YorCon

Last weekend I spent 46 hours in a building in the middle of nowhere:

For the last four years Paul has organised a small gaming convention there.

For him, his family and about 25 of his friends.

Including me :)

It was a fantastic weekend of gaming, lovely food, and great company.

I played 17 games.

Went for a couple of walks in the countryside.

Played some pool.

And even playtested a couple of my games and a couple of others.

The new roll and write was very well received :)

Had a great post-game discussion about the Troll prototype.

It was brilliant.

I'm tired now though.

Really appreciating the (official) first of my non-working Mondays.

I've some work to do on setting up our new convention.

And loads of playtesting feedback to process and work out how to incorporate.

Weird

It's been a weird week.

Didn't know what day it was at the beginning due to three days camping in a forest.

Thursday to Sunday.

Then a Bank Holiday Monday.

Since I've got back I've been working on Away Team Bingo's crowdfunding.

Got some initial sketches from the artist! 

And setting up a Gamefound store.

And trying to learn to Tiktok.

And planning a campaign video.

And thinking up a (fifth!) print at home roll and write while lying still for 45 minutes in an MRI.

And making some sizeable changes to Jotunsaga.

Feel a bit all over the place.

Not sure whether I'm coming or going!

Let The Good Times Roll!

I'm done.

Away Team Bingo is finished.

My third roll and write game.

You are sending teams of crew to explore a planet three times.

To find the most impressive discoveries.

But lots of locations aren't safe.

Will you pick the right mix of crew for the mission?

It's a press your luck game.

You want to stay as long as possible to maximise your rewards.

But staying too long can be costly.

Or catastrophic.

Now the game is finished, it's just graphic design, finishing the rulebook and doing the crowdfunding page.

The top of a low ink page - getting prettier!

There's a start of a Gamefound page taking shape.

The graphic design is coming together.

Then it'll be the rulebook.

It's going to be a busy couple of months!

Advertising

I’ve started running ads again.

We’ve not run any since the last Gamefound campaign closed.

Sales were great for a couple of months afterwards anyway, and then we almost completely ran out of FlickFleet stock.

So no ads.

Nothing to sell.

Except that’s not true.

New game!

We have our print at home roll and writes: Rocky ‘Roid and The Planets My Destination.

We can’t run out of stock of those - they’re digital downloads!

So I’ve started advertising them.

I’m hoping to get a few more sales of TPMD.

I think it’s a better game than Rocky ‘Roid and has had great feedback.

But we didn’t crowdfund it, or advertise it at all until now.

So sales have been about 1/100th of Rocky ‘Roid!

Crowdfunding works.

Might crowdfund the next one again :/

Feaster

Paul and his family are visiting for the Easter weekend.

Feaster.

A weekend of feasting, catching up, and gaming.

It’s great to see them all.

Catch up.

Plus, play some games.

We’re teaching each other new games.

Playing a lot with the kids.

Plus a bit of playtesting.

Roll and Write 4 is only a couple of weeks old. But Paul’s enjoyed it and had very few suggestions for improvements.

I love that I can turn roll and writes around quick enough that we can play it again.

But different.

On the same weekend.

Again

I like to do things again.

I re-watch TV shows.

I re-read books.

I like to return to places I’ve been before.

I play games tens or even hundreds of times.

With the endless stream of new games coming out, I think that makes me a bit weird.

People try to play all the new stuff. Just once or twice and then move on.

I’m sure my terrible memory plays a part in it: I can enjoy a TV show or book again and I’ve forgotten a decent chunk. Even on the third or fourth time through.

Still, a bit odd.

Playtesting roll and write 3 in the pub last week

So why do I enjoy playtesting so much? Every play is different. 

Familiar, sure, but different. The rules change a bit every time.

My brain is strange.

After last week’s release of my second roll and write game, I’ve come up with a fourth roll and write idea.

Looking forward to starting testing of that shortly. It’s heavily inspired by Star Trek away teams :)

Seven

I've just published my seventh game.

The Planets My Destination.

It's another print at home roll & write game, like Rocky 'Roid.

This time it's a 3X (there's no eXplore!) game about colonising the solar system.

Like Rocky 'Roid I've aimed for more player interaction than you often see in roll and writes.

You share the dice each round, but can personally modify them.

There are bonuses for arriving first at any of the locations you can colonise.

You can work together to collaborate on projects more quickly that going alone.

And you can wade in with your fleet and conquer an opponent's colony.

I've been worth on it for about eighteen months.

The last couple of months have been finalising the graphic design and the rules.

It's done now.

I've an eighth underway now!

I love the pace you can achieve with roll and writes.

So quick to iterate an test.

Purchase

Last Thursday at Games Night I asked my buddies if they would playtest a prototype.

It’s my second roll and write.

Currently known as The Planets My Destination.

A nod to Alfred Bester.

It’s about colonising the solar system.

It was a big ask.

Several months ago 2 out of 3 of them played an earlier version.

It was a disaster.

20 minute game. That lasted 1:40. And was way too complex. 

Complicated really. Not complex. Unnecessarily complicated.

But they humoured me.

We played again.

25 mins this time.

Much better.

And the new 3rd person?

He asked where he could buy it the next day.

It’s getting close I think…

Back

I'm back from my holiday.

Refreshed.

Rejuvenated.

Raring to go.

I kept up my games design streak while I was away.

Making progress on my new roll and write.

Working on Wizard a bit.

Coming up with a newer roll and write.

New roll and write sheet scribbled on the back of another roll and write sheet!

Now I'm back, I need to crack on with the Gamefound page for FlickFleet: A Box of Pirate Flicks.

Exciting times...

Trains

We’re on our way home now.

Via Paris.

But we still have 15 hours on trains.

I’m putting the time to good use.

Designing games.

Four

I'm actively working on four games.

Rocky 'Roid is with playtesters awaiting feedback.

Siren Song I've tried a couple of times solo. I'm making notes and I'm almost ready to update the prototype.

Border Reivers has a page of notes.

And I'm doing the Scenario Booklet for FlickFleet.

I'm loving this burst of creativity.

Really enjoying the designing and prototyping of games.

Paul gave me a 10x10 game tracker he'd made me for Christmas.

I'm using it to track prototype plays.

Plenty of space at the bottom!

Too much of my time over the last few years has been swallowed by running the business.

And trying to stay sane during COVID.

Finished

National Game Design Month is over. 

The first half was great - loads of progress and fast iterations. 

After Paul’s mini-convention I stalled. 

There was urgent Eurydice work to be done. 

Plus the feedback I received at the convention has left me struggling to find a next step. 

I have ideas. Thoughts. Notes. 

Nothing concrete to implement though. 

On the plus side, I’ve made loads of progress on it this month. 

First since January. 

Now I need to unblock the market. 

TGWAG was disappointing this year. 

In previous years I’ve had many players who were quite engaged. 

Only two this year. 

Mal won it. 

I’m working on a prize for him now…

TGWAG: Final Week

I'm still looking for playtesters and feedback on my roll & write design.

It's come on a lot this month! 

As part of National Games Design Month I've been running The Game Within A Game (TGWAG).

In previous years we've had several entrants and some competition for the prize.

This year it's only been two.

There's still time to be in with a chance to win the prize!

In the meantime, I need to evolve the scoring.

I'd appreciate any feedback and ideas on it.

Name	Rank	PIPs
Mal	Recycling Pipework Technician's Mate	3
Kylef	Recycling Pipework Technician's Mate	2

Stalled

I made good progress on the roll and write (Rocky ’Roid?) up until last weekend.

Can I unblock and get one last iteration out?

Over the weekend I played three games.

Two with other designers. One with a roll and write fan.

I got a lot of feedback.

I made rapid changes, improving things as I went.

Afterwards, I saw some opportunities to improve things further.

Even started updating the player sheet.

But I’ve stalled.

I know what I need to do: simplify the scoring.

But keep the interaction.

And some variability between games.

Plus there’s Gamefound fulfilment stuff to do.

Which is urgent.

I need to unblock.

Get moving again.

Only four days left in NaGa DeMon…

Gaming

Paul organised a mini-convention this weekend.

In deepest, darkest Yorkshire.

Him and 20-odd of his friends including me.

I knew a couple of them beforehand, but they were all lovely.

I played a lot of games.

Many for the first time.

But even with the prospect of 48 hours of gaming (and optionally some sleep!), I found myself gravitating to shorter games.

I don’t play long games any more as ‘I don’t have the time’.

I think I need to change that.

I just prefer shorter games now.

I also playtested the roll and write with a couple of other designers and a roll and write fan.

Evolving again!

Got some useful feedback.

We completely changed endgame scoring. Twice.

And it’s better for it.

New version coming soon…

Theme II

The game boxes have arrived at Paul’s.

1,425 of them.

His house is rammed.

The focus now must be shipping rewards and clearing some space!

Since Wednesday’s playtest I’ve done nothing with the Roll & Write (Ursa Miner?)

But Mal’s name suggestion has given me ideas.

A slightly different theme is taking shape in my brain.

It’s percolating.

Meanwhile I’ve been going back to my roots.

Writing a little app to convert the Gamefound fulfilment spreadsheet into our fulfilment spreadsheet.

I used to do it by hand.

Silly really.

This will take some time, but save a lot.

Even more in the long run.

Now the boxes have arrived, Paul needs it now though.

Roll & Write will have to wait!

The TGWAG scores at the end of week 2 are:

Name	Rank	PIPs
Mal	Recycling Pipework Technician's Mate	3
Kylef	Recycling Pipework Technician's Mate	2

Theme

Mal mentioned during last night's playtest that I've not mentioned the Roll & Write's theme on the blog.

We played three 3-player games

There's a reason for that.

The lack of a name is probably related to it.

The game works mechanically.

There's a lot of room for improvement, but in essence it works.

There's decisions to make.

A race of sorts, to collect resources before time runs out.

A few little decisions every turn: which dice? which direction? which distance? which resource to collect?

And one big one: do I have enough resources yet to profit more than my competitors?

Then scoring.

And more small decisions. 

Which trade to make? Shall I pass and the risk of an opponent blocking a future move? Or take the guaranteed lesser pay-out now?

The current theme is weak.

Interstellar prospectors. Collecting bounty for the Galactic Overlords.

It might change. 

I've not really used the theme to drive the mechanisms yet.

Because I'm not wedded to it.

Any ideas?

Test

The Wife is away.

I'm busier than usual.

Doing all the housework and parenting.

But also less busy.

I've no-one to hang out with once the kids are asleep.

So I've been making progress again.

New maps!

We now have five different map ideas. All drafted and included in the download.

I've still only tested the first one.

Hopefully getting some more testing in on Wednesday...

Variety

I want the roll and write to have some variety of set-up.

The players share the dice each turn. So could always choose the same options.

So I want to encourage variety between players.

Plus try to make the game less samey, so repeated plays play out differently.

Each players gets different starting resources.

And you can choose one Overlord per player from a set of six. 

So there’s some variability with fewer the six players there.

But I want more.

So each player individually modifies their maps before you begin.

But I want more.

Two different maps now!

So multiple maps, with different special rules.

I came up with a bunch of map ideas.

Now I need to draft them and include in the download.

I’ve done two so far.

The Wife is away for a few days this week. I’ll work on this in the evenings, once I’ve got the girls to sleep…

And in other news, we've got our first taker for TGWAG!

Current leaderboard (it's a bit empty - why not join in?):

Name	Rank	PIPs
Kylef	Recycling Technician's Mate	2

Play

I've played it for the first time.

Well, not the first time. But the first time with friends.

My previous plays were with myself. As fake other players.

I hate that.

But we played a 3-player game last night.

It worked.

There were some clunky bits though. And rules we never used at all.

Streamline.

I've made changes.

Hopefully they'll improve things.

But they might not.

I need to test it again.

Or some help from others to test the new version.

I've got some other ideas to try too.

But one thing at a time.

Version 0.3 is available for download.