Sunday, September 29, 2013

CHOMP! Feeding Frenzy cards.

finally! they're done.

now to print the dang things.

this was a much needed step to increase the depth of this game. it adds another dimension to the game as the sharks can now interact, and often screw each other over.

there are 18 cards with three copies in the deck. only a few can be used if the great white hunter rules are being used. 54 cards in all.

with cards like Kid with a Fin, Strange Weather, and Chumming the Waters (to name a few) eating people will never be the same. although my artwork is a little weak, it lends itself well to what i'm doing and get s the point across.

on to the next phase.

MK

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Project Mako Playtest #1

i just finished a several game session of my shark game with my kids, one being a 14 year old and a 6 year old.

we played three games, and each time someone different won because the beaches closed and point totals were tabulated.

my general notes on the games.

1) sharks have every advantage, but they must take advantage of it-- they are faster moving (5 squares) than swimmers (3 squares) and  surfers (4 squares)


Monday, September 16, 2013

Feeding Frenzy Underway

i have two decks of cards to build this week. one is a replacement victim movement deck that only uses North as a designation, just to see how that works.

the second in my Feeding Frenzy Expansion for the players to use. now i'm having some questions about how many cards i should have in the deck, as well as how many duplicates of each card i should have. as of right now i have two cards made, with 3 duplicates of each. 6 cards down. i'd like to do 30 cards, but thats way too low. might take the shot for a complete 54 card deck.

here's what the back looks like. the artwork is done by myself (for now), and that artwork will be used for the actual Feeding Frenzy card in the set.

additionally, i have some brand new shark dice heading my way, so that's going to kick up the cool factor for my game too. more to come people!

MK


Thursday, September 12, 2013

CHOMP! Feeding Frenzy

i'm amazed that this is quickly becoming a developers diary rather than a place for games, but for now, so be it.

i've been kicking around some ideas for Feeding Frenzy, the set of cards players can use against each other for more depth for CHOMP!

for you, here are some quick sketches of some artwork for some of these cards. remember, i'm not artist, but i hope i get the idea across
i assure you, the best is yet to come.

MK


CHOMP! gets a wonderful, horrible idea.

so my wife knows that i'm on some weird "Shark Kick" because i'm constantly online looking at shaks, ships, scenes from jaws, etc. not to mention the anount of time i'm spending each day painting cutting and gluing things.

so last night she looks at the things that i have on the table, gives me that trademark "i don't want to know what you're doing" look, but blurts something out semi-sarcastically.

"where are all the body parts?"

"what?" i asked back. i wasn't sure i heard her right.

 "like arms and legs. if you have sharks, you should have body parts."

i was quiet for a second, then started to laugh a bit uncontrollably. my wife looked at me as if i had snapped.

i smiled back. " i know what i'm going to do. i'm gonna use them to track points. i'll have a chewed up hand with only three fingers to denote 3 points. then i'll have two leg sections that are chewed up cross over each other to make a number 4 and denote four points."

she laughed a bit too, then left the kitchen, so i could get back to my project.

i'm no artist, but i did find some clip art, and with a few reworkings, i've managed to come up with these. the real question is, are these too over the top for this game? do these make you a bit uncomfortable and add too much "downer" to an otherwise light game?

                                                               three points


                                                                 four points

mind you, these are really rough, not to scale, and in no way indicative of final decision. would love your input on this discussion.

until next time.

MK
        

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Project MAKO-over

after heavy deliberation, I am happy to announce that Project MAKO now has a name...CHOMP!

it fits well enough with the game.

having been partially sidelined with an injury (don't ask) i have a few moments to rework some things.

first off, i've added a hunter ship to the mix. meet Capt Shaw of the OKRA

at a certain period in the game, he comes out to battle the sharks. i modeled the ship loosely on the Orca ship from JAWS.

 the second thing i needed to do was fix the surfboards, because they weren't standing out well against the blue background. my friend Joshua said that yellow is a pretty common color for surfboards. i took that advice, plus redesigned the surfboards to the way they originally were envisioned. so here are the generation 2 surfboards.

the scale is a bit off, but at this early point its not a big deal. the key thing is that the boards are highly visible with the color scheme and design. which is just what i want.

more to come real soon. more is on my plate for tomorrow if i'm still in work limbo, so i'll see you then



Monday, September 9, 2013

Project MAKO Gets a Name and Some Game

i've been playing this shark game with my kids a few weeks now, and we have grown to love it. both my daughters, ages 14 and 6, can grasp what to do since the rules are really light and not complicated.

last night i was able to take the game out of my small family circle and let some friends play it. they were able to learn the game rather quickly, having been gamers for many years, and were able to give me some great feedback on the game.

i had been kicking around the name of this project. so far i have three possible contenders:


Predators of the Deep:  seems a bit dark and gritty for such a light game.

CHOMP!: one of the first ideas i had for the name. still sticking around. seems viable for it, and is straightforward in what the game is about.

SHARK!: much like CHOMP!s reasons for naming the game as such, and it would obviously be first thing a person would scream.

theres still some work to be done, but i hope to have this convention ready in october. let the creativity run begin!