Boundless Distraction

Stormbeard the Dwarf and the shimmering widget. Take a step inside these dark damp goblin infested caves, find the shimmering widget and use the hero stones to make it out alive!

The Goblin Slayer is a fun quick and easy to learn game for two players. Light strategy, easy dice combat done with one D6 and plenty of scampering goblins looking for a dwarf to snack on. Assuming goblins eat dwarfs. 

One player takes control of the dwarf and must navigate a cave that changes every time you play. My favorite part of this game is the instructions. I have a very difficult time reading anything and understanding what is actually going on and what the writer is trying to say to me. These rules were clear and entertaining. There were a couple questions that came up, but nothing that wasn’t easily fixed.

A con that some may find in this game, is when you are setting up you must cut out your board pieces, though, if you get the free version you’ll be cutting pieces out anyway’s. The only art in the game is the board itself, at least the game you purchase at thegamecrafter.com. If you are into creating your own games along an adventure/rpg line, this games map pieces make the $13.99 price tag well worth the purchase.

If you are into action games that require a bit of strategy and luck, you’ll probably love this game. 

Between ease of set up, entertaining and speed of play, this is a game I would leave what I was doing to have a round or two.

If you haven’t noticed yet I’ve been struggling between hosting and actually making a website, I thought I had a site up I liked but felt it didn’t serve the purpose that I wanted. What I’m looking for is something like a blog that I can connect specific links and make it user friendly for reviews, community and tips.

Thanks for all your patience in this and Digital Eel’s patience as well.

Here is a word from Rich from Digital Eel on Game design

Q. When making a game, it’s easy to get caught up in a lot of ideas, how do you stay focused on the ideas at hand, or figure out which ideas to keep and which to just write down and save for another different game?

A. As I said, we start with the main idea first and work out from there.  But we also draw it out either on paper on the table or on a whiteboard.  Whether just lines of notes or flow charts or lists or whatever, all of that, youhave to write things down and keep track.  You’ll need it to refer to, and you have to get quick blurb ideas down so you don’t forget them.  One might be really important later.  You just don’t know, so yeah, write it all down.

So there’s a running document of some kind which is being revised with each meeting and/or playtest.  This document, cleaned up, also forms the basis for the game’s manual or rulebook.

A. In the case of Goblin Slayer it was a couple of fan artists, primarily Orlando Ramirez who created the wonderful tile art, with additional art by James “One Monk” Hartman and Andrew Tullsen.

As you may already know this months game in the review spotlight is Goblin Slayer.

Rich from Digital Eel (creators of Goblin Slayer) shares his thoughts in game design.

Me: What do you feel is the most important part of the game creation process?

Rich: Seizing a key idea first.  Being able to actually see a good thing when you come across it or invent it.  People say ideas are a dime a dozen, as if the field was level and all ideas are commonplace.  But in my experience that
is so not true (I can’t write Moby Dick or compose like Scarlatti or reason like Socrates) and I think if you look at the games that have really connected with people and have been successful you’ll see two or three priceless ideas there driving the interest while the other 90% of games simply don’t have that going for them.

And prototype the idea right away.  Get it on the table immediately.  Make sure the core idea or mechanic is fun alone, on its own, before any of the color or theme or details are added.  If you don’t start with something, not to mention something that’s fun right off the bat, you’re going to be waiting for fun to happen somehow, sometime along the way.  That’s weak design.  It may, I’m not saying it won’t but it is likely that it won’t because you get in the kind of murky situation a painter gets into by just pushing around the paint.

If you actually have something, the game will “design itself” from that point on.  I don’t mean that literally, but you will have taken care of the most important aspect.  All the rest should be pretty straightforward and
just about finessing and brainstorming on it and fleshing the thing out, which is truly the fun part in terms of the craft aspect.

Goblin Slayer by Digital Eel review coming last Friday of the month

Store Page - Download free

Digital Eel has done the Goblin Slayer board game but also (and mainly) does indie computer games. Check them out!

So ye’ve found the treasure and now yer gonna take er back to the ship and lock er up for the booty to be split. Why not get yer fair share of a little extra before then?

Play a card, draw a card, take or steal some treasure sums it all up quite nicely.

Reversal of Fortune is a great light hearted and fun game, and the pictures are sure to give you a chuckle (unless of course… you don’t chuckle). The art is what really gives this game it’s shine, but I don’t have to tell you that.

The rules are very simple, and unfortunately a little spread out. The basic and main rules can be found on a poker sized card that give a nice little cheat sheet review, it’s also basically all the rules you will get. There is a part in the rules that tells you to draw one card, which makes this card (below) a little tough to deal with.

When playing two cards, you’ll probably want to draw two cards to make up for it. If you go over to the paper section, it has a sentence that explains this. Most mishaps of the rules are like this though, it isn’t very hard to determine what should happen even though the rules may not directly state what should happen.

This is a great game for a family, it is fun and simple. The downfall is I feel it is a little too simple. Without complicating the game much. Jeremy Southard of Wastex Games says he will be leaving the game as is, which is fine for where its at. However, going back to the game and making some adjustments to the game could easily push this game over the edge to being great and not just good.

For example, the only chance of revenge you have is to steal back from the person who stole from you on your turn. If I was a Pirate I wouldn’t stand for such things!

Here are some ideas I’ve thought up:

A card that says the captain catches you and takes a treasure back

or cards that interrupt someone else from stealing your cards, since you obviously don’t want the other players getting their hands on your Mint Condition Blue Beard Figure!

I can and do appreciate the simplicity behind this game. It is nice to just be able to pick the game up, deal out five cards and go for it, questions are easily answered as you go. As I said though, with a simple game is sometimes simple strategy. Just adding in cards that give the player a little more choice when it isn’t their turn could spice this game right up.

For those more interested in how the game plays here are the rules

Rating - What does this mean?

Wastex Games Links

Twitter: @Wastexgames
http://www.WastexGames.com

Game Shop Page

Reversal of Fortune Artist

So far the new site has got a new blog, and a forum. The forum is a nice addition I think, the new blog… not so much. But what do you do? It is lacking in content right now, and the forums have a total of 3 posts, but hopefully that will change in the near future.

Go check it out!

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