I have a hard time putting everything out there.
My background is in film and design and it's beaten into you not to talk about the specifics of what you are working on. Spoilers in the film community can lead to firing or lack of future employment ... and the design community is notoriously untrustworthy of anyone (Not to mention you've probably signed five NDA's during your first year of employment all of which seem to threaten the life of your first born if you even mention who your working with).
So forgive me if I'm being a little vague on the specifics of my game. I'm fairly sure that many of the more seasoned designers on this board can quickly figure out what may be going on but for now I'm not going to come out and discuss the specifics.
I did actually have some time to solo play test the first incarnation of my adventure game (see the 'pretty' pictures). I was fairly certain it was going to be a disaster and for a few rounds it felt cumbersome and clunky. By simply changing the steps around (i.e. moving something like 'pull a Found card' from step three to step one) I made the game play that much better.
One of the first game mechanics that I envisioned is what I call 'mice'. It is two glitchy robotic types that wander the board and wreak havoc if encountered. Ill admit that they are influenced by 'The Adventures: TPOH' but they are much more unpredictable then that games mummies.
I wasn't sure if they were even going to make it beyond the first solo play but ... they work! I need to work out the specifics of how they move around the board and I am leaning toward using a die system like Flashpoint. The player may be able to guess where they may go but it's not an easy thing to do consistently.
As you can see from the pictures: I kept the whole thing very low tech except for the figures. My work has a 3d printer and I had some fun translating an old design into the two Mouse figures. I used the playing pieces from Flashpoint, two stacks of small index cards for playing cards, and a hand drawn board with plenty of white space to write ideas and changes down.
All in all: the first solo test was a fun experience. I actually found myself getting into the game and cursing the cards when they hampered my ability to reach a simple goal. It ,obviously, needs some more work but it's moving forward.
More later.
Mike
