With a head full of ideas, it’s always hard to focus on what design I should pursue next. Lords of Scotland is finished as far as the design goes, so even while I try to sell its merits to people in order to produce it, my head is at least partly distracted by the question “what’s next?”.
I have been working on Houses of Orion for the past few months. It is sound enough to start to playtest now. But, my sense is that it is too big (ie. very costly to make) and too niche (ie. not thematically familiar enough) to pursue if I want to become fully funded in a year. I need a big hit and I need one now.
As far as the hobby industry goes, a $50 dollar board game would be a good start. If I can advance Spy City to the point where it is ready to produce a couple months from now, that would be a perfect way to raise some cash. But, it is nothing more than collection of good ideas at this point with no firm structure or reason to believe it will be fun. ie. design time is indeterminant.
A trick taking game about brawling vikings would be just the type of irreverent humor to follow on the heels of Straw, but it will likely command no more than $15 and lacks even more structure than Spy City. Since I have no more idea now than I did four years ago about how to get card games into the mass-market, this would likely fail to gain traction and reprise Straw.
I could resurrect Stacket and put a lot of effort into meeting the right people. At this point, I should probably be doing this regardless of what other game I choose to put in the pipeline. Because the game is sound and finished, there is no down side and it is potentially a hit. But, I still wish the pieces were better before I pitch it to a major company and Michael’s MIA status means the work is now entirely on my own shoulders to make the connections. But, Stacket is popular.
Finally, there is my long lost chore adventure game. Seeing Johnny Acurso’s letter this morning amongst my things reminded me of my fantasy reward chart game where kids confront monsters and overcome them by doing household chores. As they progress along the path, they accumulate treasure which they can use to trade for gifts from their parents. Parents already make things like this themselves informally. But, as far as I know there is no official product to do what tons of households do with little children. I’m not sure the pricing yet, but I estimate $30, with the possibility of many different themes or expansions as kids complete the charts and get more responsibilities. And, now that I have the right illustrator, it might just be doable. It is thoroughly mass-market though, and presents the same dilemma as Stacket (or worse due to the possibility of being knocked off).
The hardest part about deciding is that I can’t really talk to too many people about it. While I’m trying to produce Lords of Scotland, talking about other games looks like I’m distracted at best. In fact, it more likely than not also undermines my efforts at selling Lords of Scotland. So, in some senses, I need to make the most important decision – whether a project is worth pursuing – in secret.
