[ANNOUNCEMENT] Looking for Players

-

    Welcome back to TwistedSpoon Studio! Mondays are for Musings, and this week it's a hot one. Games are made to be played, so the only way to know if it's any good is to play it. Preferably a lot. Like, a lot a lot. So how do you make that happen? How do you get anyone, let alone a lot of people, to play an unfinished game?

    Well, my answer is, I don't know. Playtesting has been a huge stumbling block for me in the past, and is one of the main reasons that I've never tackled a project like this one before. So in classic TwistedSpoon Studio spirit, why don't we learn together? I'm going to try something, and we'll find out if it works. Are you ready?

    This Saturday, January 29th, at 12pm Central/1pm Eastern, we're opening up play testing for Festival of Urbestia! The format will be Pauper Sealed:

  • Players will receive six packs of commons from Festival of Urbestia via Planesculptors.
  • Build a deck with a minimum of 40 cards from their pool in Cockatrice.
    • Players are encouraged to use the "Two-of" rule. This is not mandatory. (When debating between playing the second copy of a card that you've played before, versus the first copy of a card you haven't played yet, you are encouraged to play with the latter. ) 
  • Find games in the pinned Live Chat on Reddit at r/TwistedSpoonStudio. (LFP Live Chat will go up on Friday.)
  • After playing, share feedback with a brief survey to get rewards, including:
    • Play-for-Play (I'll test your set/game)
    • Shout outs on the blog
    • Design slots in the set
    • A $25 gift card (raffle)

    In order to playtest, you'll need a) a copy of the set file, which will be released later this week; b) Cockatrice to play; and c) Planesculptors to receive your pool. You may use the same pool for multiple rounds, or get a new pool after each round. For an idea of what to expect during gameplay, check out the Draft Archetypes here.

    Play testing will run from Saturday, January 29th at 12pm C, until Saturday, February 26th. There will be updates throughout on r/TwistedSpoonStudio, so stay posted! 

    

See you soon!

   


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monday Musings: The Work Must Flow

-
Image
     Welcome to TwistedSpoon Studio! This is the first article in a series I'm calling Monday Musings, where I ramble about whatever game design topic is on my mind and, hopefully, turn it into practical advice for you. This week, the topic is work flow. When you're approaching a new project, it can be daunting to figure out where to start. Every designer has their own methods, but there are some best practices that apply to any project. Below I'm going to outline my own process, but don't take it as set in stone-- feel free to adjust it for your own needs and the needs of your game. Time Sieve by Franz Vohwinkel Pre-Design     Pre-design is exactly what it sounds like-- it's all the stuff you have to do before you start designing proper. For my money, this process has three broad steps: Exploration, Research, and Planning.     The order of the first two steps will vary depending on whether your project is top-down or bottom-up. For a top-down design (starting with
Read more

[Workshop Wednesday] Call of Gathering: Magic Warfare

-
Image
      Welcome to TwistedSpoon Studio! It's Wednesday my dudes, and that means the Workshop is open. This week, we're getting into the trenches with some top-down military designs featuring the custom Backup mechanic:     Backup is an alternate-cost mechanic that can go on any non-land card type. (Well, technically... no, we're not getting into that again.) If you played Battle for Zendikar, you might recognize this mechanic:     Personally, I think Surge was a great mechanic. It lets you "combine" spells into a one-two punch, and you can even cooperate with your teammate in some formats. (I'm a sucker for Two-Headed Giant sealed deck, so I may be biased there.) Backup is more limited-- it only cares about creatures, and only your own-- but it's meant to allow you to break timing restrictions (like Miracle does) if you get clever with it.     That being said, it's a pretty simple mechanic. I suspect that the feedback wouldn't have been as overwhelmi
Read more

[Monday Musings] The One-Hour Game Jam, ft. Quantum Reflections

-
Image
      Welcome to TwistedSpoon Studio! This week we're back with another Monday Musing, and this one is near and dear to my heart: the One-Hour Game Jam. It's exactly what it says on the tin. That's all for this week!   The Tin     Okay, maybe there's a little more to say about it. The One-Hour Game Jam is not a competition, so much as a game design exercise. You have one hour to make a playable game. Notice that I said "playable." I didn't say "great," "perfect," or "Spiel des Jahres." You're aiming for minimum viable product-- think of whatever you end up making as a rough sketch of a game.     This whole practice is inspired by the podcast Unplaytested . The premise is simple: every week, they make an RPG in an hour, based on a randomly selected theme. It's a master course in building games fast and loose, and it's well worth a listen.     When you have an idea for a game, it's easy to fixate on it. What ar
Read more