The Colony 2174 at ICON by the Sea...

quintond

Well ICON by the sea has come and gone and if you want a quick little 15 second synopsis of what happened at ICON by the sea for The Colony 2174 and Gobbo Games, then go and look here https://www.instagram.com/p/BDvrkAvhJjF/ or check our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/gobbogames/

Besides meeting @garethf and @Fenn my team and I were kept busy in the demo area. We were helping new players try games they have never tried before and were teaching some new players The Colony 2174 ... which we received some awesome feedback about and we have some new rule changes coming in to play soon. I have attached an image to this post as a little teaser.

The better news is that I managed to secure a local Printer and Publisher who will be able to do the cards, box overlays, and rule books for a hell of a lot cheaper than I can get it done anywhere else. I don't want to start the whole debate about printing locally and why ... suffice to say, the international distributors I have spoken too are more than happy to procure the stock from South Africa ... Rand to Dollar to Euro to Pound ... and I get to support local business and get the product on the shelf at a better price.

I have also secured someone who can supply me with blank boxes and box inserts and the labor to assemble the boxes for me.

I was also interviewed by one of the local gazette's reporters, so I am keeping an eye out for that ... if it goes to print ... but that was still an experience.

Finally, I got some individuals to read the rules and they were adamant that I don't teach them how to play the game first ... the good news is the rules do what they are meant to ... these people all knew how to play the game after reading it. The bad news is that I have been too verbose in my rules and due to some of the constraints of Print on Demand, I had to cut a few corners. The good news, with the new printers now, they used stitched binding, these constraints go away and I can really make the rule book pop out and add a sell sheet as well.

The feedback received from the players for the game was the most valuable and this was the primary reason I went to ICON by the sea and agreed to help out in the demo area ... and I am not disappointed. The game was challenged, people played Machi Koro to compare and generally gave me critical feedback and didn't hold back. I was challenged, I was questioned, and I was broken ... but by the end of the day on Sunday, I had a much stronger product that everyone was enjoying and that I feel even more confident about.

The next steps now are to put the printers to the test, I will be getting some sample prints done int he next week or two and will compare the quality.

I am now in the process of finalising the new rule changes and will be running more test sessions (*cough* Durban Meet Up *cough*).

The high-quality prototypes were fundamental to the success, people tended to take me more seriously when I showed them the two-player box and the cards ... people asked to buy the game there and then ... I have their details and will be sending them discounted copies.

Overall it was a great success and I learnt a hell of a lot ... and now we are looking forward to ICON in June. @garethf and I had a good chat with Les and we are both considering going up ... I am hoping to not only have the first locally printed version there but also the Online version. 8-}

So yeah ... 30 play sessions of The Colony 2174 later and I have a much stronger product now ... but oh wow am I tired.



Waits for the question from @roguecode regarding the "Tt". 8-p

quintond

I had a good chat with the printers last night and sent them some sample cards. I should have some sample prints by Friday. 8-}

Tuism

Congrats on a good event and moving forward with production! :)

(I told you your game wasn't "final" yet :P)

quintond

@Tuism: Yeah you did. 8-}

ICON by the sea was always a chance to get people who have never played the game to play the game and they picked up a few small things that I have already addressed.

The printers have also proposed some artwork changes to make the card images pop out a little ... I will be putting a blog up soon with these changes.

So it was well worth it. 8-}

quintond

We tried the new mechanics yesterday and I am happy to report that they work ... and they work well.

The main mechanics that we tried were the ability to re-target the red structures and the use of influence cards ... the game now feels complete.


Influence Cards:
I always wanted to add a way for players to affect the outcomes of dice rolls and initially called this mechanic action cards, but that has now changed to influence cards. Basically you can only ever have 3 influence cards in your hand, but you can play influence cards whenever a dice roll is made for any reason (even your own). Players can continue to play influence cards until a "Rr" (Re-roll) or "Bb" (Blocker) card is played.

A "Bb" resets the roll back to the initial value and the dice roll is played as normal.

A "Rr" makes the initial roller of the dice re-roll and then the whole process can start again.

At the beginning of you turn if you have less than 3 influence cards, you can draw one. This means if you play all 3 influence cards from your hand, you would only have one in your hand for you turn and every other players turn ... which means you need to manage your influence cards carefully.

Playing an influence card, other than a "Bb", on a double will immediately negate that double. This allows a player to now have a defense against the purple structures.

Influence cards also come in +1, +2, +3, -1, -2, and -3 variations.


Re-target Red Structures:
When a red structure comes in to play now, you have to target the structure (if you don't already have one in play) by rolling for it. This is indicated by the "Tt" on the card.

Influence cards come in to play here to help you pad your roll to get the desired number and this allows you to now target other players who may be stacking up on certain structures.

During your turn you can opt to re-target these structures but have to skip all other actions when doing so. This re-target action is subject to the normal use of influence cards but does give the player the flexibility to adapt their strategy accordingly.


We will run a few more tests of the mechanics and I think we will finally be in a position to call the game mechanics complete and move on to the next phase of the project. The initial tests were run with two players and now I want to ramp it up to 4, 6, and 8 ... which will get a chance to do today. 8-}

There are a few other changes that are taken place, but these are merely a few tweaks to some numbers and the position in the spread of one or two cards.

The game sometimes felt like you were a passenger and had no direct "influence" on the game when a player started running away with it, these mechanics above now change that and were the result of feedback from ICON by the sea. You also now have to pay more attention to the structures that other players have ... my sister can be a sneaky one.

Yesterday I was well on my way to building my Orbital Station structure and was happily stockpiling my Novinium, when my sister played an influence card that I couldn't counter (primarily because I squandered them the turn earlier) and forced me to draw an event which game her half my Novinium and then triggered her red re-targeted structures which practically gave her the rest of my Novinium.

Within two rounds she went from having no colony structures built to having 2 built and I then had to change tactics and go all out on the offensive. The game went back and forth with her winning in the end by one Colony structure, but I made her pay for that structure and it was an awesome experience.


I will be updating the print and play version and next week when I meet the printers will start get costing on the various components and take it from there.

garethf

Sounds like some awesome new mechanics, I love those kinds of dramatic moments!

quintond

So here are the first set of visual changes that has been made to the game based on feedback received. I thought it would be easier to just show the old card next to the new card and highlight the primary changes. These changes are all visual and are intended to make the card even easier to read and understand.









The initial feedback received on these changes is favorable. 8-}

Edit: Yes the card name on the red card is not bigger, I noticed this when I posted this and will rectify it in due course.

roguecode

Tt... My best guess is that you struck a deal with Telltale and they're making The Colony onto an episodic video game. ;)

garethf

Nice updates! The cards are easier to scan for information at a glance and I really like the change to the model view angle, the 3D forms read much better now and the lighting is stronger, making the models 'pop' more.