I've noticed something since getting the prototype for I Thought There'd Be Zombies!, and I wonder if others have experienced the same thing. I feel like the quality of the production has stymied rapid development of the game.

With After the Fall I spent a fair amount of time making the early prototypes decent looking and playable, but they were not very expensive or high quality. I used printable business cards for the cards and printed paper for the mats. The counters were Smarties!

The game progressed very rapidly, changing with each play test, sometimes drastically. I did spend time on the graphic design as the game changed, but the components themselves were disposable and felt that way--easy to replace. Usually each play would have several (if not all) new components.

To some extent Archon Arena went through a similar lifecycle. Early prototypes were business cards. Often I'd simply write changes on them rather than reprint the cards. After ordering real cards, the gameplay has changed much more slowly. The second set of cards basically just reflected a redesign of the layout, and very little has changed since then.

Maybe it's just the natural progression of game design. As the game gets more concrete, the prototypes get better, therefore, there are fewer and fewer changes. The key then is to time the quality of prototyping properly to coincide with the level of completion of the game.

With I Thought There'd Be Zombies! I feel like perhaps the good prototype came too early. The game is fun as is and certainly playable, but I continue to second guess basic elements of it. It'd be a lot easier, mentally, to make drastic changes if it didn't involve throwing out a $10 game board and/or $20 worth of cards.

It'd be great to hear from anyone else who's had experience with this phenomenon. Is it just me, or can high quality early prototypes virtually kill a game?

I Thought There'd Be Zombies! actually came a few days ago. It was printed and shipped faster than expected, so I was pleasantly surprised. Hearing the mail carrier ring the doorbell was like being a kid on Christmas morning!

Though I'd unpacked the game and looked at everything, tonight was the first time I've had a chance to play "the good version". Unfortunately, I made two errors in ordering. The first was not a big deal; I forgot to get pawns and a box insert. For pawns we just used D&D figures. The second problem was more serious. I forgot to change the quantity of rubble empty cards from 1 to 7, so instead I ordered blank empty cards. It's still playable--we just use the existing cards and call the rest of the spaces empty--but the oversight was annoying.

With the near production quality prototype the game played well. The cards fit nicely in their spots. The chips I ordered are a good size and thick enough to be manageable. The board is great. It looks just like a "real" game. There is virtually no seam in the quad-fold board when it is unfolded. Considering I did all the graphics in a few hours, I think it turned out quite well.

And a great thing about tonight's playtest, we found a couple points to clarify. The rules had seemed pretty solid, so it's good to find a bug or two to let us know we're still working. :) Now I just have to get more people to play. We haven't done a four-player game yet, and the balance might change things considerably. Overall, though, the game has progressed nicely, and I'll be happy to pull this prototype out on game days to playtest further.

Over the course of the last couple months prototyping Archon Arena and now I Thought There'd Be Zombies!, I've used three different sources for custom cards. Most recently, I set up two decks on The Game Crafter's web site. Here is a mini-review of the process with some comparisons to my past experience with Art's Cow and PrinterStudio.com.

When designing I Thought There'd Be Zombies! I happened to draw a 9x6 grid for the game board. Nine times six is 54, the number of cards in a deck. Then, when I found The Game Crafter's custom mini cards, half the size of poker cards, I did the math, and 9x6 cards fit perfectly within the 18x18" game board that the company also makes. Such serendipity, it's like it was meant to be.

I mention this because playing with full bridge size cards as we have been requires a very large board, taking up most of my table. What I'd really like is a prototype with the actual size board and cards. So I priced it out: 96 mini cards=$8.67. Game board=$10. Markers=$2.40. Box and insert=$3.40. Handling=89¢. Total=$23.36. Not bad.

The only problem is I have no art for this game, which leads me to the title of this post... I found some cheesy Halloween clipart on clker.com, and I think it will do for my first prototype. It will be nice to play the game as meant to be, with the correct size cards and board. For the time being I can live with cheesy artwork.

Jay came over last night to test ITTBZ again, and lo and behold, the new cards had arrived!

Rather than individual decks, it was much cheaper to order 216-card decks and manually divide them. This way I got four games' worth for about $11 each.

I haven't compared side-by-side yet, but my first impression is that this run is slightly lower quality than the first, which I got from Art's Cow (and cost $20/game). The colors seem a little muddier or maybe just a bit off. A couple of the cards at the top of the deck were chipped a bit along the edges, and the centering varies a bit from card to card.

We played a match and didn't find any glaring errors, and we also discovered a needed rule clarification. What happens if both people play 'Change Posture'? The ruling was that they cancel each other out, so each player retains their original Posture.

Overall, a productive night. I'm satisfied with the cards, and the price was right. Best of all, they're here in time for gaming this weekend!