Designer Diary: Carnival - One Heck of a Ride // Game Preview

If you had asked me five years ago what I'd be doing today, "Designing a game!" is not something I would have said. If you asked me the same question five months ago, I still would have responded with a different answer. Yet here I am, in August 2011, telling you the story of how I designed a game.

I'm a firm believer that when an idea is born, it needs to be nurtured to its full potential – immediately and without hesitation, for the risk of lost inspiration, motivation, and enthusiasm is one that is too great to take.

So when Carnival was born (see official document at right), I nurtured. Immediately. Amidst a conversation of tabletop games – yes, a few of those take place in this family – we got onto the topic of themes: the good, the bad, the ugly, and...the untapped. The light bulb in my head flickered and I fell in love with the idea of a game revolving around the rides of an amusement park.

Okay, I admit that perhaps it was more that I fell in obsession with this new idea. I couldn't stop. From 8:00-9:00 pm that same night, I rounded out the theme of trying to be the first player to build enough rides in order to open up the carnival gates to the crowd. I was missing something though... Oh, yeah – game mechanisms. With Chris sitting next to me on our bed, both of us tapping away on our individual keyboards like typical 30-somethings, I realized that the best way for players to collect cards would be (to Chris' chagrin) dice.

I'd like to go back for a moment to the part about obsession. I want you to understand just what this means. Okay. All of you are gamers, so all of you understand the desire, the passion, and the sprinkling (perhaps for some of us the drenching) of crazy that it takes to be involved in this hobby. We are willing to forgo sleep, solitude, and sanity just to get in another hour, minute, second to play with cards, dice, cubes, and meeples. Now take that feeling to the nth degree; that's what I feel like when I design games. (Yes, I have since come up with several more concepts that will be published as well.) And Carnival is to blame.

A Leap of Faith

My biggest challenge was fear of the unknown. Having an idea does not intrinsically make it good. Having one other person standing by your side does not mean that the rest of the masses will swarm around and support you. Having passion does not guarantee success.

Therefore, after incessantly working that first night to build a prototype using whatever in the apartment would make do, we played a few times and realized that Carnival was missing something – that X-factor, as Chris likes to call it. That X-factor was tickets that could be used to balance out the randomness of the dice. So back to the computer I went, this time on a Google search for rolls of admission tickets; I had no idea how expensive they are! But I also wanted to come up with something really neat-looking to complement the set of cards we were having printed by The Game Crafter. The Origins Game Fair was a mere two weeks away, and I didn't want to miss the opportunity for quality feedback.

Late Sunday night shifted into early Monday morning, me dragging my feet downstairs to drop off mail on my way to a meeting. As I opened the door of the elevator vestibule, it was as if an oasis appeared before a water-starved caravan in the desert - there, in solitary peace atop the concrete bench so appreciatively named "The Free Zone", lay a roll of admission tickets. I could not believe my eyes! I fumbled with my phone debating whether to first call Chris with the good news or to photographically capture this historic moment. This is the omen that I needed to pick up where I had left off the evening before; Carnival was right on track.

So What's the Deal with Carnival?

Think Ferris wheels, roller coasters, carousels, flying swings, and bumper cars! Players take on the roles of bosses, trying to build four out of the five available rides along their Midways so that they can open for business before all the other carnies can.

It's a card game of set collection for 2-4 players, including advanced and team variants. Each turn, players have the option to either roll three dice and choose two of them to place on the tableau, which determine the actions that allow them to gain and discard cards from their hands and/or Midways -OR- to discard a Wild along with unwanted cards from their hand to draw new ones. Each player also has three tickets that may be discarded to affect the dice rolls or block other players' actions. These tickets are not necessarily lost for good though, as they can be regained by completing a ride without the help of a Wild.

And although game play is very accessible, it does not discourage those who lean toward more strategic thinking; there are several ways to approach gaining the right mix of cards.

Testing, testing, testing

Carnival has withstood hours of playtesting amongst 40 or so gamers ranging from the casual to the experienced and rules reviewing by both the creative and the meticulous, including countless discussions between me and the publisher (who is very conveniently my husband!), Dice Hate Me Games.

One of the most positive outcomes of reaching out to so many different people is the confirmation of how Carnival appeals to several demographics; to bridge age, gender, and experience gaps has always been a goal during the design process. We observed how kids from ages 9 to 75 have enjoyed that rollercoaster feel of never really knowing what to expect from the cards, dice, or other players; very seldom is a loss imminent, as there's often a come-from-behind tactic to use. And we have discovered how the theme of the game attracts men and women alike, along with an approachability that easily draws in a curious newbie.

But unfortunately, not everything is all fun and games. I've not yet tired of playing Carnival (which may be a rarity according to some designer lore), but I must admit that mastering the demo-ing rituals is not an easy task. There's an art to being able to recite the game play in a manner which is both logical and engaging to new players. I cannot claim Damedom quite yet, but I am well on my way!

And the rule writing...ugh. I take an iota of pride in my ability to communicate well with the written word, but putting rules to paper is beyond my scope of sanity. I can't quite put a finger on why it's so difficult; perhaps it's the responsibility of knowing that every person who reads them must understand them, assuming you want them to play your game – which I do. I would love for you all to play my game!

Now onto the Next Chapter

I am humbled by how vast that one little random thought of mine has grown. That bit of crazy I mentioned earlier has encouraged me to tackle challenges (and believe you me, there are plenty!) head on, and the passion has fueled me while burning the midnight oil.

Despite its relatively short gestation period, Carnival is now ready to open its gates to the rest of the world. And so here we are, at the onset of its Kickstarter campaign, with the hope that you will help in building this Carnival from the ground up. Thank you!

Step right up. Enjoy your ride.

Cherilyn Joy Lee Kirkman

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Game preview, by W. Eric Martin

Cherilyn summarized the game well - a card game of set collection in which the die rolls on your turn determine which actions are available to you – but I thought I'd add more detail based on my playings. Carnival includes cards showing five rides, with each ride being composed of four parts; collect those four parts on your Midway (possibly with one or more Wilds substituting for a legit part), and that ride is now operational. Get four rides working, and you win.

The six possible actions on a turn are drawing from the deck or discard pile, stealing from an opponent's hand or Midway, or swapping cards from your hand or Midway with an opponent. At the start of your turn, you roll three dice, then choose two of them and in either order take the action associated with those values. You can spend a ticket to reroll the dice (in case you really need a particular action or roll something you can't use) or bump one die's value up or down (again, should you need a particular action). Roll or make three-of-a-kind and you take that action three times instead of only twice.

As Cherilyn noted, you can also spend a ticket to veto an opponent's action, and while you have only a couple of tickets to start, you can earn spent ones back by completing rides, lending Carnival a small similarity to Expedition and the trickery you can do with tickets in that game.

One nice aspect of the game play is that if at the end of your turn, you have fewer than three cards in hand, you draw until you have three cards. This pushes players to start rides that they can't complete immediately, which then gives other players a chance to mess with them while working toward their own rides.