I’m Dave Chalker, game designer for several games including Thief’s Market, Heat, Criminals, and my most well known game Get Bit! If you’re familiar with the game, you might not be surprised that the game started with a shark.
Years ago, when I was just starting out in game design, I attended a talk at a convention by Reiner Knizia, designer of many of my favorite games. One of the first topics he discussed was how to get started on a game. He said there was a “triangle” of different ways to start: with a game mechanism, a theme, or a component (game pieces.) Eventually, of course, your game will need to cover all three to various extents. When you’re first getting started, it’s useful to hone in one part and move out from there.
The third one, starting with a component, isn’t one you hear about that often, except with games that have a toy-like component. However, in my case, I was handed a shark (that had been purchased at a gift shop in Hawaii while on honeymoon) and told “make a game with this!” And so I did.
Of course, few games spring fully formed. Some of the basics shook out early enough: there’s a line of swimmers, each belonging to a different player, in a line in front of a shark. The shark is trying to eat them. You, as one of those swimmers, are trying to avoid that.
I’ve called myself a “Garbage In, Garbage Out” designer because I play a lot of different games and then end up being heavily influenced by games I enjoy. (As a sidenote, this is very different from Dr. Knizia, who almost never plays other games.) I had played a game called Leapfrog that used numbers to determine their order in a line, and so I leapt off that idea for the early versions of Get Bit!
The earliest versions of the game had the line, the shark biting the back of the line every round, and everyone having an identical hand of cards that are simultaneously chosen and then revealed. Very quickly it became clear that some interesting mind games happened if you tie with someone else’s play, so that rule was incorporated.
What took a while was figuring out the appropriate punishment for being bitten by a shark. Of course, it should be bad, and that’s a way to drive the game to a close. But if it’s too punishing, you start to lose early, and then have no chance to catch up. Early versions had you losing cards out of your hand permanently, then randomly (but secretly). In every case, it was too tough to get back in the game. Eventually my wonderful game design group helped me come up with a solution: when you’re bitten, there’s no penalty at all… except for being closer to losing. In fact, we determined it worked best if there were two catch up mechanisms: one, you got all the cards you played back (which meant that people’s hands cycled at different rates, which was a good part of earlier playtests) and you got jumped to the front of the line (so you weren’t just always stuck in the same spot, and created opportunities for sacrifice plays.)
I had my theme, my mechanisms, and my components. Well, I knew the shark would stay. But what about the swimmers? It became clear that colored pawns and tokens with “CHOMP” on them didn’t quite convey enough of what was going on in the game. So I replaced those pawns with my LEGO collection, so you could tear bits off of them. When you were out of bits, you were eaten. Simple.
Soon, the LEGO dudes became replaced with figures with easily removable limbs. A few more rules shook out of continued playtesting, mostly related to how the game started, and how the game ended. By and large, it was done.
I started to shop the game around, and received a few offers, all of whom said they couldn’t really make it with the pieces the game should have. One offer wanted the game made entirely with cards, which I wasn’t interested in.
Eventually I worked with the person who had given me the shark figure in the first place to produce the first run of 500 copies, and who came up with the name “Get Bit!” I gave it to reviewers and other folks like Wil Wheaton when I saw them at conventions, with a “no pressure, here’s something I made and hope you enjoy” attitude. Those giveaways would pay off in getting attention to my tiny shark game.
Eventually, Mayday Games made an offer to pick up the game for a full print run. They cleaned up some of the issues with the first printing, helped get it into other languages, which eventually lead to the fancier Deluxe edition.
What started out with just a single shark piece took a few years to get a simple game as good as I could make it. Now it’s sold over 50,000 copies and has been translated into 10 languages. So if you’re ever handed something and told to make a game out of it… do it!
Get Get Bit!, or Get Bit! Deluxe Tin Edition on Amazon.
Did you like this story? Please share or comment. Go to this page to submit a story yourself. Subscribe to our online magazine here!
Thanks for this piece. Great insights!
I have a small series of questions: when I first saw this game (on TableTop), I thought “Hey, that’s a LEGO shark figure, unless I’m very much mistaken!” The question is: was it really a LEGO shark? The newer editions seem to have the same figure — is it still the same figure, i.e., a LEGO shark, and if that’s the case, how do you source them? Is LEGO okay with this?
If not: has LEGO said anything in the copyright-infringement-department?
According to Mayday Games: “The game was featured on the very first episode of Tabletop and we didn’t really see any bump in sales from that exposure. We went to Lego and asked to license their shark back in 2011 when we acquired the rights to the game but they told us they wouldn’t even discuss any such license with us so we just made our own shark with no Lego type attachment to it. Dave Chalker is a great guy and amazing designer and an expansion is in the works!”
Dave, I just wanted to say that we really enjoy your game with the family. Get Bit! brings me a little closer to my wife and it looks great on the table as well. Many thanks for bringing this game to life.
Sounds like a fun game!
Get Bit was one of the first games we checked out when we began creating content for Mayday Games!
http://www.sahmreviews.com/2015/10/mayday-games-get-bit.html
I am a website designer. Recently, I am designing a website template about gate.io. The boss’s requirements are very strange, which makes me very difficult. I have consulted many websites, and later I discovered your blog, which is the style I hope to need. thank you very much. Would you allow me to use your blog style as a reference? thank you!
Thank you very much for sharing, I learned a lot from your article. Very cool. Thanks. nimabi
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you. https://accounts.binance.com/ru/register?ref=YY80CKRN
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article. https://accounts.binance.com/ar-BH/register?ref=GJY4VW8W
It’s a game. Five dollars is free. Try it It’s not an easy game
->-> 카지노사이트
I just came across your post and I must say, it’s incredibly insightful! Your perspective really resonated with me
It’s rare to find such well-articulated thoughts on this subject.
If you’re interested, I’d love to invite you to check out my webpage
truck repair near me
Looking for reliable truck repair near me? Our expert technicians provide fast, affordable, and high-quality repairs to get your truck back on the road in no time
Your point of view caught my eye and was very interesting. Thanks. I have a question for you.
I think this is definitely an amazing project here. So much good will be coming from this project. The ideas and the work behind this will pay off so much. Rolex watch
Thank you for your sharing. I am worried that I lack creative ideas. It is your article that makes me full of hope. Thank you. But, I have a question, can you help me?