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I ran ImpGame a while back that seemed to go OK. But a lot of what I think worked well was I enjoyed it a lot, Everyone who participated was amazing :-) I do have some thoughts on scope creep following the game, especially seeing some other games stall out fairly quickly. I seen how easy it is to get yourself in a situation where you feel out of your depth, even in a paddling pool you made yourself. So hopefully some of below observations and examples are useful to people. I went into ImpGame with a clear set of goals and expectations so as to keep myself focussed, keep the game on track, on schedule and under control. I wanted people to have fun, but that included myself. Here are those goals, and how they got shifted, ignored, and broken. By me. Oops. NUMBER OF PLAYERS Open recruitment I wanted an open recruit thing, BDTG style, since I liked how people could drop in and out. Casual, open for new players. I only expected maybe 5 or so people to try it out, but in the end 26 people had made an IMP and participated in at least one turn. Which is great! It was really nice so many people participated. This is not so much a problem on its own because ImpGame's rules were pretty simple, but it had some knock on effects. Players blasted through the primary tasks super quick, and the art requirement increased (more on this below). Takeaway: If leaving player recruitment open, have a plan on how to deal with an unexpected uptick. If you made resourcing promises or plans based on a much lower (or higher) number of players, be prepared and willing to adjust them so you can manage. Be realistic with what you can manage. POSTING FREQUENCY Updating Tuesday and Friday. This was based on how much I expected to write per update, how much I expected to draw per update, and how much free time I had when starting the thread. When each of these changed, I did not re-evaluate, and so always felt I was late, under pressure to work on the next update. Takeaway: Have clear expectations of yourself to keep the game progressing. BUT if you can't manage, communicate this and set more reasonable goals. If you burn out, the game ends, and no one wants that. SET TURN LIMIT 7 days, 7 nights, 7 turns, 7 updates 1) I decided to add interim updates- point of view posts from npcs to keep player attention inbetween updates. I really liked this as part of the game, but I did not include it in my original update projections. It did take time away from writing other updates, but I think it was worth it. 2) Adding another day was something shifted by the players, and a change I was actually happy with. Player actions added an extra day, BUT this was limited to a single extra action, letting people tie up loose ends. I think the limited nature of it is what made it work. It worked as part of the story, it worked as a part of the game, I'm all round happy it happened. Takeaway: Changing your plans can be fine, as long as this is within manageable limits. Make sure you understand what these limits are, and how much extra time/energy you need to invest to get a new thing working. SET AMMOUNT OF ARTS DRAWN Each player gets one IMP avatar drawing, made from a simple template, and updated as they unlock additions. That was great! Something i really liked from BDTG and Wrecking Crew both. Fun, easy, and let players customise their character look. I think the imp arts were a nice draw for people, even though they were pretty basic. And the simplicity of the template worked when scaled up with lots of players. BUT Each in game day, a single picture with the workshop would be posted, with the previously created IMP drawings copy/ pasted on top of a set background. Each Player would then get their imp's action visually represented in the workshop. This quickly got out of control. As people acted in other locations, I continued to draw each imp acting, but now multiple images were needed. Then, instead of simplifying to manage this, I started making animated gifs of increasing complexity. Nothing major or anything, all simple stuff. But it took time, energy, and effort far above what I had planned. Each update I felt needed more drawings, more gifs, more stuff. Delays and pressure resulted. If everyone on the discord wasn't so chill and supportive, could have easily burned out due to this self imposed requirement. And it was self imposed, no one was asking me to do doodles, no one was shouting for gifs, no one was pushing for anything. Takeaway: Set reasonable expectations of yourself. If things are drifting away from a manageable plan, take a step back and reevaluate. What would make it manageable? Adjust your timings? alter your planned outputs? change limits on player actions? SOLICIT SUGGESTIONS FROM THE PLAYERS. They probably want the game to continue, and will have good ideas. Everyone in ImpGame was really understanding and helpful, and I'm sure people are the same in other games. But people can't meet you halfway of you don't tell them. So, that's my thoughts about how I let ImpGame, (a really rules light, simple game with straightforward rules and interactions, and copy/paste arts) get away from me a bit. Hopefully this helps other people avoid these pitfalls 
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Jan 24, 2019 20:37
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 03:40 |
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