Why We Updated Fly-A-Way’s Rules
Change is Coming
One of the best things about making games is seeing people play them – to watch as tables laugh and get excited over something you’ve helped design. Over the past year or so, we’ve continued to watch people discover Fly-A-Way, and to hear their thoughts and opinions.
These opinions – as with most opinions! – have been varied; while we are delighted to hear from players who enjoyed the game, we also see the feedback as a chance to iron out some of the friction, as well as highlight more of the positives that people reported experiencing.
We’ve hence worked out a couple of tweaks – small, but each significant – that are intended to work together such that the player experience aligns closer to our vision for the game. You can find the changes here; in this devlog we’ll instead be sharing a bit more about each change and why we made it.
1: A Gentler World
One feedback that surfaced was that the Fowl Play cards sometimes felt too punishing. While conservationists and bird watchers appreciated the representation of real migratory woes, a number of players found them painful to deal with. The wrong Fowl Play at the right time could sometimes waylay the best of plans, and that sort of variance could naturally feel frustrating at the end of a long and close game.
We knew this source of frustration was something we wanted to address; perceived challenge should come from your opponents’ clever plays, not what was increasingly felt as an arbitrary deck of punishments.
At the same time, Fowl Play cards are integral to Fly-A-Way’s identity as a game that aims to educate and not just entertain; seasonal migration is often a time of great danger for birds, who face hazards both natural and manmade.
In exploring ways to address this, we realized that it sat adjacent to another source of player frustration: when coupled with the frequency of Fowl Play cards, some players found it difficult to effectively make a comeback once they were behind on points.
Once we saw the Fowl Play cards from the angle of a scoring impediment, an adjustment naturally presented itself: Fowl Play cards would only be drawn after a player saves a bird. From being a problem, we hence realised that Fowl Play could instead be rejigged into a gentle speed bump (to challenge players who are already racing ahead), and one that in fact enriches the tactical depth of the game.
A big part of the game’s strategy lies in the fact that any player’s links can be used when completing a route – but any player who participates in the route gains a corresponding number of points. Since more valuable (points- or ability-wise) birds tend to have longer routes and thus usually necessitate reliance on other player’s links, there’s a natural tactical tension between going for lower-stakes birds by yourself, or going for a big payout that rewards other players as well.
By adding the cost of Fowl Play cards to the mix, the decision of when and which bird to save becomes even more nuanced, and hence a bigger avenue for skill expression. Coupled with the new ability given to Squawk cards that makes saving birds easier (see below), each turn presents a routing optimization puzzle, coupled with a simple-but-tight risk analysis: given the cards in my hand (both as options as well as to offset the Fowl Play), how much the other players will score from this route, and what I stand to gain… which bird do I save, and using what pathway?
This is tempered by the fact that players can now choose which tier of Fowl Play to use, meaning that the overall experience is as challenging as players want it to be, and no more.
2: A More Dynamic Board
As mentioned above, Squawk cards have been tweaked to give them extra functionality. One aspect of the game we realized players consistently enjoy is optimizing the routes, and that “Aha!” moment when a seemingly out-of-reach bird becomes savable. That sort of fun thrives particularly in the opening rounds of the game, where the board is filled enough such that ambitious/clever players can shoot for longer routes, whilst still being open enough that how best to optimize the route is left undetermined.
We wanted to make that experience more consistent across the whole play session; even late in the game the board should feel dynamic enough for clever players to spot routes that capture that “aha!” feeling.
Since this discussion took place after we had settled on the adjustment for the Fowl Play cards, we realized that we had an opportunity to tweak the Squawk cards to provide such functionality; originally a player would constantly be using Squawk cards to offset the Fowl Play cards they were getting each turn, but with the above adjustment, it was probable that a player would have excess Squawks. Tweaking the Squawk cards this way would also ensure they remained as, if not more, relevant to players even as Fowl Play frequency was reduced.
Squawk cards have thus been given an extra function: in version 1.1, players can spend Squawks from their hand to shift a corresponding number of their links on the board.
The scope and nature of this extra effect is intentional – crucially, no player gets any more of their links onto the map, and shifting links around opens up opportunities for opponents as much as it helps a player secure their own. As with the Fowl Play adjustments, the tweaks here are designed to increase strategic depth, even as they build on the core game and its feedback.
3: Time
Aligned with that goal is a simplification of the game end rules. One house rule we noticed players often implemented was to end the game at a preset number of birds, rather than the 6 as stated in the rulebook.
We like the flexibility this provides players in organizing their own sessions, and we’ve decided to implement it as an “official rule” in version 1.1. The suggested numbers (3-4 birds for more casual tables, and 4-6 for advanced players) stems from seeing what the respective groups found the most comfortable for themselves.
Together with the above adjustments to Fowl Play and Squawk cards, the updated game retains all the route-planning goodness of the original, while giving players new tools to play with.
Future Plans
What comes next, then?
For now, we’re happy to let players experience version 1.1. As with all our games, we’re constantly listening to feedback, and we’re always thinking of how to ensure the most fun for our players. This applies not only to our older games like Fly-A-Way, but also our new titles in the works; if you’re interested in trying our new games, why not sign up to be a playtester here!
