We have a gray-box prototype. :)
Jordan’s Story is complete except for a few puzzles that still need to be designed. The main story is there and the core loop is working. It is still in its gray-box form. If the term gray-box is new to you what this means is the game is playable and ready for playtesting but the graphics are not done. The graphics used are just place holders. The illustration will happen after the playtesting is complete and we are sure of our design. You can download the first of eight (8) missions here.
This is a print and play version of the game. After you download the zip file then print the cards (both sides, turn on the short end), cut the cards apart, and assemble the deck. The rules of play are included in the deck so just follow what they say. There will be some blank cards that were used as spacers in the card files. Keep these extra cards you will be happy you have them later.
There are 246 cards in Jordan’s Story. This is the first level of the game. In the next blog posts we will be posting each mission as they are refined. We consider this to be the alpha of the first level of the game. The prologue is the first 24 cards.
The initial playtests of this mission happened at the May West Valley Game Jam, https://www.meetup.com/game-colab/events/305574075/, and the findings from the playtest included: the font is illegible, format the collectable cards distinctly, make sure that the cards are color blind accessible, there is too big of a leap between cards 18-19 in the story, some of the dialogue is forced, and kids are not as self aware as the kids in this story.
I fixed all of these issues except the last one. I am still thinking about that issue.
On June 6, the entire level “Jordan’s Story” was playtested for the first time. Several additional findings emerged. First, it took an uninitiated player five minutes to begin playing, and the mission took fifteen minutes to complete. I realized that the title card needs to be visually differentiated from the functional cards. There was also a question about whether any idea was acceptable when players were prompted to generate ideas. In the revised version, I added language that encourages the player and clarifies that any idea is welcome. At the end of the mission, it needed to be clearer that all cards must be picked up before opening and setting up the next mission deck. I made changes to address all of these concerns, and the version you are downloading here reflects those updates.
