Pretentious Board Games

Playtested infamous at the board game design guild again last night. here are my notes (and my thoughts about them now): Draw from the bottom of the deck? (no!) Can you add more than 1 material for a build? 2? (2 would be worth trying) Can you spend minions to build or tinker? (no) Gadgets cannot trigger minions - make sure to specify this strong in the rules (ok) add icons to ability names to remind you what type of card the ability is on (I'll give it a try) start with 2 minions? (that would have to be an alternate rule - the basic game needs to be simpler, not more complex!) revivification matrix - always ability is too powerful (move it to a more expensive chassis?) rename hypnotist to mortician? revivificationist? (undertaker, grave digger, enbalmer, but what action would they perform? resuscitate? reanimate? revivify?) (put names on each card of what its action is called?) Baghdad capacitor's "At the start of your turn" ability hits too often - make...

I have been working on Infamous!, and have made some serious progress. The game seems to work better right now, it has actual art, and it allows for some crazy crap to happen. I am still not really sure about the balance of the game, but with more playtesting, I hope that that will come. Here are some sample cards: Here are some sample card backs: I am currently using a combination of art that I purchased from that recent humble bundle and my own work. I figure any publisher will replace all of the art, so I don't have to spend much effort on it - just enough to attract playtesters. Here are notes from my last playtest: Helper-bot is too powerful for a 2 cost card. Remove bonus for most minions of each type: +3 for most minions overall is fine. 2+infamy minions as a minion cap is a good balance point. Consider a max on carapace fertilizer? Is Transmutation too powerful? remove auto-crammer's discard ability. Possible replacements? a card that allows you to...

After a post on BGG, I decided that the Carl Chudyk style copy game should be named "Infamous!". We played it again at the BGDG meeting tonight. Here is the notedump: Make reference sheets Change graveyard to morgue  Make more cards go to the graveyard - perhaps up to 2x the number of cards as there are players. Consider a new max minion count and write it down  record the "draw a card" basic action follow Minion actions should be able to be swapped for a "draw a card" Kenetic accumulator - doesn't immediately build 2 cost cards that were already started - you need to specify them as the target of a build for them to finish Figure out a way to make tinker care about what you are tinkering. Right now tinkering to any given card is not a choice. It doesn't matter at all. fix power levels volcanic probe - too powerful kenetic accumulator - bring all 3 cost cards up to this level autocrammer - draw 4 cards is stoopid antimemetic weapo...

We played Chudyk game at BGDG again last night. Here are the notes: Kenetic accumulator is powerful - (is it too powerful?) The game still seems too short. Discard a minion to follow an action? Have 4 unique tokens (one for each minion type) Have shared minion cards and use tokens to determine how many minions you have. Here is my current plan for the near future: Decide if the game can still fit into 18 cards - I think I will have to double the deck size and see how that works out. Add in all 6 card types from the get go, and make 6 cards of each type? Come up with a name for this game. Try out tokens instead of minions (either through shared cards, or just tokens) Look over the abilities and make sure that they still all seem balanced Consider the visual aspect of the game - does it want to be spruced up for SaltCon? I am starting to think that I want to submit this game to the Ion Awards next year, so I have to

Apparently I am not very good at this blog posting right now... Most of the copies of my game have been mailed to the kickstarter backers, and they are being fairly well received. I have also finally gotten my hands on a copy of Glory To Rome, and I have been loving it. We went to SaltCon, and played a bunch of great games (Root was my favorite, but Alison like Azul a lot). Since I have played GtR, I have dusted off the ambition of making a 18 card game that feels like a Carl Chudyk game, and I have put together a game based on his GtR/Uchronia/Mottainai cycle of games. It currently is entitled "Chudyk game", but I will certainly make a better name for it some time. It took me about a month to get it to the point where it was playable (previous games of it always ended before the game got interesting because the deck ran out). With modifications of last night, I actually have something that I am excited about. I also freehanded some artwork (which took about an hour...

I didn't post about it at the time, but I participated in the January 24 hour game design contest, and made a game about being a mad scientist, and getting attacked by mobs of angrypeasants with pitchforks The game ended up pretty good for a 24 hour effort, however it is still very rough. I used a modified version of my effect building mechanic as part of the game, but there were a lot more mechanics in the game than that. I think that I might continue to work on it - it was pretty fun, and I can see a lot of possibilities with it.

So, I brought the new island game to the BGDG last night. I need to get a name for it - it is that game that I mind dumped in December about. Here are my notes from the playtest: Place one worker per building Must not place more than one village per region After divvying up resources bid workers for crown Mercenaries don't count as people of your color Scarcity should be higher in 4 player game Make canoes cost people to launch Remove 3 tiles from game per person missing: 5 → 18, 4 → 15, 3→12, 2→9 Take out weird tile with middle line Make it a tile without any lines at all Money costs people? stone? something To use mercenaries: drop multiple mercenaries as free actions at the start of your turn, and then play one worker, then remove all of the used mercenaries Now, I am going to start writing up the rules as they currently stand. I will work on that here . Additionally, I am getting ready to submit Citadel of Madness to the Cardboard Edison. Perhaps tom...