Time for some catch-up. My last post was in the later half of September, and a lot has happened, so lets jump into some of it…

I want to start with the Lows quickly and get them over with, because there’s plenty of Highs and Buffaloes to cover, and those are more interesting.

Lows:

• Job interviews ending with no-gos
They are what they are. The market in my industry continues to be really rough. More on that in a few seconds.

• Setbacks on Goldbug
Again, just part of what we do in the tabletop games industry. While that last Disco Candybar not-quite-a-pitch back in September went well enough that the reviewer not only asked to see Goldbug, they sent it up the ladder to another reviewer, neither Disco Candybar nor Goldbug had any traction to move further in review. And one day after the “no thanks”, I got word from another publisher that they were dropping Goldbug from consideration. (The good news from this is that I got enough useful feedback from the reviewers that I have some ideas for how to push Goldbug to the next level.)

• The industry continues to struggle here in the US
Tariffs, man. They’re really doing a number on us, and all we can hope for is that the Supreme Court rules them unconstitutional. I don’t know enough about the economics or logistics of it all to say exactly what would happen if they went away (though I have friends who could probably give you a slightly better set of guesses), but I can confidently tell you that publishers nationwide would absolutely start to feel some relief and stability when it comes to overseas manufacturing and shipping costs. As it is, several publishers have wound up recently furloughing and laying off employees. That’s terrible for everyone, and makes my own prospects that much more challenging.

Okay, enough of that.

Highs:

• I wrapped work on a contract that went really, really well.
Over the summer, a friend who works at a well known — and well respected — publisher reached out to me with an opportunity for some quick-turnaround product analysis. That led to a notably larger months-long contract supporting an in-house game designer as a game developer, playtest facilitator, and general analytics guy. I have a set of skills and experience that the company didn’t immediately have on hand, tuning the kind of game the designer had created. The opportunity to work with their team was an absolute joy; the team was made of some really amazing people, the game is really fun, and the whole thing opened doors not only for me, but for the publisher, who now has a game in their hopper that will reach entirely new audiences while delighting their existing fans. I got very positive feedback in the project post-mortem meeting, and am hopeful about future projects with them.

• I started work on not one, but TWO new Trading Card Game projects
Both projects are currently in the “largely speculative” category, but they’re keeping my creative design muscles flexing, and I feel good about the chances for both. It’s too early to share details of either, but I’m confident that that at least one of the games will start being visible fairly soon, and that’s exciting. Testing is going really well on both, and the systems behind them are different enough that I can genuinely see them both having audiences without cannibalizing the other’s chances at success. And yes, my partners on both sides are aware that I have two TCG projects brewing at the same time; I’m in contractor mode and need to keep as many irons in the fire as possible. Transparency and ethics are important though, and compartmentalizing the projects has been pretty manageable.

ON TO THE BUFFALO!

Buffalo:

• Past work has finally reached shelves, and the reviews are FANTASTIC
Lorcana’s tenth set, Whispers in the Well, is officially hitting shelves today. It was available to players in limited release last week, at what are called “prerelease events”, where fans get a chance to crack open a few packs, build decks on the spot, and play a bunch of games with other fans. This is a big deal for me, as it was the first set I led the design on back in my stretch at Ravensburger.

For a few weeks before that, players had been getting sneak peeks online of the new cards, and content creators were reviewing themes and mechanics. They were seeing a lot that they liked. The art was great, and included some cool treatments made especially for character cards with a new mechanic I’d designed — “whispers”, which all feature the “Boost” mechanic. The overall vibe was mysterious and noir, stylistically going places the game hadn’t been to before. The new IPs that debuted in the set were equally dark-in-a-fun-way: Disney’s Gargoyles (the Disney Afternoon answer to Batman: the Animated Series), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Black Cauldron. All of this showed fans a new side of the game.

But for me, the most validating piece of it all was how much attention the mechanical functions of the new card designs got from the audience in the lead up. The stuff I’d contributed to shape the player experience wasn’t just getting noticed, it was getting rave reviews. (Spoiler, as players get to actually put these new cards in decks and play with them, they continue to rate really high.)

I’ve seen multiple reviews of Whispers in the Well and comments from fans that call it one of the best sets since the inaugural First Chapter set. It’s getting hailed as a turning point for limited format play (a game mode where you start with nothing and build your deck from cards you’ve just freshly opened, like at the prereleases I mentioned earlier). Competitive players are excited about what the new cards do for the constructed environment (where you select cards ahead of time from your collection and build a deck). All in all, if I’ve left a legacy for the fans in my time as a Lead Designer on Lorcana, it’s that they really, really like what they’ve seen from me and the incredible team I worked with, and there are several more sets I led yet to come.

For now though, I could not be prouder of the work I did on the set.

———

So that’s that.

I’ve got a plan for my next post here already figured out. Hopefully I’ll get back to the blog faster than I did with this one; it’s been good for me to get my thoughts out there in writing, and it almost leaves me feeling more optimistic about things than when I started typing.

I want to write a piece about my experiences designing trading card games. There are so many layers to the process, and lots that I can share about the parts of the process that I’m most excited about. Look for that soon, and be ready for a long read. Maybe it’s a two-parter. We’ll see.

May the rest of November have more Highs and Buffaloes. Feels like a good trend to aim for.

---