Prototypes and Unpublished Designs

A designer diary of my games

Recommend

Ascendancy - Update

Posted by Nigel Buckle

22 Aug 2011

Nigel Buckle

(bucklen_uk)

United Kingdom
Forest Hill
London

Now called Omega Centauri (by Spiral Galaxy Games) release date tbc

I've signed with Spiral Galaxy Games to publish Omega Centauri.

Although it won't be called Alien Ascendancy once published (see here)

When I originally designed the game I didn't have a name - I naively thought the publisher would decide things like that. So I needed a name, I didn't want to use 'Stellar', 'Empire', 'Galactic', 'Imperium' as they'd all been done to death. My game was about taking your persecuted race and developing it to become the new empire - and 'Ascendancy' fitted that well. Of course I failed to do any research and missed completely that a 4X PC game (by Logic Factory) was called Ascendancy (came out in 1995) - shame videogamegeek didn't exist back in 2005 ... shake

Anyway, JKLM were interested in my game, and also didn't know about the PC version (which has no connection with my game at all, other than being a 4X game, so I expect there are some similarities due to the genre, I've never played it). I won't recount the history of my game and JKLM, but Logic Factory got in touch with them objecting to the name of the game. I see now they were working on an iAPP of their old game.

JKLM changed the name from Ascendancy to Alien Ascendancy (although there was some debate over Ascendancy or Ascendency) ... and the entry on the geek was updated

Then JKLM liquidated, stuff happened and I've now found a new publisher, but the name Ascendancy (alien or otherwise) needs to change.

But this is all great news, and it means I can (hopefully) make some changes to the game from the version JKLM were going to print. I had a number of things that got dropped/altered and this gives me an opportunity to revist it.

The name change and other reasons mean the existing art isn't going to be used, which is a bit of a shame.

Some of the things I'm looking to alter (for those who've got a playtest kit or read the rules on line, or tried the game):

* Races - more than the 4 originally offered (+1 pre-order bonus)
* Bonus Chits - changed to be development chits that stay in the sector
* Culture Chart - changed to make resource types more important
* Resource values - changed to make collecting sets more valuable and to link resource value with Culture chart advancement (more you advance, more valuable the resources are)
* Score track - hate it, I use poker chips in my own games, I'll try to get VP chits or 'currency' instead of track you have to move markers on
* Maps - more provided
* Sector types - rather than an icon on the back of all the barren sectors I'd like to have a number of alternative sectors that could be used to create custom maps.

And some other stuff

9 Comments

Mon Aug 22, 2011 1:21 pm

Post Comment

Matthew Goddard

(mgoddard)

Canada
Toronto
Ontario

This is great news, your hard work is paying off. Congratz Nigel.

Posted Mon Aug 22, 2011 2:43 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Anthony Boydell

(tonyboydell)

United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified

Hegemony?

Emergent Hegemony?

Dark Matter?

Cosmic Encount...er, sorry - already taken.

Posted Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:13 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Nigel Buckle

(bucklen_uk)

United Kingdom
Forest Hill
London

Now called Omega Centauri (by Spiral Galaxy Games) release date tbc

Given my past track record, maybe Star Wars? shake

I like Omega Centauri

My game has a central sector (called the vortex) which doesn't exist for the purposes of movement - so all the sectors adjacent to the vortex are also adjacent to each other. This makes the sectors much closer to each other than it appears, so players can bump into each other much quicker it also means with movement technology pretty much every sector can be reached, so building a 'border' is rather challenging

One problem have with some 4X boardgames is stagnation where everyone expands and then bumps into neighbours and then the game feels more like WWII Russian Campaign than a space empire game.

Omega Centauri is a global cluster in our galaxy that some astronomers think is a dwarf galaxy that merged with ours. Also at one point astromers thought it had a black hole at its centre.

So the place Omega Centauri fits with the game map, and Omega is the last letter in the greek alphabet and linked with ending (in this case the ending of the empire).

Oh, and I think it sounds rather cool too cool

Just hope it gets published before someone nabs the name for a film, videogame or something else they can slap a TM on ...

Posted Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:43 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

John Lagerquist

(Intrepid)

United States
Pleasant View
Utah

Just register the trademark before someone else does. Here's the link for the USA anyway: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/index.jsp

Posted Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:28 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Will rate 10 for Cash

(jond)

Belgium
BRUSSELS
Saint - Gilles

'Accepting cash stuffed brown envelopes since 1980'

Dark Hegemony?
Twilight Empire?
Nigel Buckle's totally renamed 4X game?

Posted Mon Aug 22, 2011 7:58 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Ryan Twombly

(rtwombly)

United States

North Carolina

So I saw this news item "Ascendancy - Update" on the front page and thought, "Oh no! Somebody else is publishing a game with the same name as the prototype I've been working on!" Then I read the news item.

Thanks for saving me the legwork, Nigel! We can agree it was a great name for a game, but in this overcrowded market, I think you're better off with something focused and original, like Omega Centauri.

Now, if only I can come up with a new title that rolls so trippingly off the tongue....

Posted Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:11 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Adrian Wiecheć

(justrag)

Poland
Chrzanów
woj. małopolskie

Great news! This game just needs to be in the hands of the players already

Quote:

* Races - more than the 4 originally offered (+1 pre-order bonus)

Would be nice, though not strictly necessary. Expansions/promos, perhaps?

Quote:

* Bonus Chits - changed to be development chits that stay in the sector

Oh, so you'd have to conquer *and hold* the Sector to receive the VPs at game's end?

Quote:

* Culture Chart - changed to make resource types more important
* Resource values - changed to make collecting sets more valuable and to link resource value with Culture chart advancement (more you advance, more valuable the resources are)

Yes, there was definitely not enough resource differentiation.

Quote:

* Score track - hate it, I use poker chips in my own games, I'll try to get VP chits or 'currency' instead of track you have to move markers on

The Kramer-style score track is indeed troublesome when VPs go to 1000. In my PnP build I've just made a score track on separate board, Carcassone-like.

Quote:

* Maps - more provided

A separate map-book, perhaps?

Quote:

* Sector types - rather than an icon on the back of all the barren sectors I'd like to have a number of alternative sectors that could be used to create custom maps.

More stuff for expansions, perhaps?

Posted Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:22 am
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Nigel Buckle

(bucklen_uk)

United Kingdom
Forest Hill
London

Now called Omega Centauri (by Spiral Galaxy Games) release date tbc

justrag wrote:

Great news! This game just needs to be in the hands of the players already

That's outside my control - game has lots of components, so will take a while I expect

justrag wrote:

Quote:

* Races - more than the 4 originally offered (+1 pre-order bonus)

Would be nice, though not strictly necessary. Expansions/promos, perhaps?

That's up to the publisher - my preference would be to include them in the base game, giving players variety.

justrag wrote:

Quote:

* Bonus Chits - changed to be development chits that stay in the sector

Oh, so you'd have to conquer *and hold* the Sector to receive the VPs at game's end?

No, now they work like monuments and generate VP income each turn - and some will do stuff other than generate VPs.

justrag wrote:

Quote:

Yes, there was definitely not enough resource differentiation

Long game also has reserve fleet actions that need different resource types, but I agree definitely needed for the short game.

justrag wrote:

Quote:

* Score track - hate it, I use poker chips in my own games, I'll try to get VP chits or 'currency' instead of track you have to move markers on

The Kramer-style score track is indeed troublesome when VPs go to 1000. In my PnP build I've just made a score track on separate board, Carcassone-like.

Problems with the score track are it getting knocked and players having to keep moving the score markers as VPs are gained in the game. Handing out VP chits/notes is much easier.

justrag wrote:

Quote:

* Maps - more provided

A separate map-book, perhaps?

Not that many!

justrag wrote:

Quote:

* Sector types - rather than an icon on the back of all the barren sectors I'd like to have a number of alternative sectors that could be used to create custom maps.

More stuff for expansions, perhaps?

With the JKLM version all the non-resource sectors just had this cool icon on the back

and as a variant you could have the barren sectors face down to reduce the size of the map. I think it's better to use the reverse of the barren sectors to give other types, so the players can shake up the game if that is their preference. If there was an expansion it could have more ...

Posted Tue Aug 23, 2011 9:42 am
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Nick Witchey

(Toxidyne)

United States
Laguna Hills
California

Intrepid wrote:

Just register the trademark before someone else does. Here's the link for the USA anyway: http://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/basics/index.jsp

Trademark rights accrue from use not registration. Still, one should file for the mark as soon as possible.

Posted Wed Aug 24, 2011 4:15 pm
- Choose your Dice
  - d4
  - d6
  - d8
  - d10
  - d12
  - d20
  - d100
  - Help
  - Roll
  - Comment (Optional)
- Reply
- Quote

Prototypes and Unpublished Designs

Ascendancy - Update

Search

Subscribe

Categories

Contributors