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Week 20, 2015: Mingle & Murder made it to the semifinals in Killer Gamer's Remorse Challenge! Three to seven games will be selected for the finals but the fifth place in the semifinals is encouraging and I hold my thumbs that the judge will consider the card drafting mechanism through exchanges novel enough to include Mingle & Murder in the finals. My project of annotating test games of has now reached another classic game: Tre Kronor Infernum. One small adjustment was made to shorten the closing of the game: when a player places the last save/steal marker in the game, the other players will play one more turn before the game ends rather than having to extinguish all the remaining fires. In addition, the placement of fire and ash tokens was streamlined by simply placing them together and removing only the fire token when extinguished, simply leaving the ash token instead of having to replace it with an ash tokens. It's the small details... Else on the game front, I've taken to like Leo Colovino's games, since he deals with similar mechanisms that I aim for in my games: common actions that affect everybody and often with secret agendas. Besides Clans, I consider buying Alexandros (one commonly moved leader that creates borders and a tax action that benefits all players) and The Bridges of Shangri-La (movements that include other players at the same place and removal of bridges behind). Not very highly rated at Boardgamegeek but simple and elegent mechanisms to learn from! Also this week, I was contacted by a Mexican reviewer, interested in reviewing Mice in a Maze. I declined for now, as the game is not completely tested yet, but it may be an option if I decide to kickstart the game in the future so you should never say never. I finished the week with some redecorating at home: 
Week 19, 2015: This week started with the launch of the Killer Gamer's Remorse Challenge. The judges encouraged contestants to tweet about the design process and in a reply to one such tweet, they expressed interest in the game mechanisms. But first the game must make it to the finals of course.
Another old game was revisited as I finally published an annotated test game of my old favorite Christina Regina. The other old game Nova Suecia, however, remained unchanged as initial testing revealed that indirect trade (with price changes after each good traded) would be even more cumbersome and time-consuming. Speaking of Christina Regina, I long thought that the game mechanisms of common movements and hidden colors were unique until I had the benefit of attending a game jubileum this weekend. The jubileum was in honor of the video reviewer ConraDargo and naturally, this was celebrated by playing many games. One of them was Clans, which also has common movements (by clans) with colors scoring as villages are formed. Christina Regina is still unique in the sense that players may assassin each other if they find out each others' colors but it's still fun to see other adaptations of mechanisms. Clans also reminds me of Iconoclasm and perhaps it was playing the game that helped me return my dual victory condition. The victory condition of ending a turn with two units was previously abandoned due to "accidental kingmaking" during test. However, this also made the early game a bit uninteresting as it was all about forming and deforming other units. By simply letting a player win only by ending a turn with his or her own units, the risk of accidental kingmaking was removed. Should you play for an early victory with two units or save your element tokens until later? Now you can choose! Week 18, 2015: Due to travelling (gourmet food at El Celler de can Roca!) I had little time for game design. Most worthy of interest, I postponed the launch of my Iconoclasm Kickstarter campaign to 20 May to allow time for the pitch video and review to be completed. Nevertheless, I had time to think of upcoming projects. Additional testing of my new games Mice in a Maze is on the list, as is continuous improvements of old games. One idea that struck me was to replace the direct trade of Nova Suecia, where player sell and buy goods to be refined with each other, with an indirect trade system, where players buy and sell from a common market and where each traded good increases or decreases the price for the next player in turn. Same end, different means, but what is best?
Returning to my current game Mice in a Maze, I proceeded to annotate a 4 player test game, showing all the take that of the game. The game feels solid as it is but the annotation gives me an opportunity to question specific rules. For example, I still haven't seen a case where a mouse steals a cheese from another mouse by passing so although it's fun and thematic, it may be unnecessary? Another great event was the presentation of Find the Bug! at my company SQS. Five games were played at the same time and several groups immediately wanted to play a second time (the highest score according to the Q4T Score!. Perhaps my little test game has a future as a game for test professionals and their clients? It's now less than one week left to the launch of my Iconoclasm Kickstarter campaign and a newsflash has been published at The Game Crafter. However, I'm still waiting for my pitch video and review by All Us Geeks so I may have to postpone the launch. Time will have to tell. Week 16, 2015: My latest order from The Game Crafter arrived and with it my latest game Mingle & Murder! 
The game looked exactly like I wanted it (although I, for some reason, ordered purple cylinders instead of discs) and it's now submitted to Killer Gamer's Remorse Challenge. I hope the judges will like it too. I also submitted the game to Boardgamegeek. Otherwise, this week was devoted to videos. Following feedback from others, I started adding music to my recent videos (Götterdämmerung to Iconoclasm, In the Mountain King's Hall to Mice in a Maze the Jeeves & Wooster theme to Mingle & Murder Tetris to Find the Bug! and so on. Having come so far, I couldn't help creating videos and selecting music to all my other games as well. Wagner and Tchaikovsky turned out to be my most popular selections of classical composers. 
Week 15, 2015: A most productive week is at an end. After some tweaking and squeaking (pun intended), Mice in a Maze has tested successfully and feels solid so far. A homepage section has been created, including game description, rules draft and print & play files. More testing is still required but the contest deadline not being until September, I have plenty of time. I also "rewarded myself" by attending International Tabletop Day at the pub Bishops' Arms in Stockholm. I did bring Iconoclasm to the event but it's hard to get players to test a new game when there are so many good established game to choose from. Nevertheless, I got to play some fun games such as Akrotiri, Murano, Five Tribes and Key Harvest. (No immediate inspiration for new games but who knows...) I also got a pitch proposal for the Iconoclasm video, featuring a mystical cloaked man brooding over the board - very much like the image I had myself of the game! It will be very interesting to see the result. If the review from All Us Geeks is completed in time as well, the Kickstarter campaign for Iconoclasm will launch in less than three weeks. Week 14, 2015: What do you do when you want to focus on old game ideas but keep getting new ones? I had barely concluded the game testing of Mingle & Murder when I finally got the last inspiration I needed for my labyrinth game. This game was originally inspired by Tsuro, with its brilliant and yet simple mechanism of placing a tile and move as far as you can. My first idea was to make a "digger game", where you had to dig into a dragon's cave and avoid not only other diggers but also moving dangers in the mountain (not to mention the dragon itself of course). However, the game only felt like a more complicated and less fun version of Tsuro and I put my game on hold, thinking that Tsuro was the only way to implement this mechanism. Then I discovered Indigo. Indigo made one simple but brilliant modification of the Tsuro mechanism: instead of keeping your piece on the board to win, you try to get other pieces off the board and score for them. Not surprisingly, the man behind Indigo was my favorite designer Reiner Knizia. He gave me the last push I needed and somehow I came up with the idea of a changing labyrinth with plenty of take that opportunities. The theme was changed to the more unique (and humorous) laboratory mouse environment and Mice in a Maze was born. As the name says, you play a mouse in a maze, who places and replaces tiles to get to a cheese in the middle and back again while watching out for the other mice and dangerous rolling marbles. Incidentally, this game is perfect for another Game Crafter contest, Gamehole Board Game Challenge, where the main requirement is strong take that mechanisms. The take that mechanisms of Mice in a Maze are not only about blocking other mice or have them overrun by marbles but also about getting them to drop the cheese in your nest instead! The initial testing was promising and the components and draft rules were quickly created. I expect to publish yet another homepage section next week. 
Naturally, Mice in a Maze took most of my game design time this week but I also found time to start creating cards for my cooperative game design project. It's more complex than my normal games but hopefully we'll have a prototype ready before summer. Week 13, 2015: This week saw additional work for Mingle & Murder. The homepage was updated, Print & Play files were created and a Rules video was uploaded. Now "only" the annotated games are missing. I also returned to the upcoming Kickstarter campaign for Iconoclasm. An article was sent to The Game Crafter as part of the fulfill agreement signed with them and the same text was sent to "Video Garver" as input to the game video. I actually asked a tester to send his copy of the game to him but was happy to learn that he wanted to keep it and play more. In such cases, I don't mind spending money on a new copy. I also announced the campaign at the Swedish board game page Brädspel.net to get both publicity and feedback. The campaign is still far inferior compared to professional once but I consider it as a valuable lesson for the future. Besides my own games, I've also continued working on the partner project of the yet unnamed mathematical game. The draft rules have been finalized and the first components uploaded to The Game Crafter. Hopefully a test version will be available before summer. 
Week 12, 2015: This week was entirely devoted to my latest game Mingle & Murder. I ran several probability calculations to set the balance, ran a successful 10 player test and struggled to complete the 50 something unique cards of the game. Why the hurry? Because I expected a large order of Find the Bug! to my company SQS and wanted to include a prototype in the same delivery.
Whether Murder & Mingle will be as successful remains to see but I like the game and it's a good candidate for my next game to promote after Iconoclasm. Mind you, Find the Bug! was the first game I promoted and although the crowdfunding campaign failed, it did spread the word and helped realizing the game's later success. Week 11, 2015: Finally my shipment from The Game Crafter arrived and I could proudly unpack my latest game Explorers & Exploiters, my micro games Comrade, Gulag and Politburo and new components to Iconoclasm, Nova Suecia and Mare Balticum.
Explorers & Exploiters didn't reach the finals in the Sprue Challenge but was rated 4.5 for the shop page and 4 for the mechanisms so I can't complain. I also completed an online version for Explorers & Exploiters with the Vassal Engine and added the game to Boardgamegeek. Another game got good publicity as I presented my Testing Methodology Applied to Games at a company meeting together with the game Find the Bug!. If they decide to use it in future company meetings, I may get a sales boost for the game. As this wasn't enough, I finally came up with an idea for the next contest at The Game Crafter: Killer Gamer's Remorse Challenge with player elimination as the main requirement. After some consideration I came up with a classic "who dunnit" theme with a twist: guests try to steal items, a murderer tries to kill them and a detective tries to track the murderer. The twist is that killed players may revenge themselves on the murderer, if they manage to guess who killed them that is. With rooms symbolized by miniatures and cards with English upper class flavor texts, it may become another unique and inventive game. More information will follow.
But it's not only my own games that occupy my mind. I decided to pledge for my first kickstarted game. The reason was the game itself, Between two Cities, with its unique and inventive mechanism of competitive partnership. Draft tiles and build two cities at the same time, one together with your left neighbor and one with your right. So simple but oh so elegant! Old blog posts may be found here:
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Please leave a comment on the games or contact me directly at nicholas.hjelmberg@gmail.com. |
Week 17, 2015:
I had just about completed the game when the order came: 10 copies of Find the Bug! to be used in company events, with possible further orders for give-aways. I quickly added our logo on the box and placed the order. This rocketed the game to a 
