Running an UnPub Mini - Part 3 - 8 Takeaways

In May 2023 I helped organize an UnPub Mini event near Detroit, MI. Since this playtest event came about directly from a high school game design class, I figured I'd post my experience here on my Project Pack site. Anyone can organize an event like this. You can see Part 1 of my posts here and Part 2 here.

So how did the event go? It was excellent overall for our first effort. I look forward to doing it again in the future.

I counted attendance once during a peak time. There were 23 people there, with around 7 games being played. That might not seem like a lot, but I was glad to see it. Also the space we were ultimately allowed to use was getting tight. 

For me the highlight of the event was meeting the designers for the first time, and connecting again with the ones I hadn’t seen in years. As much as I love making and playing games, relationships have proven many times over to be the heart of gaming. I’m sure the networking that resulted in this event will have a lasting impact. 

Our event ran from noon until 7:00. We had scheduled an hour for a meal at 3:00, but many played games the whole time. I spent most of my testing time on Dominic Crapuchette’s Nature game. Even at that, it probably only accounted for 2-3 hours of the day. I spent another 90 minutes or so running two of my games, one time each. The rest of the time flew by, between conversations and making sure everything was going as well as possible.

My only regret of the whole event was that the designers outnumbered the playtesters. Turns out we had around 15 designers throughout the day, but only 10 or 11 people came in just to playtest. My count could be off either way, since I was often running games, and I am not exactly sure if some of the game designers were only there as playtesters. 

I see now it’s crucial to have playtesters there at the start of the event, since the designers at our event jumped into games as testers right away. This posed some of a problem when playtesters came in and there were no designers available to run games for them. 

Keep in mind no one spoke to me about these dynamics (or at least not before I posted this!). Designers playing each other’s games is not a bad thing in itself. It’s the heart of the Protospiel model, of course, and I’ve loved being a part of that for over 20 years. It’s not the intent of the UnPub model, though, and that was a bit of a discouragement. I wanted every designer to have several hours to run their own game. And for giveaways, lot of us contributed to prizes in hopes of bringing in playtesters. Instead, most of those were won by other designers. Again, no one mentioned this to me as a negative. They were happy to leave with some new games. Still, it was the biggest area I want to improve for future events.

Here are some other takeaways, if you’re planning such an event:

• Parking - Parking was a problem at this particular game store. Even though the entire gaming room was only 3/4 full at most, I was told it was hard to find a place to park. Work with the owner of the venue if you’re not familiar with it yourself, so you can have good parking directions for attendees no matter when they arrive.
• Getting Feedback for Games - I used a Google Form to collect feedback from playtesters. (You can see it here.) The idea was that this would make it easier to organize responses afterward, when I had to send feedback to the various designers. The resulting spreadsheet was also what I used to randomly “draw” winners. Even though I sent that form to all designers ahead of time, to be sure everyone was happy with it, in retrospect I can see it was a little too long. Accessing it with a QR code was meant to be easy, but I saw that repeatedly filling it out throughout the day on a phone was a chore for some people. Next time I’ll trim down the questions and consider a paper form. 
• Getting Contact Information - At the end of the form, I asked if it was ok for the designer to contact the playtester for two things–more feedback and to keep them updated about the game’s development. We will see how valuable that plays out in time, but my hope is that it helped build every designer’s contacts.
• Getting Playtesters - I’m still trying to think of ways to draw in more playtesters. It was suggested that we emphasize playtesters will be mentioned in the published game’s credit section. Someone else suggested getting more support from local game stores. (One problem with that is we hosted at a game store, so not all businesses will be excited to promote an event at a competing business.) In the end, I think the best bet is:  
• Show off photos of great looking prototypes as much as possible.
• Get some well known talent involved, if not in person, at least get their prototype there.
• Be extremely clear on what the event is. The average gamer is probably not familiar with this model of a playtesting event. Playing games that are not finished doesn’t sound fun to someone who loves playing games with a proven track record. You have to let them know in the first sentence or first glimpse at your images what’s in it for them. 
• UnPub or Not? - As I mentioned in a previous article, connecting this event to the UnPub Network didn’t offer any measurable advantage. Only one person told me it caught his attention. I’ve had others tell me it makes no difference whatsoever. I will consider naming this something else for future events, essentially making it some combination of a one-day Protospiel and UnPub Mini. 
• Sponsors - Reach out to game stores, publishers and other organizations that might offer giveaways in support of the designers. I had great support in store credit and gift cards from Games4Life, in Lake Orion, MI. Also a rep from Launch Tabletop sent me a code that I could share with all the designers, offering a 20% discount off our first order from that print-on-demand service. 
• Make It Win-Win for the Venue - If you’re hosting the event at a business, be sure everyone supports that business. It should be a big day for that store too, so they want to have you back. Mention all sponsors in all your announcements. I’ve found that $15 or $20 gift cards are a good investment that benefits your event (as a giveaway) and the store you get them from. It gets the winners to shop in the store, and they will almost certainly spend more than what it cost you. In our case, we actually had so many prizes that I tossed the gift cards in with one or two other games, depending on the size of the games. Even then I think I gave away three stacks of prizes three times throughout the event. 
• Play the Long Game - Organize the event for the other designers. Sure, I wanted to get my games in front of the public so I could improve them, but throughout the planning process I had to remind myself my work was for helping the others. It reminded me of the thrill I had running Protospiel years ago. It’s exciting seeing aspiring designers getting good feedback, and giving heartfelt thanks as we say good-bye at the end. As much as you can, make sure all attendees have that goal. Then anyone’s win is a win for the team.

Running an UnPub Mini - Part 2

In May 2023 I helped organize an UnPub Mini event near Detroit, MI. Since this playtest event came about directly from a high school game design class, I figured I'd post my experience here on my Project Pack site. Anyone can organize an event like this. You can see Part 1 of my posts here.

Getting Designers

After we secured space and decided on the date, I created a sign-up form in Google Forms and began promoting it on Facebook. I run the Eastern Michigan Game Designers group, and I am at least in touch with a few other groups that playtest across the state. I also reached out to Matt Riddle and Adam Hill from Motor City Gameworks (though Kevin is better friends with both of them). I even sent some messages to designers I hadn’t met before, but who I thought might be interested. 

Within a matter of days I had about 10-12 designers signed up on an email list. We were covering a wide distance, with me an hour north of the event, designers coming from Ann Arbor, and one designer from the Toledo area. While they all didn’t commit to attending right away, their interest was enough to meet my minimum goal to move ahead with plans. 

I’ll say that connecting our event officially to UnPub probably helped the most in getting the designers to pay attention. Calling it an UnPub Mini gave it credibility, even if Kevin and I were basically making it up as we went. Beyond that, I don’t remember getting any official support from UnPub, even though Kevin and I both were in touch with the Network.

Getting Playtesters

The next challenge was to be sure we’d get enough playtesters. Now, when it came to designers, I knew we could expect them to sign up. For playtesters, that would be too much to ask. I wanted to remove all obstacles. We just had to promote and promote, then hope people actually came to test our games.

I decided we’d do some drawings during the event for playtesters who submitted feedback from games. I asked my friend Jon Pehrson, who owns the Games4Life game store in Lake Orion, if he’d help us out at all with prizes. He gave me some store credit and a couple gift cards. With some of my own contribution, I ended up with $55 of gift cards from him, plus about $90 of games. I asked all designers to consider contributing to giveaways. Ultimately they came through in a big way, but I didn’t know what to expect in that regard until the day of the event.

One last thing I did as a promotion was reach out to my friend Dominic Crapuchettes, from NorthStar Game Studio. I asked if he had anything he’d want me to test for him. I figured that would be a bit of a draw for the event. Dominic supported us in a big way. He donated a deluxe copy of Oceans as a giveaway, and he sent me a prototype for his streamlined approach to the Evolution system, Nature, which he plans to have on Kickstarter later this year.

I originally planned to promote the event by showing off our prototypes too. I changed my mind on that eventually, mostly because of the look of my own games! I realized that unless we had some amazing looking prototypes, the rough state of the games might be a turn off to gamers who aren’t familiar with games in development. I did get some nice photos from some designers, though, so I made one post about the prototypes right before the event. 

But with giveaways, a game from NorthStar to test (with some quality artwork to show off on social media), plus the guys from Motor City Gameworks coming with their prototypes, I felt we were doing well gaining attention. Our Facebook event for the UnPub Mini had 35-40 people marked as “interested”. What more could I hope for?

Just to keep me guessing until the end, I did get a message from the hosting game store saying our group might be too big for the space he was willing to allow us. That made me nervous, since we were committed in a big way by then. Next up I’ll talk about how all that panned out, including the event highlights.

Running an UnPub Mini - Part 1

 In May 2023 I helped organize an UnPub Mini event near Detroit, MI. Since this playtest event came about directly from a high school game design class, I figured I'd post my experience here on my Project Pack site. Anyone can organize an event like this. Though ours was not only for students, and most designers were adults, I could see this as a great event for the end of a class, where students show their games to families and other community members.

The Initial Vision

In early March, Kevin Crowther posted a message on some Facebook gaming groups. He teaches a high school game design class (a dream job in my mind, but he reminds me it’s just one of his classes). They normally participate in a countywide design competition, but it was canceled this year. He was checking for interest in running an UnPub Mini with area designers, so two of his students could get feedback an exposure for their games.

Kevin and I are both educators. We’ve talked for years (mostly online, but we’ve crossed paths at big gaming events in the area) about his class. I have wanted to run an UnPub-like event since I participated in a large UnPub in Michigan about five years ago. I responded to his post with an offer to co-organize this with him.

I was thinking of doing this mid-summer, but Kevin wanted it before school was out, if possible. He picked May 20, about two months away. I figured that was tight for a large event,  

What Exactly Is an UnPub?

I am very familiar with Protospiel events, having attended the first one ever (just five of us). I ran the one in Michigan (still the only Protospiel at that time) for several years. In those events, designers get together and playtest each other’s games. Countless designer meetups like that now happen monthly in larger cities. 

The UnPub model is very different, and it caught me off guard when I attended one in 2017. These events have designers testing their more polished games to the general public. The one I attended had 50 - 100 designers over the weekend, and hundreds of playtesters cycled through. 

Kevin had read up on what it takes to officially connect our event to the UnPub Network and call it an UnPub Mini. Turns out the main requirement was that we couldn’t charge anyone. That’s my type of event, so I was fine with that. 

The UnPub site says a Mini event can range from 10 - 40 people. So our task was to get space for something like that, plus we needed to draw in some designers and the public. 

Getting Space

I knew our event would likely be too small to warranting renting space (and we had that requirement that we couldn’t charge anyone to participate). If it went well, though, I was afraid we’d pack out the gaming space at any game stores I was aware of. Kevin and I considered the possibility of libraries and conference rooms too.

Considering that we eventually needed to reach gamers who would be willing to playtest, the game store option made the most sense. 

Now to put this in context, I live in a small town about an hour north from Detroit. All the exciting stuff happening with gaming and game design is always a bit of a drive for me. Playtest events I hold about 30 minutes from me are still considered too far to drive for many of the designers in the greater Detroit area.

So while I knew of many larger game stores in the area, I don't frequent them. I certainly didn't know the owners. I wasn't sure how crowded their rooms were on a Saturday. I ended up making a lot of phone calls and reaching out with emails and Facebook messages, first just checking if anyone would consider hosting an event like we had in mind.

I started out thinking I was providing an opportunity for many people to come into their store. After a few chats with owners, I knew I was really asking for a big favor! The owners didn’t know what an UnPub Mini was. Responses ranged from skepticism with little interest to accommodate us to vague references to a fee if we wanted to be sure to have enough room. Understandably, their regulars (who also expected to have long gaming sessions on a Saturday) took priority. I did have a price in mind that I’d pay for the event, just to make this first one happen. I was really hoping for free though. 

Eventually I connected with a shop on the west side of the area that had a large open gaming area. The person in charge of events assured me we'd have room and wouldn't have to pay (But I could pay around $200 to reserve it just for us, not knowing at the time how many people we'd even have). I checked with Kevin. We decided to go with the free option. I asked them to add our event to their calendar.

With that out of the way, the next effort was to get some interested game designers.

How to Play Diamonds and Stars

 I finally finished a video tutorial for Diamonds and Stars. It's a simple, engaging game that can easily be revised in the classroom. 

Here's the video:

And here is the full Project Pack for the game.

Game Design in Mythology Class

(This post is copied from my Classroom Games and Tech blog.)

Melinda Newcombe teaches the Mythology class at our high school. We teamed up earlier in the month as part of the Go Beyond Challenge I raised to myself and several teachers this school year.

In this overview, I'll link to a couple games that students made in this Mythology game design project. I'll also explain what we learned and give links to resources. 

Key Challenge to Remember:  The course content has to be the goal. If the students are thinking and talking about the content, it's a win no matter how the games turn out. 

We considered this project a big success in a lot of ways. It is a unique blend of content, game creation, collaboration and technology. Students and the teachers really enjoyed it throughout. I know from experience, though, that it can be overwhelming to take on the first time. This is not just a PDF download that you print and hand out. I'll list some tips at the end for anyone considering it.

My key takeaway: Working with this class convinced me this is a great project for a group of students who are interested in making a game. While it worked very well for us with a whole class, that brings a lot of obstacles you won't want to tackle until you've gone through the process a few times.

Overview

I put a lot of information about the game design project in general on my Game Design Project Packs site. Keep that link handy in case you want to use this someday. It provides a number of simple game options that the students can redesign based on the lesson content.  

We worked on the project for six class periods.

The overall process is:

• Learn to play what I call the "base games". These are games that will be new to almost all the students. They are easy to learn and they don't require a ton of printed materials. Don't underestimate how important those things are. It took a lot of work to find good games that fit that criteria. Since the games are not about the course content, I try to make sure the students learn them and play them in just one class period.
• Students then complete some planning sheets that help them think about how they will add a theme to the base games. This is vitally important, since it's when students apply the lesson content to the game. For example, if the base game uses chips as points, the planning sheet will ask them to think about what the chips represent from the lesson content. Here's the planning sheet we used for groups that redesigned Love Letter. 
• Next, students edit the templates I provide for the cards in the various games. All templates are in Google Slides, so the tech is not a huge obstacle. Students can easily do a superficial change, by just making the cards be about their lesson content. If time allows, though, you can dig deeper into game design here, asking them to make changes to the effects of cards and the rules of the game. (Templates are found on my Project Pack site. I'll add more soon.)
• When the templates are finished, it's time to print them, cut them out and see how well they work. Through playing them with other groups, students get a good review of the lesson material. It also lets them see the importance of testing and revision in game design (or any design for that matter). If there's time, you can repeat the previous step and this one, allowing them to improve the games.
• At the end, I have students do a reflection sheet that seals the learning. I ask about what they learned from the content, how they tied it into their games, and what they learned about game design. I also get feedback from them about the project itself, so I can do better next time.

Example Games Created by Students

Here are two different games students created as part of this project. They are two of the five different styles of games we offered. I made a few edits to clean up these files, but the majority of work was from students.

• Mythology Love Letter Retheme - A light strategy game based on Love Letter. This video shows how to play the original game. (Thanks for AEG for permission to use their Love Letter game in this project.)
• Take Your Pick Mythology Version - This is a party game I designed. It's published by SimplyFun. This video from the publisher shows how to play the original game. You'd need more cards to play for very long.

What We Did Differently This Time and What I Learned

As I said, this is the first time I worked with a large class and gave them the option of choosing from several games. I presented many options for them for the first day, as they learned the base games. Among all the groups, they chose to learn four different ones. 

Teaching that many new games to six or seven groups in 40 minutes (and giving them time to play) is a huge task. I've used games in class for 25 years, so I know how to teach them quickly and effectively. You'll make your life easier if you pick one game everyone has to redesign. 

Two of the base games I taught that day--including one that got the most repeated play--are not posted online yet. I will add them to the list on my Project Packs site soon. 

I will also add a section to my site for Mythology class projects specifically. There I'll post all the planning sheets, templates and reflection sheets we used. (The ones there now are generic, so teachers can adapt them to any subject or lesson.)

Two groups decided to branch out and make a game completely different from those I presented. What they proposed fit my criteria (not much to print, easy to learn, etc.), so I encouraged it. Remember that only had about 2.5 class periods to actually make the game content. You can probably guess what happened with both of these groups' game ideas. They had fun working on them, but they didn't get far in that little time. 

In fact, feedback from many students was that they needed more time. Students could stretch a project like this out for weeks, and if you're teaching game design you would need that long. All things considered, though, the teacher and I decided the goal was met and it was time to move on.

One big change I'd make was to focus more on learning standards as I met and planned this with the teacher. It was not a loss, but I could have done better in that area. The teacher told me she was really glad to hear the review taking place as students tested their games. There was conversation throughout about various myths and personalities. Once I read over everyone's reflections, though, I realized review was the most they got from it. With more planning, we could have achieved deeper learning goals.

Summary of Tips for Success:

• Keep content the goal. Remind students of that. Games might not work as intended. Art and fonts might look terrible. Many groups won't completely finish their game. If students were talking about and thinking about the content in new ways, your goal was achieved. 
• If students feel they don't have enough time or their game isn't going as planned, remind them they can always work on it as a personal project. Here are some posts that include a lot of tips for students who are interested in making games.
• These game design projects could fit in any subject, but they work best if you just finished a story or you've studied a historical period. Language Arts and Social Studies classes are easiest to start with.
• If you care about proper use of digital resources, provide a list of sites students can use for free images. I include that on their planning sheets. (See my Love Letter Planning Sheet as an example of sites I listed.)
• Let a motivated small group go through a Project Pack first, then decide if you want to try it with more groups or a whole class.
• Choose the game they will redesign, rather than just throwing several options at them.
• Contact me if you have questions. I can provide a lot more examples and resources than what I have here or on my other site.

1000 Stories - A Simple Role-Playing Game for the Classroom

Clark Rodeffer and I created 1000 Stories in 2017, when we made the rest of the Project Packs on this site. It's a very simple role-playing system that could be played by students who are not familiar with other such games. 

There are not many rules in 1000 Stories. They fit on a small player aid sheet. If one player understands those rules, they can get others playing within minutes.

Recently I fleshed the game out into a complete booklet. Clark helped with editing and suggestions. Then over the past few months, we added two supplements. You can get all three booklets in one convenient bundle from DriveThruRPG at this link. The usual price is only $1.25. (That page also lists the individual booklets, if you just need the supplements. You can download each of those supplements for free.)

The booklets are:

• The core rules for how to make characters and use dice to determine results of actions.
• Supplement #1 has optional rules for conflicts and competition. It also has tips for handling scenes with physical conflicts appropriately in the classroom.
• Supplement #2 is an introductory Story that a Guide could use to quickly teach new players how to role-play with 1000 Stories.

As with all the Project Packs, 1000 Stories allows students to adapt a simple basic game to the material they are studying in class. Because of the narrative nature of RPGs, this works best in Language Arts or Social Studies classes. For example, if they are in a History class studying the U.S. Civil War, their project could be creating and playing through a few scenes of an adventure (called a Story) they set in the time period. 

Here are some suggestions and tips for assigning this as a project.

Planning

If you’re unfamiliar with role-playing games, be aware that this is a very different type of classroom project and a different type of game. It’s not a PDF worksheet that you print, hand out and keep kids busy for 20 minutes on a Friday afternoon. It is important enough that it’s worth doing right. Read information below and be sure you understand the overall flow of the project. It will take some planning to make it fit your class and your subject matter. Students will need some structure before they set off to to explore. 

Because of this, plan on starting small and choose the right group. At least some of the members need to be self-motivated enough to learn the few rules. Someone needs to be mature enough to lead the game as a Guide. 

Here are some specific thoughts about how the game fits in the lesson:

• Click this link to get a copy of the Planning Sheet. Edit as needed to fit your lesson. In completing this and writing their Story, the students will delve deeply into the lesson topic. What the sheet calls a "lesson topic" is your course content and learning target. You can add that information right to the document yourself and remove the first question if it will help the students keep the correct focus.
• Playing an RPG requires one person (or group) to make a Story, then lead other players through it. The players going through the Story probably shouldn't know everything that's going to happen. How can you handle this in class, when everyone needs to work on the project? Here are two ways to consider.
• Working with multiple groups - Have each group make their own complete Story. Then when it comes time to play through them, pair up the groups. Group A could lead Group B through their Story first (taking on the role of Guide). After they play for a class period or two, switch roles. Group B then leads Group A through the Story they made. The group that's leading can share the responsibility of running NPCs and filling in everyone with the action.
• Working with a single group - Have the group create a rough outline of an overall Story with multiple scenes. Then have each group member be responsible for planning the details of one or two of those scenes. When it's time to play, each group member would be the Guide through their individual scene(s). Since every group member will be a Guide and a Player at different times, they can still control their character whether they are playing or leading the scene. Player choices will certainly take the scenes in unexpected directions, so this requires everyone to be flexible when it's their turn to lead a scene they made.

Playing

• Depending on time constraints, students probably will not play through a complete Story. Encourage the Guide to choose the key scenes that will most help students get the most out of the setting or theme of the lesson.
• If students won't be playing in class, you can have them record video or just audio of their game. Decide if they should record the whole play session or just some of it. Editing could be required too. Watching or listening to that will give you a good idea of what was learned.
• Obviously it takes skill to lead a group in an RPG. If any student has experience doing that, be sure the group gives them that role first, so the others can learn how it's done. If you and the students do not have experience with this, the 1000 Stories books have lots of tips and examples. Search for role-playing games online if you need to see more. Watch anything you show to use in class ahead of time, to be sure it's appropriate.

Reflection

Reflection seals the learning and it's a vital part of every Project Pack. Students can report out, possibly as a group, about what they learned. You can assign this as a presentation they make to the whole class, a written assignment, or an audio or video recording. If creative writing is a significant part of the course content, having the students write out an entire scene or two can be an excellent end to the project. Here are some reflection questions you can also use.

• Why did you choose the scenes you did for your Story?
• If you didn't have time to run all the scenes, why did you pick the ones you did?
• What did you learn about the lesson topic from making the Story or scene?
• What did you learn about the lesson topic from running the Story as a Guide?
• What did you learn about the lesson topic from playing the Story as a Player?
• If you were going to create another Story in the same setting, what would you do differently?
• What do you remember most about this project?
• Would you recommend other teachers use a game like this for the lesson topic? Why or why not?

Holiday Game Design Activities

After recently seeing some groups enjoy these Projects Packs, I decided to revise some of the planning sheets to focus on holiday themed games. This is still a very broad topic! For example, students might make their game about exchanging gifts, running a store, the frantic aspects of the holiday season or maybe the history or traditions of a holiday or a culture. The possibilities are endless.

Remember that if you are using these new planning sheets in class, these are used in Stage 2 (the Make stage). The students will still need play the related Base Game before they start planning. If you're new to the Project Packs, you can find everything you need to know about the flow of the overall project on this page.

Here are the new Holiday Planning Sheets that would replace the ones you'd find in the usual Project Packs. The games are listed here in order of complexity, both for playing and redesigning. See this page if you want more information to decide which will be best for your students.

• Zapped  
• Roll-n-Flip 
• Love Letter