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Game Design?

Started by bayonetbrant, February 09, 2012, 12:52:48 PM

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bayonetbrant

What's the best board/tabletop wargame you ever designed, and what did you end up doing with it?
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

LongBlade

I'm not sure that many of us has gotten as far down the path as you have, Brant, so I will chime in with a comment on best game design, rather than best game *I've* designed.

With that in mind, the best strategic game mechanic I've found can be found in Supremacy and Samurai Swords: you have the choice of many actions, but have constraints on which ones. Bidding allows you to ensure you get first choice, but at the cost of being able to do some of the others.

In terms of more localized individual combat mechanics, I like the simplicity of attack strength, defense strength, and movement ratings on counters. The more complex the counters get, I generally find the less interested I am in the game. Simplicity has great merit. There are games out there that do more with counters and are great, but I prefer to minimize the physical clutter of the counter and its corresponding mind clutter that complex rules place on the players.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

TheCommandTent

I've never designed a game.  Im not sure I'd even know where to begin.
"No wants, no needs, we weren't meant for that, none of us.  Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is."

LongBlade

Usually you begin by looking at games you like and figuring out what they did well. Then you change what you don't like.
All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

Jack Nastyface

None of my game designs (including stand-alone wargames and / or modules, and computer games or mods) ever made it beyond the concept stage, save one or two rpg mods I played with friends when I was younger.  The farthest I ever got along the design / development process was to create game portfolio that I pitched to 2 venture capitalists and one (soon to be out-of-business) development company.

Nonetheless, I still have a couple of designs (itouch, wargame module) up my sleeve...I might actually try to incubate one or more of the i-game concepts with a local stand-alone game developer guy I met recently..

Need / want details?

Jack Nastyface
Now, the problem is, how to divide five Afghans from three mules and have two Englishmen left over.

Capn Darwin

My best to date is Probably Blood and Bridges for Mark Walker's World at War series. Had to work counters, values, maps, and a number of rules updates. Was a ton of fun and Mark is great to work with.

I'm also hoping this new game I'm putting together fairs well. It's a mini-game I hope to submit into a Line of Fire edition summertimeish. If the mini-game is well recieved I'll work on a much larger box game version with all of the bells and whistles.

On the computerside of the house Full Canvas Jacket still wins out, but hopefully if this computer wargame gets completed it will take top honors.
Rocket Scientist by day, Game Designer by night.

0kult13

Quote from: bayonetbrant on February 09, 2012, 12:52:48 PM
What's the best board/tabletop wargame you ever designed, and what did you end up doing with it?

Battle flag for me, it was my first and very much to learn how to make games. Got it up on bbg and some nice chappy made a vassel mod for it as well, got some nice reviews but i made a ton of mistakes. Got two more in the works and as im planning to aim for the free pnp market im going for a black & white ink style (people will be more inclinded to try them if it does not murder their printer ink).  So learning to ink just now, proper nib pen stuff, tough but the resulting graphics are lovely.

AmericanPride

Quote from: bayonetbrant on February 09, 2012, 12:52:48 PM
What's the best board/tabletop wargame you ever designed, and what did you end up doing with it?

In high school, my European history AP teacher put us into groups to brainstorm about a project. So we bought a Make-Your-Own-Opoly set and went about making rules for a colonial era monopoly-like game that included national flags and battles. It was a great success and now it's lying in a box somewhere. My friends and I also attempted to turn several favorite games (Warcraft III and Starcraft) into grand strategy games by drawing up massive maps, writing out some basic out-of-game rules, and then using the multiplayer system to fight out the battles. It had more ambition and hope than actual substance and success though.

One day, I would like to take Steel Panthers: World at War and simulate a major campaign using a similar model.

btrain

I'm not sure which is my favourite.
I've gone in all kinds of directions to explore different issues and systems.
I guess, like children, some disappoint less than others but you have a soft spot for them all.

Brian Train

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

acctingman

Question for you all....

I want to make my own counters for Conflict of Heroes. Any ideas what program(s) to use to make the counter art and how and were I would get them printed? DIY? or send them in somewhere and have them printed for me.

Appreciate any advise.

bayonetbrant

What do you already have for layout software?

What's your current level of knowledge / comfort with those apps?

It's easy for someone to flippantly say "Adobe InDesign - there is no equal!" until you realize is a very expensive program and a decent learning curve.
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

acctingman

Quote from: bayonetbrant on August 02, 2017, 09:37:50 AM
What do you already have for layout software?

What's your current level of knowledge / comfort with those apps?

It's easy for someone to flippantly say "Adobe InDesign - there is no equal!" until you realize is a very expensive program and a decent learning curve.

I have no software, except NanDeck

I've used GIMP a few times, that's the extent of my software usage

This is something I'd like to do on the cheap  :2funny:

After reading some of the older posts in this sub forum I think I'm going to have to stick to something that is free, like NanDeck. There is a kind soul over on BGG that has been nice enough to help me out.

It works well for what I want to do, but my main issue is finding google images for infantry and guns. There are TONS of images for tanks, armored cars, etc, but infantry images are tough to find. I LOVE the ones that Conflict of Heroes has, but its art and I don't want to "copy" their stuff  :-[

bayonetbrant

The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

acctingman