2022-2023: A playtesting retrospective

It seems like every couple of years I post a playtesting retrospective, taking a look at what I've been doing over the last 2 years. It's about that time again, so let's see what got played and what projects I worked on in 2022 and 2023:

2022

January

I kicked off the year with what looks like one final test of the Amun-Re Afterlife expansion module (for Alley Cat's 20th anniversary edition) - in particular looking at a dummy for 2 player (I believe that was to do with the offering each round, to ensure players didn't walk away with 2 rewards for just $1)

Other than that, and a couple of cancelled playtests for lack of players, I spent the rest of January testing the new additions to Deities & Demigods. The publisher had wanted the game to be heavier and more "4X"-y, so I had added a new deity (was using Hades for a stand-in): a god of exploration. In particular I was testing some generic Enemy tokens that you could encounter and dispatch in some way -- the details are fuzzy, but my notes say they were not necessary, so they didn't make the cut

February

Not much testing at all in February... it looks like my only session was spent on a play of a game I was doing a consultation on - a time track version of "Frostbite," which is what eventually became Expeditions, by Jamey Stegmaier

March

Looks like March was another light month, with some sessions skipped for one reason or another. We played Rick's game Starlight (which we'd played a bit last year), as well as a new version of "Frostbite," this time featuring deck building instead of a time track

April

April was much better, it appears I got back to more regular sessions, beginning with 2 more plays of the Frostbite

Beyond that, there were 3 plays of Keeping Up With The Joneses (including one in person!), trying to find a better version of the Social aspect (maybe one that was more interactive). Also tried a "strategic Joneses" variant, where the Joneses marker moved according to player choice rather than at random

May

In May I played one more game of Keeping Up With The Joneses, and decided that the "strategic Joneses idea was OK, but not better than random

Then I moved on to a brand new game, a Worker Placement Microgame that I prototyped on scraps of paper at my friend Mohan's house. I quickly iterated through a couple of drafts with three plays of the game in May, and more to come in the following months

June

Quite a few plays in June, including 6 more plays of the Worker Placement Microgame (v 2.0, v2.1, and v2.2), 1 more play of Keeping Up With The Joneses, 1 play of Keith Burgun's new card game Spellstorm (a follow up to Dragon Bridge, with deck building), as well as another brand new idea... a trick taking game where the card you played moves your piece on a grid... it crashed and burned pretty hard

July

A decent number of plays this month, partly because some of the games are short and got played back to back... two more plays of Keeping Up With The Joneses, I'd finally found what I think is the final format for the Social track (every couple of steps it lets you activate one of the adjacent tracks), followed by another brand new one: a Push-your-Luck Microgame - an idea which came together quickly and seemed to work very well right off the bat! I have 6 recorded TTS plays of the PYL Microgame in July, but there might have even been a few more than that, because I remember playing it in person as well

In addition to those games, I had another brand new idea that kinda crashed and burned pretty hard: I tried to make a lane combat microgame, which used a Rock/paper/Scissors mechanic in it. That did not work

We tried the first draft of another of Rick's games (called Tanglewood), which was an enjoyable area majority game with entangled decisions, and then finally ended the month with initial plays of a couple of games for a development gig I'd gotten with Pandasaurus Games: a prototype called Trailblazers (later re-themed and called Holiday in Rome)

August

In August I played an updated version of that Spellstorm game, by Keith Burgun, but the rest of that month was dedicated to 5 plays of Holiday In Rome. I spent 2 of those plays experimenting with a whole new format, which turned out to be "just OK," and not clearly better than the original format, so I set that new format idea aside and concentrated on the low hanging fruit of the original design

September

In seven more games of Holiday in Rome, I went through 2nd and 3rd pass development changes, and zeroed in on final tweaks

Another play of Tanglewood rounded out the month, along with another consultation playtest - a game called Fled

October

Another two plays of Fled and I would complete my consultation work on that project, then I played another iteration of Spellstorm, Exhibit: Artifacts of the Ages (just to play an old design of mine), and a new idea for a 3-lane card game for an informal game design jam. This idea worked alright for a 1st attempt, but it wasn't great

The rest of the month was spent on Holiday In Rome (8 more tests - some finer details, and player powers)

November

We started off November with a 2nd draft of that 3-lane card game, which I think is the last time I ever played that one. Later in the month I had a different idea for a different lane based game, inspired by Rolling Realms and Animal Kingdoms, and I tried it 8 times over the course of the month

There was another development project (a game called Olroc, but think the name will change before it comes out), Daniel's 3-lane game, an interactive "flip & write" by Daniel called Shipdoku, and my Push-Your-Luck Microgame peppered in among5 more plays of Holiday In Rome (more player powers and last minute items)

December

To finish off the year we played with another game of Shipdoku, revisited Sails & Sorcery just for fun, and then dove into another development project: a reprint (and revamp) of Harvest. First, I played the original 2017 TMG release of Harvest to familiarize my playtesters and to discuss issues the publisher noted about it. The next 4 games we started in on the new version from the designer (Trey Chambers), and helped iterate through several versions of that.

Oh, man... 2022 was a pretty big year for me! It saw me start to finally get Seth Jaffee Development up and running, taking on 3 consultation jobs and a heavy development project. In addition, I came up with several new game ideas (at least one of which was actually good, maybe two!), worked on one of my own games (KUWtJ) quite a bit, and effectively co-designed a TMG favorite of mine for a new publisher.  

Now let's take a look at 2023:

2023

January

The beginning of the year was spent mostly on 7 plays of Harvest 2.0, though we also played 2 games of a new design by Rick: Scarab of Ra (a tabletop game reminiscent of an old Mac shareware game that he made in 1987(!) )

February

This month, among 5 more plays of Harvest 2.0, I started a new commissioned project... a publisher had signed the old Knizia title Merchants of Amsterdam, and they wanted it to be updated a bit. I had played the original game *years* ago, so in February I managed to get a TTS mod together for it (with the help of a photo of some of the cards from Rick!) and try the game out with my testers -- Rick and I hadn't played in over a decade, and the others had never played at all. Then we tried again with a "big new idea" I had for it, as a sort of proof of concept, and started to identify other ways to improve or update the game.

March

March was almost entirely taken up with 10 plays of "Revampsterdam" (my amusing code name for the Merchants of Amsterdam update), iterating on various rules and dynamics each time, honing in on something I considered good

In addition, we played a new design from Aaron, which was an interesting game where you were forced into interaction with each neighbor

April

April saw 1 more play of Aaron's game, and 7 more plays of Revampsterdam, iterating on a few details of the round structure and events

May

May was a weird month... we played two of Rick's games (Starlight with a new expansion module for God powers, and Ultimus Libre, a sort of deck building game. We only played 2 games of Revampsterdam, and one of those was to show another team of developers that the publisher usually uses, and who are evidently working on the game now

We also played a game of All For One, just for fun

June

Speaking of weird months... in June we didn't have any regular playtest sessions at all. however, I had a couple of unusual ones: 

First was a brainstorming session with Rick and Daniel, where we each talked about something we'd been thinking about or stuck on (Rick's was "trick taking as a mechanism," Daniel's was a sort of CCG/Eurogame mashup, and mine was I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement)

Then later in the month I toyed around with some of the kid's game stuff I'd considered before: a memory/rondel game, and the race mechanism that would later become the Balloon Race game). We tried each of the mechanisms, brainstormed a bit, even tried combining the two into one game

July

Late last month, Vincent was born, so all playtesting went on hiatus for the month of July. Fortunately, this time there was no "living int he hospital for 6 weeks" like when Corbin was born, so come mid-August I was able to start getting back into the swing of things, though regular twice-a-week playtesting wouldn't begin again until October or so

August

Playtesting was minimal in August, due to the new baby, but I did manage one play of Revampsterdam, and one play of a new game that my friend Steve came up with (and which I have since come in as a co-designer on). At the time it didn't have a title or setting, but we're now leaning towards a Japan theme circa late 1500s, with the title Taiko Kiri. In Taiko Kiri, you rebuild a war-torn Japan by placing tiles to *either* collect resources *or* spend them on projects, which score based on the configuration of the communal board

In addition to those couple of plays, I had a few meetings with a publisher who was interested in not one, not two, but *three* of my games! I played Keeping Up With the Joneses, Sails & Sorcery, and All For One with the publisher's rep, and the last 2 of those made it past that first hurdle, the rep wanted to play them with the team!

September

Unfortunately, after playing with the publisher team in September, they decided to pass on both of those games. *Sigh* oh well, just getting those pitch meetings feels like progress

To round out the month, I played Taiko Kiri once more with Steve, and I got Goballoon Racing (what became of that kid's racing mechanism from before) to the table 3 times

October

October was filled with games of Goballoon Racing (x3), and Taiko Kiri (x6). They both made great strides in that time

We also had another sort of brainstorming session to talk about an RPG idea Aaron had, and to discuss some of the comments I received from that publisher on All For One, including what a "modernized pickup/deliver" mechanism might be

November

November brought two more games of Taiko Kiri, and I think the game is settling into that "seems close to done" situation, where sometimes games sit for a long time, until they're either pitched around, or a breakthrough is made otherwise

It also brought two more chat/brainstorm sessions, one with Rick about Taiko Kiri, which yielded at least one idea that ended up being a keeper, and the other was about an idea I had for a cooperative mode for Eminent Domain

Speaking of... I put together a prototype and started testing EmDo: Coalition, and got 3 plays in, quickly zeroing in on a solid format

Another interesting thing that happened in November was that I finally got a "near final" version of The Sixth Realm from the publisher, and it's pretty much unrecognizable! It's much heavier and more involved, and in both games we played of it, it took us almost an hour to go through the rules, and another hour to get through the first (of 3) rounds of play. I sent a bunch of feedback to the developer, and it sounds like they took some of my suggestions to heart, so that's good. 

December

I'm posting this in early December, and so far I've just had 1 game of Eminent Domain: Coalition. That game is getting to a really good place, and I was really antsy to test it again with the latest changes on Thursday, but unfortunately, my players weren't around. Hopefully we can play it tomorrow, and I'd also like to get Taiko Kiri back to the table this month

I'm told that the deadline for The Sixth Realm is fast approaching, and that they've been tweaking and playing that feverishly at the publisher, and I hope to get to play the latest update to that as well this month

And one more thing that's on the horizon, and which may be ready to try this month, is an Isle of Trains follow up that I'm working on with Dan called Isle of Advanture

That's a lot of stuff to want to test this month, and with the holidays, everyone's schedule is screwey, but sometimes that means more opportunistic time for playtesting :)

Heavy is the game that holds the crown... Strategic weight vs Logistical weight

There are some games of a particular type that I sometimes refer to as "ducks-in-a-row" games, where the fun is in logistically executing actions rather than actually planning the actions themselves. Often in those types of games the strategic depth is low, so it's fairly easy to decide what you'd like to do... but actually getting it done is far from trivial. That can be a fun, puzzle-y challenge. While in other games, it might be easy to execute what you want to do, but coming up with what's a good thing to do is less clear

So maybe it's reasonable to split "heavy" games into 2 categories -- let's call them "logistically heavy" and "strategically heavy." For example, Ark Nova is strongly in the "logistically heavy" group, while 

Are there any games you can think of that are both logistically heavy AND strategically heavy?

The thing I'm thinking about isn't long term vs short term (strategic vs tactical), and when I say "logistically heavy," I don't mean planning... perhaps I should try again. The thing I've got in mind is (to throw a few more terms in the mix) Decision Cognition vs Compliance Cognition, as we talked about them on The Argument Hour... if you happened to catch that podcast.

Ark Nova has a lot of stuff that feels more like Compliance Cognition: 

I want to play this animal, so I will use my Animal action - no problem. I need an enclosure - it says I need size 4, oh and it says it needs to be by water. So I have to build that. Ok, what else do I need? A partner zoo in Asia? Ok, so I'll use an Association action to get that. Oh, I also need to upgrade my Animal action first? Ok, how do I do that? Oh, I need ANOTHER partner zoo, or I can get 3 more hat icons to do it... oh, or if I can find a way to get 2 Shields, then I can get it that way (as long as someone else doesn't do it first)...

In more general terms, this boils down to something like: "I want to do this? Ok, now I need to do these 5 other things first."

Some players play a game like that and think "I just want to decide to do the thing, then do the thing!"

This is what I mean by games that are logistically heavy. In order to do the thing, you need to do several other things, and each of those things might have a couple of steps or pre-requisites as well

But deciding which thing you want to do in the first place in Ark Nova isn't terribly complex -- it's pretty straightforward in fact. It's not the 'what' that's tricky, but the 'how', so it's not strategically heavy. The weight of the game comes primarily from the logistics -- from getting your ducks in a row

... As opposed to games where the what is challenging, but the how is not. I think these tend to be called "lighter" by folks

I think there's compliance cognition (which isn't quite the above, but is similar), there's logistics, and there's the strategic decision. At the highest level, you make your strategic decision, the move that's going to (hopefully) advance you toward winning. The next level down is logistics -- what has to happen in order to enact your plan, decided above? Below that there's a layer of rules that you need to navigate in order to achieve each logistical step.

In the simplest case, you decide what you want to do (decision), then you just do it (logistics), and you're allowed to (rules)

In a more complicated case, you decide what you want to do (decision), there are prerequisites and steps you have to take in order to do it (logistics), and then there are compliance considerations about what you're allowed to do (rules)

The List - November 2023

   I know I just posted about The List a month ago, but I've already got some updates to it!

Published Games:

- Terra Prime (BGG)
- Eminent Domain (BGG) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Escalation (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Exotica (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Microcosm (BGG) [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Isle of Trains (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) (BGG)
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) [New edition from Dranda Games with included expansion]
- Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG) [now available from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [now available from Renegade!]

- Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes (BGG)
- Gold West: Bandits promo (BGG)
- Gold West: Trading Post promo (BGG)
- Yokohama: Achievements & Free Agents promo (BGG)
- Brainfreeze

Development projects - Games I've done freelance development on

- Amun-Re expansion [Alley Cat Games 20th Anniversary edition] - Heavy Development

- Harvest (BGG) [by Trey Chambers from Keymaster Games] - Heavy Development

- Holiday In Rome (add BGG link) [by Cory Andalora from Pandasaurus Games - coming soon!] - Heavy Development

- Expeditions (BGG) [by Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games] - Consultation

- Fled (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2024 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

- Forelords (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2025 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

Finished But Unpublished Games - in line to be published:
- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Amber Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]

- Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory (dice game) [Ready for art] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]

- Apotheosis (Co-Design with Rick Holzgrafe) [signed by a publisher!]

Currently Pitching Games - "actively" looking for a publisher (though I haven't actively been doing much of anything lately!):

- Sails & Sorcery (Co-Design with Michael Mindes) [pitching to publishers]

- Riders of the Pony Express (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Exhibit (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Keeping Up with the Joneses [pitching to publishers]

- All For One (BGG) (Co-Design with David Brain) [pitching to publishers]

- Alter Ego (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Dice Works (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Suburban Sprawl [pitching to publishers]

 

"Finished" But Unpublished Games - abandoned or backburnered designs that are "done":
- Wizard's Tower (BGG) [Abandoned]
- Watch It Played [Abandoned]
- Now Boarding [Abandoned]
- Rolling Realms: Jaffee Realms (for Jamey Stegmaier's Rolling Realms)

- Press-Your-Luck Microgame (KBGames 18 card game jam entry, July 2022)

- Worker Placement Microgame

Current Active Designs - these are the games I'm actively testing or working on:

- Let's Go Balloon Racing

- Taiko Kiri (co-design with Steve Carleson)

- "Revampsterdam" [revamp of an old game, commissioned by a publisher]

- Isle of Adventure (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- Eminent Domain: Coalition [solo mode]

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [coming soon from Final Frontier Games]

Backburnered Designs - I kid myself into thinking that I'm still working on these:

- Isle Of Trains: The Board Game (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- Joan of Arc

- I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement

- Kingdom Realms (KBGames 3-lane game jam entry, Nov 2022)

Promising Recent ideas:
- Worker-ception [with David Short]

- False Prophet [Mancala/Worker Placement]

- Come And Play [Sesame Street memory/rondel game]

- Candyland Game [Candyland/No Thanks mashup]

- Hanabi Wonders [Hanabi/7 Wonders mashup]

- Stable Genius ["Wingspan of Horses"]

- Eminent Domain: Legacy [campaign mode]

Old Standbys - games which have been around, 1/2 done and untouched, for years:
- 8/7 Central [Abandoned]
- Hot & Fresh [Abandoned]

- Odysseus: Winds of Fate (BGG) [Abandoned]

- Reading Railroad [Abandoned]

- Moctezuma's Revenge [Abandoned]

- Kilauea [a designer showed interest in co-designing, but that didn't go anywhere] [Abandoned]

- Automatown [with Michael Brown] [Abandoned]

- Dynasty [I still think this one has potential] [Abandoned]

Misc and Really Old Stuff - most of this I'll probably never get back to, but I like keeping it around just in case:
- 9-Ball
- Blockade Runner
- Roman Emperors (my version of someone else's game)
- Admirals of the Spanish Main (my version of someone else's game)

- Investigative/Tabloid Journalism
- Red Colony
- Clash of the Kingpins
- Time = Money
- Dating Game
- Ticket Please
- The Untouchables
- Day labor game based on craps

- Rondel Role Selection

- Scourge of the High Seas [deckbuilding game with 2 center rows]

Recent updates to the above

Finished But Unpublished Games

- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Amber Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]

Renegade hasn't sold through the initial print run of Crusaders yet, it seems it hasn't performed as well as they'd hoped, so it seems the 5th and 6th player expansion stuff has been put on hold, so I've updated their status accordingly. it's disappointing, but understandable.

 

Current Active Designs

- Taiko Kiri (co-design with Steve Carleson)

This is the game my friend (and now co-designer) Steve made, inspired by Tri-ominoes. We've decided to go with a Japanese theme: the game takes place during the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, perhaps the most famous figure in Japanese history, and is centered on Kyoto, which was then the capital of the shogunate. Players are prominent members of the bakufu, the central administrative branch of the shogunate during Hideyoshi’s rule. They are tasked with revitalizing the city and its environs, with the player who does the best job gaining Kampaku Hideyoshi’s favor.

- Eminent Domain: Coalition [solo mode]

I figured out a way to play Eminent Domain cooperatively, and I put together a prototype to try it out. I've played twice so far, and I think it's a solid beginning. I even have ideas to address the biggest problems with the game so far. I'll be posting about the progress on this game sometime soon.

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [coming soon from Final Frontier Games]

This heavily developed version of Deities & Demigods was originally slated for crowdfunding this month, but the publisher has decided to wait a few months until their previous crowdfunded game has been delivered. So this one should hit kickstarter in January or February 2024.

I got a chance to play the latest version a couple of times, and I've been communicating with the developer about some last minute tweaks and changes, so I've moved it to "Currently Active" status.

Promising Recent ideas:

- Eminent Domain: Legacy [campaign mode]

Some years ago I had an idea for an "Eminent Domain Legacy" tournament format, where each round your starting deck is different based on its end configuration in the previous game. It's not enough by itself, but I think that could be the core of a campaign mode for Eminent Domain, and since that's being reprinted next year by Rio Grande Games, now's as good a time as any to explore the idea further.

Eminent Domain: Modus Operandi?

Eminent Domain has been in a restful slumber for some time now, ever since Oblivion came out in 2018. Soon after that, TMG started a slow and painful demise, and along with it, any chance for further sales or content for Eminent Domain.

So, it's been a while, but last January's Rio Grande Games newsletter contained this little tidbit:

° We have also begun planning our new games for later in 2023. These include three rail games: Prussian Railroads, Wabash Cannonball, and Balkan Railways; Pacific from Donald X Vaccarino; and a new production of an old favorite Eminent Domain.

We're almost one year out from that newsletter, but I'm happy to report that I've seen some of the new artwork for the boxes and the cards, and it looks pretty great!

I had thought that after the base game, Escalation, Exotica, Oblivion, the standalone Microcosm microgame, the Bonus Planets promo, Chaos Theory (an unreleased EmDo dice game), and the Terra Prime reboot as Eminent Domain Origins (an EmDo prequel), that the well had run dry. I did not have any plans to further expand Eminent Domain.

However, in the wake of TMG, as I tried to find a new home for my titles, it seemed any publisher that showed interest in picking up the line wanted to do a Big Box version, or add some content to freshen up this decade-old game. And I get it -- it's nice to reach a new audience who never had the pleasure of playing EmDo the first time around, but it's also nice to offer something of interest to fans of the game who may be willing to buy it again (but not if it's the same thing they already have). new art alone is not really enough to entice those people, but even just a little bit of new content might be!

EmDo Solo

So, what to include? Again, the well had run dry... I am pretty happy with the amount of actual content that's been added to the game in the three expansions. I don't know that I'd be interested in creating more tech cards, or trying to shoehorn in another new mechanism (like Exotica's Asteroids, or Oblivion's Politics role). Well, I'm not much into solo play, but nowadays more and more players are. It so happens that prolific solo mode designer David Turczi is a fan of Eminent Domain.. maybe having him create a solo mode would be a nice chunk of new content for the game. Well, good news: he's working on it!

However, a solo mode might be better placed in the same box as the base game, so that people wanting to buy the game to play solo don't need to buy both the game and an expansion box. Then again, maybe keeping the base game box more affordable, and keeping the solo mode separate would serve a bigger proportion of the audience. Ultimately that'll be up to Rio Grande Games. 

EmDo: Legacy

Some years ago (2014) I ran an "EmDo Legacy" tournament at Strategicon in L.A. -- here's a description of how it went from a blog post back then:

Round 1 was a normal game of EmDo - players started with the basic starting decks.

After Round 1, I recorded the contents of each player's decks - the number of each standard role card.

For round 2, You started with 1 fewer card in your deck for whichever Role card(s) you had the fewest of at the end of round 1, and you started with 1 more card in your deck for whichever role card(s) you had the most of at the end of round 1.

After round 2 we did the same thing again, but didn't count any card that you started with 0 of... i.e. if you started with 0 Warfare after round 1, then after round 2 you look at the card you had the fewest of BESIDES Warfare.

There were some really interesting starting decks in the final round!

I never tried that again, but I've always thought that format had some potential. When a couple of prospective publishers mentioned wanting to add a sort of campaign mode to freshen up the game, this Legacy format immediately came to mind. I am not sure what else could be added, but I did discuss it with someone who did a TON of playtesting for the expansions back in the day, and he had some really good ideas as well.

So who knows, perhaps the materials needed for a campaign mode could be placed into a 3rd box

EmDo: Coalition

Another potential mode that could be added to the game would be a cooperative mode. Orleans: Trade and Intrigue did that - added a cooperative mode in an otherwise competitive game - and it went over pretty well as I recall. I'm not the biggest player of cooperative games (though there are some I enjoy), but I put a little thought into what a cooperative EmDo might look like, and I stumbled onto something that I think might be the key to make it work!

Imagine that the players have formed a coalition (like a galactic United Nations or something -- United Empires?), and are working together to complete an ambitious project - perhaps a Dyson Sphere:

A Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure that encompasses a star and captures a large percentage of its solar power output. The concept is a thought experiment that attempts to imagine how a spacefaring civilization would meet its energy requirements once those requirements exceed what can be generated from the home planet's resources alone.

The goal of the game would be to complete the project before the game ends (when one (some?) stack runs out). The key mechanism is that whenever you flip a planet, or buy a tech card, you will choose whether to keep it for yourself (like normal) - powering up your engine, or to commit it to the project, placing the card in a slot on a Project board, representing progress toward victory.

In the meantime of course, there would be a deck of "bad stuff" cards that would come up after each round of player turns, representing some antagonistic force (hostile aliens, or space pirates). Players would need to defend against this force, lest they get "curse" style cards in their deck, or lose progress toward winning.

I'm actually pretty excited about this co-op mode, and I'm anxious to get a prototype together and give it a try, maybe this Thursday!

The List - Oct 2023

  Once again it's time to revisit The List! Let's see if anything's changed since last August

Published Games:

- Terra Prime (BGG)
- Eminent Domain (BGG) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Escalation (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Exotica (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion) [new edition coming 2024 or 2025 from a new publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Microcosm (BGG) [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Isle of Trains (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) (BGG)
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) [New edition from Dranda Games with included expansion]
- Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG) [now available from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [now available from Renegade!]

- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Crusaders: Amber Knight (expansion) [coming soon (?) from Renegade!]
- Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes (BGG)
- Gold West: Bandits promo (BGG)
- Gold West: Trading Post promo (BGG)
- Yokohama: Achievements & Free Agents promo (BGG)
- Brainfreeze

Development projects - Games I've done freelance development on

- Amun-Re expansion [Alley Cat Games 20th Anniversary edition] - Heavy Development

- Harvest (BGG) [by Trey Chambers from Keymaster Games] - Heavy Development

- Holiday In Rome (add BGG link) [by Cory Andalora from Pandasaurus Games - coming soon!] - Heavy Development

- Expeditions (BGG) [by Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games] - Consultation

- Fled (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2024 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

- Forelords (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2025 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

Finished But Unpublished Games - in line to be published:
- Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]
- Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory (dice game) [Ready for art] [theoretically signed by a publisher!]

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [coming soon from Final Frontier Games]

- Apotheosis (Co-Design with Rick Holzgrafe) [signed by a publisher!]

Currently Pitching Games - "actively" looking for a publisher (though I haven't actively been doing much of anything lately!):

- Sails & Sorcery (Co-Design with Michael Mindes) [pitching to publishers]

- Riders of the Pony Express (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Exhibit (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Keeping Up with the Joneses [pitching to publishers]

- All For One (BGG) (Co-Design with David Brain) [pitching to publishers]

- Alter Ego (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Dice Works (BGG) [pitching to publishers]

- Suburban Sprawl [pitching to publishers]

 

"Finished" But Unpublished Games - abandoned or backburnered designs that are "done":
- Wizard's Tower (BGG) [Abandoned]
- Watch It Played [Abandoned]
- Now Boarding [Abandoned]
- Rolling Realms: Jaffee Realms (for Jamey Stegmaier's Rolling Realms)

- Press-Your-Luck Microgame (KBGames 18 card game jam entry, July 2022)

- Worker Placement Microgame

Current Active Designs - these are the games I'm actively testing or working on:

- Let's Go Balloon Racing

- Tri-inspired (co-design with Steve Carleson)

- "Revampsterdam" [revamp of an old game, commissioned by a publisher]

- Isle of Adventure (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

Backburnered Designs - I kid myself into thinking that I'm still working on these:

- Isle Of Trains: The Board Game (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

- Joan of Arc

- I-Cut-You-Choose Worker Placement

- Kingdom Realms (KBGames 3-lane game jam entry, Nov 2022)

Promising Recent ideas:
- Worker-ception [with David Short]

- False Prophet [Mancala/Worker Placement]

- Come And Play [Sesame Street memory/rondel game]

- Candyland Game [Candyland/No Thanks mashup]

- Hanabi Wonders [Hanabi/7 Wonders mashup]

- My First Ark Nova [Simpler version of Ark Nova]

- Stable Genius ["Wingspan of Horses"]

Old Standbys - games which have been around, 1/2 done and untouched, for years:
- 8/7 Central [Abandoned]
- Hot & Fresh [Abandoned]

- Odysseus: Winds of Fate (BGG) [Abandoned]

- Reading Railroad [Abandoned]

- Moctezuma's Revenge [Abandoned]

- Kilauea [a designer showed interest in co-designing, but that didn't go anywhere] [Abandoned]

- Automatown [with Michael Brown] [Abandoned]

- Dynasty [I still think this one has potential] [Abandoned]

Misc and Really Old Stuff - most of this I'll probably never get back to, but I like keeping it around just in case:
- 9-Ball
- Blockade Runner
- Roman Emperors (my version of someone else's game)
- Admirals of the Spanish Main (my version of someone else's game)

- Investigative/Tabloid Journalism
- Red Colony
- Clash of the Kingpins
- Time = Money
- Dating Game
- Ticket Please
- The Untouchables
- Day labor game based on craps

- Rondel Role Selection

- Scourge of the High Seas [deckbuilding game with 2 center rows]

Recent updates to the above

Published Games
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (Co-Design with Dan Keltner) [New edition from Dranda Games with included expansion]
Isle of Trains: All Aboard had a strong Kickstarter project, and is currently delivering to backers. I haven't got my copies just yet, but I have seen a number of positive reviews and posts about it, which is great!

Development projects

- Harvest (BGG) [by Trey Chambers from Keymaster Games] - Heavy Development

The new version of Harvest from Keymaster games had a strong Kickstarter recently, and will now move into production

- Expeditions (BGG) [by Jamey Stegmaier from Stonemaier Games] - Consultation

Expeditions has been released. It was over a year and a half ago that I did some consulting for an earlier iteration of the game, hopefully my comments were helpful, though it looks like the final game changed significantly since then

- Fled (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2024 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

- Forelords (BGG) [by Mark Swanson, coming 2025 from Odd Bird Games] - Consultation

I did some consulting on these two games for Mark Swanson of Odd Bird Games, and I see that I'm listed as Developer on their BGG entries. I don't know when they'll be coming out, but they're listed on BGG as 2024 and 2025 releases respectively

Finished But Unpublished Games

- The Sixth Realm (FKA Deities & Demigods) (BGG) (Co-Design with Matthew Dunstan) [coming soon from Final Frontier Games]

The publisher has done significant development on Deities & Demigods, and I believe it will be coming to Kickstarter by the end of the year under the title The Sixth Realm. I've seen a little of the artwork for the game, and it looks awesome!

 

Currently Pitching Games

- Sails & Sorcery (Co-Design with Michael Mindes) [pitching to publishers]

- All For One (BGG) (Co-Design with David Brain) [pitching to publishers]

A publisher expressed some interest in both of these titles, I'm waiting to hear if they will decide to sign either of them (fingers crossed!)

 

Current Active Designs

- Let's Go Balloon Racing

This started as an idea for a mechanism for a kid's game to play with Corbin, and has grown into a legit game with a quirky theme. I'm trying to keep it light, quick, and accessible  

- Tri-inspired (co-design with Steve Carleson)

My friend Steve had an idea for a game, which he described when he was in town visiting recently. I discussed it with him and had a lot of suggestions even then, and after he went home and made a prototype, I played it and had even more (or more specific) suggestions... I really feel like it's got potential as a popular game product. He accepted my offer to co-design the game with him, so now it's on the list!

- "Revampsterdam" [revamp of an old game, commissioned by a publisher]

I was engaged as a Developer to revamp an old game that a publisher had signed, and ended up designing a whole new game using the main mechanism and the aspects of the original that the publisher was most interested in. Currently another developer has started to work on it as well, because my draft might have been a bit too "big" for the publisher's brand

- Isle of Adventure (Co-Design with Dan Keltner)

Dranda Games, the new publisher of Isle of Trains, said they'd be interested in a sequel multi-use card game with positive player interaction, so I did some brainstorming, and I think I've got a good start on a game similar to IoT, where you recruit and equip adventurers and explore a dungeon rather than build and load train cars to fulfill contracts. So far it sounds promising, we'll see how well that holds up as I get a prototype together

Promising Recent ideas:

- Stable Genius ["Wingspan of Horses"]

Back in February, I had a bunch of thoughts about a horse management game, initially spurred by the pun title Stable Genius. I actually used AI chatbot ChatGPT as a sounding board to talk through ideas for this one, and when it came down to it, the approach that interested me the most was a more serious game, for which that title wouldn't be appropriate. I don't know if I'll ever get back to this one, or if I really think it'd be that good to begin with, but we'll see

Horsing around

Stable Genius

About 5 years ago, the then-president of the United States had his mental acuity challenged in the media, and in contesting those allegations, he said, in public, on Twitter: "Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.... I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star... to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!"

Pretty much ever since then, I thought it would be funny to see a horse management game or something entitled Stable Genius. Years passed, and I still haven't seen any such parody game, and recently I had some thoughts about how a game like that might go. Here are some ideas...

1. A horse training game, where the you're trying to get the best trained horse in the stable: the Stable Genius 

2. I can imagine a Euro-style game where you manage a stable, assigning horses to things like races (for money), dressage (for points), farming (for food), breeding (for more horses), or sale. You could upgrade or expand your stable to maintain more horses, speculate on horses (buy low, sell high), breed horses to sell, race, or show, and in the end, the best manager could be labeled a Stable Genius

3. A twist on the above, same thing but add a Mental Acuity track - which would range from "stable" to "unhinged," and would trend downwards (toward "unhinged") over time. Perhaps you would suffer in-game penalties if you drop below a certain threshold, and at game end maybe you gain a bonus for being ahead of other players on the Acuity track. Or like corruption or unrest in some other games, maybe the least stable player straight up loses the game! There could be Mental Acuity challenges which you could earn: cards with in-game conditions on them which, once satisfied, move you up the track. Or maybe even better, literal mental acuity challenges, such as riddles, logic problems, or word puzzles, which you would need to solve to gain those advances.

At that point I took a step back and realized that if I were really to base a game on a pun/meme title that refers to some politician 5 years ago, I'd really have to lean into it, make it look like a parody,  not some game that tries to take itself seriously...

4. As if out of Orwell's Animal Farm, you are a horse angling to be crowned ruler of the ranch, and you'll have to use all your acumen and political machinations to defeat your opponents - for the role will only be won by a true Stable Genius!

Wingspan of Horses

To be honest, the idea that interests me the most is number 2 above, and I don't think it's worth shoehorning in that pun title. But it could be a fun code-name until I come up with a better title. I like the sounds of Equestria, but that appears to be the name of some place in My Little Pony lore, so I'm not sure if it's OK to use. So maybe just Equestrian or something. Lean into the realistic aspects of managing a stable, and maybe I can design, as my playtester put it, the "Wingspan of horses."

Side note... when I heard "Wingspan of horses," all I could think of was Pegasus. My response was "wingspan of horses? What is that - about 35 hands?"

So here are some details I thought of about a potential game about horse management. You may be amused to hear that as a sounding board, I "talked this through" with ChatGPT (the AI chat bot you may have heard about), and it actually proved very helpful!

There are a lot of details that could go into a game about race horses specifically. Pedigree is a huge deal, and while a race horse can earn money by winning races, my understanding is that the real money is in studding out your champion horse. That could be a game all in itself, but I was attracted to the idea of managing a stable of horses, and having to decide what to do with each horse every round. Do you send this horse to the track to earn money? Or should you breed it instead, so you'll have more horses to work with later? Should you train this horse for Dressage to earn some victory points? or put it to work on the farm to produce food to help keep your other horses fed? Should you expand your stable to hold more horses? Or keep your stable small, requiring less food and other resources to maintain?

Breeding

One idea I had - and I think this isn't really accurate to how horse breeding works, but maybe it's acceptable artistic license - was that your horses start out generic, and if you send them to a race, then they "become a race horse" - they are now "better at racing" (whatever that means), and if you breed them, you have a better chance of getting a new horse that's "better at racing." That's the artistic license part - I'm pretty sure the breeding is just based on genetics, I don't think you can pass down training to an offspring. but maybe one can say that you sent the horse to race because you noticed it was good for that, so *hand wave.* Anyway, I liked the idea of having to choose between racing your champion race horse, or breeding it.

Another, different idea I had was that maybe you don't have to choose to breed a horse over doing something else (because I didn't want players having to just breed their horses all the time and not do anything else with them). Instead, maybe you have a number of "Stallions" (which you could increase), which just means you get that many new horses each round to assign to races, shows, farms, sale, etc. Maybe the current configuration of your horses influences whether you get foals of a particular type - for example, maybe you roll a special die for each stallion, and the resulting face shows you what type of horse you get... brown (generic), green (good at racing), purple (good at dressage), yellow (good at farming). Maybe you have a yellow die with 1 each of those faces, plus 2 more yellow faces - so 50% likely to be good at farming, and then similarly a green die, a purple die, and a brown die. Then for each Stallion in your stable, you roll a die, and you get to choose the color of each based on where your horses are assigned.

Both of those sound kind of reasonable to me, depending on how the rest of the game works.

Lifespan

Another aspect is that a horse's useful life is only so long, and it's even shorter for a race horse. So maybe your horses only last a few rounds (like 3), then you have to sell them off or something. And maybe a race horse only lasts 2 rounds instead, representing their shorter useful lifespan due to injury and like, wear and tear. 

If a horse is past its useful lifespan, maybe you automatically sell it for some minimal amount of money, but based on the Input Randomness card mentioned above, maybe you could choose to sell a horse that's on its last legs for more money (and points?) rather than race it or work it.

Input Randomness

In order to make it a game, and dynamically change player incentives, I thought there could be an Input Randomness card drawn each round. it could indicate things in the game that are variable, such as:
* Price at which you can buy a new horse
* Price at which you can sell your horses
* Available races and contests where you can send your horses

Races, Dressage, Selling, Farm work

... sadly, I started writing this post back in February, and I had stopped writing at this point. Having only come back to it now, *8 months* later, and I'm not sure I remember all the details I had in mind at that time. This is why it pays to finish posts or note taking right away!

I know I had been considering that you would assign your horses to the following things each round:

* Racing, where you earn points and money from winning races to supplement income

* Selling, where you can sell your horses for money rather than keep, feed, and use them - see Input Randomness above

* Dressage, where you earn big points for winning First in Show

* Farm work, where you produce food to help feed your horses (vs having fewer horses to feed, or buying food for them)

So each turn you would gain some income and new horses, assign your horses to various jobs, resolve things, and finally feed and age your horses.

That's about all I have at the moment. It kinda sounds like a euro-style resource management game to me... what do you think?

Isle of Trains follow-up: Isle of Adventure?

Dranda Games, the new publisher for Isle of Trains, told me that they had a great Essen, and that people loved their new edition of Isle of Trains: All Aboard - which is great news!

I asked the Dranda guys if they'd be interested in Dana and I revisiting our ideas for an Isle of Trains boardgame, one version of which was a fairly simple rondel game, but they said they'd be more interested in another small-box card game, with multi-use cards, the had similar positive player interaction (like the IoT load thing)

They even floated some ideas they'd had:

* Isle of New York - building skyscrapers with lots of cards then selling them for a profit

* Isle of London - building the subway (I think Isle of New York would be a better start and London would be a good sequel)

* Isle of Taxis - picking up passengers. Like a Crazy Taxi card game 😂

* Isle of Dragons - don't know what to do with that but fantasy games sell well!

I know Dan had made a pirate hunting game based on the IoT mechanism called Queen Anne's Revenge, which got honorable mention in the Hippodice game design contest, and even had publisher interest I believe, but I don't know what ever became of it. I suggested to Dan that perhaps we could distill that down to a small-box card Isle of Pirates card game, which could be doable.

Then I had a new idea that sounded interesting to me. After a days brainstorming, this is what I have so far, and the Dranda guys like the sound of it:

Isle of Adventure

Play as a party leader, recruiting and equipping adventurers to delve the local dungeon looking for treasure!

Each card in your hand could be an adventurer (Warrior, Mage, Cleric, Thief), or equipment (Bolt, Scroll, Potion, Pick?), or can be used as coin to hire new adventurers or train them up.

A dungeon is laid out on the table, built of face down tiles. Players will move their parties through the dungeon, racing to loot it of valuable treasure! On your turn you will do 2 of the following actions:

* Draw a card (search the room? Go to town?)

* Recruit an adventurer to join your party

* Train an adventurer (they level up)

* Equip an adventurer (yours or an opponent's)

* Delve into the dungeon (facing its challenges)

When equipping an adventurer, you tuck the proper equipment card under them. If you equip your own adventurer, you get nothing but the equipment. If you equip an opponent's adventurer, you get paid in cards, gold (virtual cards to spend), and actions:

* Party Leader: Delve/Explore the Dungeon

* Warrior: Recruit/Train

* Mage: Gain and cast spells, giving you ongoing abilities

* Cleric: Heal damage from party members

* Thief: Equip

Your party leader would have a green "Fleet of foot" value - this is the capacity of your party, and also helps you move in the dungeon. Each adventurer would have a number of red foot icons (never to exceed your leader's green foot value) - the bigger the party, the slower they move through the dungeon. When you Delve (explore), you will be able to move through face up tiles, and flip up a face down tile using your remaining green foot icons - and discarding cards to gain feet for the turn. When you flip up a tile, you get a chance to pay the required equipment (and maybe take the required wounds) in order to gain the benefit printed on the tile.

(Wounds reduce the effectiveness of your adventurers - they won't be able to take new equipment until they are healed by a cleric)

Some tiles have Boss Encounters on them -- chances to gain lots of treasure if you have the right assortment of equipment

That's all I have so far, but it sounds promising to me, and slightly more than a straight re-skin if the spells and the dungeon tiles work out well.

Let's Go Balloon Racing - status report

After testing this game a few times now on Tabletop Simulator, I'm happy to report that I think it's actually working quite well!

The race algorithm makes for some dramatic swings of fate, and after a few tweaks I think I've honed in on some details to make the game work as intended. Here's a current rundown of the rules:

Let's Go Balloon Racing!

SETUP
1. Lay out balloon cards (or balloon board, perhaps)
2. Deal 1 Effect card to each balloon
3. Deal 1 Stowaway card to each player

GAME ROUND
1. Players simultaneously choose a balloon, then place their player cube under that balloon
2. From left to right, activate the effect on each balloon that has at least 1 player cube under it, then move the player cube onto the balloon card (adjust the balloon's altitude if necessary) 
3. Shuffle and deal 4 Movement cards. For each movement card, move the indicated balloon:
High altitude (0-2 cubes): 6 spaces
Mid altitude (3-4 cubes): 4 spaces
Low altitude (5+ cubes): 2 spaces
4. Shuffle all Effect cards and deal a new one to each balloon

RACE END / GAME END
At the end of each round, if any balloon has crossed the finish line, do the following:
1. Any player with a Stowaway card matching that balloon reveals their card and adds 1 of their player cubes to that balloon
2. Count all player cubes on all balloons that have crossed the finish line - if any player has a clear plurality, then they win the game. If there is a tie, then the game continues. Check for a winner again the next time any balloon crosses the finish line.

Balloons that have crossed the finish line are "locked in" -- they no longer get effect cards, and cannot be the target of effects

I have tried to keep the Effect cards such that play can be simultaneous, and the effects won't create any decisions or turn order issues when resolving. Currently some of the effect cards will situationally have no effect at times, and as my friend Mohan put it, I'd rather they all have an effect every time, so there ay be room for improvement there.

The next thing I intend to try are "Alone bonuses" -- either structurally, or per card, there could be an additional or augmented effect if you are the only player to play on a balloon. Since this would avoid turn order issues, these affects could target particular cubes, or allow for moving cubes from balloon to balloon, which I'd like to see more of.

It's not terribly thematic, but for the next test I think I'll try a standard Alone bonus of "move 1 of your cubes from this balloon to any other balloon, or from any other balloon to this balloon" and just see how it goes.

As for the Effect cards, here's what I've got at the moment:

BURST OF WIND: Move all balloons in MID altitude 2 spaces

GUST OF WIND: Move all balloons in LOW altitude 3 spaces

CUT THE ROPE: Return 1 cube at random from this balloon to its owner

GRAPPLING HOOK: Move the nearest balloon(s) in each direction to this space

HEAD WIND: Move all balloons in the lead (1st place) BACKWARD 3 spaces

TAIL WIND: Move all balloons in the rear (last place) FORWARD 3 spaces

UPDRAFT: This balloon moves as if it were 1 level HIGHER this round

STICK TOGETHER: Add 1 more cube to this balloon

SHOTGUN APPROACH: Add 1 cube to all other balloons in this o adjacent spaces (do not trigger effects)

PICK UP THE PACE (x5): Add this card to the movement deck (there's one of these for each color)

I had 2 others, but I think I am going to cut them because I don't think I like the dynamic they bring to the game:
KAMAKAZI: Discard all cubes on this balloon (including cubes placed this turn)

SUICIDE MISSION: Each opponent discards 1 cube from each balloon in this and adjacent spaces. Discard the cube you placed this turn.

With the exception of those cuts, I'm pretty happy with the other effects, except sometimes they end up being null -- for example, Burst of Wind and Gust of Wind in the first turn of the game are pretty useless, as none of the balloons probably have enough cubes on them to drag them down into the lower altitudes. Mohan suggested perhaps replacing those with "all balloons with the most cubes on them..." and "all balloons with the fewest cubes on them..." for example. that way they'd always have some effect.

I'm interested in more ideas for effect cards, if you have some, put them in the comments!