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Hi there BGG,
As of writing this, 102 people are interested and 192 people are undecided about Albedo. I am elated at this result, because I am still new and unknown - seeing that many people considering my game makes me happy.
In an effort to convince undecided people, I have uploaded the rulebook to BGG and I have already received a few suggestions how to improve it.
If you have any questions about the game, game design, SPIEL, myself, or anything else, please feel free to ask in this thread
Thanks a bunch and hopefully I can pull a few of the undecided voters to the interested side.
All the best,
Kai
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I was interested, now I am undecided.
Have you sent the game to reviewers?
Regarding the rulebook: I would have to be "interested" already to pick up and look through a rulebook; to go from "undecided" to "interested", I would need some easier-to-digest information such as a review, more pictures, etc.
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Againsto wrote:I was interested, now I am undecided.No worries, I'm also constantly reassessing the games on the list.
Have you sent the game to reviewers?
Regarding the rulebook: I would have to be "interested" already to pick up and look through a rulebook; to go from "undecided" to "interested", I would need some easier-to-digest information such as a review, more pictures, etc.
Even though I did contact reviewers, I haven't heard back from them so far. However, I am going through a list of reviewers soon and am going to send out a few more queries. Barring that, I might have to reactivate my old youtube channel and film a video myself.
If you are attending SPIEL and still have time in your schedule, I'm always happy to show people the game
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- Robert Seater(rseater)United States
Ashland
Massachusetts
I help designers improve their games.
Feed me...games...
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I'd like to see some photos (if only diagrams or prototype content), some summaries of the core mechanics, and some descriptions of what the dynamics between players are. I know nothing about the game, and there are lots of other games -- I'd like to get some quick idea of whether the game sounds like something I'd like to play.
Is this a conflict game like Kemet or Nexus Ops, where attrition is encouraged and the board is fluid? Or is it more of a politics game where snowballing is countered by alliances?
Is there a spatial board, or is it more of an abstracted tableau builder? How much spatial reasoning is there?
Is this an elegant game about maneuvering, or more of a 'toys' game about combining special powers?
Are there asymmetric factions? Pre-game customization? Modular setup? Or is this a game with uniform forces that develops its asymmetry as the game progresses?
Is there an elaborate sci-fi background setting? Is it based on an existing story space? Can I play as a fungal or plant-like alien race? (The last matters far more to me that it should...)
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rseater wrote:I'd like to see some photos (if only diagrams or prototype content), some summaries of the core mechanics, and some descriptions of what the dynamics between players are. I know nothing about the game, and there are lots of other games -- I'd like to get some quick idea of whether the game sounds like something I'd like to play.More photos - gotcha. I'll upload some more as I shoot them. The quick idea about the game is that I was inspired by Core Worlds, Blood Bowl: Team Manager – The Card Game, and Pirate's Cove:
It's a deck builder and you can streamline your deck by leaving behind units on planets, which is also something that happens in Core Worlds. There are different worlds with different "loot" similar to matches in Blood Bowl. Originally it played sequentially like Blood Bowl Team Manager as well, but I changed that to a simultaneous action selection in order to minimize downtime.rseater wrote:Is this a conflict game like Kemet or Nexus Ops, where attrition is encouraged and the board is fluid? Or is it more of a politics game where snowballing is countered by alliances?It's a card game, so there is no game board. The conflict is completely abstract and works by using your space ship cards either for space combat (winner gets to choose the most profitable locations on a planet) or for ground combat (certain buildings like a shipyard or industry yield better cards, but require more ground combat value to conquer). Everyone configures their fleet in secret, so it is sort of a blind bid kind of deal.
Is there a spatial board, or is it more of an abstracted tableau builder? How much spatial reasoning is there?
Is this an elegant game about maneuvering, or more of a 'toys' game about combining special powers?rseater wrote:Are there asymmetric factions? Pre-game customization? Modular setup? Or is this a game with uniform forces that develops its asymmetry as the game progresses?Right now everybody starts the same. If this does end up successful enough to warrant an expansion, there might be asymmetric factions in the future.rseater wrote:Is there an elaborate sci-fi background setting? Is it based on an existing story space? Can I play as a fungal or plant-like alien race? (The last matters far more to me that it should...)It's not based on an existing story, but if I ever do write a science fiction novel, there is a chance I'm going to retcon Albedo into that
Sadly, the plant-like alien race is another pass right now: In the core box there are only humans, but as with the asymmetric factions alien races could be introduced in expansions.
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- Robert Seater(rseater)United States
Ashland
Massachusetts
I help designers improve their games.
Feed me...games...
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KaiHerbertz wrote:Neat! I really liked that part of Core Worlds, and I'd love to see that mechanic used more, especially in a more streamlined game.
It's a deck builder and you can streamline your deck by leaving behind units on planets, which is also something that happens in Core Worlds.
I really like it when trashing (or some for of deck thinning) is built into a deck builder as a core mechanic, rather than as occasional special powers (which are all too often poorly balanced). Drawing starter cards is boring, but judging when to use them vs. leave them behind is interesting.
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rseater wrote:Neat! I really liked that part of Core Worlds, and I'd love to see that mechanic used more, especially in a more streamlined game.Thanks! Well, I have to backpeddle a bit: Albedo is certainly not a streamlined version of Core Worlds.
I really like it when trashing (or some for of deck thinning) is built into a deck builder as a core mechanic, rather than as occasional special powers (which are all too often poorly balanced). Drawing starter cards is boring, but judging when to use them vs. leave them behind is interesting.
The way things work in Albedo is as follows: Everyone has their own deck of cards and draws their hand from that as is the deckbuilder standard.
There are communal planet cards on the table and those planets have 3 locations that players compete for.
Location 1 usually gives you victory points. Location 2 allows you to gain new, more powerful cards by capturing industrial centres and shipyards and the like.
Location 3, which is sort of the consolation prize, if you didn't get one of the two unique locations (location 3 can be chosen by the remaining players, as there are supposed to be 8 identical location copies). Location 3 sometimes gives you extra cards via an airfield or a factory or somesuch. There are also cities at Location 3, which allow you to leave behind a unit and get a victory point at the end of the game.
Of course players are free to send a smaller fleet to a planet with the express purpose of going to location 3 to thin their deck, while trying to conquer one of the unique locations with their main fleet at another planet.
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- Quick note: I am "interested" again.
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KaiHerbertz wrote:I have uploaded the rulebook to BGG and I have already received a few suggestions how to improve it.If you're still looking for some feedback on this, I would like to add my 2 cents to what's already been said.
The Essen Spiel preview list is, let's face it, ridiculously huge. I'm not complaining, I love digging through the seemingly neverending list of new games I'll get to choose from at Spiel. However, this does make it hard to go in-depth on a significant number of these games, in order to decide whether I'm interested in them.
This is why it's so important (imho) to have easily accessible info about the game, as others have said, e.g. video reviews/walkthroughs, pictures. etc.
This has all already been said, but it also goes for the manual. The manual suffers in parts from wall-of-text-syndrome
By that I mean it has pages that are filled with a big block of text, and nothing else. While people will read through almost anything for a game that they've already purchased, in this case a less wordy and more graphic manual could really help the undecideds to decide whether they are interested in your game. Basically, I'd see if I could rephrase things so they take fewer words (while not losing clarity), and maybe add some more graphical examples rather than explaining everything in text. Less text means quicker to read and understand, more pictures means it's less intimidating. This all leads to more people actually reading through your manual, which will result in more interested people :-)
For me it was the reason I closed the current manual right after opening, deciding it was "too much effort for now" and will look at it more later if I have time.
There are just so many games coming out!
Best regards,
PV
PS. Despite not having read the manual yet, I'm definitely in the "interested" camp, because everything I do know at this point sounds interesting
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- Last edited Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:17 pm (Total Number of Edits: 4)
- Posted Wed Oct 11, 2017 7:28 pm
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petervel wrote:If you're still looking for some feedback on this, I would like to add my 2 cents to what's already been said.Thanks for the kind words and the tips - I just sat down and produced a concise two page explanation of the game:
This is why it's so important (imho) to have easily accessible info about the game, as others have said, e.g. video reviews/walkthroughs, pictures. etc.
PS. Despite not having read the manual yet, I'm definitely in the "interested" camp, because everything I do know at this point sounds interesting
Hopefully that helps
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- By the way, the first limited edition print run is almost sold out at Essen and I've just started a Kickstarter campaign for a larger reprint. That reprint would use the same art, but would also rework the card faces (and card backs), which could be improved.
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- The artwork is great, it is language independent, it accommodates up to 8 players and I need a space themed game. I am definitely interested, good luck!
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FlavioSousa wrote:The artwork is great, it is language independent, it accommodates up to 8 players and I need a space themed game. I am definitely interested, good luck!Thanks for the praise and being interested!
In the meantime I paid a designer to improve the layout and printed the 2nd edition out of pocket.
Currently I am at UK Games Expo to debut that second edition.
There'll be a Kickstarter for an expansion at the end of June. It is possible to get the base game during that campaign.
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2 more questions:
a) I can't find anything on KS, only the previous campaign that ended in november. Is there a new KS campaign and can you provide a link?
b) Is there a simplified version of Albedo? I'd love to use this with my students but they're not experienced players.
Thanks again!
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FlavioSousa wrote:2 more questions:Hi there,
a) I can't find anything on KS, only the previous campaign that ended in november. Is there a new KS campaign and can you provide a link?
b) Is there a simplified version of Albedo? I'd love to use this with my students but they're not experienced players.
Thanks again!
a) The new Kickstarter campaign hasn't started. It is going live on the 29th of June. There'll be an announcement in the Kickstarter threads on Boardgamegeek once it goes live.
b) Unfortunately there isn't a simpler version. The original pre-release version was pretty complicated, because every unit had 4 different stats. Perhaps I am playing vastly complicated games, but to me Albedo already is bare bones simple with the two stats and rotation mechanisms, so I don't think I can make it simpler.
All the best,
Kai
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FlavioSousa wrote:I can't find anything on KS, only the previous campaign that ended in november. Is there a new KS campaign and can you provide a link?The campaign is live now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kaiherbertz/albedo-spac...
Thanks again!
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