Ludus Magnus has been playtested and iterated for many playtesting periods over the course of this game’s creation. There are some critical things that I have seen throughout the development of this game. The points I can point out is as follows, both in terms of the good and the bad:
Out of my comfort zone, this is not a TCG.
The Good
As I have a small experience in the Trading card game world, I have some knowledge of basic outlines for cards, though because this is more focused towards a board game and it is something that I have personally never played, it is a wholly new experience which allows me to flex and research on the game’s basic intricacies and how it improves the overall experience in the game alongside team members who have little knowledge of board games. It was an experience unlike any other and it brings us new facts we do not know about general board game design.
The Bad
Although in turn, this leads us to be amateurs at it and making general balance mistakes in terms of math equations for the cards to be balanced and the intricacies of physical designs which makes it difficult for us to make the game very “high quality” in terms of its design and overall presentation.
Learning on 3d Models from Animators and Learning a lot about team efforts
Collaboration and effort is something I had very little involvement on within the scope of my life and to have the opportunity to be working with those who have very good chemistry makes me feel extremely positive about the project itself. Although there have been some communication problems, these issues are resolved due to the efforts taken from the animators and our team effort specializing in different fields.
The Good
Better communication, better teamwork and overall better chemistry leads to better engagement and passion to complete the game to the best of my capabilities. Also leads to learning more about working with others and collaborated on others through the lens of a developer. Also helps to learn more on accepting your mistakes more often, because I personally made mistakes and I have a hard time accepting them. This experience helps me to look myself and reflect on how I think and helps my self-esteem by a slight amount.
The Bad
Reliance on teammates requires the time and effort that they have and sometimes they do not deliver the quality needed for us to make it within the playtesting period. One of the animators who is in charge for 2d design flunk out which leads to me to design all the cards, to which I happily oblige to work on all 40 design cards (roughly 20-ish concepts with some re-edits here and there). Although in turn, this leads me with sacrificing some time to complete the app rules and make them better in terms of how it works and how it functions in the overall scope of things, thus the quality of the app is reduced immensely.
Clarity in some of the Cards and the Overall Game Design in General.
Scheduling, iterating and making changes to the cards and the board overall makes for an overall interesting experience and what makes the design for the cards good or not. Designing the cards to make it clear and to make the overall game look entertaining has varying degrees of success in terms of how we deliver the package for the external playtesting period.
The Good
To the naked eye, some playtesters find enjoyment in the game, claiming that it had potential. Of the three teams made, we have two instances of the game completed before the thirty minute mark.
The Bad
- A lot of the app’s rules and descriptions needs some improvements in terms of delivering the rules properly, along with a proper tutorial on how the game works.
- All the game designers literally broke the game by pointing out broken flaws in the technicalities of the cards and said that the design of the game is very poorly designed in the overall scope of things.
What changed and what needs to improve/continue improving?
- Make descriptions more clear.
- Continue to improve on designing assets on 2d in the future to continue improving the quality to make it more standout, as there is no heavy criticism or praise on the designs of the illustrations itself.
- Time management and scheduling needs to be improved to a degree constantly.
- Help assist more and plan out schedules ahead of time to reduce risk of changes in the game’s overall design.
- Be constantly aware that you need ideas first before we choose one and solidify on the ideas we have. This is a mistake I still constantly make.
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