Marching to Gen Con
Two Roads
by Mark
If I had to describe our group's development in Tuckman’s terms, I’d say we’re in the storming phase. We’ve been working on Animal Kingdom for a solid two months now, and as we discussed on the show, we’re navigating between two parallel versions of the game: the “Map Version” and the “Rally Version.” We’ve playtested both and identified successful and interesting aspects in each. We’ve also reopened the possibility of exploring broader or more radical departures from the initial concept—a seedling we’re nurturing into a well-thought-out, compelling, and replayable game. I’ve become increasingly convinced that our path to successfully bringing a game to crowdfunding will be a winding one here at The Misplay™. And winding roads aren’t always comfortable.
In the world of teaching, there’s a concept called instructional levels. The basic idea is that at your instructional level, you are challenged just enough by the content to wrestle with it and learn. If you are under-challenged or have already mastered the content, it doesn’t serve you. If the content is too demanding for your current skill set, you hit frustration. I would argue that being a good learner is not about immediately mastering every new concept or skill with no effort. Rather, being a good learner means staying at your instructional level and becoming comfortable with discomfort. We ask questions, challenge the content, and generate new ideas and solutions.
I think our team working on Animal Kingdom has settled into our instructional level for game design. We are still in an exploratory phase, having tested multiple versions of the game, each evolving through feedback and lessons learned from playtests. I told Jason he should be proud of the work he did on the “Map Version” of Animal Kingdom. Personally, I’m most proud of the playtest structures that document feedback. Though I wasn’t able to attend the “Rally Version” playtest, reading the notes allowed me to see the highlights, areas for adjustment, and common threads between the two most recent versions. I’m genuinely enjoying the variety of possibilities. Jason has been encouraging the team to dwell in this exploratory space. I believe this phase feels more uncomfortable because there’s less time to refine execution, leading to significantly more misses than hits. And so, here we go, navigating this winding and sometimes uncomfortable road.
The beauty of winding roads lies in moments of discovery—the pauses where unexpected revelations strike. In both the Rally and Map versions of Animal Kingdom, there are elements that, if explored deeply and developed carefully, will become pieces of the puzzle that form an engaging and replayable experience.
First Exposure Playtest Hall
by Jason
Did you hear? We’re officially in the Gen Con First Exposure Playtest Hall! We’ve mentioned it a couple of times—either in Discord or off-handedly on the show—but it kind of slipped by without much fanfare due to a technical hiccup.
Last August, when I said, “I want to be in a playtest hall,” I had no idea what the process involved or whether we’d even be ready. But I said it—and it’s been guiding us ever since. I came across a fitting quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.”
We don’t have details yet, but we know we’ll have four playtests in the hall. Scheduling will come later. I’m genuinely excited—and equally terrified. Our conversation this week with Randy O’Connor is perfect prep for learning how to run a successful playtest. And by “successful,” I mean even a complete failure could be a win if we learn from it. That’s how I learn playing board games: by fumbling my way through.
We’ve got something to aim for. See you in Indy!
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