Re: piecepack Workshop: Cell Management v0.6 by Mark Goadrich

["Mark Goadrich" <mark.goadrich@...>]

> The yahoo group has been very quiet of late (the usual summer 
> slow down) so I thought I would kick off Bryk's idea with an 
> informal (but critical) look at some of the games in the Rules in 
> Progress folder.  Hopefully some analysis and suggestions will 
> help motivate authors to polish up their games and submit them 
> to piecepack.org, not to mention increase activity in the group.
> 

This sounds like a great idea, I'm up for a focused review of other's
games-in-progress.  Thanks, Phillip, for choosing my game first,
you've inspired me to revisit the rules after these months and get
things updated! I really appreciate the feedback and I'm glad you
enjoyed the game. Based on your suggestions, I've posted Version 0.7
to the Files area (the pdf's a little larger to make the figures more
crisp, hope this isn't a problem).  More detailed responses are inline
below:

> 
> I did struggle a bit after reading the rules the first time - it
> wasn't immediately obvious to me that the escaping species member 
> would escape to a different hideout than the adjacent hideout. 
> Mark makes use of the words 'its own hideout' which perhaps 
> wasn't specific enough for me.  Maybe something like 'adjacent 
> hideout' and 'destination hideout' would have made this clearer.  
> I finally understood the mechanics when I realized that Mark's 
> examples of play diagrams didn't make sense to me.  

I've noticed this happens more than I'd like when I write rules,
there's always a variation of "This piece goes where it's supposed to
go," and you make a great suggestion.  I now refer to them as "the
hideout corresponding to its type" with examples of the 3 coin going
to the 3 Secret Hideout, which I hope is more clear, since this is one
of the most important parts of how the game works.

> It is hard at first to visualize 
> the fact that species members escape, but some of them will be 
> discovered by the guards and returned to their containment cells 
> with just 1 diagram for the end of each turn. Although the 
> diagrams are very nicely done, I think there should be a few 
> more - perhaps a series of 6 diagrams showing a whole turn 
> (the first turn would be best) then keep the diagram of the end of 
> the 2nd turn.  
>

This was definitely needed, and is now there with helpful arrows
showing how things move between the 6 diagrams.  If only I could
include an animated gif in the pdf... ;)

> 
> This next point is one of personal preference - it would make it 
> much easier for me if the friendly/hostile suits corresponded to 
> sun/moon which, for me, are easier to see as opposites, then 
> use either arms or crowns for the containment cells.
> 

My reason for chosing the suits was because of the colors, black felt
like a good cell color, while red and green were opposite just like
friendly and hostile were opposite, but I see your point, also since
the crowns' color can also be yellow.  I'll give this one some more
thought before sending off the final version.

>
> 3) Conclusion
> 
> Although this could be sent to piecepack.org as is, a few small 
> additions would really make it an excellent ruleset.
> 

I'll leave it up for another few weeks, if anyone has more feedback
I'd love to hear it, and then I'll send it off to the big board. 
Thanks again, looking forward to the next workshopped game,

Mark