Finding playtesters is definitely the hardest part of designing, but there are quite a few online Dsicord groups that would work well with your timezone
I don't know how difficult it would be to mod a version of your game into Tabletop Simulator, but that game's got a thriving playerbase. If you were to upload a rules PDF with the mod, I'm sure you'd have at least a couple interested players from within the Steam community. And it could be easily linked to Patreon supporters who might already own Tabletop Simulator, too.
I’m glad to hear things have progressed! Condolences for the loss of even more free time though 😔 This is completely non-sequitur to anything you mention in the video, but the line “the snail has a power level of 5” begs to be used in a RU-vid poop/YTPMV
Is there a way to make lower capture targets while also making the capture worth less than another capture in an interesting way. Like if you capture a lower cost target, but it doesnt count toward a win-total until you capture another target that synergizes with it. Like a cicada shell could be a very low target that doesnt give you point toward winning, until you also capture "swarm infested tree". The tree can have its own points, but is average until you have the cicada shell
I know it's not the same, but have you considered using Tabletop Simulator to test the game with people online? Maybe folks from your Patreon would be interested? And given that it is just files you don't need to keep re-printing card modifications for each iteration. Didn't know you also participated in GMTK gamejam! Please show your entry in the next video! Would love to check it out!
Easiest way to get a lot of playtesting is Tabletop Simulator. Might be a bit annoying to set-up yourself, but if you ever make the current files public and gave the go-ahead I'd be willing to do it. On what you said about the increase in capture points potentially leading to people "giving up" lanes, you could add a rule that if you have a certain amount of points on a lane (maybe 10) and are uncontested, you instantly win it. This might be unnecessary complexity and make players have moves they feel like they're "forced" to play at times, but I think it would entice players who might have intitally thought of seceding a lane to instead try to fight for it.
There’s an important leap I find between playtesting you do with people, and playtesting you do where you just give the materials and the rules. Have you written up a rules document yet that’s for players? Or is it notes you have that you collate and communicate to testers? It’d be really interesting, and potentially easier to organise if you made packs you can give to people, and have them record their experience playing *and* figuring out the rules.
Hello, thanks for another video. Have you considered releasing part of the game as a free PDF for people to print and play? It might get more people interested in buying/becking it in Kickstarter plus it will act as playtesting. And will there be more episodes in The Story Machines series or has this saga ended?
