breakfasts,” and then refused (six months later) with the wording that the game was “not a format”.

After this, an epic began with the search for a publisher, which would take over "under the wing." It lasted for almost a year - miscalculations, choice of options, changes in the course and prices. I’ll say right away - if you don’t have the money “immediately and now”, then you can simply give up the game. As a result, we decided on three publishers - two of them could put the rating we need 8+, the third could be published cheaply, but with 14+. As a result, we stopped at one of the publishing houses and after a month of correspondence received information on prices, performance characteristics, etc.

Price and Business Plan

Since the publication process is not finished yet, we still have only plans. I will say right away - the initial notions of pricing were crossed out and reinterpreted during these two years. If earlier we thought that it was enough to have money for publication + to lay taxes and 300 rubles for delivery and circulation, and 100 and 300 copies can be made, now I will especially note the following points that should be paid attention to:

1. The circulation can be made small, but to make 300 copies will be more expensive by 30-40% than 500 and 50-60% than 1000.
2. The game must be picked up and stored somewhere. And obviously it will not have to be done in the apartment (look at your boxes with board games and multiply them by 300 boxes).
3. The game must be sent to the warehouse and consumers. Even send 300 pieces by mail is not the most rewarding occupation.
4. Typically, publishers do not work with individuals - hi PI or LLC.
5. The cost of mail is not 300 rubles. More packaging, printing accompanying documents, etc. And it’s better that you don’t.
6. People love self-pickup. To give it you need a pickup point. And this is money.
7. Taxes will have to pay, as well as commissions of payment systems and crowd sites.

Simply put, if you have a game worth 500 rubles, then at least 500 rubles you can lose on logistics, and another 500 on taxes and fees. And therefore, you are faced with the task of convincing everyone that your game costs 1,500 requested money (although you only go to zero) and most importantly reduce the cost of each component of these three. And it is necessary to think through how to collect money or spend your personal.

Also look at the SRC (who does not know what it is, Google to help). Your game should not “fly away” from the price niche of such games. Simply put, if you have a card game of 100 cards, then its price should not crawl out of 5-6 rubles for a card from the range of 500-900 rubles, only if you have “mega-cool” material or a bunch of additional components. Otherwise, rest on the exclusive and small circulation. And yes - to fight the prices of the same Hobby World, Mosigra, and especially Chinese manufacturers, you will not be able to :(

PS You can download and print yourself a free version of the game from the site. And also make yourself Golem figurines on a 3D printer: yadi.sk/d/qzZ8kBp0sG2Fm

This is how the PnP version of the game (full version for tests) with 3D figures looks like.


The article is a bit messy, but if anyone is interested, you can ask questions and I will try to answer them here, on Tesere or in groups of the game in social networks. The demo of the game is also in Tablettope.

PPS We have announced Bumstarter the campaign to publish the game .