Published Games:
- Terra Prime (BGG)
- Eminent Domain (BGG)
- Eminent Domain: Escalation (BGG) (expansion)
- Eminent Domain: Exotica (BGG) (expansion)
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion)
- Eminent Domain: Microcosm (BGG)
- Isle of Trains (BGG)
- Eminent Domain: Oblivion (expansion)
- Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG)
- Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [In manufacturing]
- Dungeon Roll: Winter Heroes (BGG)
- Gold West: Bandits promo (BGG)
- Gold West: Trading Post promo (BGG)
- Yokohama: Achievements & Free Agents promo (BGG)
- Brainfreeze
Finished But Unpublished Games:
- Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print]
- Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [Ready to print]
- Deities and Demigods [In line for art]
- Exhibit (BGG)
- Eminent Domain: Chaos Theory (dice game)
- Dice Works (BGG)
- Wizard's Tower (BGG)
- Now Boarding
- Isle of Trains: All Aboard (expansion)
- Suburban Sprawl
- Watch It Played
Current Active Designs:
- Alter Ego (BGG) [moved to Active]
- Apotheosis (FKA "Worker Learning") [moved to Active]
Recent Designs That Are Not On The Front Burner:
- Riders of the Pony Express (BGG)
- Automatown
- Moctezuma's Revenge
- Joan of Arc
Old Standbys - games which have been around, 1/2 done and untouched, for years:
- 8/7 Central
- Hot & Fresh
- Dynasty
- Kilauea
- Reading Railroad
- All For One (BGG)
- Odysseus: Winds of Fate (BGG)
Old Ideas that Haven't Gone Anywhere (Yet) - some of these have been getting stale as well:
- Investigative/Tabloid Journalism
- Red Colony
- Clash of the Kingpins
- Time = Money
- Dating Game
- Ticket Please
- Scourge of the High Seas
- Rondel Role Selection
- Cruise line game
- The Untouchables
- Day labor job based on craps
Misc and Really Old Stuff:
- 9-Ball
- Blockade Runner
- Roman Emperors (my version of someone else's game)
- Admirals of the Spanish Main (my version of someone else's game)
Let's take a closer look at the games that have seen some movement recently:
Published games:
Crusaders: Divine Influence (BGG) (expansion) [In manufacturing]
The first expansion to Crusaders: Thy Will Be Done (BGG) has been printed, and is about to ship from the manufacturer! I played two games with a sample copy at TokenCon in Oklahoma City this year, where I was a special guest. Divine Influence adds new building types, and replaces the Influence action with something more intricate and involved. There are 4 new Knight Orders as well.
Eminent Domain: Oblivion (BGG) (expansion)
The third (and final) expansion to Eminent Domain was released about a year ago, and is in stores now. Oblivion adds Clout tokens (1-shot role icons), and a Politics role. Using Politics, you can flip over the new Prestige planets in the set, and you can "vote" public agendas into and out of play. These agendas have lasting effects that apply to everyone. So far I haven't seen a lot of comments on this expansion, but the ones I've seen have been pretty positive, so that's nice.
Finished But Unpublished Games:
Eminent Domain Origins [Ready to print]
All of the art is done for this Terra Prime re-release, but the production is on hold for various reasons. The game is an update to my first published title, Terra Prime (BGG), and includes an as-yet unpublished expansion I made years ago. The art and theme has been changed to the Eminent Domain universe, as the game fits perfectly as a prequel to Eminent Domain.
Crusaders: Crimson Knight (expansion) [Ready to print]
I have art ready to go for another Crusaders expansion, this one just adds red player pieces for a 5th player. If things go my way, we'll print the same exact thing in yellow to facilitate a 6th player in an "Amber Knight" expansion box. There's a new rule which allows space for more players to play on the same sized board -- you're allowed to build the same building as an opponent has built in a region. So if you built a Farm in a hex, I can build a Farm in that hex as well. This rule means the building spaces don't completely dry up with 5 or 6 players, and it adds an interesting dynamic as well.
Olympus on the Serengeti (FKA Deities and Demigods) [In line for art]
The theme for this one was so commonplace that, when getting an artist involved, I tried to find something new and different. I landed on animals of the African plain... sort of like The Lion King is Hamlet, but with African animals, Olympus on the Serengeti is Greek mythology, but with African animals. Unfortunately, I wasn't liking the direction the art was going in, so the project has been set back a bit. I've got a different artist lined up for January, so hopefully this one will start moving forward again soon.
Isle of Trains: All Aboard (expansion)
I think it was 4 years ago that Dan and I gave the publisher an expansion to Isle of Trains, and while it kept getting pushed back, I have seen some art that they had made. My understanding is that it's in fact all done, however the publisher now would like to instead do a bigger box game that's like Isle of Trains including the expansion (!) So Dan and I have to figure out whether and how we'd like to re-design the game given the new constraints. One idea they had was to create a game that could use the base Isle of Trains game as an expansion to it... but that seems unlikely to pan out. Unfortunately, we haven't really made any progress on the re-design yet.
Current Active Designs:
Alter Ego (BGG) [moved to Active]
I have revisited Alter Ego after what appears to be 2 years, and I've been playtesting it quite a bit lately. My playtesters finally convinced me that the turn sequence was too confusing, so that's been simplified. And I came up with a new format for the Arch Villains: instead of bringing one or more of them into play at some point, all three Villains will be in play from the outset. Their henchmen will be placed below their Villain mats, and each turn, before you get to fight, each Villain will resolve a Villain Event card. The effect of the card depends on the Villain (the Sadist takes extra hostages, while the Mastermind limits your access to certain abilities) is worse if the Villain has 3 or more henchmen in front of them, so you have incentive to keep the henchmen at bay. So far this new format has been working very well, but the game isn't quite done yet.
Apotheosis (FKA "Worker Learning") [moved to Active]
Michael suggested the name "Apotheosis," which describes the game very well. Thanks to the help of a new co-designer, Rick Holzgrafe, we've made some serious progress on this game. I set it aside this summer and it's been simmering on the back burner since then, but pretty soon I'll probably try some of the latest ideas we've had for it.
Recent Designs That Are Not On The Front Burner:Riders of the Pony Express (BGG) & Automatown
Each of these games got a playtest recently, which generated something new to try, but they quickly got set aside for other projects. My playtesters don't love Automatown, but they really enjoyed Riders of the Pony Express, so I should bring that one back into active development!
Maybe next time I'll add games I've developed (or am developing) for TMG... would that be something you'd like to see? Let me know in the comments... it's a pretty long list!
Maybe next time I'll add games I've developed (or am developing) for TMG... would that be something you'd like to see? Let me know in the comments... it's a pretty long list!
No comments:
Post a Comment