September saw notable progress in the development of Atomic Edge, with a focus on cleaning up the first design pass as well as the first test of a prototype print.
Atomic Edge is finally ready for playtesting on Tabletop Simulator! Get a first look by signing up to become a playtester.
We have big plans for the remainder of the year as we push to get Atomic Edge ready for production!
Pikes Peak Gamers Convention
This was our first official board/tabletop game convention that we attended and it was a great time! Our goal was to get a great playtest and feedback from some new folks, as well as try out the great components that were produced by The Game Crafter. The quality of the components is fantastic. Big shout out to The Game Crafter.
Seeing the prints made me realize there is still some work to be done on the design – particularly in the readability of certain components as well as some color-blind concerns. I will break down the changes I made and the tools I used in a future post about the important topic of Accessibility.
The playthrough went well and we got some excellent feedback from our playtesters. Thank you to all! Aside from some graphic design concerns, one of the suggestions we received was to include some sort of “mission cards” – some sort of overarching goals that are up for any player to achieve. We loved this suggestion and are currently working on fleshing out that idea. The idea behind the Mission Cards is to have side goals that everyone can work towards if they want, which will reward them with Influence points at the end of the game. After the conclusion of the Final Round, any relevant Mission Cards will be handed out to those who accomplished the task (think of the “Longest Road” reward in Catan).
Game Design Upgrades with a Focus on Accessibility
After the playtest, I got some really great feedback about some of the design elements and I went to work rethinking a lot of the icons used, primarily on the Action card. Each card had at least three icons – when to play it, where to play it, and any special bonus. Each player would also get a cheat sheet to reference that included along with other things, an icon guide. The icon guide has 10 different icons with descriptions on it.
I decided that was overkill based on the player’s feedback. I went on a mission to simplify the “when” and “where” elements of each card in the text description. This significantly cleaned up and simplified the Action cards.
There was also some rightful concern about the cilia used for green and yellow territories. After doing some research, the particular colors I had been using were not at all colorblind-friendly. Some quick work in photos Photoshop asked that issue.
Atomic Edge on Tabletop Simulator Is Ready!
All of these graphics and icon changes have been implemented in a full update to the playtest-ready Tabletop Simulator version. Playtester skies are now open! Join us and get a first look at the Atomic Edge and help us make this game amazing!
We look forward to polishing up Atomic Edge and making it the best game it can be.