Category: Game Reviews

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Losing the plant immediately with a bug.
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I loved the art! I thought all of the pieces were cohesive. I think the pen and ink style works well! I also love that you can do three actions per turn. I haven’t played a game that you can do this but I think it makes players feel more productive and may reduce the feeling of turns being tedious. Overall, the game was well-paced and a good combination of fun and strategic.
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t?  A board would also be helpful for the draw piles etc. I think it could be cute if it was themed … maybe a market shelf? Pots?
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? More pesticide! Honestly, I think it was a fine amount. If there was more, it might be too easy.
• What should be improved with the next version? I don’t know if it’s necessary to have drawing options for the insects/pesticide. At any point, you could sabotage people easily.
• Describe the game in 3 words. Artsy, PlantMom, Well-Paced

1.) Most Frustrating moment or aspect: The riddles are so clever, and for me, it was more getting moved back during gameplay. I think it happened often enough I was frustrated, but it’s a good part of the game. Nothing unintentional that frustrated me!

2.) Favorite moment or aspect of the game?: I enjoyed the aspect of the chance cards a lot. It spiced things up and it wasn’t all about riddles

3.) Anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t?: Get all the riddles right at the end!! I got the first one right, and then lost at the second, making me go all the way back. 🙁

4.) If you could change anything about the game would you?: I want to clarify that I do not think the riddles should change. I think it is more a player error of not being able to answer them right easily. Though I do think for those players, maybe having levels of cards to pick from could help. But then I fee like everyone would pick easy cards.

5.) What should be improved for the next version?: Add more riddles!

6.) Describe the game in three words: Dad Joke Trolls

troll riddle run

1. The most frustrating part was getting three riddles right in a row at the end.
2. I had a lot of fun telling the others riddles.
3. I don’t think we should have to guess a riddle right to start the game.
4. If i had a magic wand to change something in this gam( which i do lol) i would make it so you can just start rolling and you don’t have to answer a riddle to start you first turn.
5. the riddle at the start.
6. troll, riddles, fun.

rotten to the core

1. The most frustrating part of this game was the investigation cards, and the spinner not working like it was intended to.
2. The art was really cute, and the game itself when at a pretty steady pace.
3. I wish i had better luck but other than that no.
4. If i had a magic wand id make their be more ways to sabotage other players.
5. Make a better spinner.
6. cutesy, mindful, demure.

Gideons game

1. the most frustrating aspect was it wasn’t entirely finished, some parts were missing and the cards didn’t reflect what was in the rules.
2. the chaos of the cards because some were overpowered if you were just playing with the cards and weren’t looking at the rules for every card description.
3. stock pile good cards, but it is a fun concept to get a new hand every turn.
4. if i had a magic wand i would finish the game.
5. making the card descriptions match what was in the rules.
6. grenade, rocket launcher, chaos.

Game Maker’s Play Tests Notes #1

• What questions did your players have? Not really any 
• How quickly did they learn to play? Pretty quickly, but there are a lot of little rules and different actions that make it more difficult. I was able to explain the rules faster than it would have taken to learn. 
• What kinds of interactions did the players have? Playing bad bugs on each other, trying to prevent each other from reaching 5 objective cards first. 
• What confused players? A little bit of confusion with how the pesticide works 
• What made players excited? Being able to play a bug card, complete objectives, etc. 
• What did your players enjoy doing? Same thing
• Did any aspect of the game frustrate players? Not having any protection over the plants that you have. They could be eaten at any time. 

Player Questions #1 

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Being sabotaged with bugs and losing a plant you planted 
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? Sweeping the plant cards, sabotaging with bugs. 
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? Have protection for my plants with the pesticide 
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Magically hand draw every illustration 
• What should be improved with the next version? Specify that you can play the cards in any order, it doesn’t need to be the order that’s on the card. 
• Describe the game in 3 words. Strategic, competitive, cute 

Potential Changes

• Design the game board to look like plant pots, shelves, or a greenhouse maybe
• Clarify that when dealing cards to players you take it from the top of the pile and not the reserve 
• Have names on the back of the cards 
• Have more instructions on the cards themselves
• Have a protection over bugs being placed in your garden 
• Clarify pesticide rules
• Don’t have the two faceup bugs because it makes it too easy 
• Clarify that you can lay down your cards in any order on your player mat

Game Maker’s Play Tests Notes #1

• What questions did your players have? I don’t think the players really had any questions. They understood this game fairly well. 
• How quickly did they learn to play? The players learned how to play very quickly, because it has pretty simple mechanics. 
• What kinds of interactions did the players have? The interactions between players weren’t really a result of any mechanics but players had fun pointing out who was the most suspicious when they kept landing on investigation. 
• What confused players? Some of the cards didn’t make the most sense due to some of our mistakes in creating the cards. For instance, some of the cards made you gain points on the decomposition scale, but in reality, they wouldn’t have really sped up decomposition. 
• What made players excited? I think the story behind it made players the most excited. I think the first paragraph really set the scene for what the game was about and they began to imagine the scenarios of how they murdered their victims. 
• What did your players enjoy doing? Players enjoyed flipping their booklets and looking at the cute illustrations
• Did any aspect of the game frustrate players? I think it was frustrating to some players to roll Investigation so many times because it was a guaranteed loss of points. 

Player Questions #1 

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? There was no point in even picking up the Fungi or Bug cards when you land on Snowy on the spinner, because they aren’t worth any points. If you landed on Snowy and also rolled Fungi or Bug then, it was a waste of time with no points earned. 
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I think the game is really cute and enjoyed spinning the spinner and flipping the booklet when I moved onto the next stage of decomposition. 
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? I wanted there to be more interaction with the decomposition booklets. Like maybe the bug and fungi cards directly interacted with each other. 
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Create more interactivity with the decomposition booklets besides just flipping the page; how to do that, I’m not sure. 
• What should be improved with the next version? Add the possibility of framing other players when you roll Investigation. 
• Describe the game in 3 words. Cute, sustainable murderers

Game Maker’s Play Tests Notes #2

• What questions did your players have? I don’t really think the players had many questions
• How quickly did they learn to play? Very quickly
• What kinds of interactions did the players have? In this test, players could frame each other once they obtained 3 investigation cards if they rolled investigation on the die one more time. 
• What confused players? The mechanics for framing other players were a little bit confusing, but that was mainly because it was a mechanic quickly thrown in. 
• What made players excited? I wouldn’t say that anything particularly excited the players, but the opportunity to frame other players potentially did. They also liked how cute the game is. 
• What did your players enjoy doing? The players enjoyed flipping the booklets. 
• Did any aspect of the game frustrate players? It was frustrating landing on snowy on the spinner because of the lack of points it gives or landing on investigation so often because you lost points. 

Player Questions #2

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Landing on investigation so many times. 
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I liked having the opportunity to frame other players this time. 
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? I still think it would be a good idea to have more interaction with the booklets. 
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Make the booklets feel more necessary, more player interaction and interaction between the different game elements. 
• What should be improved with the next version? More interaction with the booklets, build the framing into the mechanics a little bit better. 
• Describe the game in 3 words. Love the creators

Ideas & Potential Things to Change

• Change the points earned when it is snowy and you pick up a bug card or fungi card. I think sometimes the points could be 0 for both scenarios, but it shouldn’t be that anytime you roll bugs or mushrooms and land on snowy, it is a wasted turn
• Maybe add type of the decomposition stages to the tombstone 
• Add and smooth out mechanics to frame another player
• Maybe add an inter-circle that has a humidity dimension that also alters the bodily decomposition
  • This could maybe be a multiplier?
• Change the random events card about the children digging up the body because it just doesn’t make sense
  • Probably just get rid of it and replace it with a different scenario
• Maybe add an event at the end of the game to hide the dried remains
• Detachable body parts on the decomp booklets?
• Operation like decomp booklets?
• Add more interaction with the cards and the decomposition booklets
  • Maybe play the cards on the booklets?
• Maybe add other faces of the die be things that aren’t cards or come up with another set of cards
• Maybe have some spaces on the decomposition scale that make you do something, gain, or lose points?
• Have a punishment for having a certain amount of investigation cards
  • Maybe you are taken in for questioning 
  • Maybe you go to court? Or jail?
  • Maybe you have to skip a turn 
• Have some options for turn actions so people aren’t doing the same exact thing every turn
• In the random events rules, remove the thing about having a scale for points
• Decomposition booklet ideas
  • Maybe make the decomposition booklets a little smaller
  • Make the decomposition booklets flip more easily 
  • Make them clear with stickers
  • Make them like boxes
• Maybe add some blush to the illustrations
  • Some think the illustrations could be gorier too 

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? At first, there was no reason for us to not just play all of our combat cards and almost kill the other players in one turn. I think there needs to be an opportunity for more strategic decisions. 
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I liked the pixelated art style. Although this type of game isn’t my favorite, I could see it working for your target audience. 
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? I wanted to have a better way to keep track of my HP, rather than just keeping track of it on a piece of paper. I also wanted to have a store of ammo so that it isn’t just deciding how much ammo you want to use and it essentially means nothing because there was no penalty for running out. 
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? I would want a lot more strategy in the game.
• What should be improved with the next version? A couple suggestions that I have, in addition to what I already mentioned, would be to include a 3, 2, 1 and then lay down the cards, a better way to keep track of bullets and ammo (physical bullets like in Bang?), make sure that the cards aren’t see-through. I would also work on some of the mechanics so that players can have more strategy. I wonder, too, if there are some fun physical elements that you can incorporate to enhance the experience, aside from the cards. 
• Describe the game in 3 words. Competitive, team combat

1. the pieces wouldn’t stay on the small little matt to build the boat.

2. the speed aspect was a lot of fun.

3. their wasn’t really anything that i wanted to do.

4. larger matt and a way for things to stay on that board a little better without rolling would be

5. nothing need changed, its perfect.

6. wood, boat, build.

I really enjoyed this game and I think it has so much potential! The art for this game could be super super cool and I hope you experiment with that! 

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? People not having the same humor as me, but you’ll have that in any party game like this so it’s really not that big of a deal. 
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I really enjoyed drawing and seeing how everyone else interpreted the same tattoo prompt. 
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? Maybe add color? But other than that, not really. 
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? 
• What should be improved with the next version? I would clarify the end of the game. I would maybe put the first to X amount of cards instead of 8 rounds, because at the end of the rounds it is possible to have a tie. The inclusion of the Cards Against Humanity cards was nice but I would love to see your own cards! As a couple ideas: You could also add the option of making players draw in a specific tattoo style like traditional, minimalist. Another idea would be to have players decide where the tattoo would be placed (like arm, leg, back, etc.) or that could also be a card in itself where players need to draw a back tattoo fitting the prompts. 

Describe the game in 3 words. Funny, creative, dirty (a lil)

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? The rules were a little bit confusing at times, although they probably would be more easily understood if I had more experience with role playing games. Additionally, the game seemed like it would go on forever because the board was so big everyone could kind of just stay away from each other and no one would actually die. 
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I like how the dice determine so many different aspects of the game like your character, abilities, what loot you get, etc. 
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? I wanted to have the opportunity to battle with other players more or maybe do more actions that affected other players. 
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? I think I would make it easier for players to run into each other to battle, but not too easy. 
• What should be improved with the next version? I think mostly the rules could use some clarification. You could also add some wording that will prompt the role playing aspect of the game a little bit more to get players that aren’t as familiar with role playing games like myself into the story. It might also be interesting to not have all of the players start at the same place; there can be multiple entrances to the dungeon so that some players don’t die right away. Also maybe make the board a little bit smaller or have a board that adapts to the amount of players in the game so that the playing area isn’t too big for 3 players or too small for 6 players. 
• Describe the game in 3 words. Intriguing, combat, imaginative 

I may leave a comment on your rules post with a few more suggestions! I look forward to seeing where this game goes.

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? A lot of the gameplay being entirely luck-based. The dice would not give me the numbers I wanted. Also, running out of oxygen immediately, but that was also partly my fault. 
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I really like the concept and art of this game. I think it has a lot of potential. I also liked seeing what little treasures I collected each turn. 
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? I wanted to be able to buy more oxygen tanks or be able to make more strategic decisions besides just relying on the dice to give me the numbers I wanted. 
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Have more risk as you move further down in the water. 
• What should be improved with the next version? I would make it riskier the further you go down in the water, like maybe the numbers that you need to get get smaller and smaller as you go down. I think it would also be cool to be able to buy oxygen tanks with the gold coins. I think it would be nice also to have player mats. 
• Describe the game in 3 words. Luck-based, creative, enthralling 

the most frustrating pasrt about the game was trying not to repeat what someone had previously said. my favorite aspect was the fun catagories. some of them i didnt know a lot of but there were ones where i could have gone on for days. If i could change one thing it would be the point system because if you knew a lot of things in that catagory you would not always be rewarded. the game was fun

what was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? 

not being able to plant out of season and not being able to harvest out of season. 

what was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? 

buff tokens are a smart touch. it helps you plant out of season. 

was there anything you wanted to do that you could not? 

no i thought the game was very well designed.

if you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? 

something with the bundle system. i found it too complex to the point to where i didnt want to pick any bundle cards up. 

What should be improved for the next version? 

the bundle system. 

Describe the game in 3 words.

Fun, Creative, Colorful 

Overall, I really enjoyed this game and I think it is my favorite of your playtests yet.

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Running out of money to buy some fashion items and there being no minimum price when you sell one of your pieces. 
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I really enjoyed how the values aren’t attached to the cards so each game will be a bit different and it’s more replayable. 
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? I wanted to have more control over the personal auctions when I place something up for sale. 
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? I would change the experience of the personal auctions to both be able to impose restrictions on the minimum price but also keeping the secretiveness of what the true value of the card is. 
• What should be improved with the next version? Maybe clarify that the auctions go around in a circle; I was a tiny bit confused at first. I would also explore some different alternatives to the way that the private auctions work. Additionally, I would explore how people can get restocked on money throughout the game board. 
• Describe the game in 3 words. Strategic, suspenseful, intuitive

I loved this game and all of your little trinkets! I think it has really good potential!!!

• What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? Not having super clearly defined rules about the actions you can and can’t take on your turn. Also the fact that having players offer to trade with you meant that you might have to give up a random trinket that you want to keep. 
• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? I loved all of the different trinkets in the game. It was super fun pulling them out the bag and seeing what I got. 
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? It would be nice to have a feature where you could trinkets without it being entirely luck-based. It was a little frustrating that it was almost just based on what you pulled out of the bag, although I still like that. Maybe having a little marketplace could help, but you don’t want to make it too easy to obtain trinkets at the same time. 
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Make it so that players could totally randomly grab items from the bag or items to trade. I think pretty often people will try to cheat by feeling what item or memorizing the location of it in their trinket box so they don’t have to give up what they want. 
• What should be improved with the next version? Overall I really loved this game, but some suggestions I have are to clarify what actions you can take on each turn, clarify the rules about trading in trinket cards and getting new trinkets, clarify swapping and trading rules (can players pick what they get to trade when another player wants to trade). You could also explore the idea of some different actions like forcing two players to swap trinket boxes. You could also have a marketplace where players can buy select items from there. 

Describe the game in 3 words. Fun I Spy-like Collecting