Flayra's new board game: Moonlight
Flayra
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
Game Director, Unknown Worlds EntertainmentSan Francisco Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 3Super Administrators, NS2 Developer, Subnautica Developer
in Off-Topic
Hey everyone,
I've been very passionate about board games for, oh, my whole life and I'm starting to get into board game design.
Something I've learned from NS/2/Subnautica is to get feedback early, often, and in as big of a quantity as possible. That hasn't been difficult for our video games, but now I'm seeing that my design process stops dead in between each playtest. My bottleneck is feedback.
So I've just "released" a very early version of my board game called Moonlight. It's far from done, but I've played it a bit with friends and it's the first design I thought was good enough to pursue. So I just released everything on my web site, in the hope that I'll find dedicated folks like yourselves who won't mind printing it and playing it. And of course, taking the time to give me some feedback in some form.
I'm hoping to get some people interested in the game, whom will help me make it better, which will get more people interested, etc. This is in direct reaction to the standard "make a Kickstarter" before a lot of playtesting. I know I can do better.
So this forum post is the beginning of the process. I'm looking for players, designers, and anyone else that wants to help. If you enjoy Cosmic Encounter or Coup, I think you will enjoy this too.
charliecleveland.com/moonlight
At that URL you'll find the game summary, design goals, game rules, print and play and feedback forums. I hope to talk to you about it!
Thanks so much!
-Charlie
I've been very passionate about board games for, oh, my whole life and I'm starting to get into board game design.
Something I've learned from NS/2/Subnautica is to get feedback early, often, and in as big of a quantity as possible. That hasn't been difficult for our video games, but now I'm seeing that my design process stops dead in between each playtest. My bottleneck is feedback.
So I've just "released" a very early version of my board game called Moonlight. It's far from done, but I've played it a bit with friends and it's the first design I thought was good enough to pursue. So I just released everything on my web site, in the hope that I'll find dedicated folks like yourselves who won't mind printing it and playing it. And of course, taking the time to give me some feedback in some form.
I'm hoping to get some people interested in the game, whom will help me make it better, which will get more people interested, etc. This is in direct reaction to the standard "make a Kickstarter" before a lot of playtesting. I know I can do better.
So this forum post is the beginning of the process. I'm looking for players, designers, and anyone else that wants to help. If you enjoy Cosmic Encounter or Coup, I think you will enjoy this too.
charliecleveland.com/moonlight
At that URL you'll find the game summary, design goals, game rules, print and play and feedback forums. I hope to talk to you about it!
Thanks so much!
-Charlie
Comments
I'll definitely give this a whirl with some friends.
Just from a quick glance at the Rules PDF :
Could you make the visuals a bit larger?
Maybe have their own page or something, as I had to zoom in until the graphic filled the majority of my screen to see what some of the writing said. It essentially prevents printing the rules, in order to reference while playing / assist in the setup.
Can't wait to give it a go and provide feedback
p.s. Have you been tracking @remi 's card game, Ritual?
By the way, what´s your time frame for getting Moonlight out there with its own website, a kickstarter and a full release?
Get yourself some Moonlight domain registered, right? Do a domain check and see if something is still up for grabs!
Chris/Ironhorse: I apologize that the rules may not be super-clear. Right now I'm most focused on the game, not the clarity of the rules (although I did some time time trying to make them clear and recently rewrote them start to finish). I think I need to make a video showing how the game is played perhaps. Or write up a sample of play at least.
I would love to do a Kickstarter. But before then, I want to make sure the game is actually good, and also do some proper artwork and cards. I could probably go find someone to make some gorgeous artwork and spend $5k or so, but I'm not sure that's prudent yet.
Although getting eyes on this is quite hard (I have a whopping 10 sign-ups so far!) so I am starting to see the value of Kickstarter purely as a marketing/outreach tool if nothing else.
Lots of tuning and some significant changes. Mainly, tuning of the Elder power and adjusting the blood economy so vampires aren't generally getting weaker. Also speeding up the main phase by having players play both their cards.
Download it: http://www.charliecleveland.com/moonlight/
I think an official "let's play" video of a full game being played through at a table, by a group of friends, would be cool if feasible. Maybe with specific emphasis on setup in the beginning and occasional commentary on strategies and mechanics throughout. I know that'd be something I'd watch to get a better feel for what the game is all about before attempting it. Would also use it as a great visual reference to see if I was doing it right. Things sometimes get confusing or lost in translation only having written rules to go by.