I am thinking about designing my board game for more than a couple of years and finally I have decided to do it. I also know that If I share my progress with you and at the same time take feedback from senior gamers and designers, the final result will be better than my initial thoughts. Today is my birthday (Aug 20) and I am planning to receive my game as a birthday gift next year same day :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
START OF A JOURNEY
I feel like I am departing to a journey.
The ship is ready, and now it is time to go through the checklist. Not to forget any key item behind. It is also hard work. I have to carry enough stock of food and water to take me through the endless blue. I am sure that first day's enthusiasm will turn into depression after a couple of weeks. I will feel myself alone in the middle of the endless blue. I will be BLUE. So I am trying to stock enough motivation too.
I am also a leo. So I do not like to be criticized strongly. At least I know myself. Please keep criticizing my ideas or sketches so that I can improve my game to the best version possible.
It is also important that I remember that there is a deadline. This journey is for 365 days. That is why it is called ONE YEAR BG DESIGN CHALLENGE. It is not for a month or two years. It has to be accomplished in 365 days.
I did my homework as much as I can. I tried to prepare myself to the journey. I am watching the DIVAs and their reviews. I work on a draft version of my game for some time and I also take notes on a journal.
My favorite Board Gamer channels are:
Watch It Played
Rahdo Runs Through
Jamey Stegmaier
Shut Up & Sit Down
Bower`s Game Corner
The Dice Tower
Gaming With Edo
PairOfDice Paradise
Drive Thru Review
Scott Nicholson
So I learn a lot from the BEST REVIEWERS and DESIGNERS. So most of the mechanics that I am going to use in my game will be a fusion of their and my ideas. I will do my best to give a reference where I can.
While I am going through this journey, I will keep working on my full time job and will take care of my beloved family :) So from time to time, stress can be high. Again I count on my commitment to the community and to myself.
While I am talking about my family. I have to mention about my beloved daughter. Her name is Leyla and she is 6. She is a board gamer since the age of 2. We love playing games with her and even making some fun board games. We are even working on a webpage dedicated to our games (Happy Games) and a YouTube Channel. In both of them we are planning to talk about our games. Mainly about the challenges we face while working on board games and at the same time talk about the games that we love. So for those who like watching videos some of the progress will be posted as video as well.
Lets dive into my game idea.
I do not know If you had a chance to visit Cappadocia. But even If you have not been there I am sure that you heard about the hot air balloons and the amazing views and history of the place. Anatolia (where I am originally from) is a very historic piece of land and for thousands of years different cultures have been born and merged to each other. And during 9th to 13th century Zelve has been populated by Christians and they have built amazing cave villages and underground tunnels to run away from invaders. In the game that I am planning to build. I want to bring back to life the daily-life of these people.
The mechanics will be mainly a worker placement based on a euro game. Some tricks I think to differentiate the game from other euro games are:
1 > While playing a competitive game above the ground, making the underground tunnels together and once invaded run to the tunnels together to survive. I am planning to make the undergrounds as a deck of cards that each player invest to build and once invaded players take their turns in the tunnels to save their beloved townspeople and their belongings.
2 > The other mechanic I want to embed to the game is the stress of invasion. I am planning to put the box cover of the game 10 meters away and once invaded in 10 seconds every player needs to carry their people and their stuff to the box one by one / card by card. So they need to run to save as much as they can. And as they will be invaded 3-4 times during the game it will bring some action to the table. As you can imagine, the people or stuff they can not carry to the box will be gone by the invaders.
3 > I also want to embed a dynamic city setting. Where the goods will have different price due to the season or player interaction.
In a summary I want to build a game called ZELVE. Which is a deck builder - worker placement with some twist.
I am really looking forward to hear your first thoughts. In the next blog post I will share with you some of the very preliminary game materials that I have built. I realized that AGRICOLA is a great game and at the same time a great material provider for a new game designer.
This is a great feeling. The air so fresh. The breeze is kissing my lips. The ship is departing and I wave hand to the people on the shore. Nobody waves back to me right now, but I hope that 365 days later, there will be a crowd there waiting for my return. Who knows?
