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It all started at a small prototyping expo in Orlando, Florida in February 2017. I was attending the convention to support local designers and ended up pitching my first game there, too! I was meeting lots of friendly gamers and having fun playing everyone's prototypes. One of the events at the convention was a "publisher speed-dating" event in which new designers meet with publishers to pitch their ideas in five minutes or less.
While sitting at my little table waiting for the next publisher to pitch to, everyone suddenly started laughing because after the first meeting, none of the publishers knew which way to rotate. It reminded me of playing musical chairs when I was little and I thought, "We just need the threat of music stopping, then everyone would find a chair for their derrière real quickly!" — then it occurred to me that this could be a good theme for a game! While everyone was figuring out where to sit next, I jotted down a few notes. Board game ideas seem to come to me at the most peculiar times...
Later that week, I started on my new prototype. I had the idea; I just needed the gameplay, and I always start with a list! I knew I wanted it to simulate the classic game of musical chairs but with a fun modern twist. I wanted the game to include:
• Movement: Players would travel around a circular board composed of different chair types, stopping at different chairs along the way.
• Music: You couldn't have musical chairs without music — but how could I simulate this...?
• Tension related to scoring: You needed a constant threat of not knowing when the music would stop, and when the music did stop, players would score points based on the chair they landed next to, whether they wanted that chair or not.
• Competition: Certain chairs on the board would need to be more valuable than others to create conflict.
• Elimination: I wouldn't have player elimination, of course, but the game needed elimination of some aspect of the board.
I started with the simulation of the music ending. To achieve this, I wanted the game to include a "push your luck" mechanism but with a new twist. What I came up with was a co-operative "push your luck" notion in which you are betting on the other players and the statistical probability of what could be in the other players' hands. I wanted to create questions like "Should I hang out at this chair because it's scoring pretty good points?" and "Will it make it back to me again, letting me get to an even better situation?"
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Coming Up with Rules and Mechanisms
I decided to accomplish this "push your luck" element by having players lay down one card on their turn, with a basic rule of "If you can play, you must play", similar to trick-taking games.
The basic rules: You have a hand of cards from a deck that contains eight different chair card suits numbered 1-10, then players take turns playing a card in ascending order, moving their pawn 1-3 spaces. Playing cards in ascending order was the time clock, and when a player couldn't play a higher card on their turn, the music would stop — which would create a scoring opportunity for players to score based on the chair they ended up next to, making the game all about timing and strategic placement.
All players would play their cards to the same central playing area, which meant that players could score the cards that others played, not only the ones they were dealt.
As for the card play, to start the round, the first player would play their lowest card in hand (disregarding chair suit). On the following turns, players would have two choices:
1) You could optionally play the same number that was played by the previous player, OR
2) You must play the lowest-valued card in your hand that's higher than the card previously played.
For example, if the previous player played a 7 green and you're holding a 7 red, 7 blue, 9 yellow and 10 blue, you can play any of the first three cards since the 7s are the same number that was played previously, and the 9 is the lowest card you hold that's higher than the card previously played. If you held nothing higher than a 7 (and you chose not to play a 7 or held no 7s), the music would stop, causing a round of scoring. To score, each player takes the cards from the play area that match the suit of the chair they are next to, scoring the point value of these cards.
Changes, Changes, Changes!
When I make a game, I try to start basic, then slowly add layers until it feels right. I like Walt Disney's idea of "Plus it". When one of his Imagineers came up with an idea, he would tell them to "plus it", that is, take it a step further, then a step beyond that by incorporating thoughtful decisions and additions.
Now that I had the basic play mechanisms and it was testing well, I wanted to plus it.
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Attaching the powers to the chairs, then removing those chairs during the game seemed thematic, but doing this made the board too small and limited scoring opportunities during future rounds. Another problem with this approach was that since the power was attached a specific chair, I could include only eight powers in the game — or perhaps sixteen if I included two for each chair.
I eventually separated the power from the chair. Instead of removing a chair each round, I removed a power, which resulted in players still scoring points from the chair in future rounds and something being removed from play. This also added variety and replayability because I could include more powers than the number of chairs, making set-up random each game. Later during the development phase, the powers were put on cute little cushions.
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More Playtesting Problems...
So far, so good — except that during playtesting, people were landing on the same chair at the end of the round and were both scoring this chair's points. This didn't feel right because in real life two people can't sit on the same chair! This created a good opportunity to add interactivity.
Enter butt battles, with you battling for chairs you share! This ended up being a derivative of the classic game "War", with you needing to sacrifice a card from your hand to beat the other player. The interesting thing about this is that the higher cards in your hand are worth more points, causing difficult decisions and some interesting (and funny) situations.
Lastly, I added special wild cards to the deck that did things like score you points or copy the value of other cards. These cards altered the base rule options, creating interesting choices during gameplay and even during butt battles.
After playtesting endlessly and ironing out the game play, I felt the design was ready to show. Here is the printed prototype that I pitched, which featured an "Alice in Wonderland" Mad Hatter tea party vibe:
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Pitching the Game, and the Process to Production
In the second half of 2017, I showed the design to a few publishers via email and received an offer that ended up falling through a few months later (a whole different story), so the design was released back to me. The publisher stated that it had taken on too many games and couldn't proceed with mine. I hadn't been a game designer for very long, but I was surprisingly okay with this outcome. I thought it was a neat little game, and everyone who played it really enjoyed it, especially those who liked trick-taking games like Tichu and Wizard, so I had hopes it would get picked up again.
I attended Origins for the first time in June 2018 and set up meetings for a few of the games I had been working on, with one of those meetings being with Rio Grande Games.
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Possibly unrelated side story: While waiting for my meeting at the Rio Grande booth, I was playing Pokemon Go (a.k.a., my addiction at the time). It happened to be a special Larvitar community day, so in my spare time I was trying to catch a shiny. A friendly man noticed I was playing, said hello, and asked whether I was catching any good Pokemon. He was also playing it! We had a few minutes of friendly conversation about Pokemon. I later found out that I had been talking with Rio Grande's Jay Tummelson. ::face palm:: I had no idea! I felt like such a noob. Also, turns out that Jay Tummelson is super cool.
I received two offers for Musical Chairs that weekend and decided to go with Rio Grande. I liked everyone I met during the meeting as they were kind and thoughtful, and I knew working with them would be a great learning experience for a new designer. (I'm talking about you, Ken and Scott!)It turns out I made a wonderful decision. They taught me a lot and welcomed my involvement throughout the entire process. To top it off, I got to work alongside Harald Lieske while he did the artwork for my game! He turned each chair into a different musical instrument to add even more harmony to the game. I am a huge fan on his, and he has done the art for some of my all-time favorite games.
Game Release
Just over a year later in November 2019, I was able to see and play an initial mock-up of the game at BGG.CON 2019. It was really cool seeing my game at this stage!
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Other prototypes hidden to protect their identity!
Musical Chairs is scheduled to be released during Origins Game Fair 2020, but because of the current world pandemic, the state of Origins 2020 is uncertain. [Updated, April 13: Musical Chairs has been released ahead of Origins 2020 and is available for purchase!] I hope my fellow board game enthusiasts are staying healthy at home and playing lots of games to pass the time. Maybe one day you will try out Musical Chairs, and when that day comes, I hope you enjoy it!
Kelly North Adams
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