One of the reasons that I love attending the Board Game Geek conventions each year is for the games that are still in the design stage and don’t have the components, cards, or markers designed. I love to give feedback on the rules and the look and feel of the game. Game testing is fun. Neal Berkowitz likes to call it game breaking, saying that if there is anything unclear, he will find it and use it to his advantage in some way.
One of the games that we tested, still in the design stage, was called White Walls. We played one of several competing painters who were rushing to paint the walls of a house. You go to a store to buy paint in primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) and can mix them into complimentary colors (purple, orange, and green). You can also dump or claim paint from a truck.
The goal of the game is to drop your colors on the rooms, even if the room is already painted. {Remember you are a competing painter.) How do you score? Each player starts with a card showing the value of their paint colors at the beginning of the game. Paint colors are worth varying amounts; for example, for one player, green is worth 4 points, blue is worth 2 points, purple and orange are worth 1 point and yellow is worth minus 1 point. At the end of the game, you add up the total for every room. Just remember that other players get points for different colors.
The game designer is Flight Commander, Captain Joshua Garvison and he has a blog about creating the game here. We played the game with Edwina, Garrett, and Gregory, who are also members of the U.S. Air Force.
Another game in early stages was called Doomsday by Isaac Shalev; game designer of several games, including ChronoSphere, and co-author of “Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms” (with Geoff Engelstein, CRC Press). Isaac’s blog is at KindFortress.com. In Doomsday, you are shooting down bombs that are falling from orbit. Now, I had a little bit of trouble with the basic rules of the game, even though I understand a little bit about orbital mechanics. I wasn’t the only one who had trouble when we played the game. There was some lively discussion and feedback to Reed because of that. Some better descriptions of the rules and how they affect play for those of us who don’t understand missiles and their trajectories. is suggested.
One of the people I played the game with was Reed Ambrose from Abilene, TX. I enjoyed Doomsday and believe it could become a popular successor to Global Thermonuclear War (you remember, the old Nuke War from decades ago). When this game comes out, I recommend it.
This was the first time I went into public since Covid-19 began. I’m thankful that BGG.Con had clear rules regarding masks and vaccinations. Nowhere during the convention did I see anyone balking at the rules. I am looking forward to BGG.Spring.
Guest blogger, Deborah Bean
Deborah Bean writes and edits rules for boardgames. She is an expert at taking ESL rules writing or rules that have been run through a translator app and making them fit into the type of vernacular and the language level of the intended audience, Ms. Bean has a certificate in editing from Writers Digest University and a graduate certificate in creative writing from ASU. Her accomplishments include Potions and Profits for Petersen Games, Ghoul Island (a Cthulhu novel), Learn Peachtree Accounting, and many other training materials and user manuals.
