Category: Games in Progress

These games are currently in development.

Black Hole Play-Tests Show Some Promise

2021-04-15 / / 0 Comments
Pirates of the Black Hole Version 9a

One and a Half hours into the play-test of what’s supposed to be a 45 minute game, the players didn’t want to quit. It’s a great sign, when the players want to see the final outcome. In fact. was doing my happy dance inside my head when this happened. The game has a few kinks at this point, but it seems to be firing on all cylinders. Happy Days!

We ran into an energy shortage at the end of the game which intensified the game-play but also caused it to drag on very very long. This can be fixed. I will introduce a deck of cards which will control the generation of energy throughout the game. The end condition has to be tweaked as well as as the number of ships for each player and a few other things. The Pirate theme doesn’t quite fit so I will be changing it to scavengers or something more suitable. It is worthwhile to spend some time on the graphics to make it more clear and shore up the theme a bit, now that this game seems to function well.

I will also introduce different types of energy with special effects, as well as reworking the dice tokens a bit. The Marauders market mechanism I planned on adding may not be a good fit for the game. I can encourage more player interaction through other means so the player negotiations will emerge more organically. This will have be in later revisions, for now I just have to fix what’s broken.

You can check out the latest TTS version here Pirates of the Black Hole.

The rules are coming soon. If you have any questions you can send me a quick email at rogerdogergames or leave a comment on the post.

Stuck in the Middle with “La Famiglia”

2021-03-27 / / 0 Comments
Latest version 5a of La Famiglia

The play-testing last version of “La Famiglia” went well, but something interesting came up. We were trying to decide exactly which market I was trying to appeal to, and it turned out to be nobody. It’s like that song “Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, here I am…..Stuck in the middle with you….”.

It was much too complicated to appeal to the mass market crowd that plays games like Euchre and Uno, but it didn’t have enough depth for a Hobby Gamer to sink their teeth into. It is very likely to languish in that No-Sale limbo that designers and retailers dread. My choices were to simplify it to the point where it might appeal to the mass market, or ramp up the complexity and player decisions enough to appeal to hobby gamer. I’m afraid I can’t have my cake and eat it too……Or can I ?

I decided to do both. I added more interesting decisions by giving some of the cards special abilities. I also tweaked the “Situation” deck a bit to make it more interesting. This might be enough for the hobby gamer to enjoy.

As far as the mass market gamer goes, the game will be introduced in stages. The base rules will not include the special card abilities. It might be interesting enough for a casual gameer. If the players wish, they can incorporate the special abilities of the cards. If they want to push it to the limit, they can use the situation deck. I’m hoping this multi-layer approach will work. Only time and more play-testing will tell.