Well, the title says it. I'm not new to BGDF, but i never did introduce myself in this forum. But i guess, its never too late!
Generally, this is how it happens - I was a non gamer a long time ago, then i got into gaming and then i got into designing.
I guess i'm a rare case then. I was a non gamer when i got into designing. I didn't know many games other than the standard - monopoly, trivial pursuit, clue. I then had an idea to create a strategy game and then i came on to BGDF, BGG and what not and got introduced to gaming. Now, i've played many more games as i absolutely love gaming.
The game i have been designing is strategy game with a speciality - it has absolutely no element of luck whatsoever. Now, i know you might be thinking - luck is needed in some form to make strategy games fun or the game becomes imbalanced. And i agree to that. Im not saying luck elements are not good, they are great!
But i wanted to make a game that involves more skill. If you actually take a look - the most famous board game in the world does not have any luck. Chess!
Not saying my game is anything like chess, but it does have a pure strategy element. As i mentioned before, since i got into gaming after designing the game, i did not know any popular mechanics while designing the game. In fact, i didn't even know that the word 'mechanics' was used in board games :-P. So, that is why most of the mechanics of my game are fairly different from any existing ones. Although some turned out to be the same. I am NOT saying that they are unique and far better or anything, just saying that they are just 'different'. And many of you may find some of them weird. For eg. the basic movement mechanic - each player can move up to three spaces in any direction in one turn. the combat mechanic - When two players combat, the rest of the game stops and the two players trade gun blows or move one space until someone gets out of shooting distance or dies.
And to top it all up, its fairly simple compared to other strategy games. I'm not sure it is supposed to though. The thing about this game is, players don't really have a variety to chose what they are going to do in a turn, that's limited. But instead they have to look forward and try to form a long term strategy by prediction and planning. Honestly, i am really starting to worry about this as many gamers just usually look at the choices they can make per turn and don't get that intrigued.
Anyway, (sorry this became more like a blog entry :-P) Hey! I am Tom Hardy from New York and i say hi to all you awesome designers.
And oh, here's the rulebook link if you want to check it out: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7ka7212fmr5b2lq/AABjl2i7CfZjEFCCZsv61V3Va?dl=0
Thankyou!
I hope i do. I have been getting a lot of help here so far. :-)