New Review!

Here's a new review for After the Empire from The Hungry Gamer, William J. Brown III! Thanks for all the kind words! Check out his other great reviews on the channel as well!

I'd once again like to thank Ryan Mauk for working with me and Grey Fox Games for making our dream of being game designers a reality, and continuing to support the game after it's initial printing. Feeling very happy and lucky in life!

What's Going On?

First off, we’re SUPER stoked that After the Empire made both Tom Vasel and Roy Cannaday’s Top 10 Games of 2021 lists at The Dice Tower, Ryan and Katie’s list over at Tantrum House, Shira’s list for Quackalope (with this passionate follow up!), BJ’s list for Board Game Gumbo, Grant’s list from Grant’s Game Recs, Billy Indiana’s list (#1!), and Karar2k’s list! Tom said “I just really like this game. It’s so much fun.” We’re less stoked about the shipping crisis and that our reprint hasn’t been able to get out to folks yet! We hope that happens soon, and look forward to hearing your feedback on the new solo mode! Also, just got a nice written review with photos from New In Shrink. Thanks!

Here’s a quick shot of us working on the expansion:

Evan has been working on the Great Meteora with Cris Kelly. 14th century Greek monks travel to stone spires rising from the plains of Thessaly to build monasteries. Euro-style worker placement, tableau building, and tile laying with a touch of area control and set collection.

Here’s a tableau building and blind bidding, simultaneous playing cardgame where players vye for support from druids to control the fabled magic that has returned to the Wildwood. Half the art from Beth Sobel is already done.

Evan’s also working on the board game implementation of EndZone: A World Apart through the publisher Spielworxx. We’re moving in to blind playtesting on that one!

The family is doing well, although sleep is tough to get with our little one sometimes. Hope you’re all surviving through this tough time!

-Evan

More media for After the Empire!

And, then I swear next time I'll add some stuff about what we're currently up to!

Here’s Jeremy Howard from Man vs. Meeple, who just posted his review of After the Empire. I love Jeremy's reviews for his straight talk and obvious love and passion for board games. He had a few criticisms for us of course, but we're very stoked about his overall enjoyment and praise for the game! Thanks for the awesome review, Jeremy!

Here’s an unboxing by Quackalope. Thanks for the kind words, entertaining unboxing, and reading all the flavor text, guys!

Here’s Alex from Board Game Co. @24:23 briefly saying some very nice things about After the Empire!

Here’s Mitchell and Jeremy arguing the merits of After the Empire vs. Everdell as their picks for best worker placement game in Board Game Battles. We’re super stoked to be included in this battle! Thanks guys! You can click here to vote!

Here’s an interview with Mitchell and Jeremy once After the Empire was victorious! Thanks so much guys for the interview and for including our game with the likes of a great game like Everdell!

Here’s Carlos and the gang on the Beans and Dice Podcast saying some nice things about After the Empire. They mentioned learning the combat can be tough, but also noted “it is the tightest worker placement board I’ve seen.” Thanks to Mitchell for sending over a copy!

Here’s the Beans and Dice Podcast again, where I call in and chat briefly @57:21! Thanks, guys!

Here’s TableTop Wolf considering the solo mode for After the Empire @23:02. Thanks!

Here’s Robb from the Meeple Dungeon with a review, who really enjoyed and noted replayability and strategic choices, giving us 4.5/5 daggers. Thank you so much for the kind words!

Here’s Mike DiLisio briefly mentioning his disappointment in our game. Thanks for giving it a go, Mike!

Here’s an unboxing from Sheffield Boardgamers. Thanks, Rick!

Updates for After the Empire!

Thanks again everyone who helped make After the Empire a success the first time around with the Kickstarter, and those who’ve returned or joined us for the first time with the Game Found re-print. If you’ve missed it, then you can still hop in this week or next week, since Grey Fox will be opening up late pledges on Game Found.

We’re also not so secretly working on an expansion for After the Empire, although completion and publishing timelines are currently unknown. We’re having a lot of fun and very excited to have this opportunity to make more content for you all!

Thanks, everyone!

If you’re still on the fence, here’s some more media coverage:

Here’s Alex again from Board Game Co @19:23 in his week in review, noting that he wants more content, but After the Empire is “so much fun.” Thanks, Alex! We’re working on it!

Here’s Alex again @36:14. He rates it at 4/5, but wants more content and says that with expansions this may go up to a 5/5 for him! “Great game…that manages to feel very different from games things on the market.” Thank you so much, Alex!

Here’s Cody from The Discriminating Gamer, who’s recommendation was: “Buy it.” Thank you for the kind words, Cody!

Here’s Tantrum House with a gameplay overview and then discussion and review. Thank you so much for the review and kind works! Thanks!

Here’s Billy Indiana once again saying lots of nice things in an interesting 3x3x3 format! Thank you so much!

Here’s Burky & Badger’s Board Game Babble @49:15, where King Burky talks about his experience with After the Empire being played on his awesome game toppers. Please check it out and check out his toppers!

Here’s Burky AGAIN talking about After the Empire, this time on Board Game BBQ @1:21:10. Thanks for the enthusiasm Burky!

Here’s the Card Board Gamers Podcast @30:06, where they mention playing several rounds of After the Empire and had nice things to say! Thank you!

Here’s Billy Indiana again mentioning enjoying the game @2:58. Thanks again!

Here’s the Professeur Board Game with a rules overview and review at the end. Thank you so much for all the kind works (I think….it’s in French and I’m a bit rusty!)

Here’s Blue Peg Pink Peg’s review of After the Empire. Well, they weren’t big fans and weren’t shy about just how much they disliked our game and their experience playing it. But, I appreciate them giving it a go and glad at least Christina seemed to see something redeeming in it.

Here and Here is I Heart Board Games playing through some After the Empire! Thanks, Jesse and friends!

Here’s Brandt from Step into the Portal, playing through our beta version of the solo mode. Thank you so much for playing and for the kind words, Brandt!

Here’s a brief discussion on Beans & Dice about After the Empire. Thanks, guys!

Here’s Le Pion de Jeu de Societie, giving us a how to play on the beta version of the solo mode. Thank you so much!

Here’s Le Pion de Jeu de Societie again, this time with the unboxing video. Thanks again!

Here’s a great overview and first impressions from our French neighbors at L’Ecole de jeu. Thanks for all the kind words (I think…I’m a bit rusty and you speak quickly)!

Here’s Jesse from I Heart Board Games doing an awesome unboxing! Thanks, Jesse!

Here’s an unboxing from The Meeple Dungeon. Thanks!

Here’s an unboxing from Nacho Average TableTop. Thank you!

Here’s Game Brigade mentioning us @6:53. Thanks!

Here’s Game Brigade again @16:14 discussing his interest in After the Empire. Thanks for checking it out and I hope you end up trying it!

Here’s a playthrough we did with Lance from Grey Fox! Thanks, Lance!

Thanks, everyone! Excited for what’s next!

-Evan

Game Found Reprint & Solo Mode!

Hi Everyone!

Here’s a link to the current GameFound campaign, where you can pledge for the game, upgrade your retail version, get the Game Trayz or Captain of the Guard, and order the new Solo Mode!

Thanks to everyone’s support, we’re excited to be making some more games to put out into the world! Here’s a list of new media mentions in case you’re still undecided about the game and want to hear what other folks think:

Here’s a playthrough with Tom Vasel and Roy Cannaday! I thought Roy was going to get sacked in that last season for sure! Very fun video! Thanks, guys!

Here’s a very thorough playthrough and review from Joel Eddy at Drive Thru Review. He says, “I’ve never really played a game quite like this” and “I can’t recommend this one enough.” Thank you so much for the review and the kind words!

Here’s a right for you/wrong for you and review from Board Game Co. with Shira and Alex. They really nail one of our big influences by calling out some similarities with Galaxy Trucker. Thank you!

Here’s an excellent discussion and review by The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast, episode #229 @54:45. They really go into why you may or may not enjoy this one and you get in-depth perspectives from both sides. Thanks, guys!

Here’s Board Game Perspective mentioning us again @10:03. “This game is amazing.” Thank you!

Here’s Grant Lyon of Grant’s Game Recs on the Alaboom @4:54:40, when he gave us this very awesome quote: “After the Empire is one of the only games I’ve played that I enjoy every play of it more than I did the previous one.” That’s so awesome to hear! Thanks, Grant!

Here’s Liege of Games @1:05:29 taking a look at the GameFound campaign and running through the rulebook briefly. Thanks for bringing some extra eyes to the campaign! Love the forgetting about GameFound song, BTW!

Here’s a great in-depth discussion from Rolling Dice & Taking Names episode 227 @43:42. Thanks you so much guys for the very kind words!

Here’s an unboxing from Blitzkrieg Games. Thanks and I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s Game Table with Amelia doing a nice unboxing of After the Empire. Thanks for the kind words and fun video!

Here’s an unboxing from The Dice Odyssey. I’m glad you’re enjoying the art and hope you love the game! Thanks!

Here’s the LoneStar Meeple podcast review @35:40. They definitely had some critiques for us, but concluded that “overall, I liked it a lot.” They had a “lot of fun” and were “looking forward to playing it again.” Thanks for the in depth thoughts, guys!

More Media for After the Empire!

Hi, folks! Just some more updates if you’re still on the fence or looking for more content regarding After the Empire! Also, check out these channels listed below as there are some amazing reviewers and shows down there that you may really click with!

Did you know After the Empire is on Tabletopia now!? Check it out here!

Here’s a quick recommendation from Grant’s Game Recs! These are hilarious if you haven’t seen them before!

Here’s Rahdo recapping his experience with After the Empire @43:27. Thank you, sir! We’re definitely hoping to be able to create a great fantasy version for you and Jen to enjoy in the future! It’s on our list of expansions that we’ve got lots of ideas for and we’re very excited to work on! He said lots of very nice things like “This game is a fantastic super atmospheric worker placement game,” “The game was a blast,” “The combat in this game is phenomenal,”. and noted the beta version of solo mode was “a great solo variant” that “works fantastic.” Thank you so much!

Here’s a great overview and review from Board Game Perspective, who declared “I love this game. It’s so good.” Thank you so much!

Here’s Alex and crew on the Quackalope Podcast. Thanks for all the kind words, Alex! We’re definitely hoping to bring you some expansions! He says, “This game is amazingly fun!”

Here’s Alex mentioning his upcoming review @25:56, and calling After the Empire “so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so good.” Thanks, again! Looking forward to that review, Alex!

Here’s an overview and review by Two Sheep One Wheat. Thank you for making it through a difficult first play and I liked your suggestion for a learning game on one side of the player boards!

Here’s an extensive review with Analises Paralisis, who I don’t think really enjoyed their experience, but if someone speaks Spanish, please let me know! Thanks for giving it a try!

Here’s I believe a Polish channel, Gierkowo Express, discussing After the Empire @52:16. Hopefully, they said nice things! Let me know if anyone can speak the language!

Here’s a video about catch up mechanisms by Jamey Stegmaier, in which he briefly mentions @0:54 the thematics of your gold also being victory points in addition to bringing additional threat from the invaders, calling it “really, really clever.”

Here’s a link to the BGG page where Bill Koff made some sweet background playlists for After the Empire! Check it out!

Thanks everyone for all your support! If you missed the kickstarter and want all the goodies or upgrades, keep your eyes out for a Gamefound campaign very soon! It will feature the new solo mode, which you can order seperately!

More Mentions for After the Empire!

Hi Everyone!

Well, there’s talk of a reprint coming up soon for the folks who missed out on some of the kickstarter goodies!

Rahdo ran through After the Empire here, then gave his final thoughts here! Thank you for showing folks the game play and talking through all the strategy and decisions you were making. We are humbled and overjoyed by all your kind words!

Here’s a how to play video from Matenason’s Menagerie. Thanks for the great how to play video; this will help a lot of people!

Here’s a review from the Board Game Rundown. Thanks guys for the great review and kind words!

Here’s a gameplay and review from She Hates Games. Thanks for giving it a go and I hope your next play goes quicker!

Here’s a short gameplay video and in-depth review from Hair Brained Games. The reviewer really delves into the intricacies of the system and how it fits in the larger body of games with medieval siege combat elements. Thank you for all the kind words!

Here’s another mention @14:11 from the folks at Board Game Rundown! Thanks for bringing us back to the table!

Here’s yet another mention @4:44 from Board Game Rundown! We’re very stoked just how much they’re enjoying After the Empire!

Here’s a nice discussion @58:26 from Portal Gaming Podcast with Brandt joined by Jenn and Matt Bartlett. Thanks for all the kind words!

Here’s an unboxing from Board Game Perspective. Thank you for taking the time to show us the retail version!

Here’s the second non-English unboxing, but the first and only featuring a puppet! Seems like it went well!

Here’s an awesome quick little video again from Board Game Perspective after all setup!

Here’s an KS version unboxing from Billy Indiana. He does a really in depth look at the cards and components. Thanks, Billy!

Hitting the Scene!

Hi, everyone!

Just putting out of a few cool updates on After the Empire: reviews, unboxing, playthroughs, etc!

Here’s Tom Vasel @7:12 giving us a 9/10 rating! We’re glad to hear he’s still enjoying it and saying nice things like it’s “a great, fun, terrific game.”

In other news, we were on the BGG hotness for about a week solid, capping at an astounding #2 on Tuesday, February 16th!

Ryan and I were invited on as guests on this local podcast called Spellstorm Miniatures, where we chat about gaming and After the Empire! Thanks for having us!

We were tipped off by Tom Headington and his friend, who found and 3d printed these awesome flame minis from thingiverse that fit nicely in the towers and replaced our flame tokens.

Our friend Rodger Moore did some awesome painting of the wood and stone castle pieces!

Here’s an unboxing and gameplay video from our friends at Board Game Gumbo!

We were mentioned in the BGA potcast @14:00 here!

Liege of Games covered After the Empire @14:55 here!

Here’s a setup and gameplay video from Jeff. Thanks, Jeff!

The Board Game Rundown did an unboxing here! Thanks guys!

Here’s an unboxing video from Lance Kirkman! Thanks, Lance!

Here’s an unboxing video from SoCalSabre

Thanks everyone for all your support and patience! Let’s keep it going so Grey Fox will have us make some expansions!

Seal of Excellence!

We are very excited to share with you this video of Tom Vasel saying so many nice things about After the Empire! We still can’t believe it! He rated it 9/10, earning the Dice Tower Seal of Excellence!

People are also very engaged on BGG, which has After the Empire at #3 on the hotness list right now! That’s incredible! Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm, questions, and support! We wouldn’t be here without you!

After the Empire arriveth!

Well, while most of the rest of the world already received theirs, the US backers have finally started to get their copies of After the Empire. Here in Portland, we’re hoping the snow this weekend doesn’t delay our delivery!

We’re very excited to share some of the nice things Tom Vasel has been saying about After the Empire since their playthrough video on the Dice Tower (see last post). This is our first big release, so we’re over the moon about this type of response!

This January 18th Q & A (@40:54): “I really like it.”
This February 9th podcast #696 (@17:10) “I like it. It’s really entertaining. This is my jam, this After the Empire.”

Also, we’d like to shoutout to epitrapaizoume for doing this unboxing video…in GREEK!

And, you can watch Evan gloat about once again defeating Ryan on this playthrough we did February 1st with Lance from Grey Fox Games and Roger.

In other news, we’ve got some friends doing good things in the industry:

Here’s our friend Jay Bell pitching an awesome family game January 30th (@53:49). He nailed it!

We’d also like to shout out to this wonderful and important panel of board gaming content creators, featuring our friends Mik and Starla at Our Family Plays Games.

Another fun little side note is Ryan and Evan, with an assist from Josh Lobkowicz from Grey Fox Games and Travel Buddy Games are now officially “published authors.” Check out the images below!

And for fun, here’s a little teaser below for a game Evan has been working on using some art from the very talented Beth Sobel! It’s a tableau building and trick taking card game where you play druids vying for control of the ancient magic which recently returned to the woodland.

After the Empire in Action!

Hi, Everyone!

Folks are starting to get their games and we’re starting to see After the Empire pop up in exciting places! Here are some highlights:

Tom Vasel and Roy Cannaday had some very nice things to say about ATE during this recent playthrough for their Dice Tower kickstarter happening RIGHT NOW! Go check it out and pickup promo pack C if you want 2 new cards for After the Empire, plus promos for other great games like Lost Ruins of Arnak, Reavers of Midgard, Summoner Wars, Isle of Cats, and Robinson Crusoe. Thanks for the kind words guys and best wishes!

So, what’s in the box!? Check out this very helpful unboxing video by Zatu Games.

Dustin Staats and Rodger Moore of the Board Gaming with Education podcast had some very nice things to say about ATE (and our friend Tim Eisner’s March of the Ants) in their list of Top Board Games that Taught us Something in 2020.

We also made it into our local news! Nolan Good at Willamette Week reached out to us and ended up publishing this very nice article about our game.

Let us know if you see any other recent news about this game that we missed!

Thanks everyone for your patience and support! We really appreciate it! If you’ve had the chance to receive and play After the Empire, please go rate it on BGG!

Updates!

We just heard today from Lance that they received After the Empire at the warehouse in Iowa! That means, the games will be shipping very soon! Unless you’re in New Zealand or Australia, then you may already have yours!

Please, as you all start receiving and playing your copies, we’d really appreciate logging and reviewing your experiences on Board Game Geek here. Thank you all SO MUCH for your support and patience. We’re so excited to finally have it out in the world :)

Something to look out for: if you got the Captain of the Guard add-on, please make sure to look for a piece of cardboard that looks like an unnecessary spacer between the game and the shipping box, because the figurine might be hiding in there!

If you’re getting your copy soon and you don’t have anyone to play with in your pod and/or just want play-test the solo mode anyway, please reach out and let us know! We’d love to have you try it out and help us work on it! Evan would be happy to walk you through a play on tabletop simulator or send you some print and play files with the rules. If all goes well, we’re hoping Grey Fox will be releasing the solo mode in the future!

In other news, our friend Tim Eisner’s game Canopy is on the nominations list for the 20 Most Anticipated Games of 2021, go here to vote for it! I’ve played it and really enjoyed it! The art by Vincent Dutrait is beautiful! Also, if you want to see the other games, the alphabetical list is here.

Thank you everyone, and please treat one another with compassion out there!

After the Empire!

Hi, everyone! We just got a pre-production copy from Grey Fox, and this game looks/feels awesome! There are a few final tweaks they made, but this is very close to the final version! Here are some photos for you (last one shows sleeve sizes):

Getting back to it!

Hi, Everyone!

There’s been a LOT of stuff going on in 2020…and lots of it has been pretty rough for a lot of folks. It’s been particularly interesting to see the perception of Portland in the media versus what it’s actually like to live here. Our neighborhoods and streets are not filled with rioters or looters. In fact, the “riots” are local people protesting police violence against black people largely within a 3 block area downtown around the federal building, and which must be declared a riot each night usually around the same time in order to “legally” start tear gassing the people. The mini-mart 1 block away isn’t being damaged or looted…it’s just open late and SUPER busy with peaceful protestors buying drinks and snacks to keep up their energy through the long nights. Local Portlanders. Our friends, neighbors, parents, students, and businessfolk willing to take physical and chemical harm to stand up for what’s right, while local and sometimes federal officers work together to suppress the message of the people. Don’t believe the media spin. Believe people who actually live here. It’s a protest, not a riot, and citizens are being assaulted, arrested, gassed, and seriously injured by officers and their “less lethal” weaponry. The long-term effects of all the tear gas will become more of an issue over time. But, but the research doesn’t look good, and there’s a reason using it is a war crime under the Geneva Convention and UN’s Chemical Weapon Convention. Ryan and I unequivocally support the premise that Black Lives Matter, and really wish compassion and compersion, humanity and happiness, liveability and a sense of purpose were the core tenants of our culture rather than greed and conflict, oppression and violence, dehumanization and apathy. In the context of the world right now…our own little cares are pretty small. I am very privileged and lucky to have a safe home and community, family, and the ability to pay my rent, go to work, and buy food without fear. We wish that those things were true for everyone.

In lighter news, After the Empire is supposed to ship in a couple months. So, we’re very excited to finally see this game in real life with no whiteout, taped on updates, or mismatched iconography. We have another game (mostly) signed, but it was recently pushed back due to COVID. Originally scheduled to release Origins 2021, it is now rescheduled for 2022. So, Mountain God’s Revenge is still coming, but it’s a ways out!

During this pandemic, my life has been very busy with my baby girl who’s now 10 months old. In my free time, I focused on designing the solo mode for After the Empire as well as learning how to create a fully-scripted mod for Tabletop Simulator. It’s basically a programming language for controlling the physics sandbox to help players avoid annoying repetitive clicking and dragging. I thought I’d be done by now, but every time I learn a better way to do something, I have to re-do much of my previous work so it’s more stable and works more smoothly and intuitively. It’s a slow learning process, but enjoyable and I’m actually getting pretty darn close to done now!

I have also had the pleasure of joining an online board gaming group, which has been wonderful not only to catch up on a lot of board games I never got the chance to play before, but also a nice social outlet to interact with some great folks. I just got my butt kicked in Potion Explosion…again!

Ryan and I have recently returned to our game design meetings after a LONG hiatus due to COVID. You may see in these photos that we’re making it work outside!

Here you can see Ryan preparing to get crushed by my skills at saving little grimes under the fridge from the Great Moppening! This game, Grime, is one of the games being entered in an online pitch event coming up very soon! Designers are chomping at the bit to get their games in front of publishers, since we can’t have physical conventions. So, the industry is slowly figuring out ways of accomplishing this online. Wish us luck!

Stay safe out there and please treat each other with respect and dignity…even online!

Spinshuffling into a new tomorrow!

Hey, Everyone!

I know 2020 has been not exactly the best time for people. Some things are pretty messed up and we would like to add our voices in saying Black Lives Matter. I’ve been lucky and privileged in life to have a roof over my head, healthy food to eat, and not be treated horribly or killed because of my physical appearance. Some of us are dealing with real problems right now, so I’m definitely not going to complain about how COVID-19 has slowed down production for After the Empire. I am glad we finally seem to be moving forward, though.

With the shelter in place orders over the last few months, not surprisingly, Ryan and I haven’t gotten much play-testing done. He’s been diving into his new day-job, and I’ve been spending most of my time taking care of a tiny human. My free time (after the ladies go to bed) has been spent mostly working on the solo mode for ATE and trying to learn and script an ATE mod for Tabletop Simulator. It’s not exactly professional looking, but it’s currently 70% fully-functional. The mod will be very handy for play-testing in a world where we’re not supposed to physically share space around a table. Hopefully, ATE will do well enough in the near future to require lots of playtesting for the expansion material Ryan and I are excited to dive into!

Lots of folks are fans of sleeving cards in their board games. I totally get it, as I am one of those people. The idea of spin-shuffling the Invader and Siege decks has caused some concern for the ability to do this with sleeves on, since the openings would be facing different directions and may insert into and rip open other sleeves. You could always keep the sleeve openings uni-directional and sleeve the cards randomly rotated, but this would never truly be random if the sleeve opening is always up. You could also rotate them randomly as you put them out, which works as long as you fix the opening direction as you clean up the piles. My preference is to randomly rotate and sleeve the cards initially, then simply spin-shuffle gently. You have to use a little finesse, but it’s really not very difficult. I have thus far ripped 1 sleeve in the hundreds (thousands?) of times this deck has been spin-shuffled. I swear it’s not designed as a dexterity game (although, you do have to balance the little troops on your walls)!

Here’s a video of how I do it. I hope it allays any concerns. And, of course, I’m happy to answer any questions if I make it look too easy and you have trouble once you actually try it yourself (like those fairground light-blocking metal discs…they make it look so easy!).

In other news, Tim Eisner and I (Evan) have been working on a party game together and I’m really excited about it. It’s actually fairly enjoyable when play-testing over Zoom meetings, which I think is a pretty tough bar to cross. So, hopefully you’ll be hearing more about that in the future.

Speaking of Tim Eisner (creator of games like March of the Ants, Grimm Forest, Tidal Blades, and more), he’s got a new game called Canopy on kickstarter right now! Go check it out! I got the chance to do some playtesting for Canopy and really enjoyed it!

If you’ve been following any of our other projects, then rest-assured that Ryan and I will be getting back on the game-design train as soon as we’re able to do so. Talking about it over the internet just isn’t quite the same as sitting at the table together. We’re still very excited for the tentative (still awaiting final contract) 2021 Origins release for Mountain God’s Revenge. And, we’ve had some promising conversations with publishers about a few of our other designs.

I hope this finds most of you well, safe, and with some happiness!

After the Empire is on the Most Anticipated Games of 2020 list!

Thanks to everyone who logged in and voted for us on this Board Game Geek list! With your help, we made it on the list for most anticipated Thematic games of 2020! Check it out here! Plus, honorable mention on the Euro games list! There were so many sweet games on these lists, that we’re super stoked to be on there with them!

If you haven’t seen the recent Kickstarter update, Grey Fox addressed the coronavirus and production for After the Empire. Basically, we still don’t really know exactly how long this pushes us back from getting the game out there. It seems as though China has started to get into motion again, so some production samples will hopefully be happening soonish. But, there are still so many unknowns that we’re right in the middle of, that we just don’t know yet. Thank you all so much for your patience!

In other news, a couple weeks ago Evan did make it to GAMA, the last big industry convention for….no one really knows how long. He had a great time chilling with fellow Portland game designer Tim Eisner, who’s awesome game Tidal Blades did super well on the most anticipated Fantasy games list and the Artistic games list! I had the pleasure of watching that game through various iterations become what is is today, and Tim was smart enough not to listen to my feedback on it!

As always, conventions like GAMA are a blast, and we had way too much fun pitching games, chatting up publishers and other industry folks, and hanging out in the round bar at the Peppermill in Reno, Nevada! It was a nice last bit of socialization before we in the US really started to grasp how serious the situation was becoming. Some folks didn’t go to the convention, and others thought it wasn’t that big of a deal. It seems like even over the few days we were there, people were really coming to terms with what was unfolding and behaviors were starting to change noticeably from one day to the next. At the very least, there were no handshakes to be seen, as people were starting to take more and more significant precautions.

We hope this update finds you all as safe and healthy as possible!

Most Anticipated Games of 2020 List!

Hi, Everyone!

Thank you so much for all your support throughout the process! We’re very excited for After the Empire to come out later this year! We would love your help building some buzz to get us as high as we can go on the list for upcoming 2020 titles!

So, go here by February 8th, click the thumbs up, and share it with anyone else you think would love this game! The more buzz we get and the better the game does in the industry generally, the more we get to work on new material like some of the expansions we’ve been cooking up! This game is very close to our hearts, and truly hope you love it as much as we do, so we can keep enjoying it for years to come!

Grime (working title) - Design Diary

Hi Everyone!

We’re in a holding pattern for After the Empire, while Grey Fox is working on finalizing files, rules, etc. So, our last few sessions have been focused on a game with the working title “Grime”. We’ve never really kept detailed public records of our day to day design work, but hopefully this will be useful or interesting for some of you out there. If there are any particular aspects of our process you’re curious about or that you’d like us to be more detailed about in the future, let us know so we can do a better job keeping you in the loop!

While we obviously enjoy the tried and true themes like After the Empire’s medieval castle defense and city-building, Ryan and I also really enjoy exploring more unique themes. If you follow us, you may already know about Mountain God’s Revenge, but Grime is another one of those games we’ve been having fun playing around with lately.

In Grime, our world is a kitchen floor filled with microscopic inhabitants, who collectively experience an extinction-level cataclysmic event every 1000 generations, The Great Moppening! Each player controls several Grime Lords, who must all work to save as many of your beleaguered grimes as you can by the end of the game, so that they may carry on in the name of those we lost and thrive in the safety of the The Under-Fridge or in some of the smaller protected lands of The Grout-Cracks.

As usual, our playtesting begins mostly with 2-player sessions (Ryan and I) until we feel it’s ready and would be useful to see how our current system/game feel fares with more players. Sometimes that goes very differently than expected! Game design is basically a process of making goals and choices, then iterating on how to best actually get there. Of course, your vision and choices can change some as you work, sometimes feeling more like you’re just revealing the unique game that was always hidden there somewhere in the pile of cards and paper scraps.

Some of the more ubiquitous choices that need to be made are: what is the goal for game length, what kind of technical strategy/skill vs luck balance is ideal, how complex should the system interactions be, what kind of systems lend to the theme and how can you incorporate that them into those systems, and what can you bring to the community in terms of unique experiences. And the biggest questions is of course, is this game fun? Obviously, there’s no absolute correct answer, since every individual in the potential target audience has different specific preferences and experiences they find enjoyable. So, the choices you make as a designer (or team) are what really give your games their unique feeling, experience, or flavor. That’s why this industry could make 1,000s of games set in medieval Europe, yet while similar they are each specifically unique and different players will have stronger preferences for some of them over others.

We have chosen a moderate-length 45-60 minutes, mild to moderate complexity, worker movement/action selection, pick up and deliver sort of game, with higher strategy and lower luck in the form of randomly-drawn card effects you can play on your turn, as well as increased replayability with a modular board setup. As a more strategy than luck game, we’ve mostly limited player to player interaction in a more Euro style of resource scarcity, but there is still some direct interaction and messing with others currently with a couple cards and worker upgrades. Each round, players alternate moving their Grime Lords and activating the action location they’ve moved into with their grimes in tow on their way to the safety of The Under-Fridge. Each Grime Lord has a speed and a grime carrying capacity, which can be upgraded, as well as some some cool extra abilities they can gain. After each player has used all their Grime Lords for the round, the farthest un-mopped portion of the game board flips over to the “Bleached” side, which is of course deadly to your kind! There are still some powerful actions to be had in the ever-growing and dangerous mopped portion of the game board, giving you some tough choices as far as the best use of your Grime Lords and the grimes they carry. The game ends with the last of the open floor has been mopped. Each player counts how many grimes they’ve saved under the fridge or in grout cracks along the way to see who wins.

Our last session had us trying to find the ideal balance between Grime Lord movement and carrying capacity, board space quantity and ease of access, pacing of the game progression, grime spawning quantity each round, and possibly adding more randomness or other additional elements. In this early stage of game design, it’s tough to know how many variables to change as once, since they all affect one another. As we’ve become more comfortable trusting our game design instincts, we can get away with making larger changes in shorter periods. But, later on in the process, making more incremental change for fine tuning purposes will be a better idea. But for now, we’re still figuring the bigger things out and we made some fairly large changes, which seem to have turned out fairly well.

#1) Previously, upgrading your Grime Lord was added as an alternate action to choose instead of moving and activating a location. This had caused a lopsided feeling where the first half of the game was mostly best spent just upgrading every action until the the second half of the game, when you finally play the game as we intended. Some games do well with this sort of early game engine build-up, and choose the right moment the switch to point scoring, but we wanted upgrades to be viable throughout the game and not the obvious best choice for only half of it. So, went back to only several action locations on the board to upgrade, rather than an always available alternative action. It may still be the best option to rush to those action spots, but we’re keeping an eye on it.

#2) We felt like we needed to space out the actions just a little farther so that upgrading speed wasn’t strictly better than carrying capacity for Grime Lord stats. Speed is still important, but since it’s a larger board overall, each incremental speed increase is a proportionately smaller gain. This session did feel like carrying capacity was becoming more important relatively, but we need to make sure it doesn’t get unbalanced the opposite direction.

#3) We previously could spend grimes from the board as a resource to upgrade your Grime Lord in the same location. This was a sort of colony growth and differentiation thematic effect. This exacerbated the issue of rushing to upgrade your Grime Lords in the first half of the game, since it also behooved you to enter and expend those grime resources in this way to deprive your opponent of those grimes on their turn. We tried only allowing expending grimes that you’d already “saved” under the fridge or in some grout cracks along the way (which are also your Victory Points…we seem to end up often using VPs as a spendable resource in our games). This seems to have slowed down the early game rush to upgrade, or at the very least makes getting to some of the actions spaces other than upgrading as a necessary step. Game mechanics interactions are often a good thing, but we must make sure the other actions don’t become simply procedural or artificial barriers to upgrading. So we have to watch them and make sure there’s a viable strategy of not doing as much upgrading than the person next to you and still having a decent chance of winning through these other choices and actions.

#4) We are still vacillating on how grime spawning works, or effectively: how much primary resource should be made available to begin with and how much extra each round as the game progresses. Scarcity is usually an important component of even mildly Euro-style games, since the main player to player game tension is decision-making and often access to those resources. So, too much stuff and it doesn’t really matter what the other players are doing because there’s plenty to go around, which leads to a much more simultaneous solitaire feeling than we want. Or, too little and mistakes are amplified, and the game becomes too gritty and tense, where missed choices early game can doom you to playing out an inevitable loss. So, you need to right amount of choices mattering, but not so much that players are driven to inaction due to the existential weight of each choice. Obviously, this preference varies from player to player, but for a mild to moderate game of 45-60 minutes in length, we think a nice middle ground is appropriate.

#5) We are thinking of adding a touch more randomness than we played today. As mentioned above, this continuum slider needs to be in about the right spot for this type of game. Too much and it can feel like your choices don’t matter, too little and it can feel like the game is too scripted or can be “solved” and then each choice becomes less interesting because there’s always a best choice. We are toying with the idea of a variable amount of floor mopping each round, so you have a little more push your luck element when hanging near the bleached/mopped end of the board (because your Grime Lords can die!).

#6) We may eventually add another mechanical element. Currently, even though your goal is to save as many grimes as possible (you and the other players are part of the same group and save the same grime species), there’s no real thematic downside to letting tons of them die to the bleach (or absorbing them in the form of Grime Lord upgrades), as long as you saved more than your opponent. We’re not envisioning a coop game for this, but we have some ideas for a negative effect from letting certain amounts of grimes die. Alternatively, we’re also toying with benefits for nobly sacrificing a Grime Lord for the cause. One or both of these may end up being expansion material, but they may also be a necessary part of the base game. The sacrifice bonus makes more sense, especially if we go with random board mopping amount and you end up losing a worker in a more luck based way that you’ve invested a lot into. We’ll find out!

Hopefully, you found some of this interesting! Feel free to ask us any specific questions! Here’s a photo I thought to take only after we’d packed the board up (although you can see the start of one of my classic chicken-scratch design note sheets/napkins…this one is still somewhat legible; it gets much worse from here!):

Also, I’d like to mention David Gonsalves, who is one of our friends from SaltCON 2017. We really enjoyed that great local convention and all the wonderful people we met there while doing playtesting for After the Empire. He’s starting a very cool playtesting-focused convention, so if you live in the area, read all about it here! We’re also very proud to take some of the blame for helping push him forward on working on his own designs, like Tank Brawl!

Have a great day everyone!

-Evan and Ryan

Post-Kickstarter at Portland Gamecraft!

Thanks again everyone for all the support during our campaign. We’ve been going back and forth with Grey Fox getting everything ready and finalized for After the Empire. We’re very excited to eventually get our final production copy, but we’re not quit there yet!

We really wanted to get a single player mode ready for the kickstarter, but there just wasn’t enough time to fully vet it and incorporate it into the campaign. But, rest-assured, we heard you folks who were asking for it and will have a solo mode up and running sooner than later once we can put it through its paces and make sure it’s awesome. Here’s a little photo of me winning by 1 point against the board (I affectionately refer to my solo mode opponent as Ivar, the Worst):

When we’re not working on After the Empire, we’re getting other games ready to pitch for conventions. You may recall Mountain God’s Revenge mentioned in the past and we’re happy to say that we’ve signed an early stages contract with a publisher to develop and make it a reality in 2021. More details on that as it gets closer.

We’ve also been designing another one of Ryan’s new ideas. Working title is Grime. Here’s a sneak peek of me mopping the floor with Ryan below:

Evan has been working on one of his ideas using pieces from Khet. It was originally intended to be a dexterity game with elements of play inspired by The Lost Vikings, but is quickly becoming a strategy exploration puzzle game. Here’s the prototype:

Final Days!

Hi Everybody!

Well, the Kickstarter is about to come to an end and if you’ve been waiting to share it around with your friends or to support…now’s the time! The final 2-3 days is crunch time!

If you want to see the game in action, we just uploaded a couple play through videos for your enjoyment! Hopefully, my exuberance and our trash talk isn’t too distracting for you! We tried to keep it reasonable!

Click here If you want to see a 3 Player Playthrough with Ryan and I and featuring Jenna, currently the person with the most wins on record who’s neither Ryan nor myself. This one’s a little lively and I don’t shut up.

Click here if you want to see a 2 Player Playthrough with Ryan and I. This one’s a little more calm for the first half, then I get too excited mid-way through and once again keep talking. Extra special treat at 39:50 if you’re into topical improv singing. Thanks to Ryan, for really bringing that home with the lyrics scrawl.

For those of you who are waiting for the solo mode, I’ve been working hard to get it ready in time. We need more development/testing on it. But, I’m still hopeful we’ll be able to squeeze it in there in time before the pledge manager closes if not by the end of the campaign!

Thanks!

-Evan