Each year, AnSR Games sits down, makes goals for our company, and shares them with the world. 2020 is no different. So what are our goals, our dreams, and the things we think we can accomplish this year? Well, they include RPGs, more Promise, and maybe a miniatures game or a CCG The AnSR Goals ListOur list is essentially broken down to 2 categories: actual goals to achieve, and optional goals that would be great if they happen. Our goals for 2020 are:
In all, this is a pretty attainable list. Even the optional goals have some nice chicken scratch work done, which is a step in the right direction to be sure. The AnSR Games 2020 Design PhilosophyJust as important as our goals is the way that we are going to approach those goals. We call this our yearly design philosophy. 2020's philosophy comes from some lessons learned in 2019 (and previous years). The main part of our design philosophy for 2020 is to make smaller games/expansions. With the way that Promise Reborn came about, it was incredibly satisfying to come up with a game, run it through its paces, produce and publish it in a matter of months. It was a highlihgt of 2019... and it sold really well. Because of that feeling of accomplishment and being able to enjoy the game so quickly, we want to try to replicate it. So, our games in 2020 are going to be smaller. They are games that (hopefully) cut to the chase and can be expanded on later... if we want to explore the game more. So, how does that look? Well, we are experimenting with making 2-player RPG experiences with the option to add more characters to the games, if you want to. We are actually brewing up a collectable card game that uses only 9 cards in a deck (we'll see if that escapes playtesting). We are looking at making a miniatures game ruleset that lets you play large battles with your own minis in 30 minutes instead of 2 hours. It is things like that where we want to get them made, tested, published, and then work on expansions, if desired. Because we are focusing on smaller games, our games are going to cost less per unit and be in smaller packages, it looks like. I mean, why use a fancy telescoping box for a game that may not need it (I'm looking at you 9-card CCG). For that, we can do small tuck boxes, booster pack wrappers, medium-size tuck boxes, etc. In fact, the other benefit of going smaller is to also make some "collection boxes" that give folks places to store their collections of our games. That's not a bad thing to offer the folks that go "all in" and want more. Plus, it looks neat on the shelf to have these big boxes filled with games. The second part of our design philosophy this year is to make games that make more players. We saw a moment at a local event where lots of people played one of our RPGs... and no one bought a copy since the GM already had one. That is on us for not making a game that the other players would want to have to play and run. In RPGs, there's a barrier of one player, the GM, being the one with the copy and the other players (the PC players) getting to experience it. In other games (like Promise Reborn), folks want to take that game and "run it" for others... and buy a copy to do that. Be in RPGs, miniatures games, card games, or dice games, we want to make games folks feel comfortable "running" after they play it. We're tackling it first in RPGs (the hardest one, we think). But the core of all of this is that any game we make needs to be easy enough to play, to show, and to enjoy, so much so that someone is willing to buy a copy for themselves if they don't have a copy yet. Yes, there's a self-serving part of this (people buy more of our games), but it is more than that. It really is that we want to reduce the barriers that exist for people to play and enjoy our games. The sales will be the lagging indicator if we are successful at making easy-entry games. We'll Keep You PostedAs 2020 rolls on, we will do our best to keep you posted not only on our progress toward our goals, but also to try to bring some fun content for you to enjoy. Maybe that's another optional goal: more content on the site. Hmmm... Either way, we are looking forward to a great 2020, and cannot wait for you to see what we've been working on! -AnSR Games Comments are closed.
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