Slightly Offensive Games

Stay Offended!  Current Development: Orphanage of Fear (Coming soon to Kickstarter), Outflank and Shyft

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Less than a week ‘till launch: PANIC!

So, Kickstarter. Orphanage of Fear has been approved so I can launch next Tuesday. I’ve been bringing the game to every meetup in the area, compiling the lists of people who wanted an email when the campaign starts, and I’ve been working on different details of the campaign itself. The page still needs work, and I will be doing little besides that for the next few days. I plan on visiting multiple meetups, go to stores, demo at two separate Unpub events. I talked with some friends from Devious Devices about pricing and shipping (thanks for the advice guys!) and will be talking to Matt Holden from the Indie Gamer alliance about a few things today.

I’m contacting people who said they would be reviewing the game, hoping to have more than just quotes up when it launches. I’m working on the text and the visuals and the video. I have the videos of people playing the game, for which I am still eternally grateful to my friends. It may not be the traditional view for it, but I’m not a choreographer.

Anyway, I’m just trying to think of what to do to make the kickstarter better for when it launches. That includes reading a lot of James Mathe and Jaimey Stegmaier. Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.

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How this all started

About ten years ago my girlfriend, now fiancé and soon to be wife, Nina asked me to go to a meetup with her. That meetup was Boardgames NJ and it completely changed my perception of board games. As a kid I had played Key to the Kingdom, HeroQuest, It From The Pit and the traditional games that we all know and love (or hate, or perhaps love to hate in the case of Monopoly). I hadn’t played any of those games in years. I knew nothing of what was turning out to be a gaming renaissance in the making. I was exposed to games I had never heard of: Settlers of Catan, Saint Petersburg, Stone Age, Ra, Coloretto and Intrigue (which is still my favorite game of all time).

I fell in love with games and, as many gamers do, I decided to make my own. The first game I brought in to be tested collapsed like a house of cards. So did the next couple. I really appreciate that the people of that meetup (which I still attend, and am finally able to go to more often now!) have had the patience to play my half-baked ideas until they became something worth playing. They’ve seen many games that have been abandoned; and many that I’ve worked on for ages and will eventually, hopefully, see the light of day on Kickstarter.

There has been a lot of turnover in the group, but I still love going to play great games with great people. And I couldn’t think of a better group to have started out with than the one Nina took me to. I love you Nina, thank you for opening up a new world for me.

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Less Than A Month Till Launch

As I mentioned last week I’m planning to launch my Kickstarter for Orphanage of Fear on September 27th. It’ll run through most of October, which seems fitting for the game. I recently updated and refined my Prefundia page (you can find it here: http://prefundia.com/projects/view/orphanage-of-fear/6357/). If you want to sign up, I will be sending out an email blast when the campaign launches.

I’ve never run a Kickstarter campaign before, and despite reading, collecting email addresses and the like I can’t help but worry, just a little bit. I’m trying to keep the campaign costs low. That has eliminated a few fine manufacturers, but I need to make sure things are going well. I’m still getting quotes, and requesting revisions. There are still three companies I’m looking at, each with strong points in their favor. That said I’m glad I know how much a final copy of the game will weigh (I’ve been shipping copies out to reviewers) so I can accurately estimate shipping!

I will be uploading some gameplay videos soon. Nina and I threw a party; my friends were gracious to play two games on camera. With 11 players (and me acting as the caretaker) both games took less than forty minutes. Considering how close the games were I’d say it went very well.

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Indy Hangover, Orphanage of Fear and 24 Hour Game Design Contest Entry

This past week was the Games and a Curry’s Indy Hangover. It wasn’t bad for a first time convention. I got in a few playtests with other designers, won a game, and had an enjoyable time in a surprisingly interesting location. I also handed out a few copies of Orphanage of Fear for review, which I was thrilled to do. The nice demo copies I got from Print and Play production are going over well.

On that note, I’d like to announce that next month, September 27th, I will be launching Orphanage of Fear on Kickstarter. I’ll be working more towards the launch until then, but now, just for a little while, I’m going to indulge in something else.

If you’ve followed this blog you might remember me posting about making a game for the 24 hour game design competition over on Board Game Geek. Well, I posted it Monday morning. The name of the game is Wedding Party: The Desperate Attempt to Prevent Murder. It’s a short, simple two player game about arranging seating for irritable guests while trying to avert disaster. You can find the alpha version here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/azuuyeb9itn7kl9/Wedding%20Party.pdf?dl=0

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Prototypes and Playtesting

So, finalized prototypes for Orphanage of Fear came in and my do they look good! Print and Play Productions did a great job with them. One thing this settles for me is the size of the box. The cards, player aids, and rulebook will fit perfectly, with a bit of room to spare. The entire game fits in a super light box just a bit larger than my hand. Fantastic production quality from Print and Play, I’ll be sending out a few copies to reviewers in short order.

As for playtesting? Well, I have made a revised copy of Gerrymandering and it’s going over well enough. I went with four starting districts to allow for more potential point scoring in the game, something I need to work on in general. Simplifying the types of tiles used in game feels natural and works to smooth out the flow. Cutting some of the old holdovers from Shyft should help things (you can never hurt yourself by flipping over your own tiles while campaigning). I managed to explain something that was bugging people (why do tiles move around? Well, it’s not because a crane is picking up Midtown and moving it to the suburbs, it’s because of demographic shifts in the population). I will need to work on the wording of individual cards to make the game easier to teach and learn, but I think this is the best revision I’ve had.

Another thing I’m thinking of doing is tossing Shyft onto Game Crafters as a one player game. It’s too slow for it to be played with more than two players, and even two players can be a bit on the slow side, but as a single player brain teaser? I think it still holds up.

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Twenty Four Hours to Design

Every month on BGG there is a contest to design a game in 24 hours. It’s a thought exercise, stressing getting something designed rather than a perfectly functioning game (24 hours not exactly granting lots of time to playtest after all). This month the theme hit a bit close to home. Because in two months that theme is going to be something I’m going to be going through. This month the theme is Weddings.

So, this month, in one twenty four hour period I’m going to design a game where the theme is something to do with a wedding. I’m thinking about it, though I haven’t done much beyond think about what parts there are to a wedding that could be gamified. There are a few things I can think of. Some sort of rush to get to a wedding, trying to get everything in order to make sure the ceremony goes off without a hitch (but how would I make it more than 1 player?). Or work on arranging tables with in-laws, relatives, etc. That one seems a bit more likely… things to think about. I hope to post the game when I finish it.

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Playtesting and Redesign

So, on Saturday I had the chance to playtest Gerrymandering with another designer, Anthony from Cardboard Fortress (http://www.cardboardfortressgames.com/ check out their game Resistor and their upcoming game Lazer Ryderz which I had the pleasure of testing out before he tested my game). He hadn’t played the newest iteration, and had only played Shyft one time a few months ago. It was, as always, an enlightening experience. Getting your game ripped to shreds is just one of those things that, as a game designer, you have to accept will happen. He wasn’t spiteful, he wasn’t insulting, he was firm in his estimation that the game was overly complex, was too busy visually and in game, and that there were far, far too many options.

And he was right. I have been adding things to Gerrymandering, some at the suggestion of others, some to come up with solid math for the game. So, I have to take a step back, look at what I have, and strip it down. This is known as iterative game design. I have been adding too much, and now the game needs to be stripped down to a far simpler version.

The scoring should be easy, right now it’s complex. Not overly so, but more than this game, which should be simple, needs. Anthony suggested a new scoring method which I’ll be testing out soon. The game tends to start slow because players have many actions available to them, which bogs them down as they consider each one. So those have to cut down, maybe not removed from the game entirely, but limiting the options one takes at the beginning so they don’t get overwhelmed. I have way too many colors, and I’ll be cutting several shortly. I had to stop dancing around the issue of a game called Gerrymandering and embrace it.

The core is there, I see it and he said there was something solid to the game (or my mind has decided to add those words to his mouth to preserve my ego). I just need to refine it.

I should hope that I’m half as good at playtesting for others.

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Fine Design

Things are ramping up a bit. I’m doing more refinement on the Orphanage of Fear cards, and the rules, both of which will be going out soon for more blind testing and reviews. One comment that I wrote down while at Dexcon was that the capital S in the font I’m using turned out to look like a B. I got it more than a few times, as there are four toys that start with an S, so I started looking for a solution. Well, I could take the time to find a new font, much like the one I am already using since I like the feel of the font (Alphahate for those who are interested, and as an added bonus, it’s free), or I could try a novel approach.

I looked for a little while, but wasn’t coming up with something that clicked the way the Alphahate font did. So, I thought about it for a bit and then played around with the much more clean lowercase s. Increasing the font size of the one letter and then fixing the positioning took a little time, but the letter is much clearer. Cleaned up, and one step closer to going on Kickstarter.

In other news the Rampaging Jotunn campaign (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/835148483/rampaging-jotunn?ref=nav_search) is about to end. It has full funding, and the creator posted on Facebook it looks like the first tier will be unlocked, regardless of whether or not it actually gets hit. I suggest you take a look.

And while you’re on Kickstarter, I suggest you take a look at ABXY (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/brokengames/abxy-0?ref=discovery). Sadly it doesn’t look like it will succeed in its first attempt on Kickstarter, but I strongly recommend people download the PNP so they can test it out. There’s a link on the page (http://www.brokengames.xyz/abxy). Play it with some friends, tell them what you think about it.

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Dexcon Followup

So, Dexcon happened. It’s the largest gaming convention in my area and I was glad to attend. Had a table where I was demoing my games and ran several as official events. It was a splendid time, and was a spectacular playtesting opportunity. I ran several games, tested out games for others including Sharknado the Board Game (which, beyond being merely good, looks like it had significantly more effort put into it than the movie Sharknado).

I did come to a few conclusions post con though. Orphanage of Fear needed a bit of work. The Chalk card is being removed. It drew many comments, none of them appealing. While it served as a nice shot in the dark, the lack of information leads to many players immediately saying they had it and not to make anything of it, which isn’t a good use of a card. I’ve noticed it before; this was just a final nail in the coffin. I may replace it with a megaphone (an old style one, like a barker’s megaphone) that grants an extra vote during the day.

Another change that needs to be implemented is a tie randomizer. It’s something I noticed while playing that, if the players knew which way ties went it became exceedingly difficult for the Boogeymen to succeed if the Spirit Board came up repeatedly. A simple solution, two cards, one saying Clockwise and one saying Counter Clockwise, can be added to the game to add variance and privacy.

A quick shout out to Rampaging Jotunn (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/835148483/rampaging-jotunn?ref=nav_search) which has reached its Kickstarter goal! I played it twice at the convention (being utterly crushed in game one and smashing my opponent to kindling in game two).

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New On Kickstarter

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/835148483/rampaging-jotunn?ref=nav_search

Right now Rampaging Jotunn is heading straight for its funding goal. It reached sixty percent funding in less than a day. I have no doubt whatsoever that the game will meet and exceed its funding goal. I have played Rampaging Jotunn and I can tell you that the game is interesting, well put together, made for repeat plays. With a modifiable board each play experience is different. It’s easy to pick up and learn, and it still challenges people who already know it. The first time I played, I beat one of the designers Matthias Bonnici.

Speaking of Matthias, I have to say that he’s a great guy and has been running himself absolutely ragged getting this Kickstarter together, making sure everything was prepped and ready for launch. It’s his first game, but I doubt it will be his last. He has put his heart and soul into this project, six years getting it ready, and it shows. The game itself is beautiful, the gameplay is rock solid, quick and engaging and very easy to pick up.

I highly recommend Rampaging Jotunn. Click on the link, watch the videos, and back it if you can, it’ll be worth it.

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On Artwork and Design Part 2

Greetings from Slightly Offensive Games! This weekend I will be spending time with some old friends on Saturday, maybe getting in some games, and then on Sunday I’ll be in the McCaffrey’s of Princeton (301 N Harrison St, Princeton, NJ) after 2PM for a Princeton Board Games on the Casual Meetup, hope to see you there! ​ Orphanage of Fear has received quite a bit of praise for its visual design, for which I thank Endymion games (http://www.endymiongames.com/) and their talented artists. Unfortunately for me my vision doesn’t always match up with the reality of what other people need to play my games. This was striking when it came to Orphanage of Fear.

In Orphanage of Fear players have two types of cards: Role cards and Toy cards. Role cards determine what players need to do during the game and remain with the players for the entire game. Toy cards grant abilities to the players who have them, but change hands every turn.

I used virtually the same design choice for both, a large photograph with the image centered with text telling people the name of the item. Unfortunately, while that works for the unchanging Role cards, people have had difficulty remembering the abilities of the Toy cards. It was consistent feedback that I’ve taken to heart, and I’ve been trying to figure out a better way of going about it. Unfortunately, I didn’t expect this, and changing it has been a bit difficult. You'll see how many variants I've gone through below...

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The evolution of one of the toy cards from Orphanage of Fear. The changes were: 1. adding the faceplate/modified frame so I didn’t have the curved text on the box plate. 2. Adding text to the toy. 3. Removing the frame for a better view. 4. Using the faceplate to separate the text from the card text/have straight text. 5. Re-add the frame and reposition the picture for better standardization/bleed.

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On Artwork and Design

Greetings from Slightly Offensive Games! This week I’ll be taking Saturday off to spend time with my friend Jose for his birthday. I’m sure we’ll still play plenty of games though. Sunday I’ll be visiting Cardboard Edison (I had the wrong date written down last post, whoops) for their playtest day. I’ll be bringing along a friend and fellow developer, Tom Tiernan, who worked on the scenarios for Secrets of the Lost Tomb. That leads me into what I’ve been working on for the past few days: visual design.  Now, I’ve mentioned I’ve been working on Orphanage of Fear, Shyft and Outflank repeatedly, is that it's amazing how much little visual cues can affect a game. Outflank, according to dozens and dozens of players and designers… is done. The rules work, the gameplay is solid, and the game is highly replayable (the fact I can still stand to play it after all the playtests is testament to that…). But I’ve noticed one thing that has cropped up over time. I made a mistake when ordering the shields. The problem with them is simple: they have a direction. It’s not intuitive that they can be turned, because it doesn’t look right when you have shields facing different directions. Thankfully, this is a simple fix, making the shields circular solves the direction problem, and I’ll be talking to the company who does my art soon. I’ll also have to drop the Fleur-de-Lis, since, unlike the other symbol (a voided Moline cross for those who want to know), it’s monodirectional. Even if it’s on a circular shield, it will ‘face’ the wrong way unless played a certain way.

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Post Unpub Mini Update

Greetings from Slightly Offensive Games! The Unpub Mini event went well, with Outflank and Shyft seeing play. Just as important I tried out four other unpublished games: Pinball Showdown by Shoot Again Games (https://sites.google.com/site/shootagaingames2/home), Complicated Board Game the Card Game by (http://www.offcutgames.com/), Toon Trubble and a Robot game who I took a picture of, but sadly can’t remember the name of… Nina played a game called Metalfest (https://www.facebook.com/Metalfestgame/) that she enjoyed, and won! We also saw Lost Cog demoing Rampaging Jotunn (https://www.facebook.com/RampagingJotunn/) which is going on Kickstarter in just a few weeks!

Tuesday was another session of Tabletop Simulator playtesting (Tuesday night at 8PM Eastern, look for us in rooms labeled BGD!). Having demoed Outflank (with a great deal of success), I tried to get Shyft together. It saw the table, just a bit too late for play. Still, I got to watch a game of Huts (http://zintis-may.squarespace.com/), which saw revisions from the previous week, an interesting two player tower defense game with moving defensive characters, and a monster building game.

This weekend I’m looking to play and playtest. On Saturday, I’m going to see my friends at Cardboard Edison for a game day. Not sure if I’ll get any playtests in, but it’s good to play published games as well as prototypes, and then on Sunday I’m looking at Meetups. Board Games NJ is hosting one at Menlo Mall in Edison and Princeton Board Games on the Casual has one at McCaffery's in, you guessed it, Princeton. Check out our Facebook to find out where we wind up: https://www.facebook.com/slightlyoffensivegames/

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Happy Upcoming Unpub, Everyone

Greetings from Slightly Offensive Games! This Saturday is an Unpub Mini event at the Gamer’s Realm (510 US-130 #15, East Windsor, NJ 08520). I’ll be bringing Outflank for open demos and Orphanage of Fear and Shyft for playtesting. I also plan to test out some of the other great games that I’m sure will be there. The event runs from 11am to 6pm, so if you have the itch to try out games before they’re published, this is an event I recommend you go to.

Also new is testing on Tabletop Simulator. I recently joined a group of testers using the program. The group meets on Tuesdays, with room names starting with BGD (for Board Game Designers). This past Tuesday I ran a playtest for Outflank, and then tested out Huts, listened to another game being played, and tested out a fourth that didn’t have a title yet. Getting in four games in one night is great, and I’m hoping the group catches on. You can join the group on Steam at: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/boardgamedesigners. The next meeting will be next Tuesday at 8pm Eastern.

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Orphanage of Fear Teaser

Your life changed forever when your parents died. Wrenched from your loving home, you were placed in the Shining Hope Orphanage, told that there was a chance that you would be able to find a new family. Then the stock market crashed and the skies grew dark with dust and dirt. No one has come to look at you or anyone else, to become part of their family in months. But that hasn’t stopped children from disappearing. Your caretaker seems oblivious, but it seems like every day there are fewer of you. What can you do about it if the adults can’t help?

Orphanage of Fear is a social deduction game for six or more players in the vein of Werewolf or Mafia. Players are either orphan children or sinister boogeymen. Hiding in plain sight the boogeymen wake each night to drag a child into their realm under the bed to fears upon their fear. During the day they hide themselves behind the masks of their previous victims.

The children have to find out who these monsters are, but they are not entirely alone. In desperation the children can take comfort with what toys the orphanage has, and may draw abilities from the toys themselves. They can shine the light of the magic projector to discover the true identity of the target, shield themselves during the night with their teddy bear, save themselves from the monster in the closet by feeding it their limberjack or hide under the blanket to shield them from all danger, but beware not all toys were placed there for the benefit of the children. The boogeymen can bring their own sackcloth doll to throw off the magic projector and make others perceive an innocent child as a boogeyman.

Unfortunately, you can't always rely on toys being there. The orphanage is short, even with many children now missing, and so every round the kindly, but out of his depth, caretaker sees to it that what toys are available are taken back and then given out at random.

Can you find out what has been stalking you and the other orphans? Can you banish them to the monster in the closet, feeding them to the monster there like they would feed on you? Or are you going to be the next to disappear forever... Are you ready?

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These are even more photos of Outflank! games from Dexcon and South Brunswick Library's Hero-Con. I didn't win a single one at that mini-convention.