One of the regular things I do for fun – I’m in a Euro board game group. We meet once a week and play games.
Unfortunately for me, the guy who runs the group likes to play a new game every week. I don’t. I like playing the same 10-20 games over and over again.
If you don’t know what a Euro board game is, let me explain. You probably already know American board games like Monopoly, Risk, Life, or Sorry. They’re based off of luck and once you get the basic strategies, you’re mostly counting on good luck, generally from dice rolls, from there on out.
Euro board games do their best to take luck out of the equation. Or at least limit it.
My favorite game is now considered a Euro classic – Agricola. You’re a Dutch farmer in I think the 1600s. You need resources like wood, clay, and stone to build everything from your home to fences.
You grow crops and breed animals. One catch – you also have to feed your family. Whereas the more kids you have, the more victory points you have at the end of the game, but also the more food you’ll need to feed your family.
And if you don’t feed your family, you get begging tokens, which will count against you at the end of the game.
Sound fun? Well, to me it’s a blast.
At the end of the game, if you’ve won, you did a lot of smart things. If you lost, you generally know what you did wrong. From there, you can strategize what to do better next time.
My game
So my game will incorporate a lot of strategy. You’re dependent on certain factors in order to build something else. And timing will play a big part in it.
I don’t expect it to sell tons of copies. This is my first go.
Now, keep in mind I wrote articles before on making side money as an artist. This venture is a great way to get my art out there.
A lot of these Euro games actually have pretty good art. I played one last year where you had to gather bird eggs and the one who had the best collection won the game. I forgot what it’s called, but it was a damn good looking game.
When I saw that, I immediately thought “I should do that.” But I forgot about it.
Suddenly last month, the idea popped back into my head. Why not make a game? I’ve been playing in this group for a decade now. I’ve played over a hundred different Euro games. I know what works and what doesn’t.
Playability is huge. So I’ll game test it a lot before actually producing it.
I also have to test the mechanics. I might have to fool around with the numbers until I get them to work.
And it’s funny how your goals change. I wrote an article on what I plan on accomplishing in 2020 last year, and I had no idea I’d be doing this.
That’s yet another reason why I think some goals should be somewhat fluid. More on that another day though.
Anyways, I’ll post some screenshots when it starts getting close. I’ve playtested it a bit and it still needs a lot of work. I’m also trying to see how many players I should make this game for. So far, it works with two.
Oh, and if you’re wondering, yes. Both Allie and Roxy have already modeled for characters in the game.
