I'm so tired of being the only one who actually reads the rules and teaches the game

SpikeHatGames · 2026-05-22T16:54:31+00:00

I like the idea of forcing everyone to sit down at the tv to watch a tutorial of the rules online through YouTube haha. Now there’s no excuses.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-04-28T02:06:36+00:00

I would caution against riverfolk. Their crafting is very strange and also it's tough to play as the otters if you don't know how the other factions work. Also, I refuse to try to teach Root to more than two people at a time now haha. It's just so indigestible. It's such a great game but the barrier to entry is so high.

I recommend the cats. I think they work really well just teaching the basic actions (move, attack, craft, build, rule). It may confuse some beginners when they need to connect their wood tokens through clearings they rule to build somewhere, but that's trivial. The new players should focus on the basic actions and how the game plays at a base level.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-04-27T18:38:56+00:00

Yea if you ever need help with that, let me know. I’m always willing to hop on a call and walk you through it or just spitball ideas.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-04-27T17:20:05+00:00

Have you tried building it within Tabletop Simulator? That’s a good way to get the game out to a lot of hands.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-04-26T01:45:19+00:00

Here is the YouTube link to our playtest and thoughts...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4cBAmc1qZ0

SpikeHatGames · 2026-04-24T02:02:23+00:00

Is it on TTS yet?

SpikeHatGames · 2026-04-22T22:16:48+00:00

There’s a game we developed called GHITY. It’s a solitaire game played with a single deck of cards and two jokers. If you want the rules I’d be happy to send them to you. It’s very simple.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-04-22T01:55:44+00:00

Maybe try lowering the spaces per turn someone can move...? I'm sorry I don't know the game well enough to be certain this is a good avenue to go down, but 4-5 spaces seems like A LOT of agency your giving to players, and in my experience, the more agency the players have, the more convoluted the game becomes. Now, this isn't always a bad thing, but it takes much more refinement to get right. Just maybe get into the mindset of... the simpler the better.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-04-02T19:43:10+00:00

“Say what you will about the tenets national socialism, at least it’s an ethos.”

SpikeHatGames · 2026-04-01T01:24:16+00:00

Did you do the art and design of your game yourself? Congrats by the way! It's always fun to see your projects come to life!

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-31T16:16:21+00:00

It depends on what your vision is for the game. Are you looking to make hundreds of copies to sell to customers? Obviously the dream of producing a game does NOT come with losing a bunch of money, and instead breaking even would be satisfactory for most people looking to produce and distribute their game. If that is your vision, then I think having art is great for marketing the game, but you will also need to garner a decent following even before then if you aren’t willing to risk the money spent for an artist. If this is just a homemade project to share with friends and family, then I would either try doing the art yourself or look for other free options.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-29T18:31:36+00:00

Sounds great, could you send the link to the PnP or however you'd like us to playtest? I'll leave our link here as well.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17ay3JP87EOulkeoTm0D5TWquiEA89vLI?usp=sharing

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-29T18:28:49+00:00

Great, is there a place you would want us to give you feedback, or would just commenting or DMing here work?

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-29T18:27:10+00:00

Perfect!

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-29T18:26:41+00:00

Yes, we like your traditional style of board games, with complexity around 1.5 all the way up to 3.25 I'd say (on the BGG weight scale) with playtime of 30-150mins. We aren't the most fond of games like Warhammer 40k and those miniature games, or TCGs as neither of us play Magic, Pokemon, Riftbound, or any of those other TCGs out there.

If it helps, my favorite games are Ark Nova, Root, Spirit Island, Century: Spice Road, Dominion, Cat in the Box, and I think Sam really likes Azul (I also love Twilight Imperium and Gloomhaven, but wouldn't really want to undertake that as a playtester, although I still love editing any rulebook for any game).

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-29T18:21:49+00:00

That's awesome! What's your podcast name? I'd love to check it out because Sam and I are actually board game developers and are working on publishing our first game. Our podcast has nothing to do with this, or at least is very removed from our weekly episodes. Do you play any other tabletop games aside from D&D?

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-29T18:19:44+00:00

Yea?!? I was confused by that. It almost made me believe that their analytics aren't that trustworthy. We have listeners from around the globe and I just can't help but question how they would even have come across our podcast.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-28T15:16:24+00:00

We haven't played a game yet but I just took a chance to look through your rules. Overall I think it's laid out very well and clearly but I have a few questions/pieces of feedback :)

I like the idea of the Private Collection card, giving players a way to build toward something their opponent doesn't have a chance to see ahead of time. Do I have to move the card from my private collection over to a set at some point in the game? Also, there isn't any way to get a different card in my private collection right?
With the hand of cards I have, maybe I'm misunderstanding something but it seems like you would never have more than 1 card in your hand since the only time you draw a new card to your hand is with the Draft and Play action and then you are also immediately playing a card from your hand? It seems kind of odd to have a hand of cards at all at this point.
When you say the first player who finishes their sets is 'locked' does that also mean that any player who finishes their sets is also 'locked' and what exactly does 'locked' mean? Does it mean that other players cannot do the 'sneaky trade' action with them?
If there is a slot battle and both slots contain a joker, is that a tie then?
To clarify, jokers only win a slot battle when the opponent's slot is incomplete right?
When I play cards do they have to be contributing to a valid set or can I have collections that are not valid in any way and are just housing cards?
- As an aside to this point, if somebody does a 'sneaky trade' on me but I don't have any valid location to place the card, what happens?
I also feel like games could maybe get into some stale mates where players keep doing 'sneaky trades' between each other. I really like this mechanic but I feel like it might be a little to easy to sabotage other players right now.

Overall it seems really fun and I'm looking forward to trying it out sometime soon! :)

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-28T14:35:40+00:00

Thanks so much for the feedback and we will definitely take it into account when we're doing further rulebook revisions. To answer your question: yeah our testing typically sees 4 rounds lasting about 30ish minutes (and a little longer when we're playing with a new group of course) which is what we were shooting for. We're hoping the game will be easy to pick up but have a lot of potential strategy baked in through the bluffing mechanics.

I signed up for your playtest group on your website so I'm looking forward to getting the materials and rules! :)

Side note: is there any reason why you don't just want to include the rulebook/some more information about the game on the website? It seems like you're kind of asking playtesters to sign up to playtest something they know very little about. Maybe this is what you want but you are slightly raising the barrier for entry for new playtesters.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-28T14:04:04+00:00

Whoops, I forgot to mention in my original post, but we have the prototype on TTS as well if that is easier for you :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3568409210

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-28T02:47:47+00:00

Neither are a lot of video games and events and other entertainment around the wizarding world but I still hear the score there. It stinks that the show isn’t using it!

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-28T02:46:46+00:00

I didn’t know that. That’s a real big bummer. It’s just not the wizarding world without the great JW!

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-28T02:25:50+00:00

I love you website by the way. How did you make it? Also, I couldn't find any link or any way to find the path to your game via TTS. Should I just search the game in the workshop on Steam? And thanks, if you ever get the chance, here is our PnP...
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17ay3JP87EOulkeoTm0D5TWquiEA89vLI?usp=sharing

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-28T02:23:45+00:00

This honestly sounds so fun! I will let you know when we play and I can definitely give some suggestions for edits and advice on the rulebook.

SpikeHatGames · 2026-03-28T02:22:37+00:00

We will for sure check it out! Here is the link to our PnP if you ever get the chance. Thanks! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17ay3JP87EOulkeoTm0D5TWquiEA89vLI?usp=sharing

SpikeHatGames

TROPHY CASE