Batman: The Animated Series Adventures

About Batman: The Animated Series Adventures:

Batman: The Animated Series Adventures (BTAS), designed by Kevin Wilson & Pete Walsh and published by IDW Games, brings the caped crusader to life as he patrols the streets of Gotham. It's a cross-compatible sequel to TMNT Adventures, and uses Kevin Wilson's dynamic dice-sharing system for the heroes.

You can battle against another player controlling the villains (competitive mode) or the game itself (cooperative mode). Scenarios for each game bring the episodes of the animated series to life, remixing the plot with new hero combinations, unique skills, and powerful gadgets!

Project Overview:

Development on Batman The Animated Series Adventures was focused on ensuring the quality and learnability of game rules and scenario content. Brieger Creative was brought in at a late stage to apply our analysis and playtesting methodologies across the product, which included a significant amount of additional SKUs and stretch goal content. We also spent significant time looking at the new player experience, reorganizing and rewriting the rules and scenario formats for easier setup and to help clearly delineate game modes.

Our team evaluated and suggested changes on over 50 scenarios for playability and usability — as well as touching core rulebook refinements and redesigning the game's "Dark Knight" solo mode to make it more closely align to the multiplayer experience. While we weren't responsible for core content or balancing, our rigorous analysis was able to flag several issues for resolution ahead of printing — pushing the product quality higher even outside of our core scope.

"The Brieger Creative team do fantastic work. They really helped boil down mechanics and scenarios while adding extra spice and seasoning to make sure Batman: The Animated Series Adventures was packed full of flavor!" — Pete Walsh, co-designer of Batman: The Animated Series Adventures

Services Provided:

• Playtest Coordination and Analysis
• Usability
• Scenario Content Evaluation
• Solo Mode Design
• Rulebook Editing

Case Study: Rulebook Flow

The rulebook for Batman: The Animated Series Adventures came to us based on its TMNT predecessor. As the game has two ways to play, it explained the competitive rules first, then the differences from the competitive rules for cooperative play. Unfortunately, this meant that to learn the rules for cooperative play, players need to learn rules for both game modes at once. This created a long learning experience for players whose first game in the Adventures system was a cooperative one.

We restructured the rulebook to separate core rules from game-mode specific sections, and reworked the setup sections for each scenario to more clearly delineate between the two game modes. We also rewrote sections for clarity, and opened the rulebook up for community comment to improve language. Taken all-together, these represent significant improvements to the new player experience for the Adventure Game System.

See more on the Batman the Animated Series Adventures Kickstarter page.

Brieger Creative Team:

• Michael Dunsmore
• John Brieger
• Breeze Grigas
• Velgus