Feedback for Ingeniators
The winner of U-Con's local semifinal of the 2010 Rio Grande Game Design Competition is "Verlatical"! Congratulations to the designer, Ross Atkinson.
Here is the feedback I received for the game I entered, "Ingeniators".
Scoresheet criterion, on a scale of one to ten. Each column is 1 of the 7 playtesters.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1. Decision Driven: How much is the winner determined based on their decisions, as opposed to luck factors?
4
4
4
4
5
4
5
2. Originality
3
5
5
3
5
4
5
3. Wait Time: How much time do you spend without interacting with the game/other players?
3
3
4
3
5
5
5
4. Unpredictability: How often is the outcome of a turn/round known before it ends?
3
3
4
4
5
3
4
5. Broad Appeal: Would you teach this to someone who is not a serious game player?
1
1
2
1
5
2
4
6. Replayable: Do you want to play it again soon?
2
2
3
2
4
4
5
7. Interactive: Do the player decisions impact other players?
5
4
5
4
5
5
5
8. Equal Opportunity: Does every player have an equal chance of winning regardless of turn order/role?
5
4
5
4
4
3
5
9. Fun
2
2
3
3
5
4
5
10. Simple to Learn: The rules were clearly stated and communicated.
1
2
2
4
5
2
4
Total
29
30
37
32
48
36
47
Tie Breaker: How would you rate the overall game & game playing experience?
3
3
5
5
7
9
_
- Fairly simple, but there are some gray areas requiring the clarification of a designer or experienced player.
- Not saying it's a bad game, just not my thing. Was difficult to grasp all the rules/possibilities on a first play.
- I like the originality of game. I feel a little overwhelmed with the number of patterns & powers. I could see some gamers over-analyzing what they should do & taking a lot of time. I wonder how easy it is to self-exploit his own invention for points but that might be resolved with others flipping/clearing the tracks... so might be OK.
- There are some little tweaks that would be very helpful, like the scoring mechanism and the stacks of tiles. Both are very easy to knock over.
- Definite potential.
- The pieces were kind-of hard to tell apart. It was fun but it hurt my brain a bit.
- Very cerebral, almost to the point of causing brain malfunction.
- Overall this was fun!
_
The message is unambiguous. While the game I designed appeals strongly to its own target market (such as playtesters # 5 & 7), there is clearly a need for a more casual version. Many of the playtesters were grandparents and teens who didn't seem engaged.
After I received this feedback, it didn't take me long to condense Ingeniators down to its purest recognizable form. Unfortunately this version loses the thing I liked about it the most: self-interested co-operation. But it's still fun.
The other thing I learned is that few people are confident in how Ingeniators should be pronounced. (In-Jee-Nee-Ay-Ters.) This feedback came exclusively from folks who I know to be highly literate.
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