Back on the horse

It has been far too long since my last post.  Other factors (not least of which laziness) have got in the way.  I have not been completely idle from a game design perspective, though.

Much of the time I have spent on game design has been tinkering with possible games to pitch to A Chap I Know who publishes games and let me know that he is open to pitches for an IP he has.  I don't feel able to discuss this further at the moment, but I have worked through three designs so far...

• One looks the most promising at first glance and uses a similar card-following mechanism to Sherlock Holmes: The Card Game, with different objectives and scoring, but I hit a bit of a wall with marrying this to the IP in a way that I am happy with.  I'll get back to this later, because I'd really like to see this game happen, even if it ends up being re-themed.
• I also tried a hidden role/deduction game, which was massively flawed in playtest: the biggest problem in my view was that it requires an absolute minimum of 6 or 7 players to work, and I think this would kill it for its intended use even though the other flaws (which were basically down to many player turns feeling dull or pointless) are certainly fixable.  I've shelved this for the foreseeable future.
• The current project probably counts as a microgame (I've been testing it with an 18 card deck, though it'll need more), and basically involves each player playing a small number of cards (about 4), which affect the game balance between good guys and bad guys, and scoring at the end of each round depends on which side is dominant and what cards each player has in front of her.  Initial tests on this have been promising, though it'll be a long path of streamlining and balancing.

Apologies for being a bit cryptic about all these projects.  I may well re-theme the last game for testing and public discussion, which is probably a good idea overall for two major reasons.  Firstly, if the game isn't picked up in its intended form (and, frankly, that is the most likely outcome), it would be nice to be able to complete it and distribute it.  And secondly, I want the game to work well on its own merit, even without any connection to a licensed property.

Other than that, I *nearly* took part in a games design competition on Board Game Geek.  I had the necessary ideas and had started writing stuff down, but then got distracted, so I am a bit disappointed in myself.  An objective for this year is to actually take part in at least one of these as they are a great incentive to complete something and put it out there for scrutiny.  There is a monthly 24-hour competition which I think would be fun to join, even if I don't do any others.

I'm not generally one for New Year's Resolutions, but I'll make an exception for the purposes of this blog...

1. I will be more consistent with this blog.  I would like to post on a weekly basis, but being more realistic, I will consider this a fail if there aren't at least two posts each month.
2. I will take part in at least one game design competition, probably one on BGG.
3. Create 4 playable games from my "game hooks" list and make them available online (I'll post this list shortly).

Right then, we'll see how I do this time next year...