Here at Evertide we don’t just do board, card, and dice games for all of your table-top enjoyment needs.  Oh no, we are also a part of the 21st century, working hard to develop digital offerings playable on your smart device of choice.  Even better, the same digital tools that let us do this, also allow us to create digital prototypes of our table top games and to test with folks all over the country, and the world.

Enter, Alpha!  And this weekend EG’s founder Richard James and our VP of Science and Technology Jeff Hall will be putting Alpha through its paces in hot competition at the Global Game Jam  in New York City at the NYU Game Center.  If you are there, make sure to say hello, and check out what Alpha can do.

Later this year, you will see rules, and components, and get to read all sorts of interesting behind-the-scenes bits from designers Brad Phillips and Richard James.  But for now enjoy this teaser shot of the custom die test sheet, and speculate on what the non-number bits suggest for the game play.

Take care and good gaming!

Graydon

If you play the game, and miss the chance to share your feedback, the form is here for your convenience.  Thanks so much, and good gaming!

Nottingham: Playtesting by Jason and Seth on Wednesday indicate that the game may actually be a little too easy now on basic mode. But, the testing session confirmed that the framework is robust and interesting. It also generate some good ideas regarding how the difficulty can be toggled better, how sabotage can work more effectively into the mechanic and the board can be more complex. Revisions are already underway to update the game in time for Michael’s test this coming Wednesday.

Stacket: Production of Stacket has been greenlighted. The game seems to spark exicitement in everyone who plays it with the possiblity of it having a huge impact in the markets for interesting activities to do with people suffering from Alzheimer’s and kids with fairly severe Autism. Whether we can connect with those markets or not is an open-ended question, but Stacket has the potential to be sold to just about anyone. So, sourcing the pieces has begun.

Assorted: An initial design for the cards for Drug Lords is underway. Unexplored deck-building options in Mr. Card Game have given rise to a design called Legends of Laea. Discussions with the east coast production team indicate that there is groundswell support and technical feasibilities in place now for finally making the GPS RPG happen. A renewed effort is underway to find a writer and concept artist for the Orion’s Arm projects.

Business Model: At the moment, there is a healthy tension between designing original content and trying to model existing IP. Both offer the prospect for some innovative design and theoretical challenges, but it is not clear that either one is ‘better’ than the other. One tends to be more market oriented: find a market and make a game for it. The other tends to arise from the ground up: have an interesting idea and try to find people who like it. As far as immediate, reliable, revenue goes, niche game design appears to have the lead by connecting to someone else’s pre-existing fan base. But, original projects have the potential to build up a fan base for Evertide Games which will keep it running nearly indefinitely. Ultimately, Evertide Games will require both.

Hellas: Brenden Hitt has joined the project. Brenden will provide concept artwork, layout and art direction. Part of the original framework for the game design will be altered to capitalize on the tablet/online medium and to streamline the presentation of gameplay.

Drug Lords: The design concept for Drug Lords has been finalized. Drug Lords will become a deck-management game. Players will each start off with a small pre-constructed deck with a unique set of cards. Throughout the game, they will have the opportunity to add cards to their deck from draft piles and eliminate cards from their deck. They will also be able to target each other.

The Thing: Justin and Richard have put together a rough sketch of a multiplayer design for The Thing. The Thing will be cooperative and deductive in nature with an emphasis on cultivating paranoia. The goal of the design is to organically recreate the dramatic sequence from the movie. The commercial goal is to have the design ready for kickstarter by the release of the prequel in October.

Assorted: Gladiators has been playtested on LackeyCCG and will be redesigned to feel more like Straw. Claim Jumper has moved to a backburner project. Stones will likely soon be acquired by a publisher. Kickstarting Stacket has moved to the backburner. Empires of Orion has moved to the forefront.

Business Model: Evertide Games is uniquely positioned to develop customized games for niche IP. With low overhead, rapid development, POD solutions and a range of designers, we can offer something that other publishers cannot to companies that own mid-range brands: games as merchandise. With access to a devoted fanbase, customized games can offer EG something it does not have: access to markets.

Hellas: Porter Nielsen will be joining the team as the texture artist and 2D illustrator for Hellas. Ryan is nearing completion of the accessories and Jeff is almost done moving Tide to Java/Tomcat. Nick has shifted towards a more informal advisory role. Discussions are in the works with a couple of graphic designers to touch up the layout once the game moves online.

Drug Lords: Ash Jackson has joined the team as the illustrator for Drug Lords. Ash will be drawing the caricatures for all the personalities in the game, the iconography, logos and backgrounds. Dab continues to create the backstories for the personalities and work has begun on finalizing the deck-building design.

Assorted: Claim Jumper is being tested by Pat and Graydon. Tennis! has been reformulated as Gladiators and Brad has already created a Lackey plugin for it. The design for Dr. Frankenstein’s Assistant is being adapted to make a game about The Thing. Council to the King has emerged out of Dungeon and Graydon’s liar’s dice role selection idea. Snap Quest has been resurrected from the semi-cooperative fantasy adventure design demo’ed to WotC.

Evertide Games: The process continues to define the model, refine the workflow and set priorities. The current vision embraces a scope and process for EG which can produce three (expandable) games under the EG label and three stand-alone license properties per year. For 2011, the focus falls on completing Nottingham, Drug Lords and Hellas with Stacket a hold-over from last year. Meanwhile, Claim Jumper, Gladiators and Stones appear the most likely to be licensed. Houses of Orion, Dungeon/Snap Quest and Pocket Reef are lining up to be the self-published properties for next year, with Public Works, Dice Pirates and Council to the King hopeful stand-alones. It’s too soon to tell whether plans to make interactive sculptures and installations with Cubic will work out or whether Straw, Court of the Medici and Lords of Scotland can be developed as Apps.

Project Description
We need an illustrator and texture artist to create the 2D art assets and 3D textures/skins for the game. We already have a 3D modeler for the rigs, meshes and animations and some concept artwork to define the style. Now, we need artwork to be produced for the following elements:

• Global Map & Iconography
• Battleground Screen & Iconography
• 3D Unit Skins
• Unit Stat Iconography
• Menu Screens & Navigation
• Logos

Style
Epic historical fantasy. Light and casual. Isometric with proportional distortions to give the illusion of 3D. Each unit and battleground should appear to pop out of the background, using a pseudo camera lens perspective distortion, color, saturation and contrast. Geographic space is condensed and warped to conform to square space. Units should be colorful and fanciful. More legendary than historical. More imaginative than accurate. More smooth than detailed.

Production Schedule
Link to the Production Schedule. While the asset list is mapped out into four different stages, the time for each stage varies. Based upon your availability and schedule, we can set up different deadlines for each milestone.

Compensation
Give us an estimate and we’ll figure out the total and arrange a payment schedule to coincide with the production schedule. You’ll also receive credit for the illustrations in all versions of the game that are published.

Grant of Rights
As a work made for hire, Evertide Games will own the copyright.

Interested? Contact Us