Community Forums => General Chat => Topic started by: decoyman on August 24, 2019, 06:26:20 PM
Title: I'm making a game!
Post by: decoyman on August 24, 2019, 06:26:20 PM
Well, a board game. Still, wheee!! I've been working on it for like 3 and a half years, and it's getting pretty close to done.
Hello, my old friends. Please check out my game, Hunker (http://bit.ly/hunkergame). Here's a teaser trailer (https://youtu.be/QWJmwZBlvQU), even.
I actually had a little moment of inspiration when I was working on my target audience for marketing purposes… Hunker is a pretty family-friendly, in fact the animals are all friends who actually get points for helping each other out in the game. And when it comes to gameplay, I tried to make it play fast and free, in fact I had Prince of Persia: Sands of Time in my mind for how I wanted it to play (just as the board game equivalent). As I was thinking about my audience, I realized that… it's Nintendo people. People who like Mario and Animal Crossing and Kirby and Pikmin, and… well, those are my people. You're my people. <3 So I figured I'd come here and show you all what I'm working on. ;D
Any other game designers (aspiring or otherwise!) around here? If so, what are you working on?
Title: Re: I'm making a game!
Post by: BeautifulShy on August 24, 2019, 09:03:26 PM
This seems like a fun idea for a game. I don't really play the newer type of board games but it does look pretty fun.
Title: Re: I'm making a game!
Post by: decoyman on August 25, 2019, 02:40:59 PM
Thanks, BeautifulShy. I didn't get into modern board games until I graduated college and my life started settling down a bit (relatively—now I have a toddler, ha...). And now years after that, here I am designing my own. :3
Really, this is sort of an ode to Nintendo's influence on my game design philosophy. I took inspiration from a lot of Nintendo games, in that I want even the little things you do in the game to just be fun/satisfying in addition to the broader game as a whole being fun. These little things shouldn't just be a means to an end. Sure, Mario doing his triple jump can get you to new places, but it's also just plain fun and satisfying to pull off. Riding Epona through Hyrule field full-speed can get you places faster, but it's awesome on its own. In PoP:SoT I still remember the thrill of wall-running for the first time. I want the game to get out of your way and just let you have fun in its world. Nintendo is, in my mind, the master of that in video games (h/t Miyamoto).
Title: Re: I'm making a game!
Post by: ejamer on August 25, 2019, 03:16:40 PM
Brrr... The theme leaves me cold! (Or maybe the game looks fine and I was just desperate for a pun.) I saw hint of a KickStarter in early 2020? Is that still the plan? Look forward to hearing more!
Title: Re: I'm making a game!
Post by: decoyman on August 25, 2019, 07:56:15 PM
Brrr... The theme leaves me cold! (Or maybe the game looks fine and I was just desperate for a pun.) I saw hint of a KickStarter in early 2020? Is that still the plan? Look forward to hearing more!
Ha! Hi, ejamer, I was hoping you'd stop by. :)
Yes, that's the plan, early 2020. Probably plan to wrap up before end of February, as my wife is expecting in March or April and then things will get really crazy.
Here's an image of a mid-game state that shows most of the components in the game: custom meeples, bags, tokens, dice, snow tiles, hex-grid region boards, and cards... (https://cf.geekdo-images.com/original/img/-3cRWRMYpN-A3NMtAv6pSeQxKi0=/0x0/pic4882589.jpg)
Title: Re: I'm making a game!
Post by: ShyGuy on August 28, 2019, 09:53:41 AM
Holy cow! That's a game!
Title: Re: I'm making a game!
Post by: decoyman on August 30, 2019, 06:53:40 PM
Haha, thanks, ShyGuy. It definitely aspires to gamedom!
True story: my wife fell asleep when she played it on its inaugural run. No one has fallen asleep while playing in at least the last 6 months, sooo… progress! ;D
Title: Re: I'm making a game!
Post by: decoyman on March 04, 2020, 05:20:33 PM
Hey all, I wanted to let you know that Hunker has launched on Kickstarter (http://bit.ly/hunkerkickstarter). I hope you'll check it out if you like forest critters or pretty art or boardgames or FRIENDSHIP or all those things mashed up into One Neat Thing. We just passed $10,000 pledged, which is really exciting! But… board games are real expensive to produce and ship around the world, so still have a ways to go. At least we've still got almost three weeks to get there.
And to BeautifulShy, ejamer, ShyGuy, and DrewMG and NWR_Neal (who happened to back already!)... thanks for the support. ^_^
As soon as this thing calms down a bit, I hope to be able to powerup the ol' switch and actually play some games with you all. (My Smash skills are rusting from disuse... so sad!)
You should have let us know earlier to help get early pledges.
Egad, I know. I don't want to look at that kicktraq thing, it only makes me stressed out!
I do have some ideas to boost the numbers before the end. Hunker was named a Showcase Game at Emerald City Comic Con in a week and a half. 90,000 people attend this con, so I was hoping for a big boost there... but now it may be canceled due to the Coronavirus. :\ I'm also formulating a new Kickstarter-exclusive character, which I'm really excited about... but again, I should've had that from the beginning. Ah, well. If I need to relaunch down the road, I will.
Anyway, thanks for checking it out!
Title: Re: I'm making a game!
Post by: ejamer on March 04, 2020, 08:40:58 PM
Some really good projects don't make the funding cut their first time on KickStarter. KickStarter has a weird "rich get richer" vibe where the increased visibility of projects that are successful early (or vice versa) can sometimes snowball and exacerbate those early results.
So if the numbers don't look good as you get closer to the end, don't get stressed out or feel down. There is a good chance you'll retain a lot of the existing backers if a re-launch is necessary, so focus on ideas about how to draw attention prior to the campaign and increase early backers.
Again, hopefully that is all moot. Keeping my eyes on the project and excited to see how it goes!
Title: Re: I'm making a game!
Post by: MaryJones on April 03, 2020, 12:03:28 AM
