Through some play testing of my game I have found that some rule changes were necessary. The first one that I have decided to adjust is that everyone getting 22 cards and only having 10 in their hand, unless otherwise stated, is pointless. I have decided that each player is only given 10 cards at the beginning, drawn from the deck, and then the rest of the cards go in one main deck which both players draw from. I found this to be a simpler way of play and not having too much going on at the game board. I would still keep the option to re-draw one or two cards from the top in the game as well.
I’m still not sure if 88 cards is enough to have a high variance to go between all three areas (six in total) for both players. I’m very wary of it coming to a point where players can become very aware of what the most popular cards are and how to counter-act what cards their opponent plays.
What is coming together is how many points each card is worth and how many there are of the same points value. It’s definitely a bit of a game, in and of itself, just trying to make it fair that, unless someone had great luck, they wouldn’t be given a great amount of cards with a higher value.
I feel like marketing the game would be fairly easy when it would be marketed towards people who are a fan of strategy games and ones that aren’t overly complicated. It’s something that is quick to explain (which is why I love Bohnanza so much) and then pick up more of the rules as you play more and more.
I thought of maybe having a time limit on each players turn but I was too concerned that it could lead to a rushed game and players not fully thinking out their strategy of their card placements.
I still am looking into the design of each card and each sub-category of the type of cards that are available. I do get OCD about these things and I do want to make sure that the cards aesthetics are perfect, including the borders and background artwork.
Something that I have considered doing is writing up a kind of bio, which comes in a booklet with each game set, about the types of characters; their role in the game universe etc, etc. However, time does catch up with us all and with everything else to juggle in life this could be so time consuming that it impacts the final game product.
Game Cultures 