boardgame prototype

Lots of news!

Agent Decker, boardgame, boardgame prototype, crowdfunding, event, Multiuniversum, Project Cthulhu, Superhot

project_cthulhu

A lot has happened since my latest post. Let’s do a quick recap, shall we?

Multiuniversum – Project: Cthulhu’s Kickstarter campaign was very successful. We asked for $7000 but our backers contributed close to $19.500 USD, funding it 278%!

Shortly thereafter it was printed and shipped to Essen Spiel, where it was officially released.

Last year I went to Essen for the first time and spent four days pitching my games to publishers. This time I was there to demo my first published game! For three whole days I taught the game to as many visitors as I could.

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Photo by BGG user Jakub Niedźwiedź

I have a lot of respect for anyone who’s demoing. The halls are very loud and you have to be even louder, but without sounding like you’re shouting! My voice held on during the first day, but by the end of the third I could barely speak. My advice? Drink plenty of water.

My demoing gig was cut short due to Multiuniversum and the expansion selling out! It was extremely rewarding, and it gave me the chance to see the other halls and say “Hi!” to friends.

After Spiel there have been a lot of new reviews and at the moment Multiuniversum is currently on 2320 in the BGG Rank.

The next print run will feature the rules in Spanish as well. Muy Bueno!

Meanwhile my new project has been announced:

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SUPERHOT The Card Game is an adaptation of the popular videogame SUPERHOT. Its core mechanics are based on Agent Decker plus the concept of “Time moves when you do”! As a big fan of the videogame I’m doing my best to do it justice.

Speaking of Agent Decker, both the game and the rulebook have been updated for clarity and consistency due to player feedback. You can download it here.

Multiuniversum at UK Games Expo 2016

Arcádia, boardgame, boardgame prototype, event, Multiuniversum

MU_box

It’s real! As of this June 3rd, Multiuniversum is officially released.

Off to a bumpy start, my flight was delayed so I only got to the event after most of it had closed for the day, leaving only the open play rooms. I was trying to find Board & Dice (B&D) to see how the final production copies had turned out. They kept me up to date with photos and videos, but I hadn’t seen a production copy in person.

Before I found them I noticed a family sitting at a table with a familiar box. They had done the setup and were reading through the rulebook, getting ready to play the game I had been working on for years. I wanted to say hello, maybe even teach them how to play but then it dawned on me that I have no idea what the etiquette for this type of situation was.

I paced around the table, got my phone out to take a photo and realized I had no signal. How can I arrange to meet if we can’t communicate? I went outside.

After meeting B&D and showing them around the open play rooms, we noticed the family had finished the game and were adding up the final scores. This time we said hi, talked to them for a bit and they asked me to sign their copy!

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Not just any copy. The first production copy I ever saw.

It was pretty unbelievable.

We kept playing it most of the night, and it was a lot of fun seeing players look through the crazy universe illustrations for the first time. The angry gummy bear was clearly the most popular one.

When the players recognized the game I wondered where they had seen it before, and the answer was unanimous: Rahdo’s runthrough. Thank you Rahdo!

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I spent the most part of the next two days demoing the game, teaching and playing it with everyone who popped by the booth. The response was very positive. Most players bought a copy after the game was over and some even came back for an autograph!

Most people just asked for a signature, others asked for a note and one player even asked for a thematically-appropriate joke. Cheers to Robin David, who saw that picture of me signing a copy and brought me a much better pen from Ireland the next day!

During the night I saw the game being played all over the open play rooms, an amazing feeling after working on it for so long.

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It seems word got around and by the end of Sunday it sold out!

All 400 copies.

Thank you everyone! But especially:

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Multiuniversum release!

boardgame, boardgame prototype, Carousel, event, Multiuniversum

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Are you going to UK Games Expo? I am. Couldn’t miss the release of my first card game: Multiuniversum!

If you’re going to the event why don’t you come over to Board & Dice’s booth and check it out? When I’m hanging around I’ll teach you how to play and even lose graciously.

Meanwhile Multiuniversum is popping up all over the boardgame social media. There are a several reviews in Polish already (thank you Google Translate!).

Uplift Andrew assembled a print-and-play copy and took awesome photos, like the photo in the header and  these other great photos!

Then it got into the Top Hotness in BGG:

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Then Rahdo did a runthrough!

This is a big milestone for me, I love Rahdo’s videos so this feels like having a cameo on my favorite TV show.

Dice Tower mentioned it in the UKGE Preview video (at around 10:00). The art got their attention, now we just need to get them to play it. It’s a pity Zee Garcia isn’t coming with them because I believe he would like it the most.

This has been a long time coming. The first post about it is from 13 March 2012 – four years ago! It’s been through many iterations, a few themes, three countries and three loyal playtest groups. All because I stumbled around a mechanic which I hadn’t yet seen in a game and found it intriguing.

I learned a lot, and I can’t wait to hold a final production copy in my hands.

Come share that moment with me, this weekend in Birmingham!

Don’t wake the dragon!

boardgame, boardgame prototype, competition, Don't wake the dragon

DWTD_header

“Don’t wake the dragon” is a dexterity game created in a day for GameCraft UnPlugged at Pulse College. The theme and restrictions were:

  • Fairy Tale
  • 2 players
  • 3 rounds

I had a backpack filled with standard game components (cards, sleeves, dice) to allow me to adapt to any theme, but wouldn’t it be fun to make something different from the rest of my portfolio? That means cards, cubes and dice are out!

What else is there?

The first thing was to play with them. Stacking them, throwing them at each other.

…hey, turns out they’re thick enough to flick around!

That’s a mechanic I really enjoy. It reminds me of playing marbles as a kid, and it’s so self-explanatory when you see it in action. The laws of physics do most of the work, creating interesting situations and choices without adding rules and exceptions.

In the game your command your soldiers to steal from a dragon who’s asleep on top of a pile of gold.

To do so you order(flick) your group of soldiers (blue or red disks) to steal gold coins (white and orange) from the dragon (black disk). If you take coins out of the arena they’re yours, but as soon as the dragon touches the table it wakes up! Game over. Not only that, but the dragon steals back your most valuable coins!

The level layout is just the beginning, and it changes as players take their turns. Coins fall from the tower and litter the arena, so you don’t always have to shoot for the tower. If a soldier leaves the arena (either you miss or someone pushes you out) then it stays out for that round.

You add up your coins for the level and proceed to the next one. At the end of three levels the player with the highest total wins!

With the simple components there was no need to create anything other than the game’s rules, so there was plenty of time to playtest.

Brainstorming (“playstorming”?) the levels with Sara was excellent. Build something, play it. Is it fun? Keep it! Not fun? Why? Edit the level. Test it out. Repeat.

In the end we got three different levels which presented the players with different challenges.

There was even some time to write a rulebook!  Not sure it was necessary, but it was good practice.

Did the players like it?

Yes they did!

It was the most relaxing game jam I was a part of so far, and picking a game I could finish comfortably in the available time was certainly a big part of it.

You can see the other games (and the winning entry!) at their official Storify!

Announcing Multiuniversum!

boardgame prototype, event, Multiuniversum, Pizza-go-round

A couple months ago I went to Essen to pitch my games and boy, have I got good news!

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Board & Dice really liked the mechanics of Pizza-go-round. So much so that they’ve got a very clear idea of where they want it to go, and it’s a lot more exciting than delivering pizzas!

It’s called Multiuniversum!

We’ve been working hard on streamlining the gameplay and creating a new scoring system which gives the players clearer goals and fits this new theme.

I don’t want to spill the beans right away, but here’s a glimpse of the latest prototype:

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If you were at Pionek this weekend, you might have seen it!

Stay tuned.

A podcast and an interview!

Agent Decker, boardgame, boardgame prototype, competition, media

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The Print ‘n Play Cast took a look at two games from the BGG Solo Contest: Austerity and Agent Decker! The whole podcast is well worth listening, but if you want to skip straight to the rules for Decker jump to 14:20 and if you want to listen to the review go to 24:22. They really liked it!

You can listen to it here.

 

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Earlier in the year I was interviewed by David Wolinsky for “No don’t die”.

You can read it here.

It’s a long form interview about my experience with videogame design, the industry and the media that surrounds it. It was a very enjoyable conversation and I’m pleased that it wasn’t cut down for publishing.

There are so many great interviews on the site already, but if you want to keep them coming I suggest you to support it via Patreon.

At ease, agent

Agent Decker, boardgame, boardgame prototype, competition

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The results for the 2015 Solitaire Print and Play Contest have been revealed, and it seems they really liked Agent Decker:

2nd Best Overall Game

1st – Best Medium Game
1st – Best New Designer
1st – Best Game with No Board
2nd – Best Greyscale Game
2nd – Best Written Rules
3rd – Best Hotel Game
4th – Most Innovative Mechanic
4th – Most Thematic Game
5th – Best Artwork

You can check the full list here. There are really good games and cool new concepts submitted to the competition, well worth playing.

As always, you can download the game for free here.

What a crazy year it has been so far! The design for Agent Decker started in January and since that time I’ve worked with three different videogame studios, gave my first lecture to game design students (which feels odd since I never got to be one), went to GDC for the first time and had the prototype with me while I met so many of my heroes. Recently I helped to start a local meetup where boardgame designers can bring their prototypes and get useful feedback.

Now i can finally correct that last typo in the rules that escaped every check before the submission.

And then, my first Essen Spiel! Can’t wait to pitch my games to publishers. My dream of publishing a board game feels closer now.

Wish me luck!

Playtest Dublin 2

boardgame prototype, playtest, Playtest Dublin

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Prototype Dublin 2 took place in August 29th, once again in KC Peaches, Dame Street.  This time we had more designers, more players and more games! Nine games showed up, seven games were played, and a couple more than once.

After a couple games enough people had arrive that we could split up and play three games at once. I’m glad because more games were played, even if I didn’t get to play them all!

As for my games, Sinking and Agent Decker hit the table. Decker hasn’t changed since it was submitted to the contest but Andrew wanted to try it out.

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Agent Deegan beat the game but he didn’t like the Hawk one bit.

I updated Sinking with feedback from the previous playtest, but will write a proper post to talk about those. All I’m going to say is that it steered the game in the right direction!

Can’t wait for the next one.

Playtest Dublin

boardgame prototype, playtest, Playtest Dublin

 

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A month ago (July 25th) Dublin’s first meetup for boardgame prototypes was born! Organized by Colum Higgins, Playtest Dublin was a joyful afternoon full of laughter and good ideas.

The venue was KC Peaches in Dame Street, central enough so everyone can reach it. They provided a room where we could hang around comfortably and play for hours.

Eight people showed up and seven games were played, followed by a healthy discussion on what was good and what could be improved. The games covered a big range of genres from drafting to blind bidding to a social experiment that didn’t require any components at all.

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The meetup went so well it kept going past its planned closing time and everyone asked for it to become a regular event. The second meetup is going to take place in a couple of days (August 29th) and I can’t wait!

Thank you for getting the ball rolling Colum!

My first official review!

Agent Decker, boardgame, boardgame prototype, competition, media

Geekdad

During the development of Agent Decker there were a lot of personal achievements:

  • first time participating in a game design competition
  • first time releasing a game this early in development, and iterating based on that feedback
  • first time releasing a game as a print and play
  • first time having fan made digital versions of a game

Today I got my first official review! Will James from Geekdad printed his own and had really nice things to say about it. You can read it here.

It made my day!