1/9/17 Nano card contest

I saw on boardgamegeek.com that there is a contest running for a 9-card nano game.

So now the gears in my head are turning. I'm thinking about a Holi-themed game, somehow. A whole game in nine cards is challenging! (Some components can be used also)

1/4/17 Dancers

And 24 hours later I've got a game. Don't know yet if it's any good but it's playable!

Here are the rules as I've got them so far:

This is a set collection and worker placement game about putting together an Indian dance performance (bharatnatyam) for four players.

Components:

·         Board

·         Deck of Practice Cards

·         Deck of Guest Teacher Cards

·         Three clock pieces per player

·         First player marker (ankle bells)

Set Up:

Place the practice deck on the “deck” space and put out three cards. Place the guest teacher cards on their deck space. Give each player their colored clocks.

Goal:

Score the most points. The main way to do this is to make complete sets of dancers: a head, torso, and legs. These can be mixed and matched, but you’ll get more points for sets of the same color. There are also additional points available from some of the bonus cards. The third way to get points is with the publicity space. The player who puts the most tokens into publicity over the course of the game gets an additional 10 points, the next most gets 5 and the third most gets 2 points.

How To Play:

Randomly determine a first player. On your turn there are four places you can put clocks. You can place one on “first player” to get the first play in the next turn. You can place one on the Guest Teacher space to pick up two of the bonus cards and pick one to pick, shuffling the other back in (don’t perform these actions until everyone has placed all of their clocks for the round). You can place as many clocks as you want into the publicity space. And you can get cards.

The first player to go to the practice deck space must place two clocks. The second person to go there places one and the third person to go there places one. When it is time to resolve actions the first player to go to the practice deck space gets first choice of the three cards that are face up. The second player gets second choice. The third player can either take the card that is left or take the top card of the deck sight unseen.

Once everyone has placed all three of their clocks, actions are resolved. People getting practice cards place them in front of them in sets of head/torso/legs. (The guest teacher deck has one each of these in wild, making them any color).

Mark how many clocks each player put into the publicity space.

Remove all clocks and begin again with the new first player (whoever took the first player space).

Game End:

Game ends when the guest teacher deck is gone. Complete the actions of that round and then move to scoring.

Scoring:

·         +3 points for each full set of dancers

·         +3 additional points for each complete set of the same color

·         Points for the publicity space

·         Points from the guest teacher deck

Image attributions:

By Medha.org (http://www.medha.org/photo.html) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

By Harinie Jeevitha (http://indiandancer.org) [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

By Arian Zwegers from Brussels, Belgium [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Bharata Natyam dancer of Sri Devi Nrithyalaya Bharatanatyam school in Chennai (the image licensing info is on that page too).

Persian Silk Brocade - Paisley - Persian Paisley - Seyyed Hossein Mozhgani - 1963.jpg

1/2/2017 Exile In The Forest

I'm having to make some changes to Exile In The Forest, but it's not for play at all. It's because of components. I wanted to make a modular board that would be different every game, but I the only way I found to do that with The Game Crafter made pieces that are just too flimsy.

After trying a few times to play with them I finally acknowledged that I have to make a static board. While I'm at it I decided to increase the font size on the cards too.

12/22/2016 Exile In The Forest

Life stuff has been getting in the way of game design BUT I got my copy of Exile In The Forest came!

It looks so beautiful. I did a couple of videos to show you:

Sun 12/11/16 Grill Time, Hunter/Gatherer, and Bento Box Lunch

Last night I got Grill Time all set up at The Game Crafter (see the links here). I added it to the BGG database and I'm waiting for that to be approved so I can add the files, pictures, and other stuff.

Today I tested out Hunter/Gatherer with index cards and found a few snags that I need to work out. Still pondering whether the whole idea is even going to work!

While I think about that, I'm putting together some artwork for Bento Box Lunch. This time I'm trying to make the tetriminoes.

Sat 12/10/16 Hunter/Gatherer and Grill Time

Considering I have not tested this at all and the rules are not even clear it is too early to do art for it but I enjoy doing graphic design and it inspires me so I worked up some card images. I am very happy with how they are coming out!

 I also tested out Grill Time again, made a couple little tweaks and it is ready! I'm uploading the files to make it both print&play and on The Game Crafter both regular and "light" version (where you supply your own dice and timer)

Pondering my trick taking game

What I'd really like to do for my twist on the trick taking (current contest at The Game Crafter) is to have two tricks going at the same time. One for hunting (meat cards) and one for gathering (berry cards).

My idea is that at the end of the game the cards you have the most of are positive points and the cards you have the least of are negative points, so you would focus either on being a hunter or a gatherer.

Still working on ideas for how you win the tricks, get rid of ones you don't want, and end of game. Lots of possibilities brewing.