I'll be at @protospielo on the 14th and 15th!

I'll be playtesting a midweight abstract game called Cycle and my big political wargame, PACT, both of which are in the "looking for publishers" phase. Come by and give me some suggestions!

Had a short meeting with a publisher today to show off Have At Thee, and early sigbs are cautiously good! The game's a two player coop, which is a very niche genre, but would fit well within one of their lines.

Here's hoping!

Got in a full 4 player playtest of GRIFT yesterday!

There were some major fiddly bits, but a lot of the message is getting through. We had two people who were not used to money games, and while they had a hard time grokking the money mechanisms, they were able to muddle through by just doing actions that made their Line Go Up. Which is all I can hope for.

It's been a weird Thanksgiving, and not just because I'm on the other side of the ocean from family. It's because all the things I'm thankful for are coming as part of this chaotic slurry of confusion that is the base state of being a new father and an immigrant to another country.

To get Hallmark Sappy, I've learned a lot about myself in the last year, and weirdly enough I think I'm better off for combining both moving and being a new parent. I guess with no grounding, you find a new normal.

@gilhova gave me some inspiration to distill the actions of GRIFT down into emojis. Original rules attached for comparison

MINT NFTS [🔥]
+🖼️ +🖼️ (different schemes)
📈/🧡 = #💸
Scheme Bonus: +🧡

MANUFACTURE HYPE [🔥]:
🖼️: +📈🧡🧡🧡
Scheme Bonus: +🧡

WASH TRADE NFT
🖼️: +📈📈📈📈📈 (max 📈=💰)
Scheme Bonus: +📈📈

GRIFT MARK [🔥]
👨‍💻: 💸🖼️
bid 🧡(⬆️ can 💸, +💰=📈)
🔁 if did not 💸
Scheme Bonus: +🧡

LOAN
🖼️: +💰=📈
💳=📈
Scheme Bonus: +📈📈

LAUNDER [🔥]
👨‍💼👨‍💼: 💰->💵
Scheme Bonus: ALL 🖼️ +📈

#graphicdesign #gamedev

Hoping for some ideas on a graphical way to communicate a concept.
In GRIFT, a satirical game about fraud and crypto, there is a critical action called Wash Trade. Here's how it works:

Pick an asset and set that asset's value equal to how much money you currently have. The max increase per turn is $5
Ex: You have an asset worth $3, and $12 in hand. Turn 1, you can wash trade the asset up to a value of $8 (max +$5). Turn 2, it can go to $12 (= the $ you have in hand)

It's Pint-Sized PACT!

The previous game had a board the size of an A1 poster. In an recent update, I changed the event card system to one where players selected cards from a shared row. This meant that with the big board, players were peering over a huge map to squint at the text on the cards.

I halved the size of the board to compensate, which was a graphic design nightmare. But I'm pretty damn proud of the result