Scott Brady is one of those board game industry guys that everybody knows. He’s made a bunch of games with a variety of styles, published by several different studios. His catalogue currently features a mix of party and light abstract strategy games, making his designs super accessible and intuitive, usually taking seconds to learn. They’re also just a lot of fun, which is most important. Hues and Cues, Boop, and his recent collaboration with Danielle Reynolds (whom I’d love to be writing a TILT post about), Caution Signs, are all hits. Better Letters and If/Then will be out later this year. I’ve played both, and they’ve got high potential; great fits with the rest of his titles.

Scott’s also a dynamo when it comes to pitching games. There’s not a trade show I’ve been to in several years that Scott wasn’t at, exuberantly running a marathon from publisher meeting to publisher meeting with games in tow. He HUSTLES. There’s a lot of respect industry-wide for how hard he works.

Recently, he put out there that he’s open to working with other designers as a rep/agent, pitching games to publishers alongside his own when said designer needed help making inroads or wasn’t able to get to shows to meet inventor relations specialists themself. His criteria for taking on someone else’s game are pretty simple: the game needs to be worth his time (pitching another designer’s game means that much less time to pitch his own), and it needs to be worth the weight and space it takes up in his bag. I’ve done the pitch circuit in the past, so I can attest to that second part being important.

I reached out to Scott two weeks ago with some apprehension; I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Disco Candybar isn’t ready for publisher pitches. As far as looking for help getting it shown goes, there’s no way I’d ask Scott to fill space in his bags with it. Still, I saw a lot of good logic in getting Scott’s opinions on my game, as a fellow designer, as someone who streamlines mechanical concepts, and as someone who can immediately identify what’s left to get a game into a pitchable state. I made sure to let him know up front that I see the current version of this game as a small percentage of a much larger, very ambitious project.

Disco Candybar isn’t the kind of game that Scott typically makes or shows off. Turns out though that it’s got a lot in common with many games he enjoys playing, including adventure games.

Very quickly, I got the impression that he was already putting together a list in his head of who should see this game and how he’d angle the pitch. “This is kind of niche,” he said. “It’s got a very specific audience, but you know that.” He confirmed though that the mix of mechanics and progressive complexity/depth was aimed at the right audience.

We talked a bit about products that had similar goals, but didn’t quite meet the hopes. The mass-market version of Gloomhaven, called Jaws of the Lion, was created as something Target could put on their shelves and harness the original’s lightning-in-a-bottle momentum. While it’s an awesome entry in the franchise by itself, Jaws of the Lion still found its place with the same fans that already owned Gloomhaven. On Board Game Geek, Jaws has a little over half as many reviews as its predecessor, despite being more widely available at a fraction of the price. The goal of increasing the consumer footprint of the series did not pan out the way it could have.

For all its potential, Disco Candybar needs to know its limitations and place in the world. Thankfully, it does, and I understand that. This is a hobby game, not a mass-market product. The people who will love this game and share it with their friends buy most of their games at their Friendly Local Game Stores. That’s where this belongs. Scott confirmed that for me.

As far as the mechanics themselves go, Scott really enjoyed the simplification of combat mechanics and the way they’ll complement the primarily linear storytelling portions of the game. What stood out for him was the core mechanic (that I’m still intentionally vague about here) and how it pretty seamlessly adapts itself into a battle engine.

“I’m a fan of this sort of mechanic in general,” Scott noted. “It had a stretch where it was pretty popular, but it peaked and fell off a few years ago with (game name redacted). I feel like it’s due to have a resurgence, and this does it in a pretty fresh way that fits the theme.”

This sounded awesome. Is it lightning in a bottle? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s got something that resonates with a designer that knows what works for publishers. Even something(s) plural.

Additionally, Scott particularly liked the flexibility in the way characters in this game can grow and be customized over time. Like several of my reviewers before, he noted that the system has a good range of elements that all contributed to being able to make your character into something unique, something that fit your personality and play style. Your starting Warrior character might, over time, evolve into a precision-minded martial monk, or a paladin, or a “tank” archetype, or just a straightforward, hyper-aggressive barbarian. It all came down to very intentional choices you make.

On the list of things that need polish: Some of the core mechanic might actually be a bit too complex to fit the goals of “chapter 1”. There’s still room to streamline it a little more for an audience that hasn’t played this kind of game before. (This would be a repeating theme in meetings through Tuesday). He was also concerned that some of the words and terminology I was using were too esoteric; five-dollar words where a one dollar word would be clearer. I fall into that particular trap a lot in general.

He also offered a critique on the story/combat play pattern: players like instant gratification and exciting rewards. There’s a subtle difference between “when you get back to town after the fight, the woodcutter gives you an axe with ornate carvings in the handle” and “when you defeat the goblin, you search it and find an axe with ornate carvings in the handle”. Players often want that reward immediately after the fight resolves, rather than waiting even a few minutes for their fabulous cash and prizes. Not that there isn’t room for both, but he recommended I should make sure the “prizes NOW” happens plenty. Good advice.

So what else does Disco Candybar need in order to be primed for pitches?

“Art. The right concept art is going to do a lot to show people right away who this game is for. It’s not a high-fantasy game looking for slick Magic: the Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons art. That would scare the right audience — families with pre-teens and gamers looking for a lighter-lift adventure story. This needs something almost Chibi. Not a kids’ picture book, but something well-aware of who the story and mechanics are for.”

Scott was precisely on my wavelength. Ironically, just a day or two earlier, an illustrator friend that Heather (my wife) and I had gone to college with had messaged me to say he wanted in on this project. His style is spot-on for this… but that’s another post.

Now the big question of it all: despite it not at all being like the games Scott’s gotten published to date, could it be something he’d carry in his bag?

“Yeah, I could totally see this being worth the space.”

Scott, you made my week. And it was only Monday.

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