Saturday, May 31, 2014

The game is in.

So.........I haven't posted in quite a while.   I am sorry.  We have been pretty loaded down and it was just easy to give our updates a pass.  A long with creating games, I am an artist with clients I deliver images for.  I am developing assets for the company Vexith Games.  They were actually a contributor to our kickstarter, and you will notice their logo on the thank you card in sandwiches.  I am also working on a video game with Sam Bayless, who I created art for on a previous game, Legends of Descent. 

So, Sandwiches!  The game is in.  We are still waiting on shirts and stickers, and then we'll be sending out everyone's copies.  The printing went well, and the game looks nice.  Photos at the end of the article.

Back burner
Not a lot of developing has been going on lately.  I have been reviewing the different designs we already have.   I am trying to find things that aren't necessary or could be simplified.   Sometimes when you are in the middle of designing something you can't rethink elements.  You have a possessive nature toward what you've just designed.  When you give it time, step back, and reevaluate after you've worked on other designs.  You loose a lot of that possessive nature and can identify faulty or less elegant design. 

Raid may have too many do nothing actions.  I am thinking of reducing the amount of pieces, making every move more crucial.  Also, before you could have 4 units in a space.   It took quite a while to assemble all of your villagers into an effective unit to battle the vikings.  I am not sure what the best number of units is the correct amount yet.

Flags has not been working.  I think it has potential, but it might be best to scrap it.  We have another game called Tagging Turf that has some very similar mechanics, at least I'm that you play location cards you want to take over.  We might move some of what I learned on this over to Tagging Turf.  There are some things about flags I really enjoy.  Mainly art style and the like.   We could possibly make this into a  board game where the locations are already on the board, maybe some of the locations are blank so that you can play locations you draw. 

Hulk of the Hood is probably ready to go to testing.   I have had interest from people on playing the game.  I plan to develop a test copy as soon as I get a moment.  There is a lot of art still necessary for the game, but a good portion has already been completed.  I had been working on HotH when I came up with Sandwiches.  It was for a contest.  I realized I wouldn't be able to get all of the art done by deadline, so I set it aside for Sandwicjes.  This will allow us to find more time to develop better mechanics and art.  We were also limited on how much the game would cost to print for the contest, this will allow us to add more locations and items.  That leads to our last subject.

Printing through the Gamecrafter is pricey.  It makes sense for us right now since we don't have enough money to by 1500 copies of a game.  We have been doing research on pricing from other printing companies, it is becoming obvious that moving on to another printer at some point will result in better profits.  We aren't anywhere near there yet.  On an aside note, the longer we work with Gamecrafter, the more of a better price they give us on product.  So, continuing with the Gamecrafter model for a time will have it's benefits.

That was a bunch of info.  Sorry for just dumping it all in one biggest post that kind of rambled.  We're still working and we plan on getting one other game out this year.  Keep an eye on the blog, and Pickle your Sandwiches.

1 comment:

  1. Where's my friggin' game? Over two months since you posted pictures, yet I have nothing. WTF?

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