So over the course of a month I've been working on a board game that could theoretically be downloaded off the internet and be played in every home. This is what you would call the print and play board game. When I began to conceptualize what sort of game I wanted to make it didn't take very long for me to decide on creating a strategy war game. I find these types of games extremely interesting and challenging. The idea for the game play was inspired by D&D 4e and Magic the Gathering. Both games I really really enjoy.
As for the games theme I originally wanted to try making a military shooter like board game. However that theme never really clicked all that well for me. It wasn't until half way through working on the project that I decided to go in a fantastical direction with my theme. This is where the idea of Cult Clash really started to come together. This past year I've really started to take a liking to Lovecraftian lore and stories. So it was decided that my game would be about crazed Lovecraftian cults sacrificing each other to ancient gods. Sounds like a real family friendly idea!
Because I had so many different game pieces I decided it was best for me to keep my design fairly simple. So I opted to just use simple shapes when designing the look of everything. Honestly I broke that rule in a few places and used some fancy texture but I think the design comes together really well.
Close up view of the game in action!
A true gentalman's game.
The hardest part about this project for me was writing and balancing the rules of the game. The second hardest was keeping myself from continuously adding new game mechanics.
It was also hard keeping myself from having to much fun making my games box.
The game box took much longer to construct than I had originally anticipated. On top of that I had the idea at the last possible moment and decided to act on it. I don't recommend acting on these impulses in the future as they tend to cause lack of sleep.
I made the box out of an old leather jacket I got from Good Will for ten dollars. I cut it up and used the scrapes to wrap two small illustration boards. Then I glued these "book covers" to the box and added a few extra decorations. Then I aged some old printer paper with coffee and glued them to the side of the box. The project to an entire night, but it was worth it in the end.
What I've learned from this experience is that it's best to try (if you can help it) to make your work load manageable for yourself and not over scope on a project. Because I tried adding so much to the game I didn't really have time to polish everything in the final product as much as I would have wanted to.
So from now on I'm going to try and make sure I keep my head out of the clouds and focus on what's most important for my projects, or else I'll never sleep again.
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