by Rocco Privetera

Where Did It Come From?

I started the Trinket Trove design in January 2023. Given that the game will be released only 2.5 years later, that sounds pretty quick for a board game to go from concept to published. I'm surprised by it, too.

I love me some Fantasy Realms, the simple concept of you starting with some cards, then building card combos that score more points than the cards are worth individually. Every time you see a card you want, you have to agonize over which card you will give up to get it.

My only problem with Fantasy Realms was in late 2022 when I played it with some new folks who were gateway gamers, and the combo-tastic play that required reading tons of text and managing keywords and combinations was a little daunting for them. That led to the initial concept: Can I make a card game that captures the feelings of "I don't want to give up any cards, but I want that card" without making it so complicated that you can't easily learn it or parse your choices.

Sid Meier, I think, was the source of the quote that "Games are a series of interesting decisions", which is opposite to how I usually design a game, which is encapsulated by my own catchphrase: "Games are a weird but awesome setting that give me a chance to write chapters of teeny tiny flavor text and in-game puns that my testers will chuckle at, then ignore — and maybe some mechanisms." I should probably work on an RPG at some point, or finish one of the many screenplays I have.

That's where the idea started. Basically I'm trying to get players to have feels, and in this case the feels are mostly FOMO and gut-churning stress of not getting what you want. Most people who test my designs probably see a pattern here. I also wanted to work on a smaller game for other reasons.

Where Did I Come From?

Reference images for Trinket Trove's art styleAs a designer, that is. A designer!

In the late 2000s, I had a gaming group that eventually (due to a bad play of Arkham Horror that we botched as usual) decided we should start designing games ourselves. I had been playing hobby games and RPGs since my early pre-teens and figured "Why not?" since I had only three other creative career-hobbies I was also working on.

I designed a handful of big, sprawling games set in unique worlds and never finished them. On the other hand, I also started doing contests on BGG, most of which were much smaller in scope, and by a not-surprising coincidence those got finished and BGG published online. What was the difference in those experiences? Spec design.

Designing to a Spec

At the time, I didn't realize the creative liberation involved with spec design. Initially it seemed oppressive, but after the first couple of contests I was hooked. I was able to finish designs in a few BGG contests: a single deck of cards contest (Barbarian Vince), small solo design, etc.

Shortly after, around 2012, a publisher put out a call for game submissions on spec, specifically, "Design us Zombie Dice, but make it different enough that we won't get in trouble." I changed a few things in that design I didn't like, then I hit on an idea of using dice position after rolling as a mechanism, finished the design, and sent it to them...but they rejected it as "not Zombie Dice enough".

I got lucky, though, when I brought the design to a public playtesting event that the eventual publisher played it at, signing it a week later. I was convinced my game design career had started, and more importantly, it was pretty easy to get stuff signed! Oh boy.

Side Note: When I demoed Ninja Dice the first time at a con, I proudly explained how it worked to a distinguished gentleman that passed by the booth, especially the dice position mechanism, which I thought was the first time something like that had been used. The gentleman introduced himself as James Ernest of Cheapass Games fame and amusedly informed me that he used that concept in his game Dogfight, which came out in 2000. So much for new ideas! My Kill Doctor Lucky fanboy side gushed about that for days.

Early card design sketchesStill, this experience taught me that working to a spec isn't a bad way to go. It teaches you to design within workable limits, to focus your design vision, and to design to a due date — all very important.

Spec Design for Trinket Trove

Okay, so I wasn't designing to a timetable this time, but I had a definite design goal regarding a) the feel the game needed to invoke and b) the need to work for gateway or gateway-plus gamers.

Theme-wise I wasn't too concerned as I figured that would gel as the game came together. I picked a generic fantasy theme about competing queens building hordes of monsters and called it (aptly) "Queen of Horde". At the time, I had a series of designs with a similar title ("Queen of Rat", "Queen of Breads"), so it was easy to use for this situation.

For the gameplay, it occurred to me that the biggest hurdle in Fantasy Realms for new gateway-plus players was deciphering the game text as far as figuring out what scored. The card was worth X by itself; match it with a specific other card, and both were worth an additional Y. There were lots of places that wasn't exactly true, but to me that was the general idea. Further thought suggested that the design was a sort of set-collection game if the sets were really complicated. I decided that aspect of complicated sets wasn't as important in this design as getting the feel right, so I went with simple sets.

Gameplay-wise, I also wanted more of a simultaneous experience to reduce downtime. Instead of each player drawing a card, thinking, then swapping, I wanted players to be directly interacting. I experimented with a few different bidding and auction mechanisms, but you were bidding with cards already in hand to keep the feel that you have to use your precious cards to get new cards.

After that, the first draft came together quickly. The gameplay loop worked in the initial tests: you start with cards, new cards get put out in a middle area, you bid on draft order, then you draft cards in the middle and cards bid by other people. You end up with more cards in play, and you get to acquire cards to try to build sets.

Six of seven feather cardsBy May 2023, I had the game working, with further plays leading to tweaks in the set scoring. I wanted the sets to be more interesting than just flat sets, so I came up with different progressions for all the sets: some of them climbed value rapidly, some slowly, some with swings, some with penalties. At one point, I tested special powers, but everyone testing agreed the game was simple and elegant without them, so I pulled them.

Submitting

By June 2023, I started submitting the design to publishers. Some liked it but had full queues of signed designs already; others wanted to wait a year, but I kept sending it around. Finally I saw a post from someone at GamerMats, a board game-adjacent company that was looking to start publishing its own games. GamerMats wanted a small, lightweight game, potentially something in a generic fantasy world since they had a lot of prior art from their game mats business, and they were taking meetings at PAX Unplugged in 2023.

My game was lightweight-ish, used generic fantasy art, and had only ninety cards for components. It was a good fit, so I reached out. It was kind of comical — they were full up on meetings already, but my game seemed to fit so well they gave it a shot. I sent them a copy, and we arranged a meeting, and twelve years after my first published game, my second game was signed.

Side Note: I had a few designs in between Ninja Dice and this one, designs that didn't work out for reasons any designer is used to hearing: could be the yips from having such an easy time the first go-round, or a few game companies folding during Covid, ghosting. It all happens in any creative industry.

Development

After a few months, the Gamermats people informed me that they were actually starting a whole new company — GameHead — and had picked up Paul Salomon, designer of Honey Buzz and Stamp Swap to be creative director. I started a dialog with him, and we both started making tweaks.

I had never worked closely with a developer before, and to be perfectly honest, I was a little leery. In my previous games, I ran into either non-existent devs or ones who wanted to change the design into a completely different game — but I immediately saw that he had a clear grasp of what the game wanted to be, and also how things could be streamlined. I wasn't used to that. He'd make a suggestion, and I'd grumble and build a new prototype, go to my testing group, test it, then end up thinking, "Well, flibbity floo, this is actually a bit punchier" or I'd take something like a set value I was in love with, test it, and come away thinking, "Well, floobity flee, that was not only just as dramatic to score but a lot easier to add". I guess some of that was his math experience.

Meanwhile, he informed me that he was going to change the setting to cozy critters collecting trinkets. I always knew the design would be re-themed, but I had never worked on something quite so cute; most of my games were in the vein of "City of the Dead Full of Reapers", "Blood Wars the Bloodening", or something equally bombastic.

A bit later, he sent me artwork from Sandara Tang, with graphic design by Manny Vega, and I was sold. I mean, it's adorable, right?

Final cards with Sandara Tang's and Manny Vega’s graphic design
Final Thoughts

I'm a list sort of guy when I need to organize thoughts, so here are the takeaways I'd love people to remember:

1. If you haven't tried it, try designing to a spec. It's not confining, but actually liberating.

Sandara created a trinket shelffor the inside of the box2. I had a big gap between published games, but it's something I wanted, so I kept plugging away at it. I had a lot of moments when I would put away designs and bring them back out, sometimes a year later. (Remind me to write a diary about "MegaJail" sometime.) Don't stop! Keep trying, and ideally a combination of work, luck, networking, and putting yourself out there you will get something done.

3. You probably didn't come up with your unique mechanism, and if you think you did, James Ernest (swoooon) will tell you otherwise.

4. Working with co-designers and devs is a good thing. Don't be scared. Other minds are good at things, too, and maybe even better than yours is.

5. Don't ask me to make a diary about "MegaJail". Every time I mention to my therapist that I brought an old game out of mothballs for a testing day, she gives me a panicked look and asks, "Not 'MegaJail', right? You said if you ever mentioned that game, then I should tell you no" and then I get mad and say, "The guy who said that was a jerk", knowing that was Past Rocco, not Now Rocco, then the therapist writes furiously on her pad.

6. I don't know why I was hesitant about the theme change idea. Mice are adorable. Have you seen the art yet? You have to see the art! Templeton! OMG Templeton...

Rocco Privetera