I had the immense pleasure of attending Protospiel Madison for the FIFTH time. If you’re new to the term “protospiel,” it is a convention where board and card game designers bring their creations to playtest with other designers and folks who just want to try out games! For a designer like me, these types of events are crucial to get feedback on how a game is coming along, whether it is fun, and what the pain points might be. A big shoutout goes to The Gamecrafter, a Madison-based company that makes small and large print runs of games for both hobby designers and large publishers alike. I’ve used them for every game I’ve made – they’re fantastic at manufacturing games!
Below are some of the games I played and my takeaways from each. I always learn from designers, and this year of Protospiel Madison was no different!
First Frost – Yes, Growing Crops Can be Crunchy
The first game I played was a 2-5 player competitive game from Beth and Scott Harris from DragonHawk Games called First Frost. In the game, each player was a farmer aiming to produce, well, the most produce to sell and fulfill purchase orders to score the most cash. The game featured a fun system of pitching cards to build your field grid, planting crops that might be smaller and less lucrative or valuable and resource-intensive. There was enough variety and opportunities for combos with end-of-round bonuses you drafted in reverse turn order, along with a fun endgame where the frost hits and kills everything in your field except cold-resistant crops.
The game had enough of those “crunchy” decisions of heavier weight games while still feeling easy to learn and fairly beginner-friendly. I also liked that the game also seemed to support a variety of playstyles – one player went for just fast-growing, cheap crops in order to rack up orders, and I played more of a longer-growing, more valuable set of crops to fulfill fewer orders.
Alien: Extermination – Co-op Games Can Fit Any Theme
My second play was a cooperative game for 1-4 players from Steve Hupcher called Alien: Extermination. While First Frost seemed like it had been developed over years, Steve was upfront about the relative newness and ever-changing aspects of his game. I for one did not mind at all, mainly because I love a good co-op game. Alien: Extermination was a really great departure from the wide-open exploration co-ops I was used to like Pandemic and Forbidden Island. Instead, Alien: Extermination puts players right on top of a small ship with only six rooms in a circle along with a central room.
As you might infer from the title, the goal for the team of players is to exterminate the xenomorph from the Alien franchise – and that’s where things get fun. Players can hurt the alien via an electron gun that needs to be charged, or by using items like rocket launchers. However, teams are racing against the clock – run out of the deck, and the self-destruct activates on the ship. In addition, if each player is eliminated, the alien wins.
Co-op games often feel like they are catered to cozier topics and themes, but I really liked how Steve translated the feel of the Alien franchise into this team-based game. The tight quarters and tension of trying to avoid the xenomorph while charging a superweapon worked to capture what makes the filmography so engaging.
Nombers – A Deck-Building Educational Game Can Work!
My last play of the day was a fun 2 player game from Ben Johnson called Nombers. Ben was inspired to make the game after seeing students struggling with number sense when trying to wrap their heads around algebraic equations, and he thought a light deckbuilding game might help them get better. In Nombers, players are aiming to build equations using both numbers in their hand and operator signs like add and subtract. When they create a successful equation, they can use positive integers to buy new cards or negative integers to hurt their opponent. Players start with 20 health points, and the first to eliminate the other player wins.
What I appreciated about Nombers was the simplicity of the idea – all of the cads are either whole numbers or operator signs – as well as the each teach. Players weigh whether to improve their deck with newer, larger cards, or they increase odds of getting those add and subtract signs that let them buy and deal damage. There’s also the decision against building a larger deck full of many good cards, or a small deck of great cards that can be more likely to turn out an unlucky hand. Deck building is not often utilized with educational games, and as an educational games publisher, I appreciate when one is used well in the space!
One of the best ways to grow as a designer is to play other designers’ games and think critically about how it can improve. I was lucky to both get feedback on my design from others and return the favor on the above games. If you get the chance, attend a local protospiel in your area – you won’t regret it!