Okay, so I wrote a whole blog about my new work process then thought – nah, that won’t be of interest, so instead let me show you something that I am doing for fun:
Detective Casebook is a new game, currently in private play test mode that I wrote to enter into the BoardGameGeek 9 card game competition.
Obviously, with the pocket quest games I've produced similar size games before but the strict 9 card limit for the game cards is new to me. I normally provide a few more as you can see in the original Pocket Quest:
(I will put Tiger Hunt and Star Trader in the shop shortly.)
More to the point though, I don't usually enter competitions and I wasn't a member of the website until the day I decided to enter the competition - although I have lurked on the site for years, mostly reading reviews!
The game has gone through four major versions so far in a blitz of designing and testing (I only found out about the competition shortly before the application window closed).
I found that I was overcomplicating things in an effort to get a nuanced gaming experience when really, I think the true elegance of a good game is to provide that nuanced experience with a simple design. Also, not every game needs to be nuanced.
Hopefully the first public version of the rules and cards will be available for download and play testing within the next ten days. The game is designed as a monochrome print game so it will be easy to print at home (this is so NOT Star Trader which has wonderfully rich colours as you can see above). The character sheet looks like this currently:
And the game overview is this:
I don't think I've ever taken out so many mechanics from a game so it has been an interesting design process so far. I will let you all know when it is available to test out. In the meantime you can follow the progress on BoardGameGeeks, if you are a member (it's free) via:
I'm excited to play test some of the other games in the competition as well. Someone has done a space game which was my first intention (clearly I veered hard from that path) and there are several other interesting games. All told, there are about 50 games in the overall competition.
Other than that, there has been a lot of creating across multiple projects this week, lots of posting of content to backers and reorganising of furniture in the office AND a brand new logo for the business... more on that in two weeks. All good stuff.
Until next time, keep gaming. Stephen
PS Those of you who have purchased Zilight Egypt might recognise the chap on the cover of Detective Casebook. That is not me being lazy with the artwork, that is deliberate...