During the end of May I attended the board game convention LinCon. I managed to get two full playtests of Hamster Valley. Here is a summary of the two most notable changes during the weeks after LinCon, based on feedback from the playtests. (I’ve made even more changes since then, so stay tuned for more updates soon!)
Change 1. Food card + Territory Die = Energy engine
“The energy engine feels a bit repetitive.”
This was actually the most helpful comment during the playtests. This aligned with my own feeling that I had not yet fully integrated the new concepts such as territory dice with the core game engine. During mid- and endgame it also felt a bit tedious to roll up to 10 standard dice to generate energy.
The solution I came up with was to remove the standard energy dice completely. The players now only have one start die. I have added a slot for one energy die on each Food. All Food (except the Start food) can hold any type of energy dice. However there is always one specific type of dice that will reward an additional bonus when rolling.
To get more energy you must now both get more Food cards and also fight for a territory die. This makes fighting an integrated part of building your engine. It is also more fun to roll three unique dice that ten standard dice.
Change 2. Item + Strength Die = Fighting power
“I did not focus on getting Items. I did not understand until the end of the game that they could give you so many points.”
“The materials could be used for more interesting decisions.”
A good energy engine often also meant a good strength engine for fighting, since the Food cards provided for both energy and strength dice. Now instead I have separated the way to get energy dice and strength dice. Each Item have a slot for one Strength die. So you need Items to store more of these dice.
However, to get the actual die you also need to collect Materials in a strategic way. You will now get a reward if you place two Materials of different kinds beside each other in your tableau. This is now the main way to get new Strength dice.
Development status and what’s next
- Early design work and playtesting
- Core mechanics
- Overall theme and concept art
- First version of the miniatures – sculpting and 3d-printing
- Develop the stances
- Initial closed playtesting
- Refine digital prototype (TTS)
- Refine the mechanics
- Develop the hamster’s unique abilities
- Open playtesting
- Balancing and further development
- Refine the miniatures
- Rulebook
- Blind playtesting
- Final artwork and components
Also: Updated Tabletop Simulator prototype
I have also updated my digital prototype at Tabletop Simulator. It is starting to look kinda polished now, at least for a prototype! Now I need to get more playtests in with 3 or 4 players to refine the game mechanics and start focusing also on balancing the different hamster abilities and the various Items. Let me know if you are interested! 🙂
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