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Back in 2006, when I first moved to Arizona, I was captivated by the picturesque scenery and rich history that still, to this day, reeks of a wild west with a certain degree of lawlessness. I couldn't believe that a state like Arizona had such a vast spectrum of scenery, from the rough, unforgivable desert to high mountains covered in trees and beautiful snow in the winter. Of course everyone knows about the Grand Canyon and its vast and awe-inspiring beauty, but I was struck even more by the Superstition Mountain Range, in particular the west face of the famous mountain range, which features Flat Iron Peak, the second most photographed thing in Arizona after the Grand Canyon. Its name only fueled the fire of my interest.
Me digging in the dirt as a kid when we lived in Hawaii; no gold in the sandbox, alas...
I've always been a bit of a news junkie. I think this started when I was a radio DJ and we had a printer connected directly to the Associated Press news wire. As breaking news happened it immediately came over the news wire – no delay, no Internet searches, no waiting for the five o'clock news. Just news as it literally happened, and it was glorious.
So when I first moved to Arizona, naturally I tuned into the evening news, where I heard multiple stories about people who went missing during hiking expeditions in the Superstition Mountains. These unfortunate souls lost their lives in a quest to find Jacob Waltz' lost gold mine, also known as the Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine. My first thought was, "What would possess a person to explore such inhospitable terrain in an attempt to find a treasure that has been sought for over one hundred years?" After a moment of thought I had my answer – story. They did it because of the power of the story, the power of the legend. I believe story is the most powerful medium since the dawn of mankind and the people who wandered into the treacherous mountain range did so because of the power of the story.
Well, let's face it – the hope of uncovering a boatload of gold might have played into it a bit as well.
An Idea Is Born – and Shelved!
Fast forward several years and you will find me sitting at my dining room table rolling dice. This is one way that I try to hash out ideas in my brain. I'm rolling dice and trying to come up with a good game idea. By George, I've got it! The Lost Dutchman! That'll make a great game theme! I knew that I'd need to flesh out the idea, but that would be the easy part for me; the difficult part of creating the game would be coming up with the mechanisms. I can come up with themes all day long, but the process of creating good game mechanisms has always been difficult for me.
I drew up some rough player boards and a map and used dice-rolling to drive the game. Nothing was working out quite right. After several frustrating hours, and many other tasks that demanded my attention, I threw in the towel and placed the idea of a Lost Dutchman game onto my mental shelf and moved on. Two weeks later my good friend Michael Coe approached me with a game idea he had, a game that later came to be known as Rise! but that's a different adventure.
It's never easy to shelve an idea that excites you. In fact, I'd say that it's one of the most difficult things to do as a new designer. You are pumped up about an idea, and it just isn't coming to fruition the way that you need it to. It takes a fair amount of discipline to put a project on hold.
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Prototype cards
I started thinking through it, and knew that the game would need a really good, rich theme. Then I put two and two together and had it! Legend of the Lost Dutchman was born at that moment. I knew I had finally matched a good theme with good mechanisms, and the ideas just came pouring out. I worked feverishly for three straight days to put together the first prototype and by the end of the third day I was playing the game with my wife. She really liked playing the game, so it passed the first test. The next test was putting it in front of my business partner and co-founder of Crash Games, Michael Coe. Michael is a wonderful filter and I am eternally grateful for the development duo that we are. I'm going to spare you the details of how many times I had to scale and rescale the various cards in the game and how many times I cut cards to re-sleeve them. (Okay, it was A TON of times! I seriously think I dulled my paper cutter so much that I would be lucky to cut a piece of rice paper now.)
The True Work Begins
Michael and I refined the game over and over until we were happy with all the components – yet we felt the game was lacking an X factor, so we introduced two new major aspects into the game, which changed it significantly. With a major change to the game came a rescaling of the cards. Yippy Skippy! Then came our first convention of the year: Vul-Con, located in Phoenix in February. The game would be out in the public for the first time and boy, was I nervous. As a new designer the thing that worried me the most was whether complete strangers were going to enjoy the game. Thankfully, the answer was yes. With people being so happy with their experience, I wanted to push my boundaries a bit and intentionally invite someone to play who I didn't think would like the game. I dragged over a war game designer to our booth and he agreed to play.
Playing an early prototype with Nathan of Victory Point Games at Vul-Con 2012
If anyone was going to hate this game, there was a strong chance this wargamer would. He was quiet and thoughtful while he played. He asked some questions but he was very focused on the game itself. The game had a very dramatic finish, and when it was over I sat silent for his thoughts. I knew that I wouldn't have to prompt him since he was a designer. I knew that he would readily share every gruesome detail of his disdain for my adventure game. I mentally prepared myself for the inevitable verbal onslaught. I wanted to put a great cliché build up here, but I'll spare you that: He really enjoyed the game. I was blown away that he liked it. People liked the game – right on!
I've had so many different designers, some new and some experienced, tell me so many things about playtesting a new game. I knew that I needed to playtest the crud out of it and that blind playtesting had to be a part of this. One of the hardest aspects of playtesting for me is that extensive playing really puts the fun factor of your game to the test. Sure, it's fun the first dozen times you play it, and it's always fun the first couple of times you play it after rescaling cards or introducing a new aspect or mechanism into the game – but when you play your game over and over again to try to break it and put some serious miles on the game's odometer, you really begin to stress test the fun factor.
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Tom Gurganus (of Go Forth and Game) and friends play the prototype
Inspiration Begets Inspiration
Throughout the entire process of making Legend of the Lost Dutchman, Michael, our artist Ian Rosenthaler and I would travel to a small town at the foothills of the Superstition Mountains called Goldfield, which is an interesting place as it's both a tourist attraction and a full-blown town. Goldfield was a mining town back in the 1800s that became a ghost town once the gold ran out. A cool guy we like to call "Mayor Bob" brought it back to life and has done an amazing job of keeping this neat piece of history alive. Standing on the balcony of the Saloon and looking out to the foreboding Superstitions is incredible. That people would forge into such treacherous conditions based upon a legend seems crazy.
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Great pictures of the prototype courtesy of Dice Hate Me's Chris Kirkman
When we shared our game idea with the shop owners in Goldfield, they got very excited. Upon returning back to Michael's place after yet another expedition to Goldfield, we reflected on our gratefulness for the inspiration the town provided, so we wanted to come up with a mini-game that we could include with Legend of the Lost Dutchman. I assigned Michael that challenge, and we sat down and began developing the game. We wanted the game to be dice-driven, luck-based, and very thematic. After a bit of time we came up with the rough idea rooted in history. Back in the late 1800s, a season of flash floods exposed $25K of gold-bearing quartz that was up for grabs. We thought this was a phenomenal theme and thus Goldfield Gully was born. (Goldfield Gully will be included as a bonus game in Legend of the Lost Dutchman.)
Grinding
We then set off to play Legend of the Lost Dutchman as much as possible, every day most of the time and multiple times a day most days. Michael and I had felt good about the latest round of changes, and we thought the game was extremely close to its final state. Our goal is to produce a great gaming experience, and if the experience falls flat we must fix it in order to move on. Early in its playtesting, Michael felt the game was lacking something and after he pointed it out, I became painfully aware of it. One of the things I struggle with most as a new designer is developing blinders that shut off my expansive vision for a game I'm working on. A fresh set of eyes is always appreciated. We both went away and were to come back with something to add to the game that was meaningful and thematic and that enhanced the game experience without feeling clunky. Thus, the Treasure Map and the Dutchman Ghost were born. After some more playtesting, I felt like the additions were indeed here to stay and the game was better than ever. We then took the game to the GAMA Trade Show and showed it off to our distributor and other people.
Brian Lewis (designer of Titans of Industry, on right) and friends enjoy
a late night game at the Blue Noodle at Origins 2012
I Left My Game in San Francisco
Through a good friend who had introduced me to boardgaming back in 1997, I had developed a great playtest group in San Francisco that was really good about providing honest and constructive feedback. I wanted to get Legend of the Lost Dutchman in front of them, so over the course of four days I met with various groups and played the game. The end result was that they all enjoyed it for what I was. It was scary to put the game in front of them because most of them were hard-core strategy gamers and I knew that my game was not their forte.
I flew back home with a slew of ideas and suggestions, and after developing some of them with Michael Coe, we moved forward with three of the ideas. I was really happy with the game and the journey it had taken to arrive at its current state. Getting a game to a state where you are truly happy with it is such a long process, but doing so is a very gratifying feeling.
Gabe & George enjoy a game at Origins 2012. Gabe gave up buying LEGO he had been saving for
to back the game. Seriously made my eyes water...
Final Thoughts
Hopefully, I've taken you on a verbal journey of my first game design and you'll consider supporting our Kickstarter project. In the end, Legend of the Lost Dutchman is an adventure and discovery game that blends a high level of luck and significant and meaningful decisions. Should you have any questions, ask away as I would love to answer any you might have.
Patrick Nickell
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