We realize the last post, ages ago, said we’d talk about adding randomization next. But instead today we’re talking more about game balance. In part 1, we discussed why a points based deck builder is challenging, and touched on potential game ideas to test. We’ve done a ton of testing Read more…
Wow, it has been a while since we posted here! Not because we’ve been slacking off (okay, we may have taken a bit of a break around Christmas and New Years), but mostly just due to a case of writers block. But this week, blog-post inspiration is back with advantage! Read more…
Creating a game is hard. Creating a game as a fun hobby with no game-design experience is harder. So over the past month we’ve taken a step back and started to research game design to help with the pitfalls we keep running into. 90% of this research is reading through Read more…
Still quarantined at home certainly has made it difficult to get a lot of meaningful work done on this game. However, thanks to recently learning about, and installing, Tabletop Simulator – I’ve been able to get a deck of cards online to play against opponents that aren’t just myself, which Read more…
Game development has taken a bit of a back seat here due to mandatory social distancing from COVID-19. It’s hard (read impossible) to play a game with anyone when you are not allowed to meet with anyone. That said, I (Joe) have been playing a quite a few solo games Read more…
Heavily based on a tabletop wargame, Helorian Battles relies heavily on combat to determine who wins the game. Throughout the combat system development, while not set in stone, several key features we want to include have driven our decision making: Dynamic lane based combat. The game starts with one combat Read more…
When researching development for this game, trying to answer the question why there are no great point-based deck building card games, we came across an interesting article – Untapped Potential in Card Games: Deck-Building Point Costs While we had a notion of what the challenges of a point based deck building Read more…
Played through a few more games with new people who hadn’t played the game yet. The games went smoothly, but there were a couple pain points that came up. One of which was scoring. The existing scoring used player supply + points won from attacking locations = total victory points. Read more…
First shipment of our prototype cards came in today! The first thing we did was lay them all out, organize them, and then built two 600 point decks (about 30 cards) to play a few games. Playing with actual cards instead of hard-to-read cut up note cards made the game Read more…
First iteration of our card design. Very basic design that will change over time – especially once we get a professional designer to work on it. The artwork is blurred due to copyright reasons. Meanwhile we are continuing to tweak the game. Each playthrough grants us further insight and gives Read more…