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Rusty Kettle posted:Thanks to the recommendations in this thread, I went with Innovation. It seems like there is a lot of interaction with two players, so it'll be something she'll like. She likes to mess with me.
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Aug 9, 2012 00:14
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xopods posted:Sounds good, but I feel like you'll get more creative entries if you propose some theme, mechanic or other concept as the unifying thing for the entries. People tend to get blocked or go with cliches when you tell them to "make anything." I agree with this completely. I'll propose "Competitive Co-Op", seeing as that's basically what started discussion on this topic.
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Aug 9, 2012 00:15
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Stoked to try designing my first game for contest!
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Aug 9, 2012 00:29
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Count me as one more in support for the board game contest. I have a sweet competitive co-op prototype I could flesh out. It would be awesome to get feedback since I graduate with a math degree next spring and I've always had a dream in the back of my head of trying to use this prototype to get a job in board game design.
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Aug 9, 2012 00:32
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I think I'm totally going to do this. After reading that this might happen I actually thought up a basic theme for the game, now to just decide what kind of game it should be. I've got two ideas and I just have to decide on one.
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Aug 9, 2012 00:33
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GrandpaPants posted:This is a weird thing to read. Well, it's nice to have a game you can play whenever you want and not have to worry about losing any of the pieces. Apart from the all-important context, anyway.
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Aug 9, 2012 00:33
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So I designed a board game. I'm happy with the rules. I need a great deal more playtesting information, which is difficult because it only works in person. I think I figured out how I can get more testers though. Once I'm happy with the finished product, which could conceivably be pretty soon, where do I go from there? I found this list of board game publishers. Do I just go down the list making contact with any company that would be a good fit?
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Aug 9, 2012 00:43
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I don't have the time or the ingenuity to participate in the game design contest, but I think it's a great idea and I'd be happy to help judge. Please post here if a new thread is created for this.
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Aug 9, 2012 00:54
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Warhammer Invasion just arrived this week, and I unwrapped and punched everything. Any recommendations the first playthrough? I imagine we'll be skipping the draft mechanic for now and just mixing a single race deck with 10 random neutrals, but would be interested to hear if anyone else plays it differently.
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Aug 9, 2012 01:04
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Another heads-up: Wiz-War is currently $25.99 at CSI Wiz-War @ CSI
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Aug 9, 2012 01:15
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flashdim posted:Warhammer Invasion just arrived this week, and I unwrapped and punched everything. Any recommendations the first playthrough? I imagine we'll be skipping the draft mechanic for now and just mixing a single race deck with 10 random neutrals, but would be interested to hear if anyone else plays it differently. Make sure you remember to keep putting cards in your left and right districts to increase your income and draw size. I gimped myself pretty hard the first game by going all out offence.
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Aug 9, 2012 03:23
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I've had an idea, and hearing about a contest would be a pretty good reason to actually get up and make that shits. I'm thinking a heavy game about baseball, which would probably be interesting to about 0 people.
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Aug 9, 2012 03:43
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The most important thing about theming contests like this is because it's the Iron Chef Secret Ingredient that prevents people from submitting things they've already created.
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Aug 9, 2012 03:57
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Istvun posted:I've had an idea, and hearing about a contest would be a pretty good reason to actually get up and make that shits. I'm thinking a heavy game about baseball, which would probably be interesting to about 0 people. One person!
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Aug 9, 2012 04:10
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Istvun posted:I've had an idea, and hearing about a contest would be a pretty good reason to actually get up and make that shits. I'm thinking a heavy game about baseball, which would probably be interesting to about 0 people. There was a card/board game by WotC a while back called MLB Showdown that a lot of my friends really enjoyed, so there's a few more there!
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Aug 9, 2012 04:18
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Somberbrero posted:So I designed a board game. I'm happy with the rules. I need a great deal more playtesting information, which is difficult because it only works in person. I think I figured out how I can get more testers though. Once I'm happy with the finished product, which could conceivably be pretty soon, where do I go from there? Pretty much. Honestly, though, the odds are great that your first game isn't as good as you think it is. My advice is to design at least 5 or 6 and then start trying to find a publisher for the best of those. You'll have a much better perspective on things with a bit of experience. Plus you'll be less attached to any given design and the publisher-hunting experience (which basically consists of being ignored and/or rejected over and over and over) will hurt less if you don't feel like it's the ONE GREAT DESIGN you had in you and absolutely must publish. I'm not saying that to be a dick or anything, it's just that pretty much 90% of aspiring designers do the same thing, which is to design one game, feel (justifiably) very proud of having managed to come up with a pretty decent game, and then are traumatized when they spend a huge number of hours courting publishers who are jaded and grumpy with having to look at dozens of crappy submissions every day and won't even look at your prototype unless your game is so self-evidently amazing that they cream their pants just reading your pitch. (And it's important to note that I didn't have to run this gauntlet myself, so I'm not saying this to be all Reiner Knizialike about how hard I worked to get where I am... I gave up quickly as most designers end up doing, but then got ridiculously and unjustly lucky when it turned out that this guy who was working for a publisher I pitched to later decided to quit and start his own business, and remembered and liked the game I'd pitched to the other guy and came to me instead of the other way around. That happens like never.) Anyway, once you understand how ridiculously hard it is to get a game published and how ridiculously little money you're going to get from it (I've got three games out that I did the complete art for as well as designing, thus getting double royalties, and I haven't even hit five figures in royalties yet, so you do the math)... then yeah, basically go through the list and see which publishers like what. Also be sure to figure out how, where and when they like to receive pitches. For instance, Rio Grande will happily look at your prototype, but only if you bring it to a convention they're at and book an appointment with them. Others prefer email, but want you to send them a "sell sheet" first, then if they like that will ask for a PDF of the rules, then if they like that, will ask you to mail them a physical prototype. And so on.
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Aug 9, 2012 04:36
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Broken Loose posted:The most important thing about theming contests like this is because it's the Iron Chef Secret Ingredient that prevents people from submitting things they've already created. I would suggest adding a theme like the Ludnum Dare game design competitions. They have medium length competitions that have themes like, "Alone", or "Tiny Planet", or "Escape". Short and open to interpretation is best.
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Aug 9, 2012 04:46
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Istvun posted:I've had an idea, and hearing about a contest would be a pretty good reason to actually get up and make that shits. I'm thinking a heavy game about baseball, which would probably be interesting to about 0 people. Hey, I think it would work. There's a lot of closet sports fans in the nerd scene, which sounds really weird I suppose. I'm more of a hockey and football guy, but I know a ton of baseball fans who play board games. Come to think of it, a worker placement scouting/draft game would be really awesome, and way more interesting than building a castle for a French king.
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Aug 9, 2012 05:08
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Does anyone know where to find a tutorial or help for the Twilight Imperium VASSAL module? There's a help file listed in the module, but--and this is perfect for an FFG game--it points to a website that no longer exists. I'm trying to delete command counters from the map from players who don't exist and I can't figure out how.
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Aug 9, 2012 05:51
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Istvun posted:I've had an idea, and hearing about a contest would be a pretty good reason to actually get up and make that shits. I'm thinking a heavy game about baseball, which would probably be interesting to about 0 people. I am intensely interested in a heavy game about baseball. I would never be able to get it to the table probably, but I would still buy the poo poo out of it. Countblanc posted:There was a card/board game by WotC a while back called MLB Showdown that a lot of my friends really enjoyed, so there's a few more there! MLB showdown was The poo poo for the first few years. Then WotC rolled out some new edition with weird rules and made it over complicated and it died fairly painfully. I was pretty distraught, especially since I was a little kid who loved his baseball. mikeycp fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Aug 9, 2012 |
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Aug 9, 2012 06:18
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Broken Loose posted:The most important thing about theming contests like this is because it's the Iron Chef Secret Ingredient that prevents people from submitting things they've already created. If we're going to go the Iron Chef route, maybe the group that's playtesting these should choose the theme or mechanic, since they'll be playing A LOT of that kind of thing.
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Aug 9, 2012 07:41
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jmzero if you have access to a boat of LEGO, I'd totally take this contest for a spin. After completing 4ish Lego based wargames, would be a hoot to have someone give one a shot. Otherwise I'll be getting in on this with whatever I can jimmy up in my spare time. That spare time has been cut short unfortunately due to working on a board game I want to get published in some capacity, but I'm a ways off from wanting to break secrecy on the whole deal before I'm even on my own two feet. Although jmzero if you could shoot me your email address, I wouldn't mind having an outside group perform some playtesting in your contest format of making logs and such. Would really help me out when I've got a printable version in the wings, let me know if you are interested (metadust@gmail.com). Also xopods, I'd like to converse with you via email on the subject of making boardgames in general. Would be great to have someone in the game to learn some things.
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Aug 9, 2012 11:37
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Can we have a separate game contest thread so this one can go back to talking about games that already exist?
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Aug 9, 2012 13:55
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Somberbrero posted:So I designed a board game. I'm happy with the rules. I need a great deal more playtesting information, which is difficult because it only works in person. I think I figured out how I can get more testers though. Once I'm happy with the finished product, which could conceivably be pretty soon, where do I go from there? You could also contact the UnPub game events at unpub.net. You can get a lot of playtesting done through him. Just give it a look.
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Aug 9, 2012 14:06
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quote:Can we have a separate game contest thread so this one can go back to talking about games that already exist? Yes! http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3500540. Thanks for all the feedback on the contest rules. I'll probably regret not specifying a theme for the contest, but I really want to see the baseball games and crazy stuff people may already have partially brewed. quote:jmzero if you have access to a boat of LEGO No, sorry. But if you've got another game that we can prototype, we'd likely be happy to see it as a contest entry.
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Aug 9, 2012 16:22
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I'll do whatever, but I'd prefer something mentioned above that's more like Ludum Dare where there's a really abstract theme and maybe 1 design limitation that's really open to interpretation. edit: Oh, you already posted it! OK, sounds good. Thanks for running the contest. sector_corrector fucked around with this message at 17:35 on Aug 9, 2012 |
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Aug 9, 2012 17:32
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Just got my new Android tablet. Can anyone recommend any good hot-seat boardgameish games? (Yes, I realize iPad is better for this kind of thing, but it was way out of my price range). I already got the obligatory Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan. I was disappointed that the Cloud 9 clone was single-human-player only.
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Aug 9, 2012 17:41
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Gilgamesh posted:Just got my new Android tablet. Can anyone recommend any good hot-seat boardgameish games? (Yes, I realize iPad is better for this kind of thing, but it was way out of my price range). I already got the obligatory Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan. I was disappointed that the Cloud 9 clone was single-human-player only. I think Neuroshima Hex can be played in hotseat mode.
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Aug 9, 2012 18:45
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FYI, the 39.99 copies of Dominant Species that CSI is offering right now is the "3rd Printing", with a 2012 copyright notice. As far as I can tell, this is the same as the "3rd edition" but I could be wrong. I mention this because someone was speculating that CSI was just trying to get rid of their 2nd edition inventory.
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Aug 9, 2012 21:26
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I need help choosing a board game. I have a 2-month-old son, so all of a sudden I find myself If it helps, I DMed a bunch of D&D but wish it was less "I'm god and must not overly smite my players" and was more "we're equally matched via game mechanics, so time to bring the pain". Hence my interest in Descent. On the other hand I've played the tutorial scenario or whatever from Mage Knight and it was awesome too. Oh, and my friends already have Space Alert (it is awesome) and I own everything with Dominion stamped on it (my favorite game). Thoughts?
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Aug 9, 2012 21:45
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e: honestly i shouldn't have an opinion on this
General Battuta fucked around with this message at 22:11 on Aug 9, 2012 |
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Aug 9, 2012 21:51
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Dark Cohomology posted:I need help choosing a board game. I have a 2-month-old son, so all of a sudden I find myself Descent. Mage Knight is the kind of game where you marvel at how elegant and well-constructed the rules are but then don't really feel like playing it. Descent is straight-up fun.
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Aug 9, 2012 21:58
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Mechafunkzilla posted:Descent. Mage Knight is the kind of game where you marvel at how elegant and well-constructed the rules are but then don't really feel like playing it. Descent is straight-up fun. I respectfully disagree with this. I haven't tried Descent, but after every game of Mage Knight I've played I reflect for about 15 minutes on the game/journey and where I could've improved and where my badass moves were and then have an urge to play again. For me it's a game that can't hit the table enough. Just my opinion.
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Aug 9, 2012 22:24
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Mage Knight has these two words on the box: "Vlaada Chvatil." That's all you need to know, really. It's a real heavily strategic game that gets better the more you play it. Descent 2nd Ed isn't that great. It's a good improvement on the original Descent, mechanically, but the scenarios are poorly written and unbalanced. If I had to choose between the two as for what's a funner way to smash monsters, Mage Knight wins hands down.
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Aug 9, 2012 22:28
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Descent is lighter and faster, it's absolutely Ameritrash in the best sense of the word. But you should get Galaxy Trucker instead.
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Aug 9, 2012 22:30
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In board game news I converted at least 5 people to Space Alert. Sadly, getting them together to play is a different issue. One guy did say he wanted to get together for a board game night once a week and play Space Alert for at least a hour a time. So that's a thing... now I just have to get them in to Dungeon Lords and Dungeon Petz and my life is complete. However - these are not the gamers' gamers I am yet. They're still getting initiated. They love King of Tokyo and I find it fun... however the strategy is lacking for me. Any suggestions to houserule to make the game a bit more enjoyable for me without killing their love for it? Also - how do I explain Galaxy Trucker in less than an hour so they'll play it? Space Alert took long enough but they loved it, so I think I can get them to actually sit still for long intros now...
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Aug 9, 2012 22:45
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DontMockMySmock posted:Mage Knight has these two words on the box: "Vlaada Chvatil." It seems you like deck-building games, so that's a bonus. It's quite light in MK, however. As for Descent... Well, for me it scratches the itch of never having played the original D&D dungeon crawling adventures. We tend to play it as a self-aware RPG parody and it does very well in that regard. Unfortunately it requires care and effort, sometimes money - the first edition is hugely expensive (and the expansions fix a lot of game imbalance IMO), the second has weirdly written rules with strange consequences (like when the target can block LOS to itself), easily fixed but still, it's new and you'll have to wait a while for the FAQ. If you enjoy the oldschool Heroquest-type games with an evil DM, it's definitely worth getting. Crackbone posted:Descent is lighter and faster, it's absolutely Ameritrash in the best sense of the word. Also, remember that the two editions of Descent are very different.
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Aug 9, 2012 23:08
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quote:Also - how do I explain Galaxy Trucker in less than an hour so they'll play it? I've taught GT a few times. I usually skip over pretty much everything to start. Explain the connectors. Tell them to put rockets at the bottom pointing down and guns at the top pointing up. Tell them they want a little of everything (rockets, batteries, guns, and crew pods). Then start the game, but with no timer. Run the crappy ships they built through the sample mission and explain what happened. Then start your real game. quote:They love King of Tokyo and I find it fun... however the strategy is lacking for me. King of Tokyo is not terribly strategic unless it's played with exactly 4 skilled players. Just 1 guy who always wants to buy combat stuff, go into Tokyo and punch will throw the game into a random spiral (they won't win usually, but they'll make the winner fairly random - like pushing all-in every hand of Poker). Most of the strategy in the game is about varying commitments to farming or punching, when to switch basic strategies, and how to value different cards as the game progresses. The other main skill is tactical. Farming is much more efficient if you maximize expected value, and sometimes the correct decision is not intuitive. Recommended rules: We normally play "cycle out the oldest shop card when Tokyo is yielded". This lets the group see more cards (which rewards better purchase decisions), rewards aggression a tiny bit, and generally moves the game on faster. We also remove Complete Destruction and Monster Sidekick (I can't remember which cards are in the expansion and which are in the base game). Anyways, I'm a big fan of KoT - but we don't play all the time, or more than once in a session. It's a light game.
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Aug 9, 2012 23:23
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Galaxy Trucker is not a hard game to explain. Just show them all the pieces and how to build a legal ship and go.
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Aug 9, 2012 23:27
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I feel I ought to mention that the couple of plays of Castles of Burgundy I had last week have definitely sold me on the game. It's a Euro, but with dice, but with die-rolling that still feels Euro'ey. Makes sense? No? Well, the thing is, 9 turns out of time (maybe 4 out of 5) there's no way you're going to get dice-hosed, yet your decisions on your turn still take a heap of strategy. Even when you do get dice-hosed, you have workers that can change the value of your rolls, and getting workers is always an action you can default to no matter what your die roll is. So yeah, color me impressed for expecting Alien Frontiers but getting something different and more strategic. EDIT: Also in regards to Mage Knight versus Descent, I can't say I've played descent but knowing FFG pedigree and seeing it played; I'd recommend Mage Knight.
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Aug 10, 2012 00:55
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