I recently had someone give me a "why don't you make games your job" pep talk, so here I am, committed to take gaming and design more seriously. I have a couple of local friends who love to talk design too - so I'm hoping to rope a few of them into regular meetings and some collective designing.
I have been hosting weekly game nights for the last 5 or 6 years...mostly games in the Puerto Rico, Power Grid, Agricola universe. A few weeks ago I attended my first con (GenghisCon in Denver) and played Brass for the first time. I'm OBSESSED.
I've tossed around a lot of ideas, and done very preliminary prototypes of a few things (a set of Vegas themed Dominion cards, and a horse racing w/ betting game).
The one that I actually tested with friends was a game called "I Remember". As treasure hunters, there was a car accident on the way to your latest score. Dazed and confused, you need to piece together where you were going before the memories slip away.
Everyone starts with 5 cards, each representing a potential detail of the location of the treasure (Highway 20, Western Mountains, Springfield, etc). Each round, each player passes a card to the right, then gets to make 1 statement: "I remember [name of card]"...and then on around the circle. Then everyone submits a card face down. The cards are turned over and matching pairs are considered verified details of the location of the treasure.
To win, you need to collectively remember a certain number of details. Sounds easy? Well, some of the cards dealt out do not have matching pairs (and thus are false memories). Oh, and there is a traitor amongst you (who remembers everything) and is trying to foil your attempt to piece it together (so he can collect the treasure himself)!
(I have a more detailed design doc for this that I will be posting later)
I'm posting here as the start of my journey to making more time in my life for game design. How rewarding would it be to publish a game and have people pay money for it?!? :-)
Looking forward to participating in the monthly design challenges as well. So thankful for this site, and looking forward to becoming a part of the community.
~Ryan
