Twenty Six

Guest blog from my wife:


"When my dear husband started working on publishing a game, I started thinking about what kind of game I would create.  I have one idea that has been lingering in the back of my head, I'm not sure how to execute it, so I sat on it.  Recently, a new game struck me.  It's a combination of poker and a word game.  Immediately, I knew what I wanted the cards to look like. I wanted brown cards with distressing, lots of words, a typewriter font, and swirls.  Almost like magic before my eyes, J had designed the cards I was describing.  We were able to play test rounds of the game, which went pretty well.  I chose to call the game Twenty Six, because that's how many letters are in the alphabet.  I also wanted that to be the part of the game that was kind of risky.  Score as many points as possible, but go over 26 in your round and you get a zero! We have changed the letter counts, changed points values, and added in some fun bonus point opportunities.  When all was said and done, the game came together beautifully! I am hoping that it's been published in time for holiday gift giving and more importantly for families to spend quality time playing games together over the holidays!


So, without further introduction...you can check it out and purchase it here! "

Art Style Change

Well, I wasn't happy with the way the art was looking on the previous cards.  I spent some time the last couple evenings working on a new style that I am much happier with.  Below you can see my effort so far.  I decided that I wanted to have less text on these cards so the icons are what will have meaning.  The card below is an island card and has four landmarks on it.  It also has a ship encounter and a major mountain landmark.  I know these don't mean a whole lot now, but if you have played Cosmic Odyssey, you should have at least an idea of how this will work :)

I've also made some headway on finishing the card list.  Really all I have to finish on this is the names of the cards.  I have the numbers mostly worked out and am working on a prototype to start testing the game.  The only struggle I've had is cutting the number of cards down for only 2 to 4 players.

Secret Game update

I've been working the last week or so on a card list and mechanics for the new "secret" game that I posted about a bit ago.  Most of the game mechanics I have down as they are similar to another game of mine.  I'm not too worried about balancing these as much, but I am designing this game from the ground up to be based on 4 players for the base game instead of 6.  But, at the same time I am working on the first expansion that will add a 5th and 6th player to the game.  Eventually when I go to release the game then I can release the expansion shortly after the base game.

This new game I've been working on is a Pirate themed game.  It's going to be more of an alternate universe type Pirate game rather than based on any real history (even the romanticized version we get in movies) or real places.  While jotting down notes in my game design notebook when I have time I've also kicked around the art style some.  I've already modified the style some from the sneak peak that I had posted before.  Here are a couple different versions that I have so far.  These are going to be from the card faces,  the card back will look similar to the sneak peak card.

I'm partial to the gold border one but have been thinking I may actually use both.  The picture on the inside will actually be different colors, so it won't all just be browns.  

I've heard that the art shouldn't come before the game.  I enjoy working on both though, and I'm using fairly established mechanics that have already been play-tested quite a bit.  It's just really a matter of finishing up the list of cards and I figure I can work out the art style I want to use while that is in progress.  Anyways,  if anybody has any ideas or comments on these, let me know.

Oh, and I did finish up the art and order a prototype of my wife's game.  I plan on posting some info on it here when she is ok with revealing it :)