That is right, after a long time on hiatus I am actually going to be releasing a new game... soon. In this post I shall talk a little about it because I can.
The game I am working on is an updated take on one of my other games The Adventurer (https://jameschip.itch.io/the-adventurer) and is a solo journalling game.
Honestly, when I released The Adventurer a few years back I instantly wanted to make a sci-fi version of it. I also did not want it to be a shallow card list for the game that was just a bit space themed,swapping sword for zap gun.
I thought a lot about what I wanted the game to be like.
The thing is this; The Adventurer is less about what you do as a character, and more about the world you inhabit. What is the one thing sci-fi has plenty of? That is right, worlds to explore!
Space between the stars game follows the same basic principal as the original. You split your deck of cards into piles by suit, and then draw from those piles as certain times to explore the world you are in.
I wrote a version of this quite a while ago and it felt shallow, so I never published it, and I never will. Then I sat thinking about this game for a couple of years because I am a slow worker. How could I make it feel the way I wanted it.
I can pinpoint the exact moment where this version of the game, the version that I will release soon, formed in my head; and I will share that with you now.
A couple of years after abandoning this game for the first time me and my partner had a second baby. This, as it turned out, was the perfect time for me to start writing a brand new game, although I did not know it right then.
The thing about having a baby is that they do a lot of sleeping on you. A lot.
side note about having a baby
This is the best bit about having a baby, cherish it because pretty soon they are old enough to not need to sleep on you anymore.
end of note
So while the baby was sleeping on me at some ungodly hours of the evening I found I had a lot of time to kill. Can you guess what I did with that time?
That is right. I watched a lot of TV.
A whole lot.
Loads, in fact.
I watched TV, and I also at some point started thinking about this game again. I started thinking about how I wanted it to feel like you were about to explore many worlds instead of just one. I also wanted it to feel like you were still playing The Adventurer an did not want to add a whole lot of complexity into the game just to do it.
I kept thinking about it, an watching TV, and thinking.
I will tell you the moment it clicked.
We have a 35 dvd box set of Columbo on our shelf, and you bet that if I have a whole bunch of time sitting and watching TV that I am going to end up watching Columbo. Why would you watch anything else?
So there I am, watching Columbo, thinking about games, and sniffing my babies hair when the stars aligned (pun intended). The episode I was watching was Suitable for Framing, and there is this scene where Columbo pulls up outside this house in his shabby car and the murderer is trying to convince him that some other person did the murder and he should search the house. If you have not seen this episode you really should, it is the best one.
Columbo has none of it, and drives off in his shabby little car. Classic Columbo.
Driving of in hes dented up car.
The car! Of course! That was what this game was missing!
So now this game is split in two parts.
One part is the same as the original game The Adventurer, where you draw cards and explore a planet.
Then at any time you can choose to start the second part of the game, where you get back into your space ship (which is forever in my head Columbos car), rise into the sky, and float off to your next anchorage in space.
Once you arrive there you start the first part again and explore your new surroundings.
This is an important step, it makes the game feel like a space exploration game rather than a re-themed fantasy adventure game. It has you sitting in your ship doing routine house keeping, cooking, fiddling with the radio, remembering past adventures. It also asks the question "Why, out all the planets in the universe, have you chosen to go to this one in specific?" which I think is a really important question.
Anyway; soon I will be releasing a journalling game about floating around the universe in Columbos car, meeting artists that live on asteroids.
It is a game of quiet and thoughtful space exploration rather than of dog fights and shoot outs.
I think it is a rather good game, and the few people that have tested it so far do too.
That is all for now.