Witchdom, a family-friendly card-driven game by ALBI, is now in stores. In the game, 1 to 5 players lead rival clans of witches, recruiting promising apprentices and guiding them through their magical training. The game was designed by Michal Peichl, an experienced board game author and illustrator. How was Witchdom born, why does it play the way it does, and how has the basic idea of the game changed throughout development? Let's have a look at the game through its designer's eyes.

Witchdom: a light, card-driven strategy game.

"Throughout my life, I have been influenced by the magical worlds of Harry Potter, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Mildred Hubble, Discworld’s Witches, and many others. Because I enjoy framing my games with diverse themes, witches were just a matter of time. I also knew from the beginning of the design process that I wanted to use illustrations by my friend Veronika Vondrova, and soon we agreed to work together. I was thinking up Witchdom on a break while preparing a big euro game, so I was set on it being a smaller family game, which was supposed not to be so difficult to develop.

From the beginning, I worked with the idea of three locations (mountains, forest, lake) where players send their witches to get resources and magic items, but also new witches and spell recipes.

First version of the game.

The aim of the game is to get as many witches and spells as possible into your clan. The basic loop of the game consists of playing witch cards. Through them you gain resources, spells, items, and more witches. You then use the resources you've gained to cast a spell, which you move to your clan along with the witch who cast it. This earns you points, but once the witch has successfully moved into your clan, you can't play her card for the rest of the game.

The core of the game has remained unchanged since the first draft I made in my notebook, and although I had this stable foundation from the start, the development of the game has been quite turbulent. For example, I managed to test three new versions of the game in a single week.

Playing area

The first idea of the game was to play the witch cards directly to the game board. I soon discarded this idea because of the need to mark the owner of the card. I then came up with a location board for each player. However, multiple boards (one shared board with resources and the others individual for each player) went against the intent of having the game as clean and intuitive as possible. The next version contained only one common board. In this version, players were already laying out the witch cards in front of them, with the difference that they simply chose which location their witch would gain resources from without directly placing her there.

Second version - locations for each players and the board in the middle.

Playing Witches

Each Witch has a different number of Action Points for certain locations. In the first versions of the game, the player only used their witch for one location. This proved restrictive, as players usually wanted resources from multiple different locations. Thus, they needed multiple turns to successfully progress through the game, making the game too long. In the following version, I introduced the use of all action points of each witch played. The number of action points had to be reduced a bit, but the game got faster and players no longer had to hesitate which location to send their card to.

Resource’s design

Version with cards instead of resources.

The first wooden resources in the game were different shapes, with each type having a precise place on the game board. To reduce the production costs of the game, I tried using cards instead of tokens for resources. However, this solution was very cluttered. In the end, we abandoned the variant of resources tied to specific locations. Removed resources are randomly replenished from a bag, which required tokens of the same shape so that the player could not tell by touch what resource to add to the board. Additionally, tokens save space on the table compared to cards.

First iteration of magic items on potion cards backs.

In addition to casting spells, there was another separate minigame earlier in the development of the game - the library. This gave players the opportunity to progress for action points on a scale that provided various bonuses and victory points. I tested about four versions of the library, the most complex of which convinced me that it wasn't necessary in the game at all.

After removing it, I was concerned that the game would be too easy. I tried to bring depth to the game by adding set collection mechanisms for spells, using their various rarities, etc. But none of that worked.

Home playtest with notes.

Some spells required magic items, but they were spent the same way as other resources. Instead of creating another set of separate tokens, I put the magic items on the back of the spell cards. Previously, players didn't want to take many new spells because they had no additional role in the game. However, after combining them with items, these cards became more interesting from a player perspective - they can be used either as a spell or as a magic item and used to fulfill the conditions of other spells.

Once you use the acquired item to cast spells, it moves to your clan and gives you a discount on each additional spell that uses that item. Additionally, you get extra points at the end of the game for various items in your clan. This adds to the game mechanics set collection and engine building elements that enrich the game without significantly complicating gameplay.

In terms of theme, spells were eventually replaced with potions. After all, our witches are collecting ingredients that are better imagined as something we throw into a cauldron than conjure up some great spell thanks to the mushroom or butterfly.

Game tracker and shared objectives

The game also used to have shared and personal objectives that told players what to focus on during the game. However, I wasn't fully satisfied with any of the forms of objectives.

Return to the one common plan, with three common goals below.

In early versions, the game ended the moment someone completed a certain number of spells, which usually resulted in that player winning by a wide margin. Because of this element, the game bore the traits of a race, which many testers did not find very enjoyable.

I therefore combined both of these elements together. We included several common objectives that players have the opportunity to compete for, and completing them also triggers the end of the game.

This step brought everything together into a coherent whole, and all the elements that seemed peripheral suddenly had a clear place and role. So it's up to you whether to focus on witches and potions of a particular color, easy-to-fulfill potions, collecting items, or completing shared objectives. Among the latest tweaks was the addition of animals to the backs of the witch cards, which can be used to slightly increase the complexity of the game.

Almost final version with animals on the back of the witches cards.

In addition to these major changes, we could go on for a long time about the balancing of witch cards, about the effort to get more effects into the game, about the turn options that were reduced to "play" or "rest", or about how the single-player mode was created. Instead, I'd like to suggest that you give the game a try and let me know how you liked it!

Admittedly, I probably expected the development of this game to be easier, but I'm very happy with the result. In my opinion, the end result is a game that is mechanically coherent, player-friendly, and offers many paths to victory. I must also praise the collaboration with Veronika, as I was thrilled with every sketch she made. The game, thanks to her work and talent, looks exactly as I imagined it."

This article was originally posted on Board Game Geek.

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