Beginnings and the origins of Bullfrogs

Umm, yeah. That's me.

Hey readers.  So, I decided to start a blog.  I wanted an opportunity to have place to share my thoughts on this new game publishing venture.  Thanks for finding me and thanks for reading.

This all started with a game.  I had been working on a few game designs and had been play testing them over a year or so.  I hoped to publish some day or maybe self-publish, but hadn't really committed to any of it.

I had just gotten home from my usual Tuesday night gaming.  Near the end of the night, I had played a game of Reiner Knizia's Battle line that night with a good friend.   I hadn't played it in a long time and was reminded how cool and simple the gameplay was, while still having interesting decisions.  I has this classic "Play a Card then Draw a Card" mechanic.  It's an older game that I still find really interesting after many many plays.

So, there was a design convention coming up in a few days called protospiel.  It's a great convention for designers to get together and give feedback to each other.  I had purchased tickets for the Milwaukee event and it was a few days till the event, but I hadn't given the convention much thought.

Anyway, playing Battle Line had me thinking about the protospiel event.   I decided I wanted to bring a new design instead of bringing the one I brought last time.  I grabbed a deck of cards and some bits.  Could I come up with something interesting using just cards, a few bits and a simple "play a card / draw a card" mechanic?  I wanted something multiplayer, whereas Battle Line is 2 players only.  I scribbled on some cards and pushed bits things around and in about 30 minutes I had a playable game.  I played it against myself 2-3 times.  It was a game, true.  It didn't seem broken.  Was it fun?  Probably not yet. :)  

I launched straight into play testing mode.  I got a few playtests in the next day, reworked a couple of the main mechanics and then I was off to Protospiel.

I got to protospiel early and it was the first game played that day!

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I got lots of great feedback that day from various designers.  I ended up getting it play tested another two more times that day.  I'd recommend protospiel to any designers out there.  It's a great opportunity to get honest feedback from really design-minded folks as well as a cool way to meet other game designers.  

Overall, the feedback was positive.  It wasn't perfect.  There was lots of refining that needed to be done, but the basic idea was there.  People liked it.  For this, I was stoked.

Again, thanks for reading.  Till next time.

Keith