One of us isn't wearing a costume

I've come up with a card game I'm currently calling "One of us isn't wearing a costume..." and would like some feedback on the concept and maybe some play-testers.

It consists of 54 cards, including:

• 1 setup card
• 21 "rules cards"
• These carry the bulk of the rules weight and sort of control the flow of the game. Each has a binary choice and a direction they should be passed when complete.
• 10 monster cards
• Each of these has two traits shown.
• 10 weakness cards
• One for each monster
• 12 trait cards
• Two each of Claw, Fang, Strong, and Magic plus 4 Blank.

The setup card has the players set two random Trait cards aside, before being assigned a random monster and shuffling the remaining Trait cards with the Blanks and the weaknesses and dealing those out face down to all monsters evenly. Then whoever is setting up says aloud something to the effect of "This is a Real Time Game. If you have any rule cards it is your turn. Whenever a rule card is handed to you it goes on the bottom of the stack of rule cards you are working through. The game ends immediately when all monster cards are face down." Then they hand the stack of shuffled rule cards to any player they want. The back of the setup card has rules for the end game.

The moment the rule cards are handed of any player with 1 or more rule cards acts in real time to work through their cards and hopefully figure out who the monsters is and how to best insure their survival. When the game ends the set aside traits are revealed, and if the monster associated has their own weakness they lose. Otherwise the monster wins, but whoever has the monsters weakness card is safe.

Party game idea

I had an idea for a party game while on the bus yesterday. A simple concept that I feel like must have been done before, or there must be something at least similar to but I can't think of it.

Basically, the game is inspired by AMAs (ask me anything). In fact, I'll probably call it AMA if I do anything with this.

The way I see the gameplay is pretty simple.

1. Each round one player is giving an AMA. They draw a card (or maybe 2 and choose 1) that represents who they are.
2. Then the other players get the chance to ask questions. Probably a limited number of them. I'm thinking something like starting from the player to the left and continuing clockwise, each player may ask one question and have it answered or pass until 5 questions have been answered or all players have passed.
3. Then the players write down there guess of who is giving the AMA and if they are right they get 1 point. If everyone is right the person giving the AMA gets 2 points.
4. Continue until either everyone has had the chance to give an AMA or someone reaches an arbitrary score, say 15 points.

Tabletop FPS AI system

I've been playing around with a system for NPC movement on a hex grid. I'm making the system for use with an FPS, but I imagine it could be used with some alteration in any number of applications.

January design update

Continuing the new monthly update format. This time, because a lot of them don't have updates I'm going to have two parts. The first part is for games that have NOT been updated. This will just be a list of links back to the last blog update that includes that game. The second part is for games that actually have an update this month.

Entering Contests

The Game Crafter runs a number of Challenges (i.e. contests) every year, and for the most part, I've ignored them. Usually, because by the time I notice one I'm interested in they are just about finished and so I don't have time to design something for the contest. Right now, there are three contests running that I'm interested in. And I have designs mostly "ready" for two of them, and an idea for the third.

Approaches to random elements in games

I've been thinking a lot about luck lately. Specifically, I've been thinking a lot about how elements of luck are approached in games. Not so much specific randomizers, but structurally speaking. And I've come up with three basic approaches to luck that I think all games fall into. And of course, most games fall into multiple categories. The three categories as I see them are:

• Deterministic - in which the mechanics have no inherent random element. Any feeling of randomness comes from player interaction or hidden information.
• Uncertain Actions - in which player make a choice and then some sort of randomizer affects the result of that choice.
• Random Events - in which a random element takes effect and then players make choices in response to that event.

Surrounded with a Shotgun - new weapons?

The decision has been made at VPG to treat all games like potential Kickstarter productions. That is to say, that in development we have to consider what kind of stretch goals may make sense with the game.

So now, I'm considering what can be added to Surrounded with a Shotgun as stretch goals. It is proving difficult, especially given that I personally really don't like the concept of gameplay exclusives.

Unfortunately, given the game's components, there aren't a lot of non-gameplay exclusive options that make sense. Which means any exclusive will likely have to include a gameplay element. So, I've been giving that some thought.

Surrounded, with a Shotgun (SwaSG)

This game started its life as a joke. A few years back, during an office Christmas party at Victory Point Games, we had a gift exchange. And not just a gift exchange, but a white elephant gift exchange. For us, that meant humorous gifts primarily. My entry into the exchange was a completely untested, and as a result very broken game called Nate's of Siege. Nate's of Siege was basically a zombie game in which the player was trapped in the VPG office and being attacked from all sides, but instead of zombies the player was being attacked by hordes of Nates. It was a Natepocalypse.

General Update

So, it has been a while since I've written a blog entry. Which is mostly unacceptable. Yes, life happens sometimes, but that is kind of a shallow excuse. In any case, I'm going to try to correct that going forward by doing updates in a more scheduled fashion. For now, let's say every Monday at noon pacific. Because that's my day off. We'll see how I do with that.

To start this new schedule off I'm going to give a general overview of a selection of the games I am currently working on. This is as seen from space kind of overview, so details will be a little scarce but should give an idea of the games I'm working on at the moment. In the coming weeks, I will try to do a more thorough write-up for each of these games.

Blind Detective

So, I had an interesting game idea while I was sleeping last night. The basic premise is this; one player is a blind detective who is called to a crime scene, all the other players are characters who may be at that crime scene. All of the players except the blind detective can see the crime scene via an 8.5x11 page they can pass around. They also all may have exclusive access to one or two extra pieces of information. Information which they are only allowed to share if directly asked.

Roll and Move Fighting Game

So... I think I've come up with a good idea for a roll and move game (something I never thought I'd say). Roll and move as a fighting game. Here's how it works:

The board has two sections; an outer section with spaces for the players to move an action pawn around, and an inner section where they carry out actions.

I need a better economics education

So I'm working on an economics game. Specifically, it is a medieval business simulation. When I started, I had thought I had a fairly decent grasp of what I would need to know in order to create the 4 market system I had in mind. I designed a system. I was proud of my system but something just didn't feel right. I posted on Reddit and Facebook to get feedback. I was right. My system was broken. Not in a mechanic sense, as I think it would function exactly as I designed it. But rather it was broken from a thematic standpoint. I didn't obey basic economic principles.

Federation of Sol

A couple of weeks ago VPG officially assigned a developer for my science fiction "States of Siege" game, Federation of Sol. And I've been going back and forth with him and the game has moved forward by leaps and bounds.

Reich - working title

So, I've started working on a follow-up project for The Chosin Few. Currently, I'm calling it Reich but that is likely to change. It uses the basic A.I. system of The Chosin Few modified somewhat to allow it to scale to the entirety of WW2. You play as the military head of Germany who has to carry out the orders of Hitler. This will, of course, necessitate a few tweaks to the engine. I would love to get some feedback/thoughts on the following tweaks.

Inspiration can come from some strange places...

So, about a week ago I came up with two game ideas on a road trip to RAGEcon. Both mechanically very similar but thematically quite strikingly different. They were both inspired by the song Suicide is Painless (the MASH theme), as performed by Marylin Manson. I'm going to be looking to test both of these soon. If you are interested in either or both please enquire. If you want to just try it out and not give feedback... well the images you need are below.

Idea for a Dice Game.

I have dice game mechanism running through my head and I feel like I've seen something similar to this before, but I can't for the life of me think of where. If you know, let me know. But in any case, here's the basic idea:

A drafting game skeleton

I was showing my game Draftcar to some kids at Strategicon (Gamex) this weekend, and one of them asked me what it actually means for a game to be a drafting game, since he played in or was going to play in a Magic tournament which was a drafting tournament and didn't see how drafting there was anything like drafting in my game. I'm not sure if my explanation actually made sense to him or not, but basically, I said something along the lines of "drafting is basically anytime you have to make a selection from a limited subset."

4X Euro Space game, part 2

In a previous blog entry, I discussed ideas for a Space themed 4x "euro" design. Mostly in that blog I covered really broad strokes kind of stuff. Games that inspired me, the basics of the movement mechanisms, resources, ideas about leadership and building stuff. And that great, but today I want to really dig into the idea a bit more. A lot of stuff is still nebulous but some of the elements have solidified nicely and I want to talk about both.

Euro 4x idea

My absolute favorite board game is easily twilight imperium. But, it's so hard to get to the table. Primarily, I think, do to the length and perceived complexity of the game. I'm also quite fond of Eclipse, particularly its economic system, which is quite a bit faster in terms of gameplay. So you would think that at some point I would have tried my hand at the genre. I have not because I've never felt I had something to add and make a better game.

Roll and Rondel

I've been a bit enamored by rondels lately. There is something very elegant about the whole concept. So, of course, I've come up with a few ideas centered around them. Today, I'm going to discuss an idea I had for a dice placement variant. So, very loosely, the mechanism works as follows:

1. Roll a number of dice (determined by number of rondels in the game)
2. Assign those dice to the rondels (you may assign multiple dice to a single rondel or spread them out)
3. Move your pawn/token on each rondel you assigned dice a number of spaces equal to the total of the dice assigned
4. For the rondels which you assigned dice, carry out the actions on the rondels
5. Collect and pass dice to the next player.