DR Games

DFI came about through an unusual set of circumstances at a strange time, that I discuss in a previous post. But it was solid and reliable with a core set of rules and maps and could be download for free from my website. Yet, as if out of control, the game began to take on a life of its own in my mind. I imagined new land features, hex tiles, expansion rules and maps. I think that, for me, any creation is never truly complete, they just keep on growing, expanding, and ultimately opening new gaming choices.   Pretty quickly I set about writing the rules and drawing the land features for the new maps and expansions. It presented as a series of updates with new landscapes that would be interesting to experience in their own hex maps. This presented as four distinct expansions that would work nicely as pledge levels…yes, I began to think Kickstarter. I had established a presence on Board Game Geek and the free core rules were out there for people to play and they had. I w...

I this final part of the series I reflect on how the Kickstarter failed to achieve its goal. But I also talk about the physical components of the game and how we were at the mercy of a number of circumstances some self-made others wholly unexpected. We gathered up many quotes for Expansionist. As we developed the game, through play testing. At a basic level we needed hex and triangle tiles and the number changed as we tested length of play and phases of the game. We found that sometimes players’ might not get tiles out until the fourth or fifth turn and so we added an additional foundation tile. We saw that some of the event names may well be too sensitive and so we changed the design. These were things that time helped us realise and it is this that you need with your game. Time. Live with it and ask questions of it. The actual game play can blind you to some of these design elements that could slow a project or put people off. Loads of tiles in the Expansionist design ...