Developer Diary: Halloween Update

-

 Happy Halloween Gamers!


It has been some time since my last post I have shared with y’all, and for that, I apologize. I let the blog take a backseat for a few months, while I put some real effort towards reaching my goal of having the board game playtestable by the end of summer. Putting my nose to the grindstone really worked, so much has happened since we last spoke!


So you better buckle up, and hold onto your seats...


What was once a solo man’s journey has now taken form into a solid team! Allow me to introduce Brian Beardsley and Brett Kenney. Brian has a background in graphic design and a love for playing board games (right now he is pretty obsessed with Dune Imperium). Brett has a background in human-centered design and loves writing D&D campaigns and murder mysteries. Both have been providing some really creative ideas and have helped  further the development of this game. I am glad to have them on board with this project.


With that being said, we have begun using Trello to help manage this behemoth of a project. If you’re unfamiliar with this program, it is a project management tool to allow us to take the big picture and break it down into smaller tasks. This has enabled us to distribute the workload and make our weekly Thursday meetings run smoother. 


Mostly, our focus has been the player boards. We developed some early playerboard art mock-ups as well as early concept drawings of the varying factions in the game: the Tritonians, the Kazari, and the Ferranora. More on this to come.


At the beginning of October, we had a mini playtest, which was amazing! At least it started that way... We wanted to test out mechanics and see how they interacted with one another. Did we play a full game? No, not even close. I would say we spent about 2 hours getting about 10-15% of the way through before we were forced to stop because we were getting way too far into the weeds. It was clear we needed to develop the game and its mechanics a bit more before we could do a full playtest.


I consider this a win! While we didn’t get to playtest the full game, the game did get to a place where it could be playtested. We did miss the end of summer by a week, but we did manage to play the game and identify what we need to focus on next.


This is definitely not an exhaustive list of everything we have been working on, but we have been very, VERY busy. If any of those topics grabbed you or if you are dying to learn more, please feel free to let us know and we can prioritize those topics in future blog posts!

Here's a peak at a new board for the map too. Cheers!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Developer's Diary: Happy New Year!

-
Image
  Happy New Year Gamers!! This winter has been a very prosperous one in the Pacific Northwest, one with bountiful snow and logistical nightmares for every business. While times have been tough, I am hoping that everyone of you had a holiday season worth remembering. It’s been a minute since I have checked in, so let's catch up a little on the game. What are our current objectives? Well initially, it was to be 100% playtestable by the end of December. That being said, we have played the game a few times since the beginning of September. Each time we have discovered new areas that we want to target for improvement. So we hit our goal, but we aren’t happy with the current state of the game. For those that are not aware of how the game plays... ...think of Project Hexed like an RTS (Real Time Strategy) video game, where you control a tribe of humanoids with different capabilities. More or less, this is an army control game that has a heavy focus on combat. That being said, your main f...
Read more

Tips for a New Dungeon Master

-
This is what I am most excited to speak about. I have been a Dungeon Master or DM for a group of my friends over the course of a year. We have never finished playing, but we have taken a extended brake due to everyone's schedules no longer working together. When playing Dungeons and Dragons, there are two roles that need to be fulfilled: The players/player characters, or PCs; as well as the DM. The DM is a story teller of sorts, one that sets up a plot and engages those playing in all sorts of quests and activities to do and explore. Bringing their imaginations to the table with events that are going on as well as characters that are non playable (NPCs) to interact with the PCs. It has been debatable as to how a DM should be, and most people would rather be in the world that someone creates, than being the "entertainer" for everyone else. I became a DM so my friends and I could gather around a table weekly and do something we all had interest in and just bond. Everyone ha...
Read more