Into the Pie is about to approach version 6! As you can see in the picture above, quite a few things have changed. So, I thought I would share the revision history and some of the reasons behind the changes. I'll cover the first half in this post and the rest later.
Version 1
This version is the one that I put up on this blog as a concept.
Goal: Make $25 from selling pies. Each pie was sold for the sum of the individual values.
Recipe Cards: Had text-based recipes for players to make.
Ingredient Cards: There were ingredients for a number of different pies, mostly sweet pies.
Aspects Enjoyed
The players liked the concept. It was novel, in that there aren't a lot of well known card games about making food. They liked the mechanic of having a basket (hand) of ingredients, which they had to pass on, and baking them into a pie (placing them facedown).
Problems Encountered
During playtests, I was told that it was hard to decipher what was meant by each of the different recipe cards and most players were not making complete pies most of the time.
Goal: Make $25 from selling pies. Each pie was sold for the sum of the individual values.
Recipe Cards: Had text-based recipes for players to make.
Ingredient Cards: There were ingredients for a number of different pies, mostly sweet pies.
Aspects Enjoyed
The players liked the concept. It was novel, in that there aren't a lot of well known card games about making food. They liked the mechanic of having a basket (hand) of ingredients, which they had to pass on, and baking them into a pie (placing them facedown).
Problems Encountered
During playtests, I was told that it was hard to decipher what was meant by each of the different recipe cards and most players were not making complete pies most of the time.
Nothing much works exactly as you planned the first time around and it was true for this game. About the only thing that did work was that the players thought the idea was cool and that they were able to put four cards facedown at the end of the round. Most weren't making the recipes and that was frustrating them.
So, I made all of the changes that were suggested and added a few of my own. The timeframe for this was pretty quick, around two weeks between the playtest for version 1 and version 2.
So, I made all of the changes that were suggested and added a few of my own. The timeframe for this was pretty quick, around two weeks between the playtest for version 1 and version 2.
Version 2
Adjustments
Aspects Enjoyed
The players enjoyed having a little recipe book, felt that it added to theme of baking a pie.
Problems Encountered
The players felt that it would be better if the pantry cards were integrated into the garden (main) deck. In addition, they really wanted there to be an objective scoring system. The subjective judging system fell apart when playing with a small number of players.
- Added pantry cards. These cards were available at all times and players could discard one card in their hand to collect a pantry item in its place.
- Properly codified the rules.
- Replaced recipe cards with recipe book. Each player had the ability to attempt any recipe of their choice.
- Replaced objective scoring mechanism with subjective one. Players would reveal their pies and judge them. The person who got the most votes gained a pie token.
- Changed the victory condition. Gain five pie tokens.
Aspects Enjoyed
The players enjoyed having a little recipe book, felt that it added to theme of baking a pie.
Problems Encountered
The players felt that it would be better if the pantry cards were integrated into the garden (main) deck. In addition, they really wanted there to be an objective scoring system. The subjective judging system fell apart when playing with a small number of players.
Making the recipes one step more explicit helped a lot. The rounds went by faster as a result. But, this was balanced by the judging mechanic, which slowed the game down to a crawl. It really didn't work and the players didn't like it.
Version 3
Adjustments
Aspects Enjoyed
This was my first public playtest version. Again, the players really liked the concept. In addition, the players preferred the objective scoring system. The updated recipe book helped them as they felt less anxious about properly interpreting the text. Players also liked having a single deck to consider.
Problems Encountered
The players were still having trouble making enough complete pies. While they preferred the tiered scoring system, they still felt that they weren't making enough complete pies. They believed that cutting the deck down would work best to improve the probabilities. Players didn't like the subjective taste criterion. Also, while the recipe book was nice, they didn't enjoy having so many options before them. If they had just one or two recipes, then they felt it would work better.
- Merged the pantry cards into the garden deck.
- Returned to objective scoring mechanism. Each card had a point value, reflective of its rarity in the deck. Still had a subjective taste criterion.
- Updated the recipe book to be more prescriptive. Implemented a three tier scoring system to allow players to make money on incomplete pies.
Aspects Enjoyed
This was my first public playtest version. Again, the players really liked the concept. In addition, the players preferred the objective scoring system. The updated recipe book helped them as they felt less anxious about properly interpreting the text. Players also liked having a single deck to consider.
Problems Encountered
The players were still having trouble making enough complete pies. While they preferred the tiered scoring system, they still felt that they weren't making enough complete pies. They believed that cutting the deck down would work best to improve the probabilities. Players didn't like the subjective taste criterion. Also, while the recipe book was nice, they didn't enjoy having so many options before them. If they had just one or two recipes, then they felt it would work better.
At this stage, I had yet to even complete a single game in which a winner was declared. The game just kept falling apart at the scoring stage. People weren't making enough complete pies and they felt that it was too much like four-player solitaire, without much player interaction. But, all of this positive constructive feedback really helped. Now, I just needed to act on it.
You have a lot of what you feel like setbacks when testing out your games. Things you want to work don't. Things you like, the players hate. It is a fine balance between giving the players what they want and what you need for the game to work and be engaging.
A lot of changes were made between versions 3 and 4, which will be covered next time. These types of updates are something I wish I had written since the start of making Into the Pie, but I hope to continue doing so from now onwards. I'm also planning to do a series of posts called Transparent Design for my other card game Pocket War, which you can find out about here, where I walk through every major decision about the game design.
A lot of changes were made between versions 3 and 4, which will be covered next time. These types of updates are something I wish I had written since the start of making Into the Pie, but I hope to continue doing so from now onwards. I'm also planning to do a series of posts called Transparent Design for my other card game Pocket War, which you can find out about here, where I walk through every major decision about the game design.
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