March 2021 Update

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