Denver ComicCon 2016 Day 2
Kyle
Today was a day of boardgames for me! I stayed in the 700 hall most of the day hanging out with gamers, my people. 🙂
I started off the day in a panel about indie gaming with the folks from Chicago comedy troupe the Nerdologues. “But Kyle you said that you were covering boardgames today, not comedy! I cannot believe you betrayed our trust!” Calm down, there is relevance here. They actually just finished their first game, Fisticuffs! A Card Game. The game revolves around 1920’s boxing matches between crazy character such as a robot, a flapper, and a gorilla! Yeah it sounds awesome, you are correct.
The panel focused on their development process. They brought up that art is super important when bringing a game to Kickstarter because people want to see what they are getting. “After all these are just ideas on pieces of paper”, Kevin from Nerdologues said. As any Kickstarter fan can attest art is a huge way to tell a game haha. Another large part of the process was play testing. The group mentioned they were scared of even thinking about putting it on a crowd funding site until they had a complete product. They did not want to be one of those famous projects that didn’t deliver. Finally, they talked about cost. Determining the cost for the project was very difficult due to all the hidden factors such a as Kickstarter fees, printing, shipping, and even sometimes small components they didn’t of. Even though it was a panel full of warnings, the crew was ecstatic to have a final product and their attitude was purely motivational!
From Left: Virgilio San Andres, Cooper Heinrichs, Kevin Reader, Jim Brown.
The next panel I attended was about DIY board game design. It was a bit rough because it was the first time this group had done a panel together but they recovered later on by telling stories about design and answering lots of questions about the process from the amateur designers in the crowd. They all collectively agreed that designing a game revolves around the player making meaningful decisions which are based on the mechanics. Then they discussed some lessons they have learned throughout the years. Cooper said, “Never take away the players’ ability to act.” I nodded silently as I recalled playing against a blue deck in the Magic the Gathering card game. One of the most pertinent points that came out of this talk was that you do not need to always go the whole nine yards and publish the game. you can make something for fun to play with your friends. This resonated and made me think more about playing with my friends as a kid, making up rules as we go and having a ton of fun. Then I thought about how some of those things are actually real games, like paintball or puzzle rooms. It all clicked and I decided it was an awesome panel.
I ended the day have a discussion on the show floor with one of the founders of Table Top Fables, Gene McCaffrey. Table Top Fables is a company that will make you miniatures for your games. Whether it’s D&D or custom Warhammer sculpts, these guys have you covered. They also have a game system they developed called Fable Wars, a squad based table top minis game. It is meant to introduce people to the genre and to use any models you like! In my opinion this is an almost necessary step in opening the door from other genres to table top mini gaming. You can even snag a starter kit for 2 players with rules and 6 hand painted minis for a great price. Oh yeah did I mention they also do commission painted minis? Check them out!
Thanks for reading! We will have more from the last day tomorrow!
-Kyle