Archive for Eddie
1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 Next »
-
-
I made the last few little changes to the files and finished cleaning them up. They have been submitted for approval to the DotLD file page. Be on the look out for three files: rules, gameboard, and score card.
Now my project will be to get these built into a more durable game. At the moment, I'm thinking of a folding board with the gameboard on one half and the score card on the other (with the score card laminated/protected for use with dry-erase marker or grease pencil).
I'll post photos of my progress with the project. Of course, this time of year, I don't anticipate getting started on it until sometime in January... 
-
-
As I mentioned previously, I realized early on that I'd need to tweak the rules to fit the new gameboard and score card. Mostly, this just means changing a few words and references to coincide with the different layout.
I also wanted to add some flavour text to expand the story -- really just to explain why the score sheet is a bowling score sheet. Tweaking the rules was easy, but I found that the story part was difficult. I couldn't decide how to approach it and I had three very different ideas: humorous, serious, and irreverent. I started with humorous, but quickly discarded it after re-reading what Mads already had, which seemed to have more of a serious feel to it.
So naturally I tried irreverent next. Aaaaand... it didn't work out. Oh, I liked it well enough, but the proliferation of four-letter words and colourful metaphors made it decidedly NOT kid-friendly.
Serious it is -- and I tried to keep it fairly brief so as not to make the rule book into an actual book.
In addition to the above, I toyed around with adding graphics to it. While it did look good, the graphics took up space and almost doubled the number of pages. Simple is good: I ended up scrapping all the graphics and opting instead for a beefed-up title and some thematic header fonts.
Just to reiterate: I have NOT changed any of the rules for playing the game. I've done some re-wording and moving around of things, but that's it.
It's pretty close to being done now. Anyone interested in taking a look can view it here: DotLD Alternative Rules Draft (PDF)
Sat Nov 26, 2011 12:03 pm
-
-
Mads has done some work on the game (see here for details) and was kind enough to send me the files as they're currently pending approval through the BGG mods. Armed with the latest information, I have updated and slightly tweaked the gameboard and score card:
Unless there are some changes to make that I missed (entirely possible), these should be in their final form. Once everything is fully finalized and Mads has giving his approval to do so, I'll save them in a more useful format and post them to the DotLD Files section.
Based on the changes I've made to the gameboard and separating out the scoring area and dice pools, I realize that I'll need to provide an adjusted set of rules to use with them. No major changes, just small things to keep confusion to a minimum, such as referring to path markers as circles instead of squares.
Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:48 pm
-
-
I've spent some time mulling over new ideas and suggestions. Some I tried out. For example, I tried the suggested eroded squares and circles (which I thought would be a really cool idea), but the path markers are too small for the effect to look very good -- a little bigger and they look good, but to keep this at a single sheet of paper it just can't be done. It also made the gameboard look a little too busy: a problem I'm already wrestling with.
As yet another alternative for the path markers, a coworker suggested using fingerprints. It sounded like a good idea to try. It took some time to get some good fingerprints to scan in. Once I had some to work with, I had to reduce the size of the fingerprints to fit the gameboard, and they ended up looking like a child's fingerprints. It really didn't look good at all. And the tiny fingerprints sorta creeped me out. Not going with the fingerprints.
I printed out a number of the drafts I've been playing with and compared them side-by-side. I think the draft with the semi-transparent circle markers looked the best. So, I took that design and did some moving around of the bits to open up the middle of the board: as Mads pointed out on my last post, it was getting a bit crowded.
Here's where it stands right now:
There may be a few extremely minor tweaks I'll make, but I think this is pretty close to being done.
-
-
More comments, more ideas to try out. When I read Eric's comment on the previous post, the first thing that came into my mind was the blotchy, uneven spot you get when using a bingo marker. I attempted to get that kind of look for the path spots, but I don't think it turned out well. Judge for yourself:
It's certainly better than the hand-drawn circles, but still looks too... sloppy.
For this next attempt, I just used the earlier draft I had done using the circles, but made them semi-transparent. This is what it came out like:
Definitely in the top 3 of what I've done so far. Probably time for a mass print-out of all the versions to have a round or two and see which one annoys me the least. 
UPDATE:
As I was finishing this up, John posted a comment on the previous entry. He had a really good suggestion about using a filter like "erode" on the square (or circle) path markers. Looks like another two drafts in the works: one with eroded circles, and one with eroded squares.
-
-
Finally had some time to draft up two more gameboards based on comments from the previous post. First up is the gameboard using squares for the path markers:
This actually ended up looking better than I thought it would. I don't think it quite fits with the look I'm going for, though.
The second suggestion from the previous post was to use hand-drawn circles for the path markers:
Well, it certainly fits the look I'm going for. (Yes, I deliberately made the circles look sloppy and uneven. I mean, come on, if you were trying to escape from a zombie horde, would your penmanship be very neat?) Unfortunately, I think it may be a bit off-putting/annoying to actually play on.
Might have to print up all the variations thus far and see what it's like to actually play on them.
And by the way, thanks for all the suggestions! I very much appreciate the outside feedback and ideas. Cheers!
-
-
I just finished a new draft of the gameboard based on a comment from the last post and an idea I previously considered (but discarded). Here is the main gameboard done up with circles to mark the path instead of the X'es I was using before:
I'm conflicted with this change. I do like the cleaner look of the circles, but it loses the hand-drawn feel. I guess the question I need to answer is: How far do I want to take the idea of the markings on the map being hand-drawn? There has to be a balance of visual theme and comfortable playability. I don't think I've found the sweet spot, yet.
Hmmm...
Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:48 pm
-
-
I haven't made much progress lately. Pardon me. I have made ANY progress lately. Having printed out a couple of test runs let me look at the gameboard and the score card next to each other. Individually they look ok, but together... I'm not sure I'd really think they belonged to the same game. There just isn't anything that ties them together other than the blood spatters and the name of the game that appears on each.
Ok, in my mind, they're tied together by the idea that the map and bowling score card were grabbed from a car's glovebox and used by the survivors to get the hell out of town: the map to navigate and note certain locations and hazards, and the score card as a random piece of paper to track supplies and survivors. They fit together quite nicely, actually... as long as you know those little tidbits.
The problem is, when I have this game crafted and in my collection, I fully expect others to play (and enjoy) it. That means they need to understand the link between the gameboard and the score card. And that means there will need to be some flavour text somewhere to explain it.
I suppose that means I have to include the rules sheet as something I'll be working on. With this, however, I'll need to add some fluff text as well as visuals.
The flavour/fluff text... I'll need to put my writing hat on, and I'm not sure where I left it. As far as the visuals go, here are some initial ideas for the general look for the rules sheet(s):
1. Look like a small pocket notepad commonly seen in farm trucks (in the glovebox!!!). Check this link for examples of what I'm talking about:
http://fieldnotesbrand.com/category/memoarchive/
Hmm... a possible opportunity to use that machete advertisement...
2. Look like a battered old leather journal. I've seen several games do this recently, and I like how it looks. Might be a bit much for this, though.
3. Look like just a few sheets of old, stained paper. Perhaps with flavour text making it look like a letter written to someone warning of the zombie outbreak.
4. ???
I'll have to think on this a while, but I'm leaning toward #1 right now.
-
-
Now I've set aside the score card (and I'm not entirely satisfied with it... so more work to come) and it's back to the main gameboard. I still can't quite figure out what I need to do with it. I'm pretty sure the X'es for the path aren't quite right. Maybe. Perhaps it's the size of the X'es.
To test this, I printed out the current draft so I could set a pawn on it:
Crap. They're just the right size. So much for that idea. While I was at it, I printed out the current draft of the score card to check sizes and placement with some actual dice:
Seems ok, but still subject to change.
Back to the gameboard. I did some minor (very minor) tweaking of the path, and I added some text and arrows per Mads suggestion from one of the previous posts. Here's what I have right now:
Still not quite what I want, but getting closer!
-
-
I've hit a wall with the gameboard (see comments for previous blog post). I've been thinking about it the past few days and trying various permutations of the couple of ideas I had, but I'm not happy with any of it.
Rather than continue to beat my head against the wall, I set it aside and did some work on the sheet for tracking score and dice pools. As a reminder, I removed these features from the gameboard to make room for eye candy.
Before I started, I already had a basic idea on what I wanted to do for this. We had a party recently at a bowling alley and all the scoring was done automatically via computer. Nice, but as a couple of us were reminiscing about the days of paper score cards and overhead projectors, I thought that would be a great idea for the game!
I mocked up a card with a retro look to it and slapped all the information on it. It took a while to get everything appropriately sized and positioned, but I think I finally got it to a pretty good point for a first draft.
Also, I know this is a full sheet of full-colour printing. My intent has always been to laminate the board and score sheet so I can reuse them without the need to reprint every time I want to play.
Here is where I'm at with the score sheet:
1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 Next »
|
|
