How to learn filtering ideas for a startup and avoid fatal errors involving experts to the project

There is cool idea to combine classic board game with virtual/augmented reality and only one question, how can we create it?

After loads of time spending to the endless brainstorms and philosophical debates about the potential of different ideas, we decided to find a way to filter ideas that would allow us to understand whether this or that thought has the right to life or instantly go into the trash.

It is very difficult process for creators to filter different ideas, as one can fanatically believe in an delusional implementation of an idea and defend it to the end or immediately push away a solution that could make your project successful.

How can we find this side? Right! Old and good criteria!

We created 3 important criteria and used it during our work.

1. The VR & AR should fill the board game with mechanics/functionality, that can’t be repeated with other tools or technologies;

2. The implementation of VR & AR should not interfere the game process and should be easily understandable to players at any age;

3. The game should be for mass market.

We were happy to summarize all these three criteria; buuuuuut, they destroyed all the previous approaches… :)

Over the next 2 weeks, I was banging my head against the wall in search of a board sacred grail, but it became clear that I was far from Indiana Jones in the world of board games …

And we understand that we need to search a professional game designer (expert) in our project. It happened that it was easy to find an expert. There are many different Designers Guild in almost every country. They create games, pass their experience and take an offer to create game easily (when it is paid employment, for sure)

So, we met Alexander. It was a breath of fresh air for me. This guy knew all the mechanics that helped us to create an interesting game

He seemed to me a very good candidate:

1. He had some successful launches of board games;

2. He knew the needs and insights of audience who play different formats of board games;

3. He was fan of board games and professional who likes what he is doing.

BRILLIANT!

We had loads of meetings and conference calls. It felt like we were moving forward but we couldn’t agree on format of the game. It was important for me to preserve the elementary rules, simple mechanics and make the game as fun-like as possible. Alexandr was always on the opposite side, which would have really liked by the “geeks” from the world of board games with many details of the move, which would require half a day to understand only the rules..

I used all my skills of diplomacy, persuasion and search for compromises and I was sure that I would be able to achieve the correct result for me…. but after a month …. There was no any result..

I got the same proposals from Alexander repeatedly.

Finally, after another half a month Alexander created the draft version of the game that we decided to test. Then I thought that maybe I was still mistaken, and Alexander was right all this time, that’s why we started preparing for testing.

I printed all the materials of the game, we came together with friends to start testing the game under Alexander’s strict guidance.

There was a slight bewilderment on our faces in 5 minutes after the start of the game. There were so many inputs at the beginning of the course. In 15 minutes, I clearly lost any interest due to the complexity of the mechanics of the game (each step had to be explained and this explanation was not very logical) … In 30 minutes I realized that this was a failure .. At the end of the game we had a huge amount of comments, that it was easier not to take into account, but just to start again to create the game. And this was after all the nerves and time.

It was very sad and demotivating stage of our preparation for the release on Kickstarter.com. We spent almost 2 months and were exactly at the same point, where we were 2 months ago.

I made conclusion from this story: if you have an idea or start-up, and you understand it is necessary to involve an expert from the outside, first, make sure how much he has inspired with your idea. If an expert, who sees the development of a startup or company in a globally different direction, gets to the team, you will definitely find yourself in a critical situation. Especially it is dangerous in the period of formation of the company.

It is better to take a less skilled specialist, with hot eyed and a desire to go together to the goal you set, than a very experienced expert who will pull you towards achieving your personal goals.

There is no time to get upset! Now we clearly understood that the format of the game, which we thought was right for combining with Virtual Reality or Augmented reality, would be much more interesting than complex games with difficult rules.

In 2 weeks, I planned a trip to GOA and something told me that in India I would find a solution that could be successful and would be enjoyed by crowd funders at Kickstarter or Indiegogo!