Zier's Dev Blog

Alliance!

2010-04-22T22:19:00.000-07:00

Turns out I'm a really horrible blogger! In an attempt to keep the experiment somewhat alive, I'll post up a few images of Alliance, a board game I worked on with Travis Brown. Alliance plays somewhat like Game of Thrones or Diplomacy in that you issue orders in secret at the start of each round, and then all movement and combat takes place somewhat simultaneously.

The twist is that as the game progresses, players are forces into permanent Alliances, with the weaker players becoming attached to the stronger players. This mechanic "keeps everyone in the game" and makes for some really interesting changes in strategy! Sometimes your bitter enemy will suddenly become your ally for victory.

For those wondering about Pocket: World at War, it's still around, though it turns out the plastic pieces really DO matter when it comes to war games. I haven't yet been able to get the play I want from it.

Pocket War!

2009-03-15T18:48:00.000-07:00

Here are some more WIP images of Pocket World at War, my attempt to boil down the best elements of strategy board gaming into a deck of cards! Can a game that plays like table-top strategy be any fun without the little plastic pieces? Is it shallow to boil down an entire war into a game that fits into your pocket? Who knows, but we'll find out soon!

The game can be played by 2 or 4 players. There are 4 Nation Cards that each player draws from at the start of the game, setting teams. The 4 player game is played 2v2 with allies. Choosing allies and turn order randomly is something I got from Matt Woomer's Mythic Europe game.

Here are some German Unit and Special cards. Each Nation has 6 standard unit types, and 4 more special types. There are 32 total cards per Nation! One cool thing about moving away from plastic pieces; variations on units and unique cards like Generals are a lot easier to do!

You might be able to tell that I set the game in WWII. I debated this for a while, as the system I developed worked just fine in modern combat (such as I did with MAD) or even going back to medieval or roman times. I stuck with WWII because, in the end, the selection of well known units and old photos were to much fun to pass up.

Of course, with any war game you need territories to fight over. I came up with a new system of handling air-zones and combat movement, that is somewhat unique, and I hope works! It should give the feel of a board, but with the fun addition of random terrain elements. Random Starts to board games add a lot, just look at Settlers. Note that some terrain, like forests, give negative penalties to certain unit types!

One of the things I really enjoyed was making the forces slightly different, though balanced among the Allies. For example, US has a cheaper fighter (P40) and faster special heavy-tank than the Germans. But the Germans have a cheap light-tank option (Stug), and a really powerful heavy Tank (Tiger). So while both sides have a standard tank at the same cost, they have other options that shift the way they play.

That's all for now! I'll post about the first play-test as soon as I can rope some people into it.

PlainCards FTW!

2009-03-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

Rather than the old "name-tag" approach, with Pocket World at War I really wanted to try to print my own deck. I found this great product from Plaincards.com! Basically they send you special perforated card stock, and a special plastic spray that coats the cards, thus making them look at feel like real playing cards!

The tricky part is in the printing though, which I did on a standard ink-jet. Here are a few tips if you are trying to make your own:

1. The card stock doesn't absorb ink very fast. I had to use my printer settings to increase the brightness (+15 on my Epson) so it would lay down less ink. If it's all blurry, this is your problem.

2. Turn off fast printing if you can, so that you only lay ink in one direction. It gives more time for it to stick to the paper.

This is from my photoshop template:

Spraying the cards with the plastic coating is pretty easy, but it smells horrid! Make sure to be in ventilated area. Also, the spray can warns about brain and nervous system damage if you inhale. Maybe I took it to serious, but I wore a mask over my face like you would use to paint your walls, and gloves to keep it off my hands.

Finally, be really careful when you are separating the cards from the pages. I tore a few just trying to punch them out. I suggest using scissors to cut out each card into manageable squares, then using the double-bend method. In the end, the deck turned out pretty cool! They feel and look like professionally printed cards. You can see little groves from the perforations on the sides, but I think it adds a little character to my deck.

Here is another Dev Blog I found on using Plaincards. If you are trying to make your own, and have any questions, please let me know!

Prelude to a Card Game

2009-03-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

About a year back I worked on a board game called MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). It played a little like Axis and Allies, but with modern equipment, nukes, and a few brilliant ideas from Mythic Europe (a game by Matt Woomer).
I even went so far as to create and print a real board for it.

Matt, Travis, and I had been discussing all things board-game, when the point was brought up just how hard it is to get a board game published. The expense of manufacturing them makes it hard to get a prototype out the door. This didn't really concern me for MAD, it played fairly well, but I never expected it to be anything more than a fun project to share with friends.

But in that conversation Matt brought up the point that CARD GAMES were dirt cheap to make. Penny's on the dollar. If only one could design a card game that captured the tactical thrill and grandeur of a table-top board game.

Not a collectible game, or anything like Magic... just a solid war-game-in-a-pocket. That's what I've been working on the past few weeks, and will post about my efforts soon!

Star Wars RPG

2009-03-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post this picture for a while - it's from the final battle of the Star Wars RPG game I ran last year. A friend talked me into running it, and it's the only time I've ever been the GM of a pen and paper game.I found it to be an absolute blast, and even enlisted my Wife to help me make paper walls and sets for the various tactical battles. I'm hoping to run another game in '09, taking away what I learned from the first.

Here we go!

2009-03-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

After a lot of prompting, I've at last caved in and opened a blog! A blog seems more fun than keeping up a My Space page, or Face Book for that matter. I'm a really tech-oriented guy, but not a very social one, so those kinds of sites scare me.

Against my own better judgment, I'm allowing anyone to post comments, and not moderating them. Yeah.... I know. I had to weigh the fear of spammers with that of my own concern viewers won't take the time to register before they post. :-)

Anyhooo.... let's get this thing started!