redle

Active Member
Apr 12, 2017
566
929
Just tried it out, and I find this game to be a bit of a mixed bag. The novelty of it is nice and I'm good with the graphic style, but the player just doesn't have any sort of control over any aspect of the game and the board is lacking visual cues.

Visual cues: Okay, yes, "green square" = work, and other colors each designate something. But rather than limit it to only a color, consider doing like any actual board game does and add some pictures (icons of some sort). A $ on the green squares, a dumbbell on the gym, etc.

Control: it seems to me a playthrough is going to live or die on working. Either a player makes enough and does everything they land on... no gameplay/choices at all, or they don't make enough and most of the board/activities just get skipped time and again. Neither of these options result in a great playing experience.

a) Maybe get rid of the job squares altogether. Every time the girl rounds a corner (or every 2nd or 3rd roll, etc), she spends a day at work, then does the square she lands on.
b) Keep the work squares, but have them be her secondary job and she earns a pre-set income weekly and the squares are bonus.
c) Combine A & B, she works when she passes a corner, but then gets random unique job opportunities on job squares that show up on the board (i.e. she's working as a waitress on the corners and then hands out fliers for "B")
d) There are no job squares, nor are there pre-defined times of work. Instead, every single time the girl advances on the board the player has the choice like now... land on gym: Go, Don't Go -> instead turn that into -> Go, Do Nothing, Work (That way players never go around the board doing nothing over and over. Something can be done on every roll and the player has choices that influence the game more than being solely at the hands of the RNG.) Even if you are worried about abuse of work (although right now excess money doesn't seem to have value, so it would only potentially matter as new mechanics are added) you can certainly make "success at working" not guaranteed/limit total work count per week/or some other limitation.
e) Keep the board and work squares as is, but change the cost mechanic. Make it so that gym, drama, etc costs are not taken from the work income. Instead make the money go strictly to bonus items or upgrades (i.e. purchasable outfits that the player can buy in between weeks or other personal items; or upgrades like... the girl starts out jogging for exercise. Collect enough money and want to spend it on working out; upgrade the exercise square from jogging to gym membership; upgrade again to personal trainer. Upgrade from home-styling to local hair salon to well-known stylist to personal makeup team.) If a player doesn't manage to land on work squares, they still get to do events. They just don't manage to upgrade the tiers.
f) Or make the board start out 50% work squares or some other large amount. While she earns little and needs to work lots of days, make it so she will land on those work days and simply have very little time for other activities. As the game progresses reduce the work squares.
g) Make some squares combo-squares. i.e. maybe drama is a full-day class, but work/gym is a combo day. Or salon is a choice... go to salon/spa and get looks raised to max OR work half-day and get touchups at the salon for gain of half-max. (Or make it so that it isn't a player choice, but 2 of the salon spaces are split days and 2 of the salon spaces are full salon days)

Those are some thoughts anyway. The icons (or a visible legend) to better identify the squares I do feel like would improve the game either way. But I'll grant that current game mechanics really make identifying them mostly irrelevant. The re-roll doesn't really give the player enough control for it to matter. The player simply lands on whatever square they land on. Whether the player can name where a square will take them or not, they just don't have the ability to change it either way.
 

Basilicata

Radioactive Member
Game Developer
Oct 24, 2017
1,314
3,011
Just tried it out, and I find this game to be a bit of a mixed bag. The novelty of it is nice and I'm good with the graphic style, but the player just doesn't have any sort of control over any aspect of the game and the board is lacking visual cues.

Visual cues: Okay, yes, "green square" = work, and other colors each designate something. But rather than limit it to only a color, consider doing like any actual board game does and add some pictures (icons of some sort). A $ on the green squares, a dumbbell on the gym, etc.

Control: it seems to me a playthrough is going to live or die on working. Either a player makes enough and does everything they land on... no gameplay/choices at all, or they don't make enough and most of the board/activities just get skipped time and again. Neither of these options result in a great playing experience.

a) Maybe get rid of the job squares altogether. Every time the girl rounds a corner (or every 2nd or 3rd roll, etc), she spends a day at work, then does the square she lands on.
b) Keep the work squares, but have them be her secondary job and she earns a pre-set income weekly and the squares are bonus.
c) Combine A & B, she works when she passes a corner, but then gets random unique job opportunities on job squares that show up on the board (i.e. she's working as a waitress on the corners and then hands out fliers for "B")
d) There are no job squares, nor are there pre-defined times of work. Instead, every single time the girl advances on the board the player has the choice like now... land on gym: Go, Don't Go -> instead turn that into -> Go, Do Nothing, Work (That way players never go around the board doing nothing over and over. Something can be done on every roll and the player has choices that influence the game more than being solely at the hands of the RNG.) Even if you are worried about abuse of work (although right now excess money doesn't seem to have value, so it would only potentially matter as new mechanics are added) you can certainly make "success at working" not guaranteed/limit total work count per week/or some other limitation.
e) Keep the board and work squares as is, but change the cost mechanic. Make it so that gym, drama, etc costs are not taken from the work income. Instead make the money go strictly to bonus items or upgrades (i.e. purchasable outfits that the player can buy in between weeks or other personal items; or upgrades like... the girl starts out jogging for exercise. Collect enough money and want to spend it on working out; upgrade the exercise square from jogging to gym membership; upgrade again to personal trainer. Upgrade from home-styling to local hair salon to well-known stylist to personal makeup team.) If a player doesn't manage to land on work squares, they still get to do events. They just don't manage to upgrade the tiers.
f) Or make the board start out 50% work squares or some other large amount. While she earns little and needs to work lots of days, make it so she will land on those work days and simply have very little time for other activities. As the game progresses reduce the work squares.
g) Make some squares combo-squares. i.e. maybe drama is a full-day class, but work/gym is a combo day. Or salon is a choice... go to salon/spa and get looks raised to max OR work half-day and get touchups at the salon for gain of half-max. (Or make it so that it isn't a player choice, but 2 of the salon spaces are split days and 2 of the salon spaces are full salon days)

Those are some thoughts anyway. The icons (or a visible legend) to better identify the squares I do feel like would improve the game either way. But I'll grant that current game mechanics really make identifying them mostly irrelevant. The re-roll doesn't really give the player enough control for it to matter. The player simply lands on whatever square they land on. Whether the player can name where a square will take them or not, they just don't have the ability to change it either way.
Ok I understand and thank you for your suggestions. But Tabletop means dice. And dice means luck. Means to control it? Make MJ more obedient and all your 6s become 1s. Later, she'll have money to take cabs or be even more professional. Finally she'll buy a car. By then she'll be more efficient working and following her day plan.
But, don't forget. It's a tabletop game after all. Finally you don't control MJ. You control a washed up flat broke talent agent in house arrest.
About the icons.I have the legend in the notepad for this each time you roll the dice. But it's not a bad idea.
Anyway, thanks again. Feed back is always welcome.
 

redle

Active Member
Apr 12, 2017
566
929
Ok I understand and thank you for your suggestions. But Tabletop means dice. And dice means luck. Means to control it? Make MJ more obedient and all your 6s become 1s. Later, she'll have money to take cabs or be even more professional. Finally she'll buy a car. By then she'll be more efficient working and following her day plan.
But, don't forget. It's a tabletop game after all. Finally you don't control MJ. You control a washed up flat broke talent agent in house arrest.
About the icons.I have the legend in the notepad for this each time you roll the dice. But it's not a bad idea.
Anyway, thanks again. Feed back is always welcome.
Yeah, I understand that the die is a key element to the game. That's why I didn't try to adjust the die roll. My thought was to add in something similar to "pass Go and receive $200" in monopoly. In late game that 200 becomes fairly trivial, but in the early game it keeps all players in the action. The idea was just to make sure the player could "do something" early game, even if the die rolls the wrong way. The thought was based on the current game which still has lots of changes to be implemented. So if you already have plans such that a player won't succeed or fail based on how many work squares they land on in the early game, then great.

The additional idea I'll toss out is, maybe make the lack of doing something an event (once again depends how mechanics develop whether or not this makes since or is necessary). Whether a player simply keeps refusing to let MJ do anything, or whether she can't land on a job and does not have the money to do anything... If MJ lands on 2-3 squares in a row and does not partake in the square then she "draws an Aggravation Card" and a random event happens to her anyway (goes for a walk in the park/fights with a stranger on the street/damages property and has a cop event/gets drunk in a bar/exercises hard).

Either way, I wish you luck. Game is a promising setup.
 
Mar 17, 2021
40
37
I just played through the tutorial, so not a review at all, but just wanted to applaud what you've got going on here. I'm excited to see where it goes.
 
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forthewins

Member
Feb 5, 2021
196
377
Really fun. Didn't really expect to hit a "you can't pass this point" type of ending on a simulated board game, but it makes sense to make sure we don't grind our stats too high.

Looking forward to more being available. I'll land on that hollywood square one of these days, dammit. I swear I seemed to land on it every round until I unlocked it, and since then I never have.
 
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Basilicata

Radioactive Member
Game Developer
Oct 24, 2017
1,314
3,011
How long is this period?
Hey guys. Yes, a new version is already on Patreon. It will become public on itch. Io and here next week BUT:
-Main story will not advance
-Old saves will not work
BUT there will be side stories, faster gameplay and auto-rounds.
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
 
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Keller

Newbie
Jan 24, 2018
17
13
Hey guys. Yes, a new version is already on Patreon. It will become public on itch. Io and here next week BUT:
-Main story will not advance
-Old saves will not work
BUT there will be side stories, faster gameplay and auto-rounds.
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
Can't wait for the public version this week?
 
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4.50 star(s) 45 Votes