I am still working on this epic high fantasy steampunk and dieselpunk storyline and game.
I am currently working on mini concept artwork locations for visual context for the game's novels and play mat visuals.
I have been working on the mini concept artwork since November 12 2023. I have 56 out of 76 mini concept artworks to complete.
I am co-currently working on the Bantalatal and Aila Journal Novel and in the hand written pages I am in chapter 4 since October 25, 2023.
That is why I have been silent all this time. Those two things and work and my quiet life.
I'm not done yet. Lots of more details and information that is still being worked on.
Jesse
Comments
Keep up the good work!
How much would you say in terms of OVERALL completion you are at? 50%, 75%, 90%?
It seems like each time you post, you are working on a different aspect of your game universe. So I'm just curious at HOW MUCH(?) you need to still complete before you can say something like: "It's finished... Now I can release 'Y' and then wait to publish some more based on how the 'Y' is received???"
Designing is usually the part you have the MOST control of. As you move away and go into playtesting, development, marketing and sales ... At each step you lose more and more control and it becomes more and more difficult to have everything released at the "SAME TIME"...
You seemed to have "Chapters" at some point. Maybe you should look into trying to release "Chapter 1" and do the playtesting, development, try your hand at doing some Facebook Marketing and find some way to connect with gamers with the sales of "Chapter 1" be it through "The Game Crafter", "Print & Play" or other one-off production services which will allow you to maybe invest in 20 Games and then maybe sell them ONLINE via a website or Amazon.com, etc.
That's what I'm doing with "Prospector": I'm going to make 20 copies and sell them at local stores. Once I sell everything ... I'll order more and help to get my name around and then when I HAVE some ACTUAL SALES, then I have some ways of approaching a Distributor in Montreal or Toronto and say: "Look we've got some interest, some ppl bought, etc. Maybe you want to sell locally or to stores across Canada?!" As a START.
Like I said as you move away from Designing to other phases of a project's lifecycle, you have less and less control.
Anyhow it would be nice to hear a success story from you ... What I mean is that you attempted to make and sell something and ppl bought from you...
Designing is good... But at some point you need to TEST the waters of whatever it is you are making. Otherwise you may never get the chance to see ppl enjoying what you helped making. I say HELPED because as I said subsequent project phases involve other parties and involve less and less control over the entire project (or Chapter 1 in your case).
Cheers!
Dymino Monsters: What has been completed
Here are the chapter decks that are completed:
All Dymino Monsters cards are hand written in pen and are on index cards.
I have hand drawn 30 isometric viewed play mats for the world of Dymino Monsters and I have a lot more to do to complete.
There are 165 locations in the game.
Real Weather Deck: 180 cards. 90 precipitation cards and 90 obscuration cards.
Blacksmith Deck : 140 cards
Core Chapter Deck : 56 cards
Strike Force Deck : 72 cards
Sacred Stars Deck : 73 cards
Marional Knights Deck : 25 cards
Treasures From The Falcon Deck : 30 cards
Ghosts of the Desert Plains Deck : 48 cards
Outcasts of Dahanamar Deck : 69 cards
Sea of Opsis Deck : 58 cards
Haha Valley Island Deck : 43 cards
Dead Dreams Deck : 56 cards
Voyage of the DoomSetter Deck : 39 cards
Dygar Empire Deck / Enslaved Monsters : 47 cards
Cyrum's Crypt Deck : 26 cards
Rise of the Titans Deck : 22 cards
Wicker Tangle Chronicles / Treasure Hunter's Guild Deck : 20 cards
Wicker Tangle Chronicles / Wind Chaser Deck : 48 cards
Wicker Tangle Chronicles/Cave City Junction Deck : 6 cards
Wicker Tangle Chronicles/Wings of Death Deck : 30 cards
Wicker Tangle Chronicles/Sky Labyrinth Deck : 55 cards
Wicker Tangle Chronicles/Haunted Sphere Deck : 35 cards
Wicker Tangle Chronicles/Frost Forest Ruins Deck : 35 cards
Wicker Tangle Chronicles/Mt. Duhldar Deck : 29 cards
Lost Pirates of Ivory Island Deck : 28 cards
Emotion Dwellers Deck : 448 cards
Random Encounters Deck : 142 cards
Carnelian Deck : 54 cards
Peridot Deck : 56 cards
Onyx Deck : 56 cards
Lapis Lazuli Deck : 55 cards
Amethyst Deck : 56 cards
Rock Crystal Deck : 57 cards
Carbuncle Deck : 49 cards
Emerald Deck : 53 cards
Jacinth Deck : 56 cards
Agate Deck : 56 cards
Beryl Deck : 56 cards
Jasper Deck : 56 cards
Miscellaneous Encounters Deck : 43 cards
New Metal Deck : 106 cards
Dymino Deck : 327 cards 9 cards per each different category
New Circuit Deck : 61 cards
Titan Reigns Deck : 16 cards
I am also working on adding another 150 monster encounters to have the list up to 3,000 encounters for the Dymino Monsters universe.
Armor cards : 902 complete
Weapon cards : 972 complete
24 different character cards complete with all 4 level sets
All character weapons skills techniques sets are completed: 60 cards for each character : complete
Armor encyclopedia: complete
Book of Knowledge: complete
Character back stories: complete
Dymino Monsters Constellations encyclopedia: complete
Monster Encounters encyclopedia: 90% complete
Dymino Monsters game guide: 0% complete
Dymino Monsters rules: 87% complete
Dymino Monsters Rise of the Titans, Titans Reign Era, Sub Boss encyclopedia: 80% complete
Dymino Monsters First Production full film manuscript out of 4 complete
Dymino Monsters objectives for all characters: 10% complete
Dymino Monsters: Bantalatal and Aila Journal Novel still on Chapter 4 writing out of many novels to be completed that tie into the game.
Game play tests with out the objective sheets: 20% complete
Dymino Monsters game mechanic and runs quite well and the game is balanced.
Dymino Monsters tests: PvP 20 games. Still needs work.
Dymino Monsters solo campaign test with out objective sheet : 1% complete
Dymino Monsters Co-op/multiplayer tests with upto 4 players and without objectives sheet: 100% complete 10 games in the last 9 years
Dymino Monsters 4 player battle mat tests: 4 games played in the last 9 years. Everyone has moved away so playtesting with family and friends have dropped. And that's okay with me.
Once I buy a better laptop and have finances I will be going for the self publishing route.
With everything you all read, this is why it has taken 19 1/2 years and I am enjoying every moment to see this game development through. I'm in no way shape or form to rush a large project like this.
Jesse
I have also put my Quiet Terror Parapsychology Survival Horror RPG as the next game franchise. I also changed the synopsis and have finally filled in the A to Z monster encounters list during the summer of 2023.
Dymino Monsters
Quiet Terror
Beyond The Horizon
They all connect for a reason.
Jesse
Dymino Monsters: Currently working on
Since November 12,2023 I have been working on mini concept artworks on the back of index cards for visual references and context as I write my novels and also references for all of the upcoming play mat visuals to be drawn in isometric views.
I have 63 mini concept artworks left to work on out of 165 locations.
Bows respectfully
Jesse
Have you playtested ANYTHING yet???
With everything you all read, this is why it has taken 19 1/2 years and I am enjoying every moment to see this game development through. I'm in no way shape or form to rush a large project like this...
Do you have a FORMAT for the game??? I mean it's great that you want to SELF-PUBLISH this 19 1/2 year old effort ... But are you sure the game is PLAYABLE? Normally when I DESIGN, I have a bunch of IDEAS about HOW(?) I plan for the game to PLAY. But these are just IDEAS and what tends to happen is that usually the IDEAS suck sh!t and the things that I thought would WORK, do not!
Why is this important???
Because I never just ABANDON a DESIGN or its IDEAS. What I do is WORK on the DESIGN until I get NEW IDEAS which are better than the original ones BASED on the PLAYTESTING that I've done. So the KEY is PLAYTESTING the IDEAS to see what does WORK and what does NOT WORK.
I think you've mentioned that you HAVE done some PLAYTESTING with friends and colleagues to see if the "core" aspect of the game works, right???
So you've probably already had the chance to RE-WORK some of the DESIGN and its IDEAS to forge a stronger and coherent game...
Take for example MY "Prospector" which is a Splendor Expansion. When I thought of the DESIGN, I had made everything congruent like the "core" game. I designed the entire game and THEN gave it a PLAYTEST. Well much to my surprise the GAME sucked! It was ALL WRONG. Of course having like over 10 years of experience designing games, I realized that I needed to RE-THINK the DESIGN and had to "re-order" the cards (because of some general assumptions that I had).
For example, I thought that the DICE would make the game too easy and cause a loss of balance. I WAS WRONG. The dice don't add a loss of balance at all, in actual reality they are a NEW component and they add reasonable effectiveness to the Engine Building aspect of the game.
Or I assumed that the Gold Nuggets which are wildcards would ALSO be too powerful and made them Tier 2 "Prospect" cards. Again I thought it would be another source of imbalance in the game. Again during playtesting this revealed that my assumptions were WRONG AGAIN!
So sometimes IDEAS sound great BEFORE you playtest them... And then you REALIZE that ... Hmm... Something ain't right and the IDEAS need to be re-worked.
I'm not saying this is 100% the situation in YOUR case. Maybe you've been playtesting smaller parts of the game as you DESIGN them. IDK. I'm just saying from my OWN "experience" ... Rarely do first draft IDEAS make it on the "cutting floor" when making games.
Let us know what your approach has been and have you been PLAYTESTING smaller parts of your UNIVERSE to see if your IDEAS work in tandem with the GAME...
Cheers and keep up the good work!
Thank you Quest
Thank you for taking the time to read up on my game updates. Yes, my game is playable.
Jesse