Which game should I make next?

After finally finishing the rulebook for Thrilling Tales of Adventure!, sending the prototype off for publisher review, and welcoming my other (real) baby into the world, I thought the demons of game design would give me a little bit of a break. But no such luck. I find myself scribbling in notebooks between diaper changes and mocking up card layouts in the wee hours when the rest of the family is asleep. I've got lots of ideas I want to pursue, but since my free time is nigh nonexistent, I need to priortize and focus.

So I turn to you, o denizens of the Fortress. Below are a number of ideas I have in various stages of development. Which one appeals to you most? Which ones do you think are not worth pursuing?

Saga of the Frozen Star
High concept: Dune meets Nausicaä. Six factions explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate across the wastelands of an Earth several thousand years in the future, represented by a modular hex tile map. The big hooks are the six unique factions (each with its own units (see samples here ), leaders, action card deck, and victory condition), a tactical battle module that plays quickly but calls for interesting and meaningful decisions to be made, and a mechanic by which the map itself is slowly consumed by a creeping fungal forest of doom.

Blood & Dust
Another multi-faction game, set in the Arizona Territory in 1865, pitting Outlaw Gangs, Lawmen, the US Army, Wells Fargo & Co., and Geronimo's Apaches against each other. Asymmetrical powers, individualized victory conditions, and a card-based shootout module that reflects the locale where the fight occurs. Also: train robberies, Apache raids, gatling guns, and hair's-breadth rescues from the hangman's noose.

The Dark Age
High concept: Magic Realm made easy, in a living world. Each player controls a hero and his party, adventuring across a modular fantasy realm in pursuit of his own victory conditions, while throwing hazards and dangers in the way of the other players. The big twist here is that the world changes and evolves as you play, with rival kingdoms clashing, lairs spawning monsters, and merchants traveling from city to city. Think Age of Conan, except you're actually Conan, and all the "empires at war" stuff is handled by the game system itself.

Guardians of the Golden Age
This game would again use TToA's approach to adventure building, but would take place in one city instead of across the whole planet, and would use as its cast of characters the public domain Golden Age superheroes of Nedor Comics . I suppose this would essentially be a re-theme, but the subject would dictate a lot of specific mechanical tweaks. Could pit hero players against an Arch Villain player, or just have the heroes compete against each other to rack up the most solved crimes.

Aliens Invade America
A 2-player game of extraterrestrial invasion in 1952, with one player marshalling the forces of Earth to fend off the depredations of invaders from Betelgeuse. The goals and powers of the aliens are variable from game to game and hidden until revealed, so the Earth player won't know exactly what he's up against during a given session. Inspired by the PC game X-Com: UFO Defense, the game would feature a tactical combat sub-game using cards in a similar vein to Up Front.

The Shadow
A card-based solo or possibly 2-player game based on The Shadow (or an equivalent public domain/invented character). The game would use a stripped-down version of the narrative-building mechanic of TToA to create and play through episodic adventures. The advantage to producing this one is that it would probably be a free print 'n play thing.

Ugh, you're such a tease.

The Dark Age sounds awesome! I'm really just curious to see what a game system like that would entail.

Vote: Saga of the Frozen Star

All these games sound interesting, but Saga of the Frozen Star sounds the most interesting. There might be one idea too many in the mix, but you will find out once you get into the playtesting.

Congratulations on finishing the rulebook and sending it off!

If we assume that TToA is the resounding success that it should be then you will want to feed the hungry masses. From a commercial standpoint, either The Shadow - for something more quickly developed, or Guardians of the Golden Age - for a follow up game to TToA might be the best route.

From my interest level alone, I'd have to go with The Dark Age, bigtime.

Whoa, those all sound pretty good. Here are my votes.

Blood & Dust: It doesn't really seem like anyone has really nailed the Western game. I'm not sure a factions in conflict fits the genre best, but I'd like to see what you can come up with.

The Dark Age: You had me at Magic Realm made easy. I've always wanted to play Magic Realm but the rulebook scares the hell out of me.

Thoughts on your other proposals:

Saga of the Frozen Star: Samples look great, sounds cool, but I get the feeling it wouldn't play well with two players.

Guardians of the Golden Age: The superhero genre is another one that doesn't really have a game that completely nails it. I really like Marvel Heroes, but the last time I played it my brother and I talked about how a superhero game should really include some co-op elements.

Note: I'm coming from a business and marketing prospective here and not from a personal preference.

#1. From a sale, marketing and production stand point I'd go with "The Shadow". I would make sure you keep the strong connection to TToA. The whole goal would be to help promote and support TToA. People who try and like The Shadow will be will to pay out big buck to buy TToA. If you look at many successful game designers they tend to start with smaller card games before going into big expensive games. First get your name out there and then publishers and games will be willing to take a chance with you.

#2. Aliens Invade America. I think there is some white space from a board gaming standing point. This is a very popular theme in movies and video games but not so much from a board game stand point. It sounds like your design will be much deeper than a typical dudes on a map invasion game (like Fortress America) which sounds great to me. One suggestion is try to make it a 2 - 4 player game like mEQ. There is also some great white space for good 3 player games. I'm thinking 1 Alien vs. USA/Europe and China/Russia or 1 Alien vs. USA/NATO and USSR/Block and China.

#3. Go with where your heart is and where you think you can make the best game.

Good Luck in 2010!! Let's get TToA published!!!

Where do we pre-order TToA at our special F:ATie rates

I'd like to see a western game because no one has done a great adventure-type western game (Deadlands has just tried it but it sounds like it is a flop, trying to do too much with a narrow game) but also because you will have such a wide scope to work in. And don't forget to add some unscrupulous Rail Barons and/or Cattle Barons having land wars with local settlers and native tribes.

I'd go with whatever you're most excited about. That being said, lets assume that Thrilling Tales gets picked up and that you'd like to continue on the heels of success. So I'm going to agree with others that Shadow is the most viable game followed by the similiar pulpy Gaurdians of the golden age. Both have ties to Thilling Tales and could easily follow in thier footsteps.

Good luck with that. I know this has been a labor of love. Fortunatley you've managed to build some momentum with Tales that will hopefully pay off for you.

Steve"WannabeDeveloper"Avery

I'm interested in the way your going to do Aliens Invade America. X-Com UFO Defense is pretty much my all time favorite game, and I've actually drafted up some rules for an X-Com board game, myself, where most of the game is on the world map with hidden orders each turn (like StarCraft) and with tactical skirmishes played out like a mini game using cards. You can swap out your combat cards with new cards as you research them and stuff like that. Never got very far on it, and I've never actually finished a game, so I'd be most interested in your own X-Com-inspired game.

I'd be most interested in The Shadow and The Dark Age, especially if it's soloable.

The Dark Age. I'd be interested to see how the "living gameboard" works.

Aarontu wrote:

I'm interested in the way your going to do Aliens Invade America. X-Com UFO Defense is pretty much my all time favorite game, and I've actually drafted up some rules for an X-Com board game, myself, where most of the game is on the world map with hidden orders each turn (like StarCraft) and with tactical skirmishes played out like a mini game using cards. You can swap out your combat cards with new cards as you research them and stuff like that. Never got very far on it, and I've never actually finished a game, so I'd be most interested in your own X-Com-inspired game.

I hadn't thought about hidden orders, but that would totally be the way to go to maximize tension. Your description of the tactical minigame is roughly how I've been going about it as well, with new techs replacing or augmenting existing weapon/unit cards, and a card-based terrain mechanic similar to Up Front.

The main way this game would differ from X-Com thematically is that it would play up the 50s camp sci-fi angle, allowing colorful events the President revealing himself as an alien, the destruction of national landmarks, aliens abducting Earth women, etc. I always loved the theme and ideas in Costikyan's Bug-Eyed Monsters , but the gameplay was sorely lacking even back in the day. I also want to include an Asteroid -like potential endgame, where the Earth player can board, explore, and destroy the alien mothership in orbit.

They all sound cool, but I'll vote for Blood and Dust for the theme and setting.

Best wishes for getting TTOA published, Jason!

Thanks for the feedback so far, everyone. It looks like The Shadow and The Dark Age currently hold the most interest.

Frozen Star and Blood & Dust both face the issue that metalface brought up about potentially not playing well with 2 players. I suppose most similar games have this problem, but it is a strike against them out of the gate.

Looking at the Golden Age concept again, I can actually see it working pretty well as a TToA expansion, with a set of Golden Age Heroes and Arch Villains replacing the ones in the TToA basic set, and just using the same world map. I do like the idea of focusing adventures within one city, but I should be able to explore that idea in the Shadow game pretty well.

Although the issue is a little muddy, it appears that the Shadow is not technically in the public domain, so I'll have to go with another character. Tying the game directly into TToA makes a lot of sense (how dopey am I to not have thought of that!), so I'll just use The Reaper, who is TToA's Shadow/Spider stand-in (and my F:AT avatar). Maybe call it Tales of the Reaper to tie it into TToA title-wise. I could even see each character in TToA having their own "Tales of" standalone card game similar lines. Since this concept is much more manageable than an epic game like The Dark Age, I'll probably tackle it first.

I'll keep The Dark Age percolating on the back burner though, since the "living world" idea has wormed its way into my brain.