Qualifying Race

I have the next game up and running with a working prototype. A new board was made and then immediately got phased out, strictly cards right now (which make a faux board)

never even got to be playtested...

Pictured here is the Initial setup for a 4 player game.

Now here are the updated rules too.

Gamer Survey

I'll be sending this questionnaire out to a couple people and posting their results. Do you wanna help out too? Leave your input in the comments or send your answers to lukedenb@gmail.com. Feel free to be as wordy or concise as you like, also skip or add any questions you don't feel like.

Thanks in advance!

1. Why do you enjoy board games?
2. Favorite type of games?
3. Most hated type of game?
4. Game you would always say yes to?
5. Game you would always say no to?
6. Popular game you just don’t like?
7. Favorite # of players for a game?
8. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being a completely random game and 10 being pure strategy, what type of game do you enjoy?
9. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being a fully customizable game and 10 being ready to play out of the box, what type of game do you enjoy?
10. Ideal length to complete a game?
11. Setting up a game shouldn't take any longer than…?
12. Favorite gaming memory?
13. Biggest Rage moment in a game?
14. If you had to pick one color player token to choose for the rest of your life?
15. Favorite game component?

Rolling Start!

Ok, so I know Adrago isn't done yet (in the annoying fine tuning stage) but in the process of working on it I've had a few different ideas for another game. I've managed to be focused so far but this most recent idea (mixed with a chunk of free time where I couldn't work on Adrago) seemed like a really fun and easy to develop game (with much fewer components than Adrago)

So in Cyborg Rally (working title) players take part in a futuristic rollerderby/motorball type event. Players race around a randomly built track fighting for control over a ball. Whoever has the most points after a certain number of laps (how many times the ball passes the finish line, not each player) wins. Players get points for holding the ball as they cross the finish line, number of their completed laps, taking part in fight, etc...

Settlers of Satan?

Sorry for the lack of recent update. Here is a fun little video based on Settlers of Catan and friendly, or not so friendly competition.

Playtesting

Just a quick update before bed.

Finished a full game of the latest version of Adrago. This is one of the first full games that have been played that didn't just devolve into a "fix-it" session. There were still plenty of things learned in the process though.


As I haven't explained the current rules most of this won't be of interest except for me...


The Good
had a really close end game score (70 vs 72)
There seemed to be a good bit of acceleration
A variety of options to succeed
A decent flow and repetition of gameplay


The BadAdvisors need to get bumped up in importance and ease of implementation
There are too many"free" action, especially when dealing with movement
 Still need to tweak the endgame parameters slightly

The Ugly
staying up late playing the game and having to get up early for work tomorrow

I would love to get this blog caught up to where I am in the actual rules and revisions but too busy right now...

The Teardown

So Adrago was chugging along, making cool progress, but also picking up a lot of baggage along the way. I realized that I was at a pivotal point in the creative process. Do I push forward blindly and hope for the best? I thought about potential tweaks I could do to improve the game but no amount of little changes could get me to where I wanted with Adrago. I assessed what was worth keeping and cut away a lot of features that I thought were key to the game. I'm going to continue to be kind of loose in describing some rules because a lot is out of date and not worth going to heavily into detail, so bear with me.

Early Revisions

After a few sessions a couple things obviously needed to be tweaked. Early on the main problem was that it took far too long for the game to get rolling, far too many steps between getting cards/tiles and playing those tiles. After a few revisions (buffs in advisor abilities along with a bump in the power of each action) the opposite started to take place.

revised actions

First Draft

In this entry you will find a very loose description of the early game more detail on rules will be found in future posts (partly because the rules have changed so much from past versions)

My game started with a focus on area control and ability management. The game starts with several smaller boards being joined together and a few obstacles and areas of interest added in.

A look at a larger 6 player board

The green area in the center is 3 different "starting" boards, depending on the number of players there are additional square boards are added (represented by different colors) On the colored player boards everyone would take turns placing 1 large mountain range, 1 small mountain range, and one treasure. After setup players would take turns adding either positive or negative items to the row or column to effect each castle in that row or column.

Inspiration

My first game has already gone through many revisions, only a few elements from the original design still exist in it's current state. I didn't get around to creating this blog until I was well into the 3rd or 4th revision of the game. So in this post I'm going to take some time and discuss two different games that helped be an inspiration for my game.

Starting Player

 This blog was created to help catalog and document the creation of my first tabletop game, Adrago. Funny thing though is at this point I'm probably past the halfway mark on the road to finish that first game. Better late than never though.

Before I get into the nitty gritty of my game and it's creation a little gaming background info on me. I've been a fan of video games since I was a kid, board games not so much. It actually took video games to help me realize there is more to table top games than Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley.