BGG@Home, BoardGameGeek’s answer to their BGG Con being virtual, took place over the past few days. With Distilled entering its final few months of playtesting before printing a bunch of copies to send out for Kickstarter preview videos, I knew it would be important to run it through the motions of how that “beginner game” is feeling these days (the “Beginner Game” is a shortened, 5-round game in which Distillery Upgrades and the global “Distiller’s Awards” are removed from the game). The Beginner Game is a more simplified experience that is best for people playing their first game (especially if we only have 2 hours (including the teach) at BGG@Home and I don’t know what the gaming and/or Tabletop Simulator experience of each player is who is coming to table!).
BGG@Home is a wonderful event. For $10, people could sign up for as many free games as they’d like, where people are volunteering their time to teach and run a game within a digital board game environment (usually Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia). This could be the latest and greatest AAA board game or an indie game not yet released. I ran 8 games of Distilled over the past 5 days, welcoming a total of 28 players to the table. After the teach and playthrough, I leave them with a link that asks them to consider taking a short playtest survey.
This survey not only allows me to credit them as a playtester, but also to track some great information from them as well for future improvements of the game. I thought it would be nice to include a bit of that data below, so that you can see the questions I’ve asked them and the responses that I’ve gotten (don’t worry, I’m saving you from about half the questions, that go deeper into questions about Kickstarter pricing, add-ons, and specific comments – I’ll save that for a future post!). Full disclosure: this is the same survey I’ve used all along, so while 17 of the response are from BGG@Home (not everyone elects to take the survey, I’m afraid), there are a total of 59 responses in all.
The two above questions only have about 28 responses (as compared to almost 60 in some of the others) because I’ve recently modified the survey. I’ve been trying to judge play-time, and also be able to know if they played the Beginner Game or Full Game. While I’d LOVE for everyone to play the full game the first time, it can be simply too much on TTS, with so many things to consider as a new player (especially since my rules still need a lot of work!).
This one above is an interesting one. I’m happy to see that the overwhelming “tall bar” is green in most categories (that’s more on the positive side). People were especially positive about the theme and play length as well. What I’ve noticed as one of the most common “negative” (or neutral) feelings people have is the presence of luck. Many do not like the fact that the main mechanic has to do with randomly pulling cards out of your deck. While I fully understand that, Distilled was never meant to be a heavy, crunchy strategy game, but instead something you’d play around the table with your friends. There are ways to mitigate that luck for sure, but many people just don’t prefer the presence of luck in their board games. This is a good example of the target market that I need to continue to aim for – casual to medium hobbyist board gamers who enjoy the idea of a fun night with friends…and maybe a few drinks 😉
I also dug a bit deeper, asking them about specific parts of the game. As I suspected, people especially enjoy distilling and bottling alcohol . The “Using Distillery Upgrades” is likely worth ignoring, as all Beginner Game players check “Indifferent (orange)” for that, due to not playing with those. The biggest challenge I need to work with is the final graph, “Achieving Distiller’s Goals and Awards”. I think I need to figure out how to make these more substantial and challenging, as right now they may be a bit too “fluffy”. This is definitely a goal of mine over the next few months.
I also asked a few open-ended questions, the requested that they provide their own commentary. Rather than fill the page with various comments, I thought it best to just share with you four of those questions, which I’ve felt to be extremely helpful in pointing out flaws and shining areas in the game:
- Please describe one memorable moment from the game of Distilled you played.
- Was there anything that frustrated you about the game, or could be improved?
- Was there anything you felt was over/under powered?
- Please name a game that Distilled reminds you of (theme, mechanics, enjoyment, audience, etc.)
The above slide is the one that keeps me going. 1 is “Hated It” and 5 is “Loved It”. It demonstrates that most people “Love” or “Liked” the game, which is great to see. I do get folks coming through every so often that don’t care for it as much. The sole 2 rating was actually from this past weekend’s BGG@Home, and I’ve followed up with that player personally – the feedback they gave was helpful, and I think that they didn’t realize some things about the game (and the full game). It’s all about that experience and teach, and I need to continue to work on how I teach the game to people (especially over TTS) and the table atmosphere I provide to the players. I recently posted a question about that in my favorite Facebook Group, Board Game Design Lab Community, and had some great tips and tricks about how to improve the teach, and I think I’m getting better as a result of it. In fact, I’m going to end with this video about that very subject. If you’re a gamer, I highly suggest this video by Shut Up & Sit Down, one of my favorite board game review teams: