Professor Ames’ Game – Eskapu: Playtest

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

While there are a lot of moving parts to getting the game started and getting into the meat of the gameplay, besides considering that, I think the most frustrating thing about the playtest was trying to understand the consistency between players. It felt like “two steps forward, one step back” kind of deal, as when I would purchase a vehicle, someone else would blow it up (thanks Collin >:P) I think that is more an inconsistency with not establishing a sense of the goals at the get go, but other than that I didn’t find any serious frustrations.

• What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? 
• I enjoyed that the concept really dives deep into the idea of the complications behind fleeing a country. It seems straight forward on paper, and then when you sit down and play you start to realize “shoot, I can’t do this because ___ stopped me!” Which really made me stop and think about what I was doing while playing.
• Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? I want to do a playthrough of this game where everyone is genuine and serious about the playthrough, focusing on “finishing” the game. I think if we gathered a bunch of people to play and made a podcast while playing it, that would be fun!
• If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Set the goals from the beginning and write them down so we all know what is going on. That way there isn’t any overlap like I mentioned.
• What should be improved with the next version? I want more ways to attack others, and I think a really neat feature would be to have spontaneous events, like if you roll a die, bombs can be dropped, or supply crates!
• What was the game’s message?: ESCAPE! Basically, haha! This game’s message was about awareness of what power people can give depending on what role they play. In the real-world execution of this, the concept of power is truly a terrifying ability, especially in a war-torn country.
• Describe the game in 3 words: ESCAPE, TEXTURES (WowWee), and BOMBS!

I would like to also say that this is my second playtest of this game. I played it maybe a year ago, and the tiles were cardboard, and a lot of the features in the game were not yet implemented. I would say looking back in comparison, I had a lot of fun being able to do more! I hope I can play it again!