switcheroo
1. an unexpected or sudden change or reversal in attitude, character, position, action, etc.
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Alex eagerly awaited the arrival of his friends. Everything was set up. The board was laid out, the instructions were
printed as nicely as he could get, the cards were shuffled, the pieces set up,
and the dice ready to roll. He had even prepared
some simple snacks, which he had set up in his finest plastic bowls.
When
the knock on the door came, he was there in no time flat. His three guests came in and said their
hellos while taking off jackets and shoes.
He quickly led them all into the living room where his game was set up
and ready to play.
“Thanks
for coming, all.” Alex said. The other three just nodded and said a few
words about having no problems with being invited. They were already making themselves at
home. “So, I’m sure you all know why I
asked you to come, right?”
“Yup. You made a new game or something and need us
as guinea pigs, right?” Said one of them
through a mouthful of pretzels.
“Play
tester, please.” Alex said. “This is the first play testing session of
the game.”
“So,
what’s it called?” Asked another of his
friends. She looked like she wanted to
dig in to a bowl of chocolate, but was keeping herself from indulging.
“I call
it Switcheroo.” Alex said. “The main thing you do is to switch
things. And I mean anything.” Alex sat down and got ready to explain the
rules. “Each turn you’ll draw a card,
and it’ll let you switch something for something else. It could be a card from the deck or another
player, it could be a dice roll, it could even be your position with another
player. There’s a lot more to it
though. Hang on, I’ll tell you
everything.”
Alex
knew the instructions by heart, but he still read off the sheet he had printed
out. He thought it seemed more official
that way. His friends sat around listening
and munching on the offerings Alex had set out.
“So,
what’d you think?” He asked once he was
done.
“Meh. Seems alright, I guess.” Said one of his friends.
“So,
how do you know whether to play a card of keep it in your hand?” Asked another.
“It’s
just like I said before.” Alex
replied. “You can do either, based on
what you need it for. Like if I draw a
ice switch card, but I’ve rolled a five, I can keep the card for when I roll a
one. Get it?”
“Kind
of?”
“Great. Now then, let’s play. I’ll go first so you guys can get a sense of
how to get started.”
Alex
and his friends each picked a game piece and the game started. All throughout the session, Alex looked
carefully at the expressions on his friends faces, hoping to get a sense of
whether or not they liked his creation.
He was a bit disappointed when they all seemed to become more frustrated
and annoyed than anything else.
The
game lasted for a good twenty minutes, and Alex’s friends didn’t seem to have
the most favorable opinions when it finally did. Still, he had to ask.
“So? How was it?”
He asked. None of his friends
answered right away. The first one to
answer did so as she finally caved in to her desire for chocolate.
“It’s
kinda…difficult.” She said.
“How so?” Alex asked.
“Well,
maybe not difficult so much as frustrating.
The rules don’t seem very well thought out.”
“Incomplete
is more like it.” Said another of his
friends before popping some chips into his mouth. “It’s not bad, just unrefined. You need to work on it more before you can do
anything with it.”
“Oh.” Alex said, more than a little disappointed. He had put a lot of effort into the game, and
he thought he had done a good job. But
he wasn’t the type to ignore his friend’s advice either, and he really had high
hopes for the game. “So then, what
should I do to make it better?” He asked.
The rest f his friends looked at each other.
“You
really want our help?” One of them asked. Alex nodded.
“Well then, let’s get to work.”
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Making a game is hard. Even when you think you've done a great job, you or someone else finds an issue that needs to be resolved. If you want to make a game of any kind, you'd better set a lot of time aside to do so, cause you're going to need every bit of it.
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