Polishing the Game

Things have been pretty interesting over the last few weeks. As we neared completion, Matt had some great ideas on how to smooth out the game and make the play experience more elegant. We have a pretty hefty deadline hanging over our heads, so everyone pulled together over the last couple weeks to give Monsterpocalypse that extra polish. We have had a fair number of late nights playtesting and grooming the rules, as well as the figures’ individual abilities. Further, we‘re working on the rarity levels to make sure the figures aren’t difficult to collect.

One of the formats we have given a lot of attention to lately is the (cue dramatic music) Double Threat Format! This puts two of your monsters on the map against your opponent’s two monsters and increases the destructive capability of the game. We have created a few Power Attacks for use only in these games, and the Power Attacks we have now work great in concert with one another if you plan your movement correctly. It is quite the experience, and with a little more playtesting, we will have all of the bugs hammered out for you guys by the time the rulebook goes to press.

I have worked on a fair number of product launches in my time. A strange thing happens in the design cycle. You start off with a whole slew of ideas to feast on. You choose what you like best and run with it. That middle time while playtesting is actually the most relaxed time during the whole process: your wife sees you on a regular basis, you eat your fruits and vegetables, and the game seems to play rather well. As the deadline encroaches, your anxiety rises. As your anxiety rises, you start thinking about the game more and more. The time you spend watching “How its Made” and “Dirty Jobs” during the weekend, gets interrupted with thoughts about the game. Little things become more clear. Things you did not think of as problems become niggling issues you have to deal with. Its like a word problem on the SAT that you are not sure if you got right or wrong. You keep running over what you know about the word problem, desperately trying to validate your conclusion. Then the issues that, due to denial or procrastination, you put off addressing until the end suddenly reappear. Somewhere during this mind twisting madness you find something that you do not like and want to change; and that leads to another change and that leads to another change. All the time, that deadline is headed at you like a rampaging Terrasaur bent on stomping you into oblivion! So you do some extra hours, you playtest a little more, and you rally the people around you to get the job done. This is what separates the wheat from the chaff.

Basically, we are at the point in the design where your wife forgets your face, your mind stays constantly wrapped around the game, and the anxiety of whether people will like it or not haunts you constantly. Pizza becomes the cornerstone of your diet, and you cannot follow a simple TV show for lack of attention. In the end, all this stress leads to a better game, so it is worth it. You have to be choosy about what you address and what you do not address, but if you keep an objective mind and listen to your co-workers, you find the right path. I have been a part of it before and will probably be a part of it again in the future. It’s part of the process of making a good game great!

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