Notes on Play

I had a big combat system that I didn't feel good about. I finally ripped it out, and it left a vacuum that inspired my best idea yet. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfgcoyz9HFY

Gen Con was an awesome experience. I got third place in a Cat in the Box tournament. Tabletop gaming is the opposite of doom scrolling.

I'm building something that doesn't have an obvious precedent, and it's been very tedious to figure out the right shape.

<p>You can have one action in 3 different form factors, and you've got 3 essentially different games. It's worth iterating a lot to find the one that unlocks the biggest design space.</p>

<p>I want to be generous, not chintzy with the coolest parts of my game. But that does not mean I should be generous with all the parts of my game. Brian Moriarty's talk linked here. </p>

<p>I learned a lot by calling some people up on the phone. Most notably: physics matters.</p>

<p>Canticle came to life, and to my exact specifications. But my exact specifications were wrong. Fixing it led to an explosion of great ideas.</p>

<p>Mark Brown made a great video about finding great ideas. And it made me wonder: where did my best ideas come from, and how do I set myself up to have more?</p>

<p>Brian Bornmeuller's talk at NYU Game Center helped me finally articulate a question I've been wrestling with: what is Catacombian Games, exactly? In this episode I map out the five layers of the board game industry —...

<p>A framework for deciding what needs to change next in a game prototype that I developed with my friend Walter Somerville. I used this recently to make some huge improvements to Canticle.</p>

<p>Games feel immersive and grounded when they are familiar and legible -- even from a distance. </p>

<p>How do you give the emperor a sense of epiphany? How do you give the board a feeling of organic ideas-based growth? I picked the experience first, and designed around that.</p>

<p>This is a game that takes place in the past and the present. And I've never been so excited to work on something. Many more updates to follow on future episodes.</p>

<p>2025 was a creative explosion for me. Now it's time to focus up, and pick which prototype I will try to take to the finish line.</p>