After Spiel'05/SpellenSpektakel/Spel2005(BE)
Verfasst: 2. Dezember 2005, 15:03
Hi,
Here some of my experiences about this year's 'games-fairs-season' with Spiel'05 (DE), SpellenSpektakel (NL) and Spel2005 (BE).
As seen from my (Cwali) perspective.
Hope you like to read it.
PRODUCTION:
The preparation for the games for this year ("Ahoy" and "Aloha") was a long story of production mistakes. I hold 2 or 3 months production delays in the planning, but this year that margin was spoiled untill 1 week before Spiel'05. I should not think back about all things that caused delay but here a few 'statistics' about the production:
The planned printhouse for the box sheets got bankrupt at the time those sheets would get printed. The planned boxes factory got bankrupt before production.
There were 5 moments, at 5 different places, where I had to see the start of a production part (for controlling/responsibility). 3 of those 5 times I didn't get the chance to control. 2 of these 3 times that did go wrong. Both times controlling would have solved it easily. 1 of these 2 times the producer tried to force cheap ways to 'solve' the mistakes, did go wrong again. (That part (tile-sheets) is printed 3 times and cutten wrong once.)
For future games I want to avoid these things, but that's not easy for producing a few thousand copies per game for a good price.
For the graphics and layout of the games I often worked with talented but unexperienced drawers. This year too. I know that I take a risc by that, but this year the design (especially all layout things) did go very problematic. Another had to make the rulebooks. Finally all looks good and it is never easy to produce new games, but I wanted to give some impression here.
So the tension was higher than ever. But the good thing now is that I feel more proud than ever on having the games finally.
Spiel'05 (Essen, DE):
Then finally the sales start and everyone can play the new games. The 2 new games ("Aloha" and "Ahoy") attracted visitors easily to the tables. Last year with a black/white game ("Typo") and a 2-player-game ("SeaSim") that was a bit less. I think this time more new visitors than ever played in the booth and the 6 tables were filled normally. The experiences with the games were good. Especially "Ahoy" is a fine game to let new players play at a fair. "Aloha" you can best play in a more relaxed atmosphere. But the first impressions by gamers seem not good for both games, according to the Fairplay-scout-action-ratings. With "Ahoy" I know in advance that most gamers are not interested in a 'memory-game', but the contrast between the experiences with players in the booth and those low Fairplay-list-ratings is big. "Ahoy" really is something special. Don't miss it! In the past years "StreetSoccer" had the lowest Fairplay-scout-action-ratings of the 8 Cwali-games in those lists, while "StreetSoccer" is a 'popular' game now. "Ahoy" took over that 'record' this year. So I hope it is a good sign, but I would like to see better ratings.
SpellenSpektakel (Eindhoven, NL):
I had a bigger booth in Eindhoven this year. In Essen I did not experience so many differences by having a bigger booth last years (except that many more visitors can play the games, but the costs are much higher). But in Eindhoven that worked out better. Spoke many visitors who told that they visited the SpellenSpektakel many times but never knew about Cwali. In Essen most attention did go to "Aloha", Eindhoven is a better fair for "Ahoy".
(Vici became the new World Champion "StreetSoccer".)
Spel2005 (Broechem (near Antwerp), BE):
This fair was new for me and a positive surprise. It's organised since a few years and growing. Much smaller (1.341 visitors, last Sunday) than Essen or Eindhoven but 'many' publishers for the Dutch language games and many games for the visitors to play. Will go there next year too.
Rulebook questions:
Playing "Aloha" leads to more questions than I expected. The rules for placing a tile are in my opinion quite straightforward, but not everyone will agree about that. It is written good in the rulebook. The exception rule with the bridge is not written so clear in the rulebook. By purpose, I didn't want to spoil much text at an exception rule which normally doesn't happen and which players can solve self in the most logical way. Advice: Replace the words "4 sides" by "5 corners". (The whole rulebook speaks about sides of the tiles, not about corners of the tiles, so I didn't want to change that at the exception rule.)
Other comments:
Searching for the right place for a tile which didn't connect, is a puzzle-part in "Aloha". Gamers seem to see that part as spoiled time. Other players seem to like some puzzling in a game. I can understand both opinions. I self see quick where a tile fits, so when I play it takes not much time. Maybe "Aloha" is a game you should play with the author. :) The rule is important for the tactics and developments in the game, so I can't suggest to skip that part of the rules.
In "Aloha" the wooden parts could have been a bit bigger (especially for playing on tables in a fair-booth). That is not so easy to estimate in the prototypes. In fact we were more afraid that the final choices were too big. In "Ahoy" the choices for the material sizes worked out well.
Last weeks a few new computer-versions of Cwali-games are placed on internet:
- "SeaSim" you can play now on jijbent.nl (Dutch site). Works very well, only the basic version without the virus/orca/current.
- "Typo" you can play in Dutch on ug.nl against computer. The computer players know all words in the dictionary. :) (At the moment you get one card to much back after you can't connect.)
(For next year an online version is planned on other site in 7 languages including German.)
- "StreetSoccer" you can play quick against a computer-Java-applet on jijbent.nl.
(And, before I forget to tell, I won the 7th big "StreetSoccer" leagues championship on littlegolem.net, after a 4th and 3rd place in the 5th and 6th championship.)
About the future: Same conclusion as last year: Many plans for making games, will see what I can do.
Greetings from Maastricht,
Corné
Cwali
Here some of my experiences about this year's 'games-fairs-season' with Spiel'05 (DE), SpellenSpektakel (NL) and Spel2005 (BE).
As seen from my (Cwali) perspective.
Hope you like to read it.
PRODUCTION:
The preparation for the games for this year ("Ahoy" and "Aloha") was a long story of production mistakes. I hold 2 or 3 months production delays in the planning, but this year that margin was spoiled untill 1 week before Spiel'05. I should not think back about all things that caused delay but here a few 'statistics' about the production:
The planned printhouse for the box sheets got bankrupt at the time those sheets would get printed. The planned boxes factory got bankrupt before production.
There were 5 moments, at 5 different places, where I had to see the start of a production part (for controlling/responsibility). 3 of those 5 times I didn't get the chance to control. 2 of these 3 times that did go wrong. Both times controlling would have solved it easily. 1 of these 2 times the producer tried to force cheap ways to 'solve' the mistakes, did go wrong again. (That part (tile-sheets) is printed 3 times and cutten wrong once.)
For future games I want to avoid these things, but that's not easy for producing a few thousand copies per game for a good price.
For the graphics and layout of the games I often worked with talented but unexperienced drawers. This year too. I know that I take a risc by that, but this year the design (especially all layout things) did go very problematic. Another had to make the rulebooks. Finally all looks good and it is never easy to produce new games, but I wanted to give some impression here.
So the tension was higher than ever. But the good thing now is that I feel more proud than ever on having the games finally.
Spiel'05 (Essen, DE):
Then finally the sales start and everyone can play the new games. The 2 new games ("Aloha" and "Ahoy") attracted visitors easily to the tables. Last year with a black/white game ("Typo") and a 2-player-game ("SeaSim") that was a bit less. I think this time more new visitors than ever played in the booth and the 6 tables were filled normally. The experiences with the games were good. Especially "Ahoy" is a fine game to let new players play at a fair. "Aloha" you can best play in a more relaxed atmosphere. But the first impressions by gamers seem not good for both games, according to the Fairplay-scout-action-ratings. With "Ahoy" I know in advance that most gamers are not interested in a 'memory-game', but the contrast between the experiences with players in the booth and those low Fairplay-list-ratings is big. "Ahoy" really is something special. Don't miss it! In the past years "StreetSoccer" had the lowest Fairplay-scout-action-ratings of the 8 Cwali-games in those lists, while "StreetSoccer" is a 'popular' game now. "Ahoy" took over that 'record' this year. So I hope it is a good sign, but I would like to see better ratings.
SpellenSpektakel (Eindhoven, NL):
I had a bigger booth in Eindhoven this year. In Essen I did not experience so many differences by having a bigger booth last years (except that many more visitors can play the games, but the costs are much higher). But in Eindhoven that worked out better. Spoke many visitors who told that they visited the SpellenSpektakel many times but never knew about Cwali. In Essen most attention did go to "Aloha", Eindhoven is a better fair for "Ahoy".
(Vici became the new World Champion "StreetSoccer".)
Spel2005 (Broechem (near Antwerp), BE):
This fair was new for me and a positive surprise. It's organised since a few years and growing. Much smaller (1.341 visitors, last Sunday) than Essen or Eindhoven but 'many' publishers for the Dutch language games and many games for the visitors to play. Will go there next year too.
Rulebook questions:
Playing "Aloha" leads to more questions than I expected. The rules for placing a tile are in my opinion quite straightforward, but not everyone will agree about that. It is written good in the rulebook. The exception rule with the bridge is not written so clear in the rulebook. By purpose, I didn't want to spoil much text at an exception rule which normally doesn't happen and which players can solve self in the most logical way. Advice: Replace the words "4 sides" by "5 corners". (The whole rulebook speaks about sides of the tiles, not about corners of the tiles, so I didn't want to change that at the exception rule.)
Other comments:
Searching for the right place for a tile which didn't connect, is a puzzle-part in "Aloha". Gamers seem to see that part as spoiled time. Other players seem to like some puzzling in a game. I can understand both opinions. I self see quick where a tile fits, so when I play it takes not much time. Maybe "Aloha" is a game you should play with the author. :) The rule is important for the tactics and developments in the game, so I can't suggest to skip that part of the rules.
In "Aloha" the wooden parts could have been a bit bigger (especially for playing on tables in a fair-booth). That is not so easy to estimate in the prototypes. In fact we were more afraid that the final choices were too big. In "Ahoy" the choices for the material sizes worked out well.
Last weeks a few new computer-versions of Cwali-games are placed on internet:
- "SeaSim" you can play now on jijbent.nl (Dutch site). Works very well, only the basic version without the virus/orca/current.
- "Typo" you can play in Dutch on ug.nl against computer. The computer players know all words in the dictionary. :) (At the moment you get one card to much back after you can't connect.)
(For next year an online version is planned on other site in 7 languages including German.)
- "StreetSoccer" you can play quick against a computer-Java-applet on jijbent.nl.
(And, before I forget to tell, I won the 7th big "StreetSoccer" leagues championship on littlegolem.net, after a 4th and 3rd place in the 5th and 6th championship.)
About the future: Same conclusion as last year: Many plans for making games, will see what I can do.
Greetings from Maastricht,
Corné
Cwali