Design Diary

11/01/2023

• Time Traveler idea
• dice for movement
• travel between zones
• cards are involved somehow
• want the board to look something like a clock or a portal

11/02/2023

• testing with 52 card deck
  • A-10 = number values
  • J/Q/K = time machine parts
  • Joker = raise time fragility
• playtests with player dice movement
  • test with different dice values individually (d4, d6, d10, d12)
  • test increasing from d4>d6, etc. as collecting time machine parts
  • decide on d6 for dice and unlock a second dice halfway
• test number machine parts for victory condition
  • all 12 parts makes most sense for balance with time fragility

All of these playtests were completed with cards laid out on a table for a map, because I had not yet decided on a board layout. The tests solidified the idea of dice movement leading to card pickups as the primary gameplay.

11/08/2023

• put cards into queue rather than activate on pick-up to make movement more fluid
• create first board hand drawn

The first board is circular to keep with the time theme. Having the spaces move out radially from a center creates unique player movement.

11/09/2023

First playtest by another person

• tried use the time theme with the rules, but this was too confusing
  • keep the theme for the introduction, but use standard game terminology for rules
• the player movement and card queue flows fluidly
• the relationship between fragility, timer, and empty spaces is not intuitive yet

11/10/2023

Watch playtest video

• update rules with clearer wording
• future plans to create printed game board for clarity
• create new rule for Joker and Aces
  • Joker - player chooses a space on the board to clear
  • Ace - player raises or lowers dice by 1 from range 1-6

11/16/2023

• continue to simplify and clarify rules

11/29/2023

• reorder rules based on feedback
  •  Intro > Components > Setup > Playing A Turn > Winning/Losing
• design printable board

11/30/2023

• update rules based on second new player playtest
  • fragility is now known as instability
  • remove second player dice to incentivize use of Aces
• add discard, queue, and time machine & instability tracker to printable board

12/04/2023

• design my own cards so that the game is no longer reliant on using 54 playing cards

There were multiple reasons behind this decision. The board while using regular size playing cards was a six page printout, which was too large and unwieldy to use for gameplay. Additionally, by using my own cards my game is no longer constrained by traditional card values and suits. In future iterations, I could test different card amounts and perhaps even add new card interactions.

12/05/2023

• finalize card names and add card images to rulebook
• final playtests, which led to some last rules clarifications
• added “playing a turn” section to the board
• added arrows for card actions for clarity
• added color to the board for some added visuals