陌生人对我的游戏产生兴趣了

6月5日，星期二，是开发《Chaos & Alchemy》的重要转折点。这一天，我带着我的试玩版游戏（难看的白纸黑字的卡片和魔法卡片一起塞在封套里）来到当地的游戏商店Enchanted Grounds，看看如果我能不能找到人来试玩。这时，这游戏还是没有名称。（请点击此处阅读本文上部分内容）

我知道游戏名称可能与炼金术有关，因为那就是主题。星期天晚上测试时，我的游戏设计师朋友指出，我需要一个特别的词来代表扔出偶数的骰子，因为那是个重要的东西——正是你再次扔出幸运点数。他建议我也许可以捏造一个无意义的词，如“UNO”这种和游戏同名的词（当然，我知道那不是一个无意义的词！）。我认为如果我可以找到一个不错的词，我可以拿来当作游戏的名称，但我绞尽脑汁也没想不出一个。

我最后将“Chaos”这个词命名“玩家扔出偶数骰子和幸运点数改变”的事件。

至于游戏本身的名称，我试过“Alchemy Chaos”，但觉得有点傻。“Alchemical Chaos”呢？还是有点傻。正是我前往游戏商店的那个宿命的星期二下午，我取出一张卡片和马克笔，写了一个粗糙的牌子，放在桌上吸引别人的注意。

牌子上的词成了游戏真正的名称《Chaos & Alchemy》。我找了张空桌子摆上牌子、卡片和骰子。我还带了自己的iPad作记录。

我坐了一会儿，试着吸引顾客的目光，但大多数人只顾忙自己的事。一个家伙走进来，闲站在那儿看他朋友玩游戏，我就请他过来和我一起玩。他说，不好意思。唉。

陌生人玩了我的游戏！

过了一会儿，其中一个刚才在玩魔法游戏的家伙走过来，指着牌子问我这是什么游戏。他觉得游戏名听起来蛮酷的，他想玩玩看。于是，他坐下来和我一起玩了两名玩家的游戏。

又过了几分钟，他的几个朋友刚玩完他们的魔法游戏，开始聚拢过来围观加询问。我请其中一个代替我继续玩，这样我好作记录（好吧，我主要是想让别人玩我的游戏）。这俩家伙玩得不亦乐乎，还没结束游戏就为拓展和新想法提了建议，问什么时候时候可以购买这款游戏。

太好了，是个好兆头。

这两个家伙玩完后，已经围观了大半局游戏的三个朋友也想玩。所以五个人凑成了一桌大游戏。这游戏进行了45分钟，这是我争取到的游戏长度，但对于五个玩家来说，不算坏。这些人虽然饿了，为了多玩一会儿《Chaos & Alchemy》而推迟吃饭时间。

这五位都给我留了email，这样我可以通知他们游戏什么时候发行。

转折点

那天晚上，我告诉妻子我在游戏商店的经历。此前，我们已经对游戏感觉良好了，但让陌生人玩得开心更让我们激动。不知什么时候，她发出决定性的宣言：

“你得把游戏带去GenCon。”（游戏邦注：GenCon是北美最大型最知名的年度游戏盛会之一）

我的第一次GenCon经历是在去年，妻子陪我一起去的。非常有趣，但今年看来我们去不了了。《Chaos & Alchemy》已经很有前途了，于是妻子送我去了印第安纳波利斯市。

我已经开始浏览网页看看如果我要发行游戏，需要多少成本包装它。这一步是很严肃的。我还想到我需要一些法律建议，所以我就联系了Rob Bodine，他在Loremaster.org网站上写“Protection from Chaos”专栏。

之后我会很忙的。

这时候，我决定打印一些游戏出来卖。另外，我还要抓紧时间做这事，以免错过GenCon。记得那时是6月初，而GenCon在8月中旬举行，所以我还有10周的时间。难度很大，但很令人振奋！

这时的卡片是这样的：

有点令人失望，是吧？我知道这些卡片没什么美感，但更重要的是，我需要设计好的卡片。虽然我本人不认识任何插画师，但我正好跟一个优秀的平面设计师Bree Heiss是好朋友。

某天晚上，我打电话给Bree讨论我的游戏，请她帮我的忙。我的游戏需要的平面设计有：

卡片的正面设计（这是一个艰巨的任务，要将不同的卡片类型、点数、插图、设计、版权信息和规则文本等组合起来）

卡片的背面设计

游戏的包装盒设计

游戏盒中的规则说明书

游戏的logo

你可能发现了这个列表中不包含卡片或游戏盒的插图。平面设计师的工作是设计，不是画插图。这些元素要怎么组合到卡片上呢？游戏盒上的文字要怎么跟插图匹配呢？这些事都要请教设计师。

幸运的是，Bree能应付一些设计工作。她甚至给要接手的工作附上合同，真是专业人士。我很高兴她给了我三种付酬方式：一次性付清费用、比一次性付清更少的费用再加5%的游戏盈利抽成，或者10%的游戏盈利抽成。虽然我选择一次性费用，但我很高兴看到她对我这么有信心，肯用她的工作费用换游戏可能会挣到的利润。（注意：一切皆有可能，在此我不保证游戏一定盈利！）

就这样，我们开始合作。Bree是我在这个阶段主要的意见咨询人。真是令人惊喜，平面设计与游戏设计居然紧密相关！她开始为卡片布局画草图。

从这里开始，我就负责提供反馈意见。我喜欢把游戏中的卡片点数做得漂亮清楚，就像研钵和研杵卡片上的那样。Bree设计了主题的变体和完全不同的主题，我都很喜欢。

这时我还不确定黑白草图和我的卡片合适不合适。我兄弟曾建议我全文本的布局可能管用。我就让Bree试一试。我们还讨论了如何区别哪些是持续生效的卡片哪些是无持续效果的卡片。想法之一是游戏中生效的卡片采用横向布局，这样就差别就非常明显了。

结合新想法进行改良后的草图：

我们做了一些创新。上图左下方的Telescope卡片的文本和侧边图案和右下方的Solid Workbench 卡片设计得很不错。不过我们很快就觉得完全的横向布局实对于玩家来说不太好拿，虽然放在桌上看起来确实不错。

我太喜欢Double Pelican卡片（紫色边框的那张）的点数设计，但King’s Disfavor卡片（上排右起第二张）的点数图标的位置更好。因为将点数放在上方，玩家就可以将没有持续效果的卡片叠放起来，同时还是能看到卡片名称和点数。

我也很喜欢King’s Disfavor卡片的负点数的黑底，因为这可以让玩家很清楚地知道这张卡片是用于给其他玩家施加消极影响。

就这样，卡片的设计初具雏形。Bree的新草图集中体现了我们的想法。她还带来了扫描仪，所以下面的图片都是扫描的：

还有许多很酷的东西。我最喜欢的设计是Double Pelican卡片的变体。我喜欢卡片右上角的大点数图标。我也喜欢带弧度的插图边框，清楚漂亮。Bree不满意上面有些空白，所以我给她发了草图的修改版（我的画工真蹩脚）：

Bree理解了我的想法，从网上找了一些插图和线框放在一起（注：下图并非实际的卡片效果）。

太好了，看起来真漂亮。

现在，除了排版，还要设计卡片字体。Bree给我设计了一打不同的名称和文本的字体。在这个阶段，我们还要选择卡片背面的字体。但这是之后才做的事（我们把字体的事放到一边，先设计卡片背面）。

等到我们又开始解决字体的问题时，Bree鼓足干劲把颜色、阴影、文本、卡片插图等等全部搞定了。

我喜欢这个颜色和点数图标——Bree试过将点数图标放在一些卡片的下方或左边。插图看起来很棒（Beth Sobel 的功劳，她给我的游戏画的第一张图），但插图边框就太……方了。

这个边框绝对不是矩形。插画的金色边框很漂亮。但是，点数图标的橙色太深了，而且插图框有一点小了；不是所有插画都适合这种椭圆形的边框。

好吧，现在有趣的事发生了！我个人喜欢上面四张卡片中的第二张Distributed Lore的设计。带圆角的插图边框，充足的文本空间……很好！我给Bree写了email，不知怎么的，居然告诉她我喜欢的是第三张（Reversal of Fortune）。

最诡异的是，我得到的是下面这张：

好吧，我拿到之前那四张卡片中的第一张作为样品。我喜欢第二张，却误说成是第三张，而Bree做的样品是第一张。这一张有点怪异，还好最后Bree把它改过来了：

嗯，不错。文本很清楚，容易读，也很漂亮。点数图标的小旋涡和金色边框说明这张卡片带有持续效果（非持续效果的卡片没有这两种特征）。这种设计的各方面我都很满意。

眼尖的读者可能也注意到了，卡片是新设计的类型，不是之前展示出来的版本。根据游戏测试，游戏规则还是有一点儿问题。直到最后一周，我才修改了实验室卡片的名称，以免玩家感到困惑，不明白这里的“实验室”指的是玩家的桌面。

短短数周，一款卡片游戏设计就出炉了，真令人惊讶。出色的平面设计师Bree Heiss帮了我大忙！不过，最近她没空接单了，因为接下来几周她都要为《Chaos & Alchemy 》忙活。所以打算请她合作的各位，改天吧。她确实很了不起。

我保证Bree会为《Chaos & Alchemy 》做出令人惊叹的卡片背面设计。我们拭目以待吧。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Outside interest and deciding to go for it

Previous entry: Part 2 / Next entry: Part 4

Welcome back to my blog series Making the Game, in which I talk about the process of creating my card and dice game, Chaos & Alchemy. In Part 2, I discussed my first real playtesting sessions and the process of adding a theme to a game that started as raw mechanics.

Tuesday, June 5, was an important turning point in the development of Chaos & Alchemy. This was the day that I took my playtest version of the game (slips of crappy-looking black and white paper stuck inside of sleeves with Magic cards) down to my friendly local game store, Enchanted Grounds, to see if I could get anyone to try it out. The game still didn’t have a name at this point.

I knew that the name would probably have something to do with alchemy, since that was the theme. During my Sunday evening playtest, my game designer friend pointed out that I needed a special word for what happens when you roll doubles in the game, since that’s an important thing – this is when you re-roll the Fortune Die. He suggested that I might want to just make up a nonsense word to call out, sort of like “Uno” in the game of the same name (and yes, I know that’s not a nonsense word!). I thought that if I could find a good word, I could use that as the name of the game, but I had a devil of a time coming up with anything.

I eventually settled on “Chaos” as the word for what happens when you roll doubles and the Fortune Die changes.

For the name of the game itself, I tried out Alchemy Chaos for a little while, but it felt clunky. Alchemical Chaos… same problem. Just before I left for the game store on that fateful Tuesday afternoon, I took a sheet of card stock and some markers and created a quickie sign that I could put on the table to attract attention:

My first advertising attempt

This was the first use of what became the game’s actual name, Chaos & Alchemy. I found an empty table at the FLGS and set this sign on it, along with the deck of cards and a bunch of dice. I also had my iPad with me to take notes.

I sat there for a while, trying to catch folks’ eyes, but most of the patrons were doing there own thing. One guy came in and was standing around watching his friends play a game, so I invited him to join me – no thanks. Sigh.

Strangers play my game!

After a while, one of the guys who had been playing Magic came over and gestured to the sign to ask about the game. He thought the name sounded cool, and he wanted to learn more. So, he sat down and we started to play a two-player game.

A few minutes into the game, some of his Magic-playing friends who had finished their game started gathering around to watch and to ask questions. I invited one of them to take my place at the table so that I could take notes (okay, I mainly just wanted another person to play my game). The two of them had a blast and were already making suggestions about expansions and new ideas and asking when they could buy this game before they had even finished that first game.

Yeah, that was a good sign.

When they were done, their other three friends, who had been watching most of the game, decided that they wanted to play, too, so the five of them sat down for a big game. This one took about 45 minutes, which is on the high end for game length that I’m shooting for, but not bad for five players. These guys were hungry and delayed their dinner plans so that they could play some Chaos & Alchemy.

All five of them gave me their email addresses so that I could keep them posted about the game and when it would be available.

Turning point

At home that evening, I talked to my wife about the experience I had at the store. We were both feeling good about the game beforehand, but having strangers getting excited about it made a big difference. At some point she said the fateful words:

“You need to take this to GenCon.”

My first GenCon was last year (2011), and my wife came with me for that one. It was a ton of fun, but it looked like we weren’t going to be able to make it this year. Chaos & Alchemy was promising enough (after less than a week, mind you!) that my wife was sending me to Indianapolis.

I was already starting to poke around online to find out what it would cost to get art for my game if I decided to publish it, and this process now became serious. I also realized that I was going to need some legal advice, so I ended up getting in touch with Rob Bodine, who writes the Protection from Chaos column over on Loremaster.org (and yes, I see the irony of his column name when combined with the name of my game).

I would soon be a very busy dude.

At this point, I had decided that I was going to develop this game to the point of doing a small print run. Furthermore, I wsa going to do it in time for GenCon. Keep in mind that this was early June, and GenCon is in mid-August, so I was working on a 10-week timeline. Aggressive, but exciting!

The cards at this point looked like this:

Kind of uninspiring, don’t you think? I knew I was going to need art for the cards, but more importantly I was going to need well-designed cards. While I don’t personally know any illustrators, I do happen to be close friends with an outstanding graphic designer, Bree Heiss.

I called Bree one evening to talk about my game and the role I thought she might be able to play. There were several things that needed some awesome graphic design in my game:

Layout of the fronts of the cards (a very big task, incorporating different information for different card types, point values, artwork, artist credit, legal stuff, plus rules text and flavor text)

Design for the backs of the cards

Design for the box that the game comes in

Design for the rules sheet that comes in the box

A logo for the game itself

You’ll note that not included in this list is illustrations for the cards or the game box; the graphic designer’s job is design, not illustration. How are the elements arranged on the card? How do the words on the game box intersect with any artwork on the box? These are the kinds of things a designer can help with.

Fortunately, Bree was available for some design work. She even put a contract together for the work she would be doing; very professional (more on contracts in the next segment!). I was thrilled to find that she had given me three options for paying her: A single set fee, a lower fee plus 5% of game profits, and no fee plus 10% of game profits. While I went with the straight fee, I was tickled to see that she had enough confidence in me and my game to be willing to give up her fee in exchange for the chance that I might make a profit. (Note: While anything is possible, I am not assuming I will make any profits here!)

And with that, we started working together. Bree has been my main sounding board throughout this process; it’s amazing how the graphic design and the game design are closely intertwined! She started off by doing some sketches of potential card layouts.

The graphic design magic begins!

From here, I started providing feedback. I liked the idea of making the point value of a card in play nice and clear, as on Mortar and Pestle. I liked that Bree provided variation on themes as well as totally different themes.

At this point, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get even black and white sketch art for my cards, and one of my playtesters (my brother in Pennsylvania) had suggested that an all-text layout might be the way to go. I asked Bree to try one of these. We also talked about ways of trying to clarify which cards in play had ongoing effects and which simply did their thing and then sat there, and one idea was to use a horizontal layout for cards with ongoing effects, to make them clearly different.

The next set of sketches incorporated some of these ideas:

New ideas start to develop

There were some innovative things here. The side-by-side art and text of Telescope on the bottom left and Solid Workbench on the bottom right was a cool idea, but we soon decided that the whole horizontal layout was just too much of a pain to deal with in-hand, even though it looked good on the table.

I liked the circular doo-dad that held the point value of Double Pelican (bottom row with purple border), but I liked the placement of the point indicator on King’s Disfavor (top row, second from right). Having the point value up top meant that players could stack up the cards that had no ongoing effects in their laboratory, showing just the name and the point value.

I also liked the black background of the negative point value on King’s Disfavor; it made it clear that this was a negative card to play on someone else.

With this back-and-forth, a vision for the cards started to take shape. Bree’s next set of sketches showed this zeroing in on a plan (and she also had gotten her scanner set up by this point, so we’re seeing scans instead of photos from here on):

Variations on a theme

Lots of cool stuff going on here. The design I enjoyed the most was this variation on Double Pelican (top row, second from left). I liked the big point indicator on the top right corner of the card. I liked the art box with a nice space but with some curves to it. It felt both clean and cool. Bree wasn’t thrilled with some of the blank spaces on it, so I sent her back a modification of her sketch (note that I am a poopy artist here, and it shows):

Note my efforts at editing the bottom right part of the art box

Bree understood where I was going with this, and put together an actual wireframe using some art she found online (not actual game art – sorry).

I love Bree’s flavor text

Yeah… this was looking good.

Now, there’s more to card front design than just arranging the parts – there’s also font to deal with! Bree supplied me with a dozen different fonts for the title and for the main text. We also used this process to pick a font for the card back, but I’ll address that later (we set the fronts aside for a while to work on the backs).

Once we came back to the fronts, Bree was ready to go all out – color, shading, legal text, art for the cards we had in, the whole nine yards.

I’m liking the color and the point indicator – Bree was experimenting with having it point downward for some cards and left for others. The art looks great (Beth Sobel did a fantastic job on this, her first piece for my game), but the art box is just so… rectangular.

This one is definitely not a rectangle. The filigree below the art window is kind of cool. The point indicator is too orange, though, and the oval art window was a little on the small side; not every piece would look good in it.

All right – now we’ve got some interesting choices! I personally loved the second layout of these four, Distributed Lore. A slightly curved art box, still plenty of space for text… yeah! I wrote Bree an email, and somehow screwed it up, telling her that I liked number 3 (Reversal of Fortune).

In the ultimate bizarre irony, here’s what I got next:

Yes, I got four cards mocked up to look like card number 1 from the previous set. I liked number 2, I mistakenly said number 3, but Bree did number 1. It was a weird mix-up, but Bree got it all worked out in the end:

Final layout in all its glory

Mmm, delicious! It’s clean and easy to read, but still beautiful. The swirly bits on the point indicator and the filigree beneath the art indicate that this card has an ongoing effect (cards without an ongoing effect will lack this). I just love everything about this layout.

Sharp-eyed readers may have also noticed that this card is of the “innovation” type, which wasn’t present in earlier versions. The rules are still in a little bit of flux based on playtesting, and I only in the last week renamed the Laboratory card type to Innovation in order to avoid confusion with the use of the word “laboratory” that refers to each player’s board.

It’s pretty amazing to see how far the card design has come in just a few weeks. It helps to have an amazing graphic designer like Bree Heiss on your team! None of you are allowed to hire her just yet; she’s still working on Chaos & Alchemy for the next few weeks, so hands off!  After that, though, hire the heck out of her; as you can see, she’s awesome.

And just wait until you see the  work Bree has done with the card back for Chaos & Alchemy. Fantastic stuff, I promise.(source:onlinedungeonmaster part 3,part 4)