Tag: itch.io

Happy Tuesday, folks!

This week I figured I’d talk a little bit more about my upcoming game, currently titled “For the Flock”, a solo or group journaling/survival game about a nomadic people traveling a dangerous wasteland. I’ve been hard at work on the project after a few weeks of inactivity, and have even gotten the chance to playtest a few hours of the game with a friend of mine. We’re both having a really great time, which I take to mean that the game is at least fun at this stage, and I consider that a pretty big win.

It’s my impression that this can be one of the more difficult parts of game design to get through: the seemingly endless slog of testing, tweaking, testing, tweaking, over and over until you start to forget how the game looked when it was unrestrained by logic, accessibility, readability, etc. That said, I’ve found that I actually quite enjoy this part of the process, especially when you have cool people to engage in it alongside you, providing real-time feedback and impressions.

My hope is to have the game ready for testing on a wider scale by next week, so keep an eye out for that!

To give you some idea of how the game plays, you draw cards from a standard deck which give you a prompt to help you imagine what kind of struggles or encounters your Flock is having while on their yearly pilgrimage to the safety and tranquility of a place known to them as the Summer Lands. After describing the situation, the player chooses one of six available Paths which represent the style of resolution (ie, the Path of Violence means the Flock will be fighting or mistreating someone or some place, but the Path of Trade could mean they’re bargaining or maintaining a balance with the environment around them). The other players (or if you’re playing by yourself, you) roll a number of dice equal to the current Flock score, and the result determines which Path gets chosen. As the player who’s turn it is, you have some options to sway the outcome of the roll, and all of these systems are meant to parallel the real workings of a democratic system filled with diverse peoples with unique perspectives. It’s not always easy.

There’s obviously more to the game then just that, but I’ll save that for when it’s closer to being ready. I’m also going to try and actually get some art in this game, give you something to look at that can get the gears of imagination turning in your head as all good tabletop game art does. My first game, “our hope is You” was released in its current edition without art, as I wanted something pared down to start with. I’m also reworking some things in that game and will likely release a widely modified and updated edition.

I have no idea how to create nice looking layouts, and I have no skill for the visual arts in general, so if you happen to be an artist reading this or know someone who might be able to help out, get in touch on Bluesky @vulpesvalentine! I DO NOT ALLOW ARTISTS TO WORK FOR FREE, YOU WILL BE COMPENSATED.

And I think that’ll wrap it up for now. Next week’s post will be another edition of Recency Bias, but look out for an additional post on a new release I hope to have dug into in the next few days.

Ciao!