Rotten to the Core Playtests and Game Maker’s Notes

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