Creative Constraints

      As of my last posting, the prototype had begun to morph into an early form of its final release. It is still far from done, but the bones of everything I want are starting to get set up, and the feedback I’ve been getting from testers has helped guide me in a better direction to refine those bones. While that gets refined, I started making a list of required game materials. I don’t think much will be added on that front from this point on. So I wanted to get that list together so I can start getting estimates on printing costs – and let’s just say that the margins could be better.

Print Ninja Estimate

      At the time of writing, my best estimate for a 500-unit run comes from Print Ninja, who say they can print all the components of my game, assemble them, and ship them out for a little over eighteen thousand dollars (USD).   

      Breaking that down to a per-unit cost – and assuming a fifty-dollar (USD) price tag – manufacturing and assembly combined would be about forty-five dollars a unit, meaning I’d only be getting a little under four dollars a unit. Not a great return on investment and one that leaves me with two options to fix:

1. Raise the base price to around sixty dollars (USD) and take home around fifteen dollars per unit.

2. Cut back on manufacturing costs so the cost per unit (with assembly and shipping) is closer to thirty dollars per unit.

      Option one is the simplest, but it could bite me in the ass for two reasons:

A) Most other board games of a similar complexity and components go for around fifty dollars. So, I’d just be giving a leg up to my competition if I were to do that. Much in the same way Sega lined themselves up for failure with the Saturn in 95, announcing it for a retail price between $399 and $499; to which Sony countered immediately after by simply stating that the PlayStation would retail for $299.

B) Like Sony in 1995, I lack the street cred to ease consumer doubt about my product. So, removing as many of those barricades as possible myself helps improve consumer relations early on. Price is one of those barricades within my control; the less I pass on the cost of production to the consumer, the more appealing I become in the market, especially since I will most likely be squared up with other crowdfunded projects that are doing the same.

      Going with option B, things have to start getting a little more conservative to fit under that price point. Which isn’t all bad, I’ll admit, as it has forced me into a more focused headspace and design direction than before. For example, initially, my prototype gameboard was 26 x 36 inches; however, Print Ninja and the other printers I found don’t make boards that big. Stuck with the standard board sizes and remembering that my testers had noted how difficult it was to move across the board, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone, and I think I have.

      The board shrunk to 20 x 20, one of the more affordable standard board sizes, and I’ve removed everything but where certain objectives spawn. I then cut out a number of Tetris shapes and changed the setup rules so that before the game begins, players create the shape of the play space themselves.

Obstacle Pieces

New Blank Board

The board being smaller also makes it more modular. Currently, it’s just two 10 x 20-inch pieces of paper, but divided into four 10 x 10 squares, and players now have the option of shifting around where even the hard spawn points are placed. That would, however, raise the manufacturing cost. Yet even if it comes down to just printing a 20 x 20 board, there is still enough modularity with the moving obstacles to compensate for the loss in customizability.

Set Up B

Set Up A

Obstacles pieces may also drive up costs as well, seeing as they would be put onto punchout sheets (one of the fat spots), and those are running me $5.40 a unit at the moment. But given that Tertis pieces are designed to fit close together, we could pack all of them together on one board with enough space left over for all the other non-player board tokens. Again, something that will get solved as we get further down the line, but that is, in the meantime, providing a good source of creative constraint alongside player feedback to help drive the project forward.   

Set Up C

Although I have not yet tested this new board or rule set, as some rules are still being finalized at the time of writing, I feel confident about these changes. Testers previously committed that they enjoyed the modular, chaotic elements that the Reverbs provided to gameplay: shaking up the status quo round to round and giving them something to actively play around and/or into. However, they felt limited by the amount of open space and the hard lines separating objectives. Now, they have active control over where obstacles are placed, moved, and possibly even removed, adding another layer to planning and changing the form factor of each game.

End of the day, it's something fresh to play with from a design perspective. Something that may remain, may change, or may be tossed aside for one reason or another. But for the time being, it has been the kick in the pants I needed to focus and not get lost in the endless possibilities. Creativity thrives within limitations after all. And nothing is more limiting than a strict bottom line.