I've finally sorted out exactly what each of the 90 cards will have on them. Also, regarding the design, it seems to be that CRAFT (chalkboard card back) is running away as the favourite choice. Thanks to all that have voted and voiced their opinions.
I'm at a little bit of a stand still regarding the buy-a-letter chips/tokens. I've come down to 2 simple solutions:
- Have matte board w/art printed on both sides, or
- plastic chips with just a yellow star imprinted on it
Both ideas work fine for me. As long as the token is anywhere from 3/4" - 1" in diameter and no thicker than 2mm. Trying to keep the packaging down to a small box. 3.5"x2.5"x2" interior. 90cards plus folded instruction sheet and tokens in a polybag should do the trick. I saw that TheGameCrafter has a mini pro box, but it's only an inch tall and holds 128 cards. I assume those cards are 280gsm and not 310 linen poker cards. But either way, I can prototype a box from some matte board at the artstore and just get a printer to run a gloss sticker for my design. The demo at this year's con is going to be good.
I'll be contacting some vendors to see what I can get done the cheapest. I'm personally leaning towards plastic chips for longevity purposes but if the matte board is cheaper (even with the print) then I'm completely fine with that.
Here's to moving forward with great ideas.
Comments
Progress.... it is good!
I've come up with adjustments to the original game core mechanics, as well as created 2 variations of the game using the base concept of the game. The game is still in play testing and it is slowly being tightened up.
Now I realize word games for non-wordies aren't all that exciting, but I believe anyone who likes communicating with more than just acronyms and web jargon will benefit from a game like this. Not only are you going to learn new words, but new ways to view words in your everyday life. They say, for children to learn quicker and retain what's learned, a game or a song is beneficial. Well, learning within gaming is always fun, but how functional can it be? With a time frame, word games like Scrabble, Boggle, Crossword and the like would take on a whole new element. This is what Word-a-bout is trying to bring to the table.
Forget lamenting over the perfect combination of high scoring tiles. Remembering words isn't the key here. It's seeing them before your brain recognizes they are even there. Visual learning, like speed reading, teaches us to absorb objects and fragments, and allowing our awesome brain to glue together the gaps.
A PnP version of this game is now available for play testers. A site will be available soon and if you keep watching, a crowd funder in August will be launching for the production of Word-a-bout.
Hope to see you there.