DR Games

The first proof copies of Trade Nation have arrived. It was exciting to open the box and see our first printed product. Although not our first game it is our first physical product, Dark Force Incursion, our solo game that was successfully Kickstarted earlier in the year, was a PDF product. Holding the freshly printed box was a very satisfying moment for a game we have a lot of faith in. It was something I will never forget. Trade Nation is a family game much in the mold of UNO or MONOPLOY DEAL and is designed with universal appeal. It has straightforward mechanics and a bold colourful appearance. The players compete to sell stock at the highest prices. The person with the highest score wins. It can be learned in five minutes and the 120 cards are stored in a rigid box which is portable and durable. Here is a shot of the new delivery showing a completed game. The next stage is to send it out to reviewers. This takes time. Close on the heals of this stage is setting up the ...

Never has the concept of luck been driven home to me more than recently when I have been designing my own tabletop games. What role does it play in the…well the game play? Does a game become weaker because of a dependence on random nature? Can this cause anxiety or fatigue? Should we rely on luck less? Make more of the choices ourselves? Be in control? I wanted to lay some of this out in this latest blog post as it is becoming a particularly important part of how I design games. Making my way across a map...with only a die to guide me With the design of Dark Force Incursion, I created a game that heavily depended on the roll of a dice. Every turn you are bound by the result of your roll and this leads you in a direction, for which there are a set of consequences. Is this too much to ask of a player to be so bound by a one in six chance? Yes, because how can they influence the outcome? This is what gamers will often strive for, a controlling element. I introduced the option o...

It is Tuesday the 5 th of May and a week after the Kickstarter ended. It feels like a month! But we have another week until Kickstarter completes the transactions and I can send out all the Dark Force Incursion Expansion goodies. I have been working on the stretch goals and their design, much of which is finished, although the wasteland designs are taking a bit longer. I have been pleased to see that we have had some coverage on several blogs: Charmstone Games were first to the post with their article “A Non-RPG Review? Dark Force Incursion,” which takes an interesting look at how DFI could be used in an RPG setting  https://charmstonegames.com/a-non-rpg-review-dark-force-incursion/ Lightheart Adventures put together an excellent interview where I talk about DFI and our collaboration: https://www.lightheartadventures.com/product-spotlight/interview-with-dark-realm-maps/ A positive article appeared at Boards and Bees: https://boardsandbees.wordpress....