Development Diary #2

Hi all,

Just a quick update.

Working on more videos with my Brother who runs BBgroup.net.nz so I'll have plenty of content going forwards. Also working on a bit of a secret gambit which will pay off in spades if I can pull it off. I won't share any details here, but I will in time depending on the outcome of it. Needless to say for a somewhat small sacrifice in time I have the change to gain a LOT of exposure, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to pull it off. Time will tell.

In case you haven't seen it. Video below explaining in brief what Act of Treason is - More to come!:

I've got two playtests lined up over the next two weeks and development has been going well. Once these playtests are done I’ll be in good place to begin blind playtests – I’ll ask groups of completely new players to pick up the game and understand/follow the rules without any assistance from me. I’ve run blind playtests in the past and the results can surprise you. People get snagged or confused about something you wouldn’t have guessed. It is mostly to ensure the game components are easy to follow and intuitive as well as the rulebook is clear. Blind playtests are crucial though, as you won’t pick up such issues before it’s too late without them.

So I'll be spending some time on revising the old rulebook which has become a bit of a tangled mess - The new draft I've been preparing is far slicker and hopefully will be a much better rulebook once I'm done with it.

Make sure you guys are getting enough rainbow

After blind playtests, I’ll be able to send the game out to 3rd party reviewers, which will be important step as not only do they have their own followings that they can bring to the kickstarter, but if they do a good endorsement of the product, it will significantly help to convert more visitors to the Kickstarter page into pledges.

Lots to be done whiles all that’s happening though - Website is up and is undergoing updates. I’ve also put out a video explaining what Act of Treason is and all the social media is in place. I’m slowly gaining followers, especially on twitter for some reason. I’m doing some learning as I’m prepping things, as I've mentioned, marketing is very new to me. Reading books on the topic, etc. For the most part I’ve just been preparing assets such as images and videos for promotional use later.

One plank at a time

All in all, things are progressing well. It feel a little like one man building a house at times. Yes there is progress, but there is so much to do it just feels like it will never end. Nevertheless I'm slowly ticking things off of my to do and inching closer and closer to a very polished and very slick final product that I know I can be proud of.

 Cheers,

 Tyson

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Music of the week

Op-ed #1: Socrates

This is something I posted to my facebook page just now.

I'm posting this because it may be of interest to you, the reader. I also think it's a shame that we can't share our opinions in the modern world. If we keep dividing ourselves based on what we believe we will continue to divide ourselves down to the individual level. This is no way to form a functioning society. We need to be able to work together to make the world a better place.

I'm just posting this now because I just wrote it, but I will be posting another on Jordan B Peterson in time. I would also like to do book synopsis where I read a book and then do a post, summarizing all of the useful information contained within down to just 1 blog post per paragraph.

Anywho, we'll see if that ever happens:

-------------------

There was this dude called Socrates, born about 470 BC. He is credited as one of the founders of western philosophy. There is no doubt in my mind that we owe a fair amount to Socrates and to the works he did throughout his life.

What did he do you might ask? Well he asked questions. Lots and lots of questions. From Wikipedia:

“Perhaps his most important contribution to Western thought is his dialectic method of inquiry, known as the Socratic method or method of "elenchus", which he largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts such as the Good and Justice.” “The dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned arguments.” “Socrates favoured truth as the highest value, proposing that it could be discovered through reason and logic in discussion”

In fact Socrates exposed so much through his questioning that it started to piss people off. It pissed people off so much, that a jury of his own peers voted to execute him. This time from Time magazine:

“was put on trial for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. At the time, Socrates was a controversial figure in the city and not particularly liked. He challenged anyone's thinking through his endless and circular Socratic dialogues, and he publicly questioned the gods Athenians worshiped at the time… …Socrates supposedly could have escaped Athens after he was found guilty by an Athenian jury. Instead, he chose to stay on principle. He would abide by the law and apparently didn't even try to convince the jury he was innocent. Socrates performed his own execution by drinking hemlock poison.”

Now that is a dude with conviction.

I would never dare to compare myself to Socrates, but I try to adhere to his principles. I strive for truth because through truth we learn more about what is right and what is wrong and how best to conduct ourselves and navigate ourselves through life.

So, I'm going to continue to share my opinions freely. I'm not going to shut up just because some people don't like what I have to say. I'm more than willing to discuss things if you'd like, who knows, you might even change my mind.

Otherwise, If you’d rather not see what I have to say then you are more than welcome to unfollow me.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day :)

Cheers,
 Tyson

Development Diary #1

Hi all, just a quick update on how things are progressing with Act of Treason.

I won't be sharing too many mechanics with the game this time around as I've not had a chance to try out my latest changes - that'll be in two weeks or so. Once I've tried the new mechanics I'll do a full dissection on what worked, what didn't, and why. But honestly, this week I've just been so focused on getting the groundwork for the promotion going I've not had much time for anything else.

Global Progress chart - blue arrows show recent progress

As you can see from above we are getting a lot done, it just unfortunately takes a while! Each one of these is a large project in and of itself. A 'three level' system really doesn't do it justice. I might update that to have 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% levels. Very easy to track progress then for both me and you! (This is actually live on the site right now -> you can check it out at the bottom of the about page)

Last week has been mostly geared toward prepping for my next play test. The design pieces are done there. The important conceptual work is done, I just need to do the boring labor part of cutting a hundred cards or so and slipping them into sleeves. This week has mostly been devoted to an update of the website, and a few other minor things as well such as cleaning up wordings and the look of various things (cards, website, rules, you name it), and making new promotional art.

Just one of the many updates to playaot.com

Now don't get too excited, it's not a total overhaul to the webpage. Ultimately I still love the very minimalist design of my website, so it's just a few minor quality of life enhancements. For example, the 'featured wall' (as seen up above) on the about page will be added. I think the featured wall is important as it provides for a very easy 'hierarchy of information' for a new reader to follow.

We don't consciously do this - but we are constantly assessing our surroundings and categorizing the importance of all the information we come across. Things of minor importance we don't track and, things of major importance we do. The number of lights in the room might be of very low importance for example. The number of people might be highest importance, or the nearest exists, or a person of interest. Everything fits somewhere on that spectrum. The featured wall gives the uninitiated a sample of things that indicate that they are of 'high importance'. Otherwise there is just a sea of information and the reader could quickly become frustrated and rightly so if they can't find the information they are looking for. But more importantly, the user isn't shown what is deemed to be important. 

Why is this necessary? Well without this you're sending the message that effectively all information contained within the site is equally important - which is profoundly not true. You're not providing direction, which can be fairly annoying to a reader who simply wants the answer to a would be simple question "What is this about", or perhaps "Where can I learn more?", or maybe even "I'm looking to purchase one of these as I have learned enough from else where". These are likely the three most common questions a new website user will have when coming into the website for the first time (I haven't done the research, but, you know, it's likely true or near enough to truth). I can't tell you how many times I've gone to a website with the simple question: "What is this Business, Product, or Brand about?" and the website seems almost intentionally vague. What, where, how, why, when and who should be answered somewhere on your website, not necessarily in that order.

Another lovely snippet from the website

All of this is nothing new. Many websites do something similar, flagging important information to the user. It's just fascinating to me as it's a whole new world that I now have to be open to and think about.

Oh I also am adding analytics to the site - which I can't believe I didn't add before. I still don't know what I'm doing with it all too well. But at least so far I have managed to get some rudimentary analytics and reports running with it. So will hopefully be able to expand on that in the coming weeks and get up to speed with it before I start rolling out the serious advertising.

I have to say things have really begun to progress rapidly with Act of treason, and it's really hard to pin point exactly why. I think there are actually multiple factors that have all culminated into giving my the motivational groundwork to push off from. I think Jordan B Peterson with his Self Actualizing Suit really helped - you can learn more about him in the op-ed I will be releasing asap. I think my exercise regime really helps. I think having just a little bit of extra time away from work really helps. And I think the added weight of responsibility helps - having responsibility for others who rely on you really does change the dynamic of the situation. Altruism kicks in and you're not just in it for you anymore, you're in it for those you love and those whom you want to support. This is one reason why married people tend to earn more and be more prosperous - they likely have more children, and thus more responsibility.

Anyway that's enough for today. Thank you for reading and see you next time.

Cheers,
 Tyson

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Music of the week