Boston FIG and AAC

Apologies on the lack of updates in the game and tab space, but I’ve been busy. I’m currently finishing up the first version of the newly designed armor, and trying to get it done for AAC – hopefully I can make it, as I love AAC. I’ll be there with the Nerdfit crew, and we’ll also be heading to Alternicon in Boston sometime in November.

But minor stuff aside – HOLY CRAP Boston FIG. We had entered for their showcase a few months back after missing another contest, but not only did we advance but we got to go to the showcase, and if I have one complaint about that – it’s that I was too busy to check out anything outside of our table (I the video game developer/major didn’t even see a video game)

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We had some great playtesting and feedback – and while I’ve done various playtesting amongst groups of people – it’s a far different environment than a quiet sit-down, and if anything I prefer it. You really figure out what of your game you can say to draw them in more, and what parts you don’t need to have because if it’s too hard to explain when they can just as easily pick up and leave – you really get down into what you need to do for your game.

Another thing which my compatriot was beaming about was how much the art was complemented (we didn’t get the Figgy award, but then we didn’t have a sign up thing/code/any real sort of planning (we actually had to rush to get a tablecloth), but it was enough that both of us are excited to bring something next year which means good for me because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to steal Chris away from his animations to do my tabletop art.

There’s some changes to the game that we’ll be doing based on feedback, and some others things we wanted to add, but stay tuned. I also have an email list so feel free to email jernandrews@gmail.com to be added for when the game is released (although it’ll be here too)

Happy Deathmatch

So CaH’s Tabletop Deathmatch entries for 2014 is ending today (oh and it’s my birthday) I’ve submitted all 4 of my in progress games (which now all have pages), and over the course of the week and weekend I hope to get some more playtesting, and some more images up of the various games.

Since it was my birthday though I went and got myself 2 presents. 1 was a shiny GameCrafter prototype of my newest project Chimera Battle Royale, and even though the art is programmer art – I think it makes the game a lot more something I can put in front of more people to get some more testing. (the other gift was some more board games and scotch)

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I’ve not forgotten my other games though, and I also have good news. While the game Chris and I were working on didn’t get into the Flux Capacity challenge, we made some changes that we felt the game needed (but were against Flux’s rules), and we put the game into the Boston FiG competition. The game is currently in the second round!

Cascade is likely my most finished project – but that’s also because I want to continue to refine my other projects a bit more to make them stronger games overall.

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Anyway I’ll be starting my own little review column for board games (since why not) on Nerdfit either next week or two, and I’ll likely crosspost. As Nerdfit is a little lacking in Tabletops – I promise to start slow and begin with some classics before I start seeking out the newest games from the big names, or the best from the indie and KS markets. Look forward to Tabletop Workbench here or at the main site Nerdfit.com. (You can also read the anime articles – but fair warning that’s a comedy column, whereas Workbench will be a more serious review column)

Death by Tabs

So some updates on various fronts:

The game Chris Daley and I have been working on for the Flux Capacity Challenge/Boston FiG is coming along quite well, hopefully once we start ordering stuff I can post it here (and once we get a name.

There’s been some major rework done to PunchDrunkMagic based on feedback, but with the above, and my following news – it’s a little backburner atm.

DEATH BY CARDS! I finally ordered a full print-card version for further testing. It’s intoxicating how great it is to have the full thing in a form that’s ‘almost’ finished versus my print and play – or like with my other games where I have written on parts. I’ve posted some screens below of the card pile (it came unsorted) and what it looks like in the box all pretty with the added counters/dice/dividers.

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On to tabs – I have a new weave added both here, and at Intructables I’ve had it for a while, but I needed to upload instructions. It was added as a part to this scarf thing (pictured below) which is something I can bring to events/cons so that people can see how diverse they are, and get a real feel of it (as opposed to the ‘petting’ I usually get)

 

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I also have some images of some one-off things I did with string and leather in response to someone asking some questions on overall armor design. Now while I follow some of my fellows who do this often with yarn and other materials – called Tabistry (visit their FB!) I shied away from string due to some earlier bracer experiments which ended in disaster under a few days at an event. The doubling effect I show here, and especially the leather seem to be fairy rigid, and I may end up doing a piece – it’s oddly very time consuming compared to some of my stuff (not all)

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Spring 2014 Anime Season Reviews/First Impressions [Complete]

Well guys, Kill la Kill is over, and even Space Dandy has abandoned me for what looks to be one of the shittiest anime seasons in recent memory, between Titan, Dandy, KLK, Watamote, and Bakemonogatari I’ve forgotten what it was like to have pretty much nothing to watch that I just had to watch. Sure I get Fairy Tail back, but that’s never been a series where I had to be like – no we watch this first, and Mushishi while amazing just doesn’t get you hype for anime.

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