Go-Play Ottawa

I’ve been invited as a contributor to this blog so I could share my experiences in board game design.

Currently I have one title to my name but it’s a fun one. PLANET X-PLOITS is a parody of the original Star Trek television series that is best described as an away team simulator.

My motivation for creating this game was a result of my getting more involved with the Board Game Geek community. I chose to take part in a 2-month game design contest where the primary requirement was to create a cooperative game with a twist. A good example of this mechanic would be the Battlestar Galactica board game where everybody must work together to reach a destination but with traitors (i.e. Cylons) in the mix.

It was decided early on that the theme would be a humorous take on sci-fi. I don’t remember exactly when the notion of using Star Trek specifically came in, but it did strike me as the perfect solution. With this in mind, I was able to match the mechanics to the theme and vise versa.

Research plays an important part in the design process and one article in particular served as my inspiration.

Most of the development was done in those first two months, but game quickly outgrew the confines of the contest and I spent an additional three months developing the game. I was able to publish it in December making it freely available as a Print & Play game.

In future posts I’ll be focusing on different aspects of game design to provide insight into the process.