Play Test Questions
(8/28/25_Meredith B) Game Test: Fluxx
Play: Fluxx
- Was it fun? Kinda? Some parts were annoying to learn, and the game overall wasn’t too bad, mostly just a big thing of confusion.
- What were the player interactions? Yes, but lots of it was just explaining rules/cards and the confusion behind it
- How long did it take to learn? About 5 minutes to fully understand. However since the rules kept changing due to the gameplay mechanic, the game is always changed, hence constant learning.
- What was the most frustrating moment or aspect of what you just played? The constant changing of rules made the game mostly confusing due to the exceptions and changes being made all of the time. Almost every turn changes the rules, making the game change constantly, which I personally don’t find fun.
- What was your favorite moment or aspect of what you just played? Nothing in particular honestly, due to the nature of the game it personally felt very mundane the whole time.
- Was there anything you wanted to do that you couldn’t? Honestly I would want to keep the rules the same, the changing of goals is cool, but the rules changes are confusing.
- If you had a magic wand to wave, and you could change, add, or remove anything from the experience, what would it be? Remove the rules cards, as much as they impact the game, I would make it so you pick the rules, but it can’t constantly change. It would still allow for the weird rules as an option, but would make it a little more understandable.
- Is this a game you would play again? Not really, it’s not engaging and a little too confusing for me, especially for the constant rule changing for me to find enjoyable.
playtest results 3/23
changes:
added a set difficulty feature. Difficulty levels for rolls variy from 1-10, with each level being multiplied by 25 to determine the actual difficulty.
players have fatigue in each attribute equal to their stat. Whenever they fail a roll, the difficulty goes up by 1 level and their fatigue decreases in the attribute they used by 1. For each level of fatigue below 3, they take a penalty of -1 from their roll. If they hit 0, they can no longer attempt rolls of that attribute.
added critical success at 50 beyond difficulty and critical failures at 50 below. Critical success grants a bonus and critical failures give an additional negative event or debuff. If you crit fail, you can’t try again with that attribute for this encounter regardless of fatigue.
after testing, I’ve found that this system works fairly well for scaling difficulty of encounters. If a player can’t beat something with one stat, they have to use their head and find another way around. Test scenarios included moving a heavy object and scaling a cliff. When fatigue became too high for one player in the first one to try and move the object, the player elected to destroy it. When the same was true for the cliff, they decided to stack objects at the base of it to boost themselves.
Game makers notes
- What questions did your players have?
What some of the material cards meant.
- How quickly did they learn?
Fairly quickly
- What kinds of interactions did the players have?
They liked stealing cards/plants from each other
- What confused the player?
The event cards and what order to play your turn
- What made the players excited?
Being able to fill the orders of customers
- What did your players enjoy doing?
Stealing the plants from other players and getting money
- Did any aspects of the game frustrate players?
Just the event and material cards. I feel I need to go back and fix my rules and add more filler material cards so its not just event after event.