Shad spent all day Friday at the Protospiel convention at the Sheraton in Madison. I dropped him off in the morning so that I'd have the van to go places with the kids and get an oil change. I joined him in the evening after I put the kids to bed. It was exciting just walking in the room! Such a positive, excited energy! I only took time to play one game that night, Science!, but it left me eager to return in the morning to play more and meet more gamers.
Aaron and Emily (my uncle and aunt) were soooo awesome to watch our kids for us all day Saturday so that I could attend Protospiel with Shad. I came back to Waunakee for bed time and then returned to Madison to finish the night. We were there until midnight, didn't get to sleep until past 1:00, then woke up at 8:00 to leave at 9:00 to drive 11 hours home. Shad was wiped out the whole week after.
Saturday at Protospiel had nearly three times the attendance! Shad was busy all day with people play testing Make a Killing. He made so many modifications to test out suggestions that when he needed me to sit in and play once, I had to be retaught much of it! It was mind blowing. We're still not sure how many of those suggestions to take or leave. Some people were really nice and pleasant to play with, others were arrogant, condescending game designers who thought they would tell Shad everything that was wrong with the game before even starting, and then quit in the middle because that was enough for them and they weren't going to spend any more time on it. Like this woman in the picture. Rude!
I playtested Culinary Clash, which is a restaurateur game of picking up food supplies at farmer's markets and cooking it to win the most prestige. You can serve anything you like to customers, or serve specific requests to critics. The cooking has to be carefully timed to ensure the food is ready at the time it's needed and doesn't get overcooked. That gets tricky when working with multiple entrees that need different cooking times and all have to be ready to serve together for the critic. Really fantastic game.
(Yet it's a little unfortunate that Culinary Clash has been slightly tainted for me because of a couple encounters with the designer later on during the day. He happened to have the same personality as the woman described above...who happened to be his wife. Rude, negative and condescending while playing other peoples' games. "Well, I looked around and didn't find anything better, so I guess I might as well play your game." Yeah, he said that to another designer whose game I sat down to play.)
But moving past the negativity, we met many people who were just so positive and upbeat. This is Jay, the painted thumb guy. He always paints his thumb nails any time he travels. It started as a newlywed thing, missing his wife's blue eyes, but continued because it's saved his life twice. Once he got in an accident and was in a coma for several weeks. The nurses paid extra attention to him because they all remembered and liked his thumbs. A couple years later he returned, conscious this time, and a nurse recognized him because his thumbs were painted. On a second occasion, he was kidnapped in Arizona. The abductors noticed his blue nails and thought he must surely be a musician or artist or something, and people would be looking for him. So they dumped him on the side of the road. I took this picture not just to remember Jay and all his really constructive help he counseled Shad with, but to also teach Tommy that he can make his own choices and not be influenced by what his friends and society tell him is not for boys.
Jay, who is also a professional game design teacher, was one of the most helpful people we met. He gave several suggestions and ideas to apply to Make a Killing to make it easier, more functional, and marketable. However, he did stop at one point and said, "I'm giving you these ideas but remember this is your game. Make it however the hell you want." That was probably the best advice we got.
Some of our feedback ranged everywhere from "I loved the game, just make it about anything else but killing," to "I love the theme of the game, but just change all the functions." Several enjoyed the game as it was and just gave a few ideas that might help. Having had time to reflect on the feedback we got from everyone the realization came that people's backgrounds, personal preferences, bias, and perspective all played a roll in what they were telling us. A publisher, for example, would likely have a harder time selling a game about assassination to distributors than a game about taking in homeless puppies and kittens (trademark).
Overall, Protospiel was stressful, fun, exhausting and educational. We would definitely go again.
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