Clara Daly

And they bring in a completely fresh set of eyes, their own expertise, really polish everything up. and make it sound and look beautiful and the mechanics all be smooth. Any last things that need to be ironed out to go to layout. At the same time, we're also getting art made for it. So...

And they bring in a completely fresh set of eyes, their own expertise, really polish everything up. and make it sound and look beautiful and the mechanics all be smooth. Any last things that need to be ironed out to go to layout. At the same time, we're also getting art made for it. So...

So yeah, one of the big things I learned from Arcadia and from the folks at MCDM and in particular James Intricasso, who is the lead game designer there, was that playtest process and using both gathering and using that feedback from testers to continue to develop and improve.

So yeah, one of the big things I learned from Arcadia and from the folks at MCDM and in particular James Intricasso, who is the lead game designer there, was that playtest process and using both gathering and using that feedback from testers to continue to develop and improve.

I've worked on products that get a lot of playtest feedback, but the feedback itself isn't necessarily of the type that we really solicit and look for, especially from our alpha testers, where these are people who are not game designers usually, but who are extremely familiar with the rules, extremely familiar with the rules

I've worked on products that get a lot of playtest feedback, but the feedback itself isn't necessarily of the type that we really solicit and look for, especially from our alpha testers, where these are people who are not game designers usually, but who are extremely familiar with the rules, extremely familiar with the rules

game mechanically and from a just player community level and can give specific feedback on, okay, this is what happened, this is what the issue is. Not saying, well, I think X should be Y, right? I think this is bad and you should fix it by changing it to this because this is good. But saying, this was what the experience was and here's why it landed or didn't land.

game mechanically and from a just player community level and can give specific feedback on, okay, this is what happened, this is what the issue is. Not saying, well, I think X should be Y, right? I think this is bad and you should fix it by changing it to this because this is good. But saying, this was what the experience was and here's why it landed or didn't land.

and making it really clear and relatively easy for us as developers and designers to say, okay, I see that these things were issues. So here are some ways that I could suggest that we might fix these issues. And then I would bring those to the designer. If we have a like separate designer for that article, that's not me, which is most of the articles in Horizons and say,

and making it really clear and relatively easy for us as developers and designers to say, okay, I see that these things were issues. So here are some ways that I could suggest that we might fix these issues. And then I would bring those to the designer. If we have a like separate designer for that article, that's not me, which is most of the articles in Horizons and say,

So the testers pointed this out. I'm thinking that we should do X, Y, Z. What do you think? And sometimes the designer will say, yeah, let's do X. That makes total sense. Here, I'm gonna go implement it. Sometimes the designer will say, Actually, I don't think this was as much of a problem as a preference. And then we discuss and we say, well, maybe it's the way it was presented.

So the testers pointed this out. I'm thinking that we should do X, Y, Z. What do you think? And sometimes the designer will say, yeah, let's do X. That makes total sense. Here, I'm gonna go implement it. Sometimes the designer will say, Actually, I don't think this was as much of a problem as a preference. And then we discuss and we say, well, maybe it's the way it was presented.

Let's mitigate this by doing something different. Or they come up with an even better idea than any of the ones I've suggested. So yeah, like you said, it's a very involved, time-consuming process, but an intensely collaborative one, which is one of the really fun parts of it.

Let's mitigate this by doing something different. Or they come up with an even better idea than any of the ones I've suggested. So yeah, like you said, it's a very involved, time-consuming process, but an intensely collaborative one, which is one of the really fun parts of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, so as a creator and as a RPG player, my roots are in 5e, as you guys both know. And so it's a system I've been playing for a long time. It's how I got started creating in the industry. I still really love creating for and playing it. And it's also a very popular system that a lot of people are still playing. The 2024 books so far are seeing great success. And

Yeah, so as a creator and as a RPG player, my roots are in 5e, as you guys both know. And so it's a system I've been playing for a long time. It's how I got started creating in the industry. I still really love creating for and playing it. And it's also a very popular system that a lot of people are still playing. The 2024 books so far are seeing great success. And

I think folks are going to keep playing it. And so I like creating for it. I didn't want to stop creating for it just because of Twitter drama. But also there are a lot of other cool RPGs out there. And I felt, if you'll pardon the pun, that this could be a great opportunity for me to expand my horizons as a creator. I see what you did there. And the...

I think folks are going to keep playing it. And so I like creating for it. I didn't want to stop creating for it just because of Twitter drama. But also there are a lot of other cool RPGs out there. And I felt, if you'll pardon the pun, that this could be a great opportunity for me to expand my horizons as a creator. I see what you did there. And the...