StygianLog1

Stygian

This started as a weird idea to get back to my roots, without breaching my video games contract at the studio where I work.

I used to play a lot of different types of physical games, but eventually the power of the virtual game snared me. It's just too easy to build things compared to the laborious (and expensive!) world of board games and miniatures.

I always felt it needn't be so, though. When using paper and pen to invent new rules for a tabletop game or creating quest packs for Hero Quest in repurposed school notebooks, it was alway the clarity and simplicity of the rules and game system that appealed to me.

This brain itch got me looking into modern board games - they've been making a comeback and I already know enough about Games Workshop.

I was dissapointed. Modern board games aren't bad, but they're not filtered. Now that its so much easier to fabricate things, all sorts of crap gets forced on the public as a marketable game.

So, banner of indigation held high, I decided to put my own one together.

It's originally based off a video game concept stolen from 3D monster Maze. I originally wanted to make a roguelike with persistent item unlocks - just like in The Binding of Isaac.

But thinking further back. I remember drawing the first version of this roguelike in Spanish class. It had complex rules for multiple quest types, dungeons, random encounters and so on.

I got a D in spanish. Now, years later, I'm relatively fluent. So I guess that means its time to redress the balance and finish the game I worked on back then.

Porting it to a board game and testing it on various fellow nerds made me go through many iterations. The game changed from rect to hex grid. How the hell do you do Ai without a machine? Don't worry, it 'probably' can't happen that the game becomes impossible to win... oh. No don't worry, that will become intuitive later on some how.

Then I wised up and decided to make it solid - no more logic gaps, no more possible ways to break the game and no more wasted space.

I think I finally have the design locked down. I'm being careful to make changes without sabotaging the core and avoiding the trap of not being disruptive enough.

I'm quite happy with how the rules currently work. And thanks to the playtesting help of various people, notably Kevin and Felipe, I'm ready to do a prototype.

So now I face the biggest challenge of doing a board game prototype - fabricating it. I cast around and thanks to Board Game Geek I eventually found The Game Crafter. This was an amazing discovery - all those years I spent pissing about milling MDF and glueing stuff together painstakingly by hand, and here was a company that would do it for you.

I've yet to actually use the service, because now we got to the tricky bit - who's going to illustrate all this stuff? It's 24 tiles and 36 cards, 12 of those being monsters which will need to look good.

I used to draw, but I distract my hand after so many years of disuse. So I looked to the aforementioned Felipe as an illustrator. But, like any talented creative, he's got his own batch of projects he reallywants to get made as well, and my budget of $0.00 wasn't appealing enough.

So I got out a pen and started drawing the hex tiles. And redrawing. And realising everything was busted because of a rule change that was required and starting again.

Now that the hex tiles are more or less stable in terms of content, I can admit that the style is crude, and the theme is juvenile. But thats the type of stuff I always drew back in the day as well. And I have fun putting this stuff together, so maybe others will have fun playing it.

What's the game about then?

It's a Lovecraftian dungeon crawl survival horror. The theme, as in Lovecraft's writing, is fear of the unknown. The players creep forward through an unknown labyrinth, trying to find the item and location needed to escape the nightmare of the game itself.

The player are equipped with everyday items and find more by exploring the dark place they find themselves lost within, everyday things that give them special advantages, or disadvantages, within the game world.

As soon as a player falls foul of one of the many hazards that lurks in this deadly place, they are Devoured by the Darkness and out of the game.

But then they come back as some fell beast of the Necronomicon, a deadly creature that must Devour another Hero so that their controlling player can become human again and have an opportunity to win the game.

What are the design precepts?

It should be easy to learn and play whilst having enough depth to hold the interest of even the most jaded player of games.

As few and as concentrated mechanics as possible
Average game should last 10 minutes

It must appeal to a 10 year old me.

Gore! But cheesy gore.
Humour - make being hunted by netherworld terrors funny
Clever rules that on the surface don't demand much, but allow for deeper strategies from savvy players

It must be efficient in all meanings of the word.

No useless features, assets or elements
Each game played must feel rewarding to all players involved

There are hundreds of other considerations of course, but these are the focal points on which I'm advancing the design.

What's Next?

I have the Tiles drawn, or nearly finished and ready to print - just a few tweaks and improvements to make. The theme of perception and fear of the unknown has allowed me to not get bogged down too much in thinking of how much quality they should have. Maybe I'll revisit this, but for now I feel comfortable continuing to create the other assets needed.

Which are, the cards. There are 24 items and 12 monsters. I'll do the items first, still life is easier than figurative. And I still have a lot to learn before I can do the monsters justice. once those 36 illustrations are out of the way, I have a relaxing time designed the player tokens (currently stolen from The Chaos Engine), rule book and various logos / card backs.

The box and its illustration I'm not sure about. I like the idea of having an old timey packing box of plain brown cardboard with a string tie to hold it shut.

Once all of that is created, I got it uploaded to The Game Crafter and print myself a prototype.

Then the difficult part begins - trying to sell it.

Some clever people whose opinion I respect have suggested doing a Kickstarter or using Indiegogo and getting it made much faster. I don't have the right skillset or interests for such a venture though. It's quite fun to painstaking build something as well - I must be a masochist at heart.

For the same reason I didn't just tile all those bricks and instead drew them all by hand. I believe now I've remembered enough about drawing and made enough mistakes to attempt drawing the item cards.