Embarking on a new chapter in their tabletop gaming journey, Playlogue Creations introduces their latest creation: Prowl. Set to launch on Kickstarter, this strategic card game marks a departure from their previous title, Fly-A-Way, offering a compact, portable experience that promises quick gameplay and intricate strategy.
Q: The creators from Playlogue Creations are no strangers to the SBD community having talked about their game Fly-A-Way in a previous interview. Please do share again what your company is about and what is the next game you are looking to launch.
Playlogue Creations is a Singapore-based tabletop game designer and publisher that strives to create beautiful and well-crafted games for gamers and our clients. We love storytelling through games.
Our next game, Prowl, will be launching on Kickstarter on 25 April 2024. It is a quick, competitive card game of scheming and intrigue for 2 to 5 players. In Prowl, four clans jostle for power as an empire teeters on the brink of collapse. Players must manipulate a motley crew of animals to secure their place as the true power behind the throne.
Q: What considerations did you put in during the mechanics and creative design of the game? Why did you design this in such a way?
Since we wanted the game to be light, portable, and good as a warm-up, we knew from the outset that it needed to move quickly, have dynamic gameplay, and have cards as its main components.
As we designed and tested with players, these considerations tightened up and helped sharpen the overall experience. For instance, we realized that moving quickly didn't just mean that turns had to be quick – one thing players appreciated was that the whole game had a clear and unambiguous end point at exactly 5 rounds per player.
This meant that going forward, we limited ourselves to retaining that in the game, even when a more ambiguous total number of rounds might have been convenient.
That said, I think it's important to stress that these considerations fundamentally improved the game. To us, interesting design emerges when constraints meet creativity.
For instance, keeping components to essentially just cards conversely meant that the amount of game pieces each player would interact with every session was limited to initially just what was in their hand. As such, we had the confidence to design a big roster of special abilities, knowing that the individual player wouldn't get overwhelmed by them since they'd only see a handful, pun intended, each time they played.
Q: Between your new game and the previous game, what are the lessons learnt and how did that influence your design process?
Creating a big box game like Fly-A-Way with a large, beautiful board and various components was an exciting process, especially for our first game. However, big box games with long play times can be daunting for newer players, and they don’t hit the table as often as smaller, fast-paced games. Fly-A-Way’s bigger size also brought many challenges related to logistics and fulfilment.
For our new game Prowl, we wanted to try designing a game that was small and portable with tight mechanics. The game is centred around a deck of cards and a few tokens that make up a shared track, but through these limited components, there is a lot of room for player interaction and strategy through various card effects, deduction and a tie-breaking mechanic.
Despite being a smaller game, we think Prowl retains some of our strengths from Fly-A-Way – strong art direction and a love of storytelling.
Q: Marketing and spreading awareness about your games are some of the greatest challenges that publishers face. How do you go about spreading the word and what are some of the success stories you had?
We post regularly on our social media, because “out of sight, out of mind”. We also started attending more physical events to build our brand presence. We’re a relatively new player in the tabletop game scene, and it’s always nice to talk to people who are discovering our games for the first time at these events. The people we’ve met have been very encouraging, and we’re happy that they appreciate our focus on strong art and good design!
Q: What are the future ideas and plans for the organisation?
Right now, we’re focused on Prowl’s Kickstarter launch – it has launched on 25th April! You can find out more about the campaign here.
Other than that, we’ll continue to make beautiful, well-crafted games, for both gamers and organisations.