Greetings all, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays.

I have not been monthly with my monthly updates. I apologize. I have been sending out monthly updates through e-mail, so if you are interested in that, please sign up at the "E-Mail List" tab to the left.

I also have my blog on Board Game Geek that I update with news and design progress, so please feel free to check that out: https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/10545

And, I also now have my own Discord server that you can check out here.

So, with all these ways of communicating, I just fell behind on this one. Please check those others out, and I will try to keep these news updates going monthly.

A quick update on two of my published games:

Count of the Nine Estates was released by ButtonShy Games on Black Friday (November 26, 2021) online and it sold out that same day, which was very flattering. Hopefully, a reprint will happen in the future.

Pocket Landship's expansion (and reprint) Kickstarter was delayed this year when the publisher had a family tragedy. I am in contact with him, and he would like to have the Kickstarter campaign in 2022, so fingers crossed.

Thanks.

Greeting all.

I am happy to report progress on both of my games that are in the hands of publishers.

Count of the Nine Estates will be an upcoming ButtonShy Games' Board Game of the Month Club game. It will be in the July package of games, but please note that they are running behind (I think the May games were just shipped last week). But, hopefully that means that Count of the Nine Estates will be shipped out in late August (my guess, not the publisher's official date) to their Patreon backers and then available for sale on their website soon after that. I believe you must have been a Patreon backer as of June 30 to receive this "July" game. So, unfortunately, it is too late to sign up to get this game that way. So...fingers crossed...hopefully this game will be available to purchase in August or September.

I am very much looking forward to seeing one of my game creations in a world famous ButtonShy game wallet.

Pocket Landship is rolling towards a new Kickstarter campaign soon. The campaign will be for an 18 card expansion called "Pocket Landship: No Man's Land". The expansion will be available stand-alone (for those who already own the game), or with the base game.

I have talked about this expansion in the past, so just to recap, the expansion will include a few new cards for everything: player's landship, commanders and drivers, enemy cards, and more. In addition to "more stuff", the expansion will also include a 2-player semi-cooperative / competitive mode.

Both these games are being published by small publishers, so small real life interruptions can throw their schedules into chaos, so I appreciate your patience with these projects. The good news is they are both progressing.

Thanks.

Hi all,
On about the 5th of May, I realized I never sent a May update, my apologies for that. Welcome to June.

For regular readers of this update, you will know that my two known publishing events for 2021 have been moving slower than I had hoped, so to be honest there was not a bunch of news to report last month. This month is a bit better.

I have three updates to share.

I've been working with Mark from Word Forge Games over the last few weeks on the upcoming Pocket Landship Kickstarter campaign. I believe he is now getting a few new art pieces made for the game, working on the Kickstarter page, etc. This campaign will be for an (I believe) 18 card expansion for the game, plus a re-print of the base game.

For those of you on BoardGameGeek, you may have seen a poll on the Pocket Landship game page about the name of the expansion. The winner of the poll, and the likely (though not 100% definite) name of the expansion: "No Man's Land". This has a bit of a double meaning; the first meaning is the historical WWI meaning. The double meaning is that since the enemy in the game appear to be sort of robots.

"No Man's Land" relates to that -- these enemies are not human/men.

I will let you know when a firm Kickstarter date exists.

now has its own BoardGameGeek page:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/338763/count-nine-estates

So, that is a step in the right direction. And, it shows a published year of 2021. :)

The design work (my part) for this game has been done for a while, and I think all the art is done. ButtonShy Games is having a great run of successful Kickstarter campaigns. That is great for ButtonShy (and the designers and backers of these games), but it seems that the cost is games like this one (which will not be Kickstarted) are moving to publication slower than hoped.

I have been enjoying participating on ButtonShy's Discord server over the past many months. A highlight recently is that Jason Tagmire (ButtonShy) held a small game design contest there a few months back. A few weeks ago, he went through each contest submission (there were only a handful) and critiqued them in great detail from his (a publisher) perspective. It was great to get a peek behind that curtain. So, thanks Jason.

I entered my game depleted in TheGameCrafter's Solo/Duo Design Challenge (1 and 2 player games). The public voting is over, and the game did not fare very well, but I learned a lot. The finals judging will (or at least, can) look at all the games, not just the semi-finalists, so there is still a slight chance depleted will catch the eye of the judge (Gabe Barrett) who is looking for games to publish.

TheGameCrafter contests have a public voting phase, but with 138 games entered, I don't think there is much playtesting going on. Probably a bit on Tabletop Simulator, but I would guess not much. With that many entries, there is just no time to actually play the games, which is a shame. So, the public voting is probably more of a "beauty contest" on the game's store page, video, photos/images, art, etc. That isn't a bad thing, since hopefully the contest judge will look more at the actual gameplay, but it is different than BGG contests I am used to participating in. So, like I said, a good learning experience for me.

That's all for now.

I hope what I am doing with my blog, website, and this news update is entertaining and/or valuable to you. If you have any feedback, please let me know.

Take care,
Scott

Hi all,
Much like last month, unfortunately, I don't have a lot of progress to report on my two games that should be getting published this year: "Count of the Nine Estates" by ButtonShy Games, and a second printing of "Pocket Landship" by Word Forge Games. They are both relatively small operations, there is still a pandemic going on, plus Brexit for Word Forge Games, successful Kickstarter campaigns they are dealing with, etc. Whenever I hear definite dates for either of these games, I will send out an e-mail (if you are signed up to my e-mail list).


So, for this month, I thought I would share a summary of what I did as a game player and game designer.

As a game player, I played 11 different games, solo, with my wife, and with a small group. My wife hadn't really been into games...until the pandemic hit. But, we now play boardgames probably 5 nights a week. Here is what and how many we played in March:

• The Isle of Cats - 23 plays
• PARKS - 7 plays
• Tapestry - 3 plays
• Expedition: Northwest Passage - 2 plays
• Fort - 2 plays
• Pocket Mars - 2 plays
• Shipwrights of the North Sea - 1 play

I can happily recommend all of these games as very good 2 player games.

In addition, we played Photosynthesis and Babylonia with another couple - both very good games.

And solo, I played The Ugly Gryphon Inn and Hunted: Mining Colony 415.

As a game designer, I worked on my game "depleted", and I playtested a solo mode of a to be published game, playing it 8 times so far in March. Obviously, I can't share details, but I will say that I enjoy playtesting for a publisher for a few reasons:
1) It is a good exercise as a game designer to experience and think about what went well, what didn't, what's confusing, is the game fun, etc.
2) It makes playing a solo game feel more valuable, since I am contributing to something more than just my own entertainment.
3) It let's me experience how other designers and publishers work - an opportunity to learn from them.
4) and, hopefully, it sort of "gets my name out there" in front of a publisher or two.

As for "depleted", I am fortunate to have a game designers meet-up group here in town that meets once a month. I brought the game to March's meeting, and it was just me and the meet-up organizer, which ended up being perfect because then he could playtest my solo game (there are usually 3 or 4 of us there so we usually play multiplayer games as one group.

And, probably like most game designers, I have 5 or 10 game ideas floating around in my head and in notebooks.


I will leave you with a picture of "depleted" on my table:

The above photo reminds me of something. I was looking for a game mat for our dining room table, just so it's easier to pick cards up from the table. Custom made ones with rounded corners to match the table are expensive and have a long leadtime. So, what I ended up doing, and am very happy with, is going to the local fabric/craft store and buying 2 yards of fleece for a gaming table tablecloth. It works great, it is a nice neutral background, and most importantly, it makes it so much easier to pick cards off the table. So, if you are wanting something similar, please try it.


That's all for now. You get more info at my blog on BoardGameGeek: https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/10545/narrow-gate-games-scott-allen-czyszs-game-design-bI

I hope what I am doing with my blog, website, and this news update is entertaining and/or valuable to you. If you have any feedback, please let me know.


Take care,
Scott

Narrow Gate Games -- March 2021 Update

Hi all, welcome to March. In the northern hemisphere, we can start to at least think about spring and warmer weather, and maybe even vaccines, and maybe just maybe a return to normalcy somewhere on the horizon.

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of progress to report on the first two items below. Some progress, but no definite dates.

The cards are printed. The wallets (or at least a proof of the wallet) is complete:

I have not seen a final version of the rules, so that still needs to be done. I assume that the rules are printed locally, so hopefully that isn't a long leadtime item. I am hoping this game will be available on ButtonShy's website this month, but we shall see.

Some new art is being worked on for this game. This art is for a few of the new cards. I have seen a first draft, but don't have permission to share it, so I won't. The soldiers in the new art are inspired by real WWI infantry from a couple different countries. English uniforms were prominent on the original box art. We will have, I believe, 3 other countries represented in this new version of the game, so that is cool to me. I never wanted this game to be real country #1 against real country #2. Instead, I wanted basically, all of Europe against these strange, unknown mechs. So, this new card art will show that. A minor detail, but now you know.

Hopefully, I will hear about a planned Kickstarter date soon. As far as I know, it will not be in the next couple weeks, but hopefully soon.

I continue to work on "depleted". I have one main playtester, fellow BoardGameGeek David Francis from Australia. So, he and I have been playing and exchanging ideas, and even exchanging real life chit chat. It's been great, so thanks David.

As for the game, I think it is fairly solid right now, and I am happy that it is accomplishing what I wanted to accomplish: be a small box, solo, adventure game, like I keep saying: A Runebound-type game, in a Helionox: The Last Sunset size box.

I wanted to accomplish two things with this game in February:
1) Get the files GameCrafter-ready, so I can print some copies to maybe send to a playtester or two, and maybe even a publisher or two or three or four, and
2) Get the game on Tabletop Simulator for digital playtesting.

I am happy to report that I accomplished both of those things. TheGameCrafter should be printing one copy of the game for me to review this week, so hopefully I will be getting it sometime next week. If it all looks OK, I will then order multiple copies.

As for Tabletop Simulator, I basically used the GameCrafter image files to create the "mod" in TTS.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2409664724

Here is the link and some screenshots:

Game set up and ready to go:

Mid-game:

If you want to try this game out on Tabletop Simulator, please do. You will need to print the rules from BoardGameGeek.com:
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/330717/depleted/files

I'd love to see this game with professional art and graphic design, published by a game publisher. We will see.

That's all for now.

I hope what I am doing is entertaining and/or valuable to you. If you have any feedback, please let me know.

Take care,
Scott

Hi all, welcome to February. For this month's update, I've got progress to share on all four games I mentioned last month.

Button Shy Games is in the last couple days of their Kickstarter campaign for reprints of their existing games. Go check it out if you are interested: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/239309591/button-shy-wallet-games-reprint-campaign-2021

So, naturally, they have been busy managing that. So, although there is not a lot new to report, the cards are being printed, and the game should be ready in a month or so. The game will be available to Button Shy's Board Game of the Month Club and for sale on their website when it is ready.

I continue to work with Word Forge Games on what will be a second Kickstarter campaign for Pocket Landship. We've got most of the details worked out. I believe new art is being commissioned, so we are getting close. I would guess a Kickstarter campaign in March (but this is only a guess). The plan as I understand it is to offer a reprint of the original Word Forge Game edition of the game, using standard card stock instead of the super thick cards from last time, PLUS an 18 card (or so) expansion adding a few new twists:

• A Weather card, where the player will roll one die a few times per game to change the weather. Some weather conditions will help the player, some will help the enemy, and some will help or hurt both sides. This will be optional to use, just something for some variety.
• A couple more Shock Troops cards, again just for additional variety.
• A few more "more stuff cards": player cards, Driver cards, Commander cards. I don't believe there will be any additional enemy cards.
• A 2 player competitive mode. Each player will have their own landship, and they will be playing against a common pool of enemies (each player will start with 3 enemy cards in front of them, but the back row cards will be shared. The players will need to (or at least should) cooperate some, but a winner will be determined by determining who destroyed the strongest group of enemies. It's a fun different way to play and I think a nice complement to the 2 player co-op mode from last time.

I entered Drakard in TheGameCrafter's "Community Anthology Challenge". All games needed to be contained on exactly 2 pages and use a subset of common components. There were 90 entries, and although Drakard was not a finalist, it will be published with all the other 90 entries in a coil bound book by TheGameCrafter.
https://www.thegamecrafter.com/contests/community-anthology-challenge

I like the idea of the coil bound book and common components. Some day, I may try to add more Drakard-like games, and/or games in that world, to create my own coil bound book of 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 games. Someday.

I have been spending a fair amount of time playing and hopefully improving "depleted". And, I have been exchanging ideas with David Francis as he playtests the game and provides great feedback. It's a wonderful world we live in where someone I've never met and who lives on the other side of the planet in Australia is willing to playtest my game idea. Thanks David.

I've been playing around with TheGameCrafter's 3D box viewer (see image below). I am not sure where this game will end up, but one option is TheGameCrafter, so this is what it could look like. But, this is mainly just for fun. If you want to try out their box viewer software, go check it out: https://help.thegamecrafter.com/article/425-3d-box-viewer

Happy 2021 everyone. I hope the holidays gave you some time to get some games to the table and hopefully make some good memories.

Onto the update. I'll go in order of what I've been spending my time on lately.

"Count of the Nine Estates" is an expanded (18 cards) and improved game based on my 9 card game, Count of Nine. Button Shy Games will be publishing this in a couple months. Over the last few weeks, I have been chatting with Jason Tagmire from Button Shy, discussing tweaks, playtests, graphic design, etc. Every question I ask, Jason has a very well thought out answer. It is clear that he and his team know what they are doing. I guess that is to be expected when they publish games so frequently.

The cards for the game have been re-designed and I think they have a cleaner look to them that I like. Here is a preview of a few of the cards:

There will also be more player choice in the game. The "major structures" (now called Estate cards) will be separate from the 9 card deck of resources and structures. As the player builds one estate card, others will be eliminated, so there will be a bit of a puzzle deciding which estate cards to target.

The cards will be sent to the printer this week. Hopefully, the game will be available in February or March.

Pocket Landship is rolling toward its second Kickstarter campaign. There is not a set date that I know of, but hopefully February or March. The game will be printed and published in England, so our friends in the EU will have to see how Brexit impacts it.

Word Forge Games and I are still finalizing the new cards for the expansion, but there are currently a couple new Shock Troop cards planned to be added, plus new Commander and or Driver cards, and something that I really like, a Weather card.

The Weather card will be optional, but if used, the player will roll a die to determine the weather for the game, with effects that will help or hamper the player or the enemy in small ways.

Drakard was a simple, solo adventure game I designed for a BGG 24 hour design contest almost a year ago. I have taken those ideas and fleshed them out and expanded them into, basically a new game, but I am still calling it Drakard, because I like the name. And, a playtester has helped me catch some mistakes and offer some improvement suggestions (thanks Oliver).

To defeat the beasts in the game, the player must roll a dice palindrome (symmetrical), like 2-5-2, or 3-6-6-3. So, Drakard is a palindrome name for the "boss monster" dragon in the game. I will be entering this game in TheGameCrafter's "Community Anthology" design contest, where each game most be contained (including rules) on 2 pages, and use a subset of common components: click here for more info.

depleted is also progressing. I have been lucky enough to have someone playtest the game and offer some very good feedback (thanks David). Mostly minor tweaks to gameplay. But, I have been trying to make the game look better. So, I improved the player mat, I think, and also the cards some, which were very basic:

Not awesome, but better, I think.

I think that's all I have for now.

Thanks.

Hi all,

I am very happy to be able to announce that Button Shy Games will be publishing an expanded re-implementation of one of my PnP games. "Count of the Nine Estates" is an 18 card expanded, improved version of Count of Nine.

Button Shy published Count of Nine as one of their Board Game of the Month games earlier this year. Apparently, they liked it.

I created an expanded version of the game, and have been working with Button Shy recently as they playtest and develop it. I am very much looking forward to seeing the finished product. I believe the game will go to their Patreon subscribers first, then be available on their web store sometime early 2021.

Thanks.

Welcome to December and welcome to my first of hopefully many monthly updates. Please note that if you are subscribed to my e-mail list, you will get this update a little earlier, if that is important to you.

Each month, I plan to share a sort of official update on my design activities, hopefully some game publishing progress, and maybe more.

Today I've got three updates to share.

It's still early, but I believe I am making decent progress on my solo adventure game, 'depleted'. I set out to design a small box, solo adventure game sort of inspired by Runebound, 3rd edition. Think of Runebound, but without the gameboard, so mostly card based, fit onto a Helionox: The Last Sunset size box. The theme is different and the gameplay is different than Runebound, but hopefully it will have a similar feel.

I think the gameplay is working fine, so I am balancing and tweaking some things. Hopefully, it will be ready for playtesters soon, this week maybe.

Word Forge Games is planning a second Kickstarter campaign for Pocket Landship. They are hoping the campaign will occur in the first 3 months of 2021. I am currently working with them on a few new cards, but maybe most significant is a fun, new competitive 2 player game mode we are working on. I'll share more when I can.

I can't share many details, but I am currently working with another publisher with plans to publish an expanded version of one of my print and play game designs. All I can say is: stay tuned.

That's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading and for your support. You can also subscribe to by BoardGameGeek blog here. It's easy to have a 2-way conversation there if you'd like.

I hope you enjoy the upcoming holidays with family and friends in a safe way, and hopefully you will create some great memories around the tabletop.

Take care,
Scott