Drunk Testing Games With David Harmer

by Laura Ingram

Did your card game pass the Drunk Test? Game designer David Harmer, 38, of Marietta made sure both his new The Four Horsemen: Hand of Death and his Faerie Haven, available at mushroomcirclegames.com, soared through the Drunk Test before allowing public use.

The Drunk Test involves two drunks and two sobers. Harmer admitted that making the participants drunk was a challenge because they were diehard conventioneers. One knew how to play the game, but the other three didn’t. Unfortunately, they did not film the test.

“I wish we had. It was a riot,” Harmer reported Friday.

When designing a game, Harmer’s goal is to create a game that players can complete in fifteen minutes while chatting.

“There’s enough depth to it to keep people who are really intense into it,” Harmer explained.

Harmer will discuss how he developed the card games about collecting fairies (Faerie Haven) and dead things (The Four Horsemen) in “Games People Play” Fri 5:30PM, Greenbriar and “How to Design a Game” Sun 5:30PM, Chicago DEF. On Friday, he joined three other panels: “LARP Story and Background” Fri 4PM, Chicago DEF, “Propping up your Designs” Sat 2:30PM, Amsterdam (Marriott) and “The Dark Side: Turning the Lights onto LARP and GOTH Costume Design” Sat 7PM, Amsterdam (Marriott).

“I’ve seen people make a costume without any sewing talent, without a sewing machine, for under $20,” said Harmer. However, he did advise the amateur costumers to find someone with sewing ability if they wanted the costume to last longer.