Pretentious Board Games

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...

An idea mind dump: Game design goal: undercutting market affecting secret goals ?hidden teams? equipment: Board, canoes, pigs, trees, workers, fish, stones, statues, huts, bags, value track two bags - one to pull from when starting each round, and one to place into when spending After round, market is modified based on what was spent and what was not drawn: Draw from draw bag and lower value of that item on the market Draw from the discard bag and raise value of that item on the market Reveal a number of things from the bag. players bid a value, and the player that bid the lowest takes from the pile of draft things first, working up to the player with the most things. The player can take any value of things that matches what they bid. After every player has taken from the draft, then players spend workers to do things with their resources. You may double spend workers which makes you discard them. Resources: wood, stone, food Things to make: wood: canoes, hut...

I have been meaning to post for a while, but apparently I never did. I have one big announcement, and a bunch of small ones: The Perfect Moment is being published! You can find it here . Also, I had a great time at Essen. I talked with a bunch of publishers, and placed some games for evaluation with them. 5 games that is. I don't think it is kosher to say who, but some are with really cool publishers.

Here are some notes from my last BGDG meeting about Space Game: Make the grid smaller 4x4? 3x3? Make it autofill after every draft Make it go to more points 100? make planets have points, and planets have requirements to ship to cash value of each animal and plant should be on the card bonus money for second, third, fourth start players bring back the multiships make science make more effect on the game. Autoscience? Draft pool for science?

I finished up a version of Grab the Loot, and played it at BGDG and at work. It went fairly well, but I am still not really happy with it. I will probably do more work on it before I try playing it with people again. At the same time I have been playing Terraforming Mars, and Near and Far at work. Both have been really fun. I have also been working on a new version of Jurassic Universe because my kids keep wanting to play it with me. They love making the ecosystems, and figuring out what will eat what. Rea is very good at building "working" ecosystems (working according to game rules, not necessarily according to real world ecosystem rules.) I have printed a new version with a few changes, and am ready to test it again. Here are the changes that I made: Making more omnivores combining an animal and a producer on each card (top and bottom) adding back in the science deck (and space scientists to allow you to use it) adding back in planets with rules I have also ...