Much has happened since the last blog. As I posted last time, the good weather has kept me outside and working on landscaping our new home. However, we have indeed been finding some time to work on our projects and we are now moving rapidly to finish the Battle for Gallion's Reach game and the development of it's successor.
BATTLE FOR GALLION'S REACH
The rule book is DONE! All editing and re-writing have been completed. Instructional video are also ready. the request for the second proof copy of the game is being sent to the printer. The first was back in January. If this proof copy look good, the game will be going on sale immediately. So we are looking at 1-2 weeks until the game is on the market. It all depends on the printer's ability to get it done.
THE NEXT GAME
After much research., studying different game ideas and playtesting some of those ideas we have a winner for the next game from Power Play Games:
"Star Rebellion"
While working on Inherit the Stars game, I stumbled on an alternate idea that seemed to provide a better opportunity to create a fun game, still based on space conquest. I was looking at some of computer games from the 1990's and came across a great game from those days: "Rebellion" by LucasArts. It was a strategic game of the Star Wars universe. It came complete with ship building, space battles, ground battles and the famous characters from the original trilogy.
I was looking at ideas to improve the Inherit the Stars game idea when it dawned on me that this game needed to be translated into a table-top game. Obviously I wasn't able to use the Star Wars universe, so anything would have to have the flavor and basic appeal of that story but with different names, characters, and back story. As i seriously researched this idea, it became clear that this was very doable and seemed like a worthy follow-up to Gallion's Reach.
As of now we have a complete game ready for early play-testing. Below are some of the preliminary artwork:
The gamer will be for two players. There will be two options of play: a shorter game where the Imperial player must locate the rebel base and the rebels must capture the Imperial home world. The longer game involves those two requirements but also capture certain characters. the Imperial player must capture/kill the rebel leadership and the rebels must capture/kill the Emperor and his second-in-command.
The interesting aspect of the game is that to some degree both players make their moves in relative secrecy. More so for the rebels. For example, when ships and characters move from star system to star system, they enter hyperspace but the opponent is unable to determine where they are headed.
Also, characters have abilities that allow them to take on specific missions. These missions such as sabotage, espionage, diplomacy, etc require skills that each character must have to increase the chance of success. Characters can also hunt one another.
The strategies for both sides are different. the Imperium will tend to use sheer force and military power to defeat the rebels, while the rebels must keep their main base secret and build up systems to support the rebellion. The game uses a very basic economy where players build facilities on planets starting with factories. factories equal points that are used to buy facilities and ships, troops, etc. Facilities are used to build these things. Each star system can shift it's loyalty from Imperial to rebellion and back. The Empire will use force to make planets join the Empire. The rebellion will tend to use diplomacy.
Preliminary early play-testing will start very soon.
