Congress of Gamers Preview 2014: Austin Smokowicz

There is an unwritten rule (until now since I am writing it down in this post) that I do not do a game preview unless I have seen/played the game myself.  Excitingly for me, all the games that I know of that will be at the UNPUB ProtoZone at Congress of Gamers 2014, September  27th & 28th will be new to me.  Sadly that means I have no one to interview to get us all pumped for two days of board game playtesting heaven...or so I thought until I realized there was one game that will be in the UNPUB protozone that I have personally playtested in the past, my own.  So today one half of Dr. Wictz (Aaron) will interview the other half (Austin) about the games Austin is bringing to Congress of Gamers.  

Dr. Wictz:  Well Austin, I have known you since my freshman year of high school and I have seen many of your game designs over the years, including U.N. the Card Game. What new exciting game are you presenting at Congress of Gamers?

Austin Smokowicz: For this years Congress of Gamers I’m bringing the first in the ‘New Jersey’ line of games called Hoboken.  Players play as real estate developers building luxury hotels in the city of Hoboken, catering to the tourists coming to New York City.  Unfortunately the construction costs are too high for any individual player, so they must partner with each other to raise enough capital to complete construction, and negotiate over the ownership and profits of the new building.

Dr. Wictz: Where did you first show the game to Dr. Wictz? (I had to ask, apparently my questions are part of some sort of standardized form).

Austin Smokowicz: Huh? Where did I first show it to me? Well, I first playtested with some friends over the summer, but Congress of Games will be the first open-to-the-public testing of Hoboken.

Dr. Wictz: How has the Hoboken changed since you started playtesting it?

Austin Smokowicz: There were two major changes after that first playtest, one mechanical, and one componital. For the components, every round tourists are drawn from a deck as they enter the city and try to find a place to sleep. Because this deck is supposed to be random every round, I spent the entire playtest shuffling the cards! I decided no one should be stuck with that burden, and so changed it to chit pull, one simple shake of the bag, and you're good to go. On the mechanical end I had it so that once all of the hotels were available to be built, players drew from a hurricane deck that would end the game. But, I found that by then the game had already been won, and the extra deck drug the game out with little change in players positions.

Dr. Wictz: What inspired the current game theme, I mean New Jersey of all places, was New York City taken already? 

Austin Smokowicz: Well, NYC does have rent control…Honestly it was a mistake of geography on my part, I really thought it was by the beach, and thus the hurricane talk, and when I visited a few years ago I really, really, liked the street clocks.

Dr. Wictz: So you picked the name because you have trouble with geography, even after visiting the place, what next, a cattle ranch in central jersey?  

Austin Smokowicz: Well yes, but we’re here to talk about Hoboken.

Dr. Wictz: If you could see my face you would see a look of puzzlement.  So before you send our readers into a freezie by claiming all of Dr. Wictz games are set in New Jersey I am going to ask you a new question.  How did you get into designing board games?

Austin Smokowicz: I started back in middle school. In my first attempt at making a board game I tried to recreate the computer game Wolfenstein 3D using grid paper. And shortly thereafter I attempted to re-purpose my Stratego set to run football plays. If only I knew Space Hulk and Bloodbowl existed!  

Dr. Wictz: Why do you love making games, other than to profuse your love for New Jersey? (I always thought you would have some sort of grudge against Jersey, aren't you originally from New York state?) 

Austin Smokowicz:  Let’s go Buffalo, but I moved away many years ago. as for my games, nothing was intended to be in Jersey, just like everything else in Jersey, they ended up there. 

For myself, when it comes to the choice between being a consumer of content, or a creator, I’ve always chosen to be the creator. After a while it has become second nature to look at the world and ask ‘what can I make with this?’

Dr. Wictz: This will be your 3rd, 4th Congress of Gamers.  So at this point you must have some favorite past moment from previous Congress of Gamers?

Austin Smokowicz: My favorite past moment of Congress of Gamers came during the first time I attended. I spent the entire day in a room featuring unpublished games for a contest. And had a blast playtesting and discussing the games with their creators. It was only years later I learned that that event was the impetus for the Unpub network.

Dr. Wictz: What draws you to Congress of Gamers?

Austin Smokowicz: I enjoy the people who attend, the location is great, you can’t beat the price point for entry, and I get to play a lot of great published and unpublished games.

Dr. Wictz: Any shout outs to your most dedicated game testers (cough  cough, wife, design partner, etc.)?

Austin Smokowicz: I would like to thank my supportive wife Rebecca, and her good friend Zhanna, who while having never played any of my games likes to be recognized for these sorts of things. 

Dr. Wictz: Is that all? (cough, cough)

Austin Smokowicz: Oh, umm, yes, I forgot to mention my good friend and design partner Aaron Honsowetz. Without whom I would still be sweeping the streets of Trenton…. I mean...

Dr. Wictz: Anyway, If someone wishes to follow you and your game designs where can they go to learn more? (I know, I know, we are in essence interviewing ourselves, but its on the form so I have to ask it).

Austin Smokowicz: If you want to follow me (and Aaron), congratulations, you have. You can check out our profile, twitter, and facebook page through the links on the right side of this web

page.

UNPUB4 Preview: Josh Tempkin

Only a few more days till UNPUB4.  If you are on the fence about attending and have not picked up one of the free play tester tickets at www.unpub.net then go to the web site, pick up your tickets and come back here, because after you see what Josh Tempkin is bring to UNPUB4 you will want to attend.  Plus, you will be able play games designed by previous interviewees, such as Alf Shadowsong & Kiva Fecteau, Charlie Hoopes, Paul Owen, and Nathaniel Levan.

Dr. Wictz: We are very lucky to have Josh Tempkin here today.  Due to misfortunes of epic proportions this interview almost did not happen.

Josh Tempkin: Sorry I missed the e-mail in the holiday rush.  I got seriously backlogged.  Currently, I'm sitting at 260 emails still unread.  :(

Dr. Wictz: Like I said, misfortunes of epic proportions.  So I heard through the grapevine...aka UNPUB4 event website…that you are demoing Lesser Evil at UNPUB4.  Could you give us a quick overview of the game?

Josh Tempkin:  Lesser Evil is a light dice game with some serious choices in it.  The basic idea is that on your turn, you'll roll a set of dice and then keep the highest die toward an end-of-round sum.  Higher sums at the end of the round are generally bad, however, so you want to manipulate your rolls using your tokens so that you can keep lower dice instead.  Getting rid of your tokens is especially good, because each unused token costs you points at the end of the game.  But using all of your tokens too early means that you'll be at the mercy of the dice (which, again, generally give you high rolls).  In the end, it's a game of managing the rate at which your tokens come in and then get used.

 I think you first saw Lesser Evil at Unpub South Jersey, back in April 2013, right?  I think you first played it, though, at Congress of Gamers in Sept 2013.  Does that sound right?  I actually had an early draft of Lesser Evil back at Unpub 3. 

Dr. Wictz: Almost, I actually got to play the game at the UNPUB mini at Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie.  I really enjoyed the tension generated in the game when I had to decide if and when  to use my tokens.  I must ask, having taken the game to numerous UNPUB events, how much has the game changed after earlier playtesting? 

Josh Tempkin: It's changed a lot!  Originally, I had oodles (yes, oodles!) of different manipulation abilities on the tokens themselves, and there could be as many as 7 different abilities in each game!  But the experience of teaching the game showed me that players were struggling to keep track of all of the special abilities.  We tweaked it many ways to try to make that easier, but honestly the big breakthrough came when we peeled everything away to make a bare-bones demo version.  We used just the core abilities on the tokens, and to our surprise, we didn't lose anything from the game play!  From that point on, we knew where we could add mechanics and where we couldn't.  The game got simpler and tighter, even as we began to expand it again.  All because we needed to make it easier to demo.

The other main trend in the game's evolution was that the cost of the tokens slowly increased from 1 up to 5.  I liked the original idea of having each token be worth 1 point, as it would keep the final scoring nice and simple.  But it became clear that we couldn't cost the other options properly unless we raised the cost of the tokens.  Interestingly (at least to me!), we played the game with tokens at each value 1,2,3 and 5, but never 4.  Once we got past 2, I felt that I didn't want an ability to ever cost exactly 1/2 a token.  Besides, the scoring arithmetic seems easier if you can multiply by 5 rather than by 3 or 4.  So, lots of reasons to skip 4.  I've been happy with the tokens costing 5.

Dr. Wictz: Lesser Evil is an abstract game, why an abstract?  Why no theme?

Josh Tempkin: It was always envisioned that way because the game is supposed to be about the choices you make during play.  Without an explicit theme, I hoped that the focus would stay on the choices themselves, which *was* the intended theme.  I have recently been thinking about "slapping" on a theme, but I have to find one that works with the mechanics that I've got.  "Trading in the Mediterranean" doesn't seem to fit.

More broadly, the game has its origins in some early passages from Reiner Knizia's book, "Dice Games, Properly Explained."  I took some of the games Knizia described in his first 2 chapters, and then blended and twisted them to fit my style.  I hope to move on to Chapter 3 someday!

Dr. Wictz: How did you get into designing board games?

Josh Tempkin:  I don't really know.  I remember designing games as far back as middle school and high school, though I was definitely doing more with computer games back then.  In grad school, I was introduced to Magic: The Gathering, which I played for several years.  Eventually, I got interested in other CCGs, too, and I started buying lots of cards from lots of different games.  I also liked to purchase the 2-player starter packs for any new CCG that came out, so that I could read the rules and play through a few games.  

The discussions around those games and their mechanics led to friendships that eventually turned into our game design group, Table Treasure Games.  We've met every month since about 2004, growing from an initial core of 4 people to over 50 currently on our email list.  The game designers and play testers we've brought together in this group are really fantastic, and they give great feedback!  I'm proud to say that several of our members have gotten published!  I've come to enjoy designing games more and more over the last 10 years or so, and I plan to keep doing it.

Dr. Wictz: Why do you love making board games?

Jost Tempkin: Good question!  There are so many things I would say about this!  To oversimplify, I love the creative process at the heart of game design.  But here's a little more.

I often have an "interesting choice" in mind at the start of the design process.  The design evolves as I explore how interesting that choice can become.  I often add context to the decision space (think theme), but that isn't my main interest.  I am fascinated by how a set of rules can lead to a set of experiences.  As players play a game, their choices will drive the "story" that they will experience.  Different choices will drive that story in different directions.  

In a good design, all of those possible directions will be fun and lead to good experiences for the players.  It's quite a challenge (and a very important one!) to build a system that is robust in this way.  Fundamentally, though, I look at the choices that the players get to make.  I believe that the harder the choice, the more memorable the consequences of that choice.  

So, what I love about game design is the process of creating a context in which players can make a series of interesting and memorable choices that will in turn create a memorable set of experiences (i.e., the story).  It's not easy to get right, but I thoroughly enjoy the process.

Dr. Wictz: You have attended a number of UNPUBs. Looking back, what do remember from past UNPUBs?

Josh Tempkin:  I've been to each of the annual Unpubs, right from the beginning.  I remember talking with John Moller and Darrell Louder at the first one, especially hearing about how Darrell had put together his first draft of Compounded just the night before!  And now I have that game sitting on my game shelf!  As I walked from my car to the front door of that first little church, I remember thinking that I had no idea what to expect, but that I was about to experience something special.  It was a great little event, very warm and friendly.  

Unpub 2 was also good, as it had gotten a little bit bigger, but was still as friendly as before.  I remember just missing a chance to play Ben Rosset's design for The Market, which recently came out as "Mars Needs Mechanics."  But I was totally blown away by the size of the room for Unpub 3.  It was huge!  It was incredible to think that designing games was becoming that popular.

Dr. Wictz: What do you keep coming to UNPUNB events?

Josh Tempkin: I love the Unpubs because they are primarily focused on the field of game design that I enjoy so much.  Getting to talk with other designers about their games, their processes, and their successes is fun!  And the other designers often give me a new perspective on my own designs.  

Of course, I learn a lot from the play testers that come, too.  Since they aren't in my usual group, I get to see my games working in different ways.  It's fun when it works well and instructive when it doesn't.  Finally, as the Unpub program expands, publishers are now joining in the fun.  I enjoy their perspectives, too.

Dr. Wictz: Any shout outs to your most dedicated game testers (cough  cough, wife, gf, etc.)?

Josh Tempkin: Sure!  Special thanks to Brad Lackey, my main collaborator.  I've been very lucky to work with Brad.   A fun process is always better when shared with a good friend!  We've been working together on a weekly basis for about 10 years now.  "My" stuff is better when it's "our" stuff.  

And, to all of the game designers and play testers in Table Treasure Games - you folks are incredible!  Thanks for coming over every month and being honest about what you see in the games.

Dr. Wictz: Do you have a website, twitter feed, etc.? 

Josh Tempkin: One of these days, I'll get my website up: www.talltowergames.com.  But, as that's not where my skills really lie, I tend to go back and design games rather than build the website.  Lame excuse, but it's true.  Maybe after Unpub 4 I'll have more time …

Dr. Wictz: Thank you again Josh for stopping by.  If you want to learn more about Josh Tempkin’s Lessor Evil you can follow its progress on the UNPUB Lesser Evil game page.

UNPUB4 Preview: Alf Shadowsong & Kiva Fecteau

I am counting down the days till UNPUB4.  To help get everyone in the UNPUBING spirit (no, I did not make that word up, @dicehateme did), I am going to talk to a couple of board game designers I have met on the UNPUB circuit who will also be demoing their game at UNPUB4.

 

If these new interviews are not enough you can click on the links for and read other interviews done over 2013 of other board game designers, such as Paul Owen, Charlie Hoopes, and  Nathaniel Levan, who will also be attending UNPUB4.  So let me stop ranting about how UNPUB4 is the best prototype only board game convention in the world and how you should attend (more info at www.unpub.net) to play my game Post Position and every board game designer's game that I have interviewed, and get onto something actually worth reading…like me talking to the board game designing team Alf Shadowsong and Kiva Fecteau.

 

I first met Alf Shadowsong and Kiva at the UNPUB protozone at Congress of Gamers in Rockville, Maryland.  They brought a game title Tiny Epic Battles that I played over and over again with Paul Owen. 

 

Alf Shadowsong: We first unveiled Tiny Epic Battles to the public at Congress of Gamers.

 

Dr. Wictz:I know you guys are bringing Tiny Epic Battles with you to UNPUB4, could you give a quick overview of the game?

 

Alf Shadowsong: You are an Ant Queen defending your colony against a neighboring colony. You choose which personalities and actions to take with you to the battlefield, and how many ant hills and resources you want to commit to action--all represented by simple pictures on your 50 active cards. 

 

Lay out your starting anthills, your deck of resources, and your deck of personalities and actions. On each turn, play a personality and an action, paying resources for each. Then decide whether you feel strong or clever enough to attack. After the best two out of three contests, create a new deck to play with from the 140 total cards you control, and forge into the fray again.

 

Dr. Wictz: What did you learn playtesting Tiny Epic Battles?

 

Alf Shadowsong: People not only played with the prearranged decks we'd put together for them, they then wanted to go the extra step and create their own play decks. All this is doable because it can take only 2 minutes to play a game and another 5 minutes to put together a new deck between sets of games.

 

Dr. Wictz: Has Tiny Epic Battles changed since you started presenting it at UNPUB events?

 

Alf Shadowsong: A powerful piece called the King has been removed because of balance issues. We changed a number of the other cards because of ideas we heard about making play seem more fair. We reorganized the card reference sheet to incorporate a section specifically for battle actions. We also changed the theme from a generic tactical battle game to one where queen ants are protecting their colonies to make it more unique.

 

Dr. Wictz: What inspired the theme for Tiny Epic Battles?

 

Alf Shadowsong: The idea came from watching Animal Planet and Discovery Channel.

 

Dr. Wictz: I know you are also taking a few other games to UNPUB4 as well.  You mentioned a game called Shigami that is about a land where war has been outlawed.

 

Alf Shadowsong:  Correct, and because war has been outlaw the resolution to conflicts and disputes is settled in the annual Shigami contest. Each person with a dispute to settle brings a team of six combatants or artifacts, each chosen to complement the others in a particular order.

 

The player chooses six cards and stacks them in a particular order, hoping that the speed, attack, defense, and special abilities of each will build upon each other to result in a high level of clout, or tear down the clout of the opponent. Each player flips one card simultaneously, and the effects are tabulated until all six cards have been played, or until one player runs out of clout.

 

Dr. Wictz: And you also mentioned to me you were bringing two corporation themed games.

 

Alf Shadowsong: Yes, one is called Kuchukua.  In Kuchuka you want control of the corporation.  But so do others. You attempt to manipulate money, votes, and influence in play in order to gain an overwhelming number of any one of them before your opponents.

 

The second game is Gridrunners.  Up to six players take on personas who all have something in common - they want to infiltrate the computer of an evil global corporation to steal information to support their own individual causes. To do that, they'll send avatars into the system to build paths to the core and out again, trying to avoid agents and viruses. They each have unique attributes and control programs that help change the environment of the game. In the end, how much information you control is the only thing that matters.

 

Dr. Wictz: Why do you love making board games?

 

Alf Shadowsong: As far back as I can remember, I never enjoyed playing games as much as creating games for others to play. My favorite video games, board games, and computer games growing up were always those games that let me create entire scenarios, objectives, or even worlds for other people to play in. And so making board games is a natural progression for any mad scientist like myself.

 

Dr. Wictz: How did you two get into designing board games?

 

Alf Shadowsong:  I created my first board game when I was five. I remember thinking to myself that Chutes and Ladders wasn't very much fun, so I created my own version out of construction paper and glue. And just like today with my current games, everyone loved it and everything was spelled wrong. A trend I happily continue today.

 

Kiva Fecteau: I agreed to become the executive producer for Shadowsong Industries to complement Alf's skills, like being able to spell very creatively. After immersing myself in the atmosphere of his creative genius for so long, I've actually found myself waking up with a game in mind.

 

Dr. Wictz: How did you meet your designing partner?

 

Alf Shadowsong: A small temporary construct of hell on earth named Stroyka, a theater company we're all glad to have survived.

 

Dr. Wictz: What inspired you two to work together to design board games?

 

Alf Shadowsong: Too much drugs and alcohol. Ok, not really, since neither of us do drugs or drink more than occasionally. The real answer: necessity, possibility, and luck.

 

Dr. Wictz: What are the benefits and challenges of designing games as a team?

 

Alf Shadowsong: The benefits obviously come from the fact that many hands make for light work. Multiple perspectives - no one person can see something through anyone's eyes but their own. Having even one other person there allows you to find solves for problems you might never have known about otherwise. We find strength in the different skill sets and abilities that each person brings to the project. The challenges come from that same idea of multiple perspectives. One person wants to develop in this direction and the other person wants to go in another. What makes for a truly successful team is the ability to complement and compromise.

 

Dr. Wictz: A very good point and a great way to conclude. Thank you Alf & Kiva for talking to me today.  If you want to learn more about games designed by Alf Shadowsong & Kiva Fecteau you can visit their game page on the unpub website or find Kivia Fecteau on one of the Facebook game designer groups.  

 

Congres of Gamers Preview 2013: Nathaniel Levan

Just one more week till Congress of Gamers (http://www.congressofgamers.org/) in Bethesda, Maryland on September 28th & 29th.  I have been checking in with diffrent game designers that I have met on the UNPUB circuit who I know are also attending Congress of Gamers.  Today I am talking to Nathaniel Levan of Oak Leaf Games about his game New Bedford.

I met Nathaniel at UNPUB South Jersey 2013 when he was demoing New Bedford.

 

Nathaniel Levan: That was my first public showing of the game, and my first UNPUB event.  I had no idea what to expect at UNPUB South Jersey, but people said a lot of positive things about the game which encouraged me to  keep developing it.

 

Dr. Wictz:           Can you give us a quick rundown of New Bedford, which you will also be playtesting at Congress of Gamers?

Nathaniel Levan: New Bedford is a worker placement game about building a whaling town.  Players add actions to the game by building buildings and launch ships to compete for the best opportunity to catch whales.  Whaling uses an original “track” mechanic that balances the time players spend collecting whales with the competition as supply of whales decrease.

 

Dr. Wictz:           How does the “track” mechanic work?

 

Nathaniel Levan: Players have the ability to launch ships to the whaling track.  The ships farthest from shore get the best choice of the randomly drawn whale tokens.  Ships slowly move toward shore, which gives other players a chance to push their ships further out to sea and grab better whale tokens until you can launch another ship.  Meanwhile, you need to earn enough money to pay your ships crew when it returns to port.  Whale tokens are never returned to the supply, so as the game progresses it becomes harder to catch good whales.   

 

Dr. Wictz:           How has New Bedford changed since you started presenting it UNPUB events?

Nathaniel Levan: There are a lot of small graphical changes, which is natural for a prototype.  Most of them were superficial changes that make it easier to pick up and learn the game.  But there was also a few big changes.  Thanks to input from Dr. Wictz, the main board was separated into two pieces, and the whaling mechanic was dramatically simplified.  Based on feedback from my last UNPUB event, I removed an entire resource.  Even after these changes the core gameplay is still the same, but the game is much more elegant and compelling.

 

Dr. Wictz:             What inspired the whaling theme in New Bedford?

 

Nathaniel Levan: I had been interested in developing a game about whaling since rereading Moby Dick a couple of years ago, but I didn’t really put the two together until I saw a documentary on PBS about whaling.  After that everything started to fit into place.  Moby Dick provides a  great slice of mythology and culture from the golden age of whaling that New Bedford draws upon for thematic inspiration.  At the same time, I wanted to keep specific references from the book out of the game so the game has its own identity.

 

Dr. Wictz:            How did you get into designing board games?

 

Nathaniel Levan:  I’m an engineer, so I naturally think about ways to rearrange and combine parts into something new.  I started writing down ideas and developed some fan expansions by tweaking game rules and borrowing rules from other games.  Then I moved on to developing whole mechanics and games based on what I have liked and dislike from other games.  I’ve been working on a number of designs, but New Bedford is the first one I have gotten into a playable form.

Dr. Wictz:            Why do you love making board games?

 

Nathaniel Levan: I love having interesting things to think about in my spare time.  Games let me combine that analytical portion of my brain with all of the random snippets of information I have gathered.

 

Dr. Wictz:            Any shout outs to your most dedicated game testers (cough cough, wife, gf, etc.)?

Nathaniel Levan: I’d like to thank my wife for both her moral support in the development, and practical support with the design.  When I have a problem with the game or add something new I ask her to take a look and she tells me what fits and what doesn’t.  She has really helped shaped the playing experience of New Bedford.  I’d also like to thank/apologize to my friends who put you with my continual requests for playtesting.

 

Dr. Wictz:           Thank you Nathaniel for stopping by and chatting.  You can learn more about New Bedford and Nathaniel’s other games by following his blog Oakleafgames.WordPress.com or by following him on facebook at Facebook.com/OakleafGames .