6-Player Free-For-All Testing, GeekDad and GeekTyrant Coverage, 80% Funded!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jan 22, 2021 at 01:37:56 PM

Welcome, New Backers!

Thanks to new folks joining the project, we are now at 80% funded! We hit the big $20,000, which puts us in striking distance of $25,000 to fund! As mentioned previously, I'm preparing changes to the page so it's in shipshape when the final flood of potential backers comes through. Aside from our 9% of project followers that have backed, we have 1300 followers that haven't, so I'm hoping about 10% of them back the project in the final hours -- that would be enough to fund the game!

Playtesting 6-Player Free-For-All

As folks play and enjoy the Tabletop Simulator version of the game, I'm continuing to test the additions most requested from the surveys. I tested 6-player in which players can only attack their neighbors (left and right of them in turn order) and it worked really well. It's important in this type of large group game to limit the number of targets you can hit so that mobility and positioning are still key to gameplay, without enlarging the size of the city and increasing production/art cost. This style of play would also work to get in 4-player free-for-all that several of you have requested (as opposed to team 2v2). I'll have to test 3v3 teams (6-player) to see how that feels, but I could also see it benefiting from neighbor targeting (if you imagine team members sitting in alternating order).

All in all, from the initial tests into Cooperative Mode and larger player count Free-For-All, I'm feeling good about adding these into the base game so we can attract the most backers in the final hours. I am confident I will be able to develop these into a polished state after the campaign ends without delaying the game. Also, development and polish of the normal 2-4 player game that began the campaign will continue to be a priority!

One thing to keep in mind is that these are basically stretch goals due to the development time and additional components. Here's roughly where they land now:

• At least 6 more Punch/Fling cards for enemies in Coop Mode
• 4 more stands so all characters can be on the board at once (depends on if 6-player coop ends up being against 2 enemies)
• 7 more clips -- 3 for enemies in Coop Mode, 4 for 5-6 players
• 16 more starter cards for 5-6 players
• More Poison and Frost cards for 5-6 players 

So, hooray for more gameplay! This means I'll be adjusting the stretch goals since they're already unlocked, and want to be careful to not put much more right after the funding goal. The KS Exclusive power cards will still be a stretch goal.

Here's a shot of my 6-player test (a bit messy from some extra components lying around):

Press Coverage

Our momentum picked up thanks to social posts and press coverage! In the last couple days GeekDad and GeekTyrant both posted about the game, as well as Print & Play Games where we printed the prototype cards from.

Let's do this!

-Andy

Cooperative Mode Development, Interview, 78% Funded!
over 3 years ago – Wed, Jan 20, 2021 at 08:35:03 AM

Coop Mode Development

I've been busy trying some different possible versions of Cooperative Mode out. After honing in on a general ruleset, playing a couple solo games and playing a 4-player game, I determined a few things:

• Solo play is more interesting when you have more to chew on. In this case, more enemies is more fun than just one, even if it makes the game a bit more complicated to maintain. There's definitely a different feel in solo as opposed to 1v1 when you're battling a fellow intelligent human.
• On the other hand, coop games with more players may actually function well with fewer enemies, because at some point the level of excitement comes from the level of busy-ness on the board, and additional maintenance from more enemies has diminishing returns. This also lets the single enemy become a big bad boss over time.
• Difficulty should be decently adjustable based on enemy life value, since life also determines how long the enemy gets to keep getting stronger.

So, I'm focused on the following gameplay/logic:

• Coop mode is against 1, 2, or 3 enemies, depending on player count (inversely).
• Players and enemies take turns. I haven't settled on predictable alternating turns or Aeon's End style turn order where it's randomly determined from a card stack (there's a fun unpredictability in this).
• An enemy has 4 actions on their turn. They start with a Punch and a Fling card in an ordered, revealed action row, and add new powers and traits to this on a set cadence (1 power per turn, 1 trait per completed action row). This programmed set of actions lets you strategize around their turns, and it keeps changing over the course of the game. Like players, having enemies pair traits with powers adds replayability each time you play. For example, you might say "We're playing against Ominous and Katalyst this game, and they'll start with Frost Hands and Jet Pack."
• Enemy behavior is generally straightforward. On their turn, the enemy tries to get in range for their next queued power, then uses it on the player with the highest life within range. They use up their actions as dashes whenever they're not in range, and they always dash to the clockwise closest zone with the least fire/water counters. When making decisions, they prioritize optimizing damage; if all is equal, the player makes the decision for them (and players can use this strategically). The goal is to make the enemy AI feel like natural predictable behavior without making you feel like you're playing for them. This is why they have a programmed set of actions as opposed to a deck -- it's more strategic and less to maintain, especially against multiple enemies.

There are a bunch of little details I am figuring out solutions for:

• How does poison work on enemies?
• When do enemies Cleanse?
• Can enemies boost powers?
• What happens when a player's life total hits 0 in a multiplayer game?

Here are some pictures from playtesting:

Interview with Dino from The Social Deduction Network

One of our backers, WEREDINO, co-runs a Discord called the Social Deduction Network. He interviewed me about Masters of Mutanite and a variety of other topics and it was a lot of fun! If you are into social deduction games, they are always looking for folks to join! Full transcript from the Discord interview linked in the image below.

Have a great week!

-Andy

New Game Additions Survey Results, and 75% Funded!
over 3 years ago – Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 11:25:22 AM

Hi all, thanks for taking the survey! We had 128 respondents -- 106 backers of $45+ take it, and 22 backers of $0-1 take it. It's technically inaccurate to call the latter group "backers" since I intentionally left the survey open to anyone (such as folks just visiting the project), but I'm rolling with that term since I expect it was mostly our $1 backers who are still gauging if they want to buy in.

Each respondent gave up to 3 votes for what additional content they'd like to see in Masters of Mutanite. Here's where we ended up:

Takeaways

• The big takeaway is that Coop Mode is strongly desired by both groups. This would not replace the main game -- it would be in addition to the main game. Happy to see a clear winner here.
  
• Player count is too limited at 2-4. Many of you want it to be a 1-6 player game. This tells me the current stretch goals are on the right path, but the 1-6 player count not being in the base box is hurting the campaign. I'm actually wondering if Coop Mode can accommodate for 1 player, which I'll keep in mind when developing. This would prevent the need for having a separate Solo Mode, which is essentially 1 player versus some kind of AI anyway. If it doesn't work, I won't force it, but it could work well.
  
• More powers and traits are desired by both groups. This is a tricky one because creating them is by far the most costly of the top-ranked feature preferences, mostly due to new art, but also manufacturing and development. Additionally, it's interesting to me because most folks haven't played the game yet. This tells me that the breadth of powers and traits in the game aren't being well-communicated on the campaign page, so at a minimum I would still like to feature more cards on the "What Do I Get" image so folks really see that, other than starting powers, every power and trait card is unique. There's actually a lot of replayability already in the box!
  
• All the other votes are relevant, but I need to prioritize work, so my main focus will be Coop Mode / increasing Player Count. If I find an elegant and thematic way to remove player elimination, I'll try it out. Unique zone abilities are great but they are clearly lower priority than Coop / Player Count.

I really appreciate that many backers want to put more money into the game by buying add-ons. My concern is that add-ons increase risk (through new incurred costs and the risk that only a % of backers buy them) and increase development time (which has been and will be challenging). My gut right now is saying to get the highest priority requests into the base box if possible. This way, the game will be in the most appealing form for the high-traffic end-of-campaign window when all the project Followers and new visitors see it. I'd put some big messaging at the top of the page / project image. The great thing is that if I get these features in, it's also a win for you guys, the backers who are already excited for the game! I want you all to be happy, and we also need more backers so this game actually funds and gets printed!

Thanks,

Andy

Solo Mode? Coop Mode? Zone Abilities? Quick Survey!
over 3 years ago – Fri, Jan 15, 2021 at 05:38:03 PM

Hi all,

You all have been providing great feedback and ideas with your comments and responses, so I'm running another survey for backers and non-backers. It's only 2 questions :) It's regarding what I should consider adding to the base game, this time in a more specific way. I can't promise any of these will get in, but I'd love to hear your thoughts:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BBR3BJX

Thanks!

-Andy

Card Balancing Video, Dice Tower Pick of the Week, 70% Funded!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 07:33:29 PM

Hello hello!

Welcome to our new backers! We are now over 300 backers and at 70% funded!

Balancing the Power Cards

Games of Masters of Mutanite are often really close! How did we go about obtaining that balance? Look to the newest video where I explain how cards are valued, promoting holistic design throughout the powers:

The Dice Tower: Crowdsurfing Pick of the Week

Mark Streed from the Dice Tower chose Masters of Mutanite as his Crowdsurfing Pick of the Week!

Interview on The Northern Meeples

The Northern Meeples interviewed me about Masters of Mutanite, design, and future projects:

We're almost at the end of the week; have a good one, folks!

-Andy