Project MAKO: by any other name.

I've managed to get the Team Webster together to play Chomp! over the long winter break from work, and i think they really liked it, but they informed me that Chomp was already taken as a name, so now, tentatively, it's Feeding Frenzy, thought I'm sure that's taken too.

anyway, there's been a unique turn of events lately, and it's quite possible that i'm going to enter this game in the InDeCon contest at ANCON this year. we'll have to see what happens here.

more to come later. things that question my sanity are forthcoming.

MK

Feeding Frenzy/ Great White Hunter/ Going Rogue

three things to pass along.

1) my feeding frenzy card expansion is mow completely finishes, and i havea deck of cards completed and ready for use. they will make their debut alongside CHOMP! at Con on the Cob this coming weekend.

2) I am typing up the roles for closing the beaches and dispatching Capt. Shaw and the OKRA, which are called the GREAT WHITE HUNTER rules, just because of feeding frenzy using a few cards that only go into play when that rule set gets used. i have reference cards and the feeding frenzy rules ready to go for this weekend.

3) and just when you think things would be settled down, when the project is done there is another lightning fast brainstorm. i'm now throwing out ideas for "Going Rogue" which will be a small deck of cards to change the game round after round, at it will also launch the solo rules of play as well. coming soon, but still down the road.

now, let me get back to making flyers and handouts for this weekend. i'm very busy.

MK

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

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)

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

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
        

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

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!

It Is Finished!!!!! at least for now!!!

last night the final pieces fell into place. the victims card deck is complete. now comes the playing of the game.

but, i already feel something else coming down the pipe.  something that uses the same mechanics and design. another layover that i'll need some stuff to redesign. something for next year for sure.

another deck of cards will probably be coming for my shark game. just so that the shark players can screw each other over,

a lot more to come

General Update on Project Mako

during the tirade of the mind i had slowly started to get some things ready for the overall design of the game. a wooden block for a die, a deck of crappy cards no one is going to miss. etc.


by the end of the first night, as i posted those pictures, i was about 70 percent done with the project. shortly after the post,  i worked on the movement cards, and almost got them done.

then i took them into work and began coloring them, which with breaks and lunch i manage to finish the detailing of them in about a day or two.

i took time to work on a rule set on the computer, which took roughly a day or so to sit down and work it out in my head. still would like to do a reference card  soon.


i added a few more things, like point chits, chits to keep track of how many swimmers have escaped, and a windrose token that is used to designate north, plus i added color to the shark fins, so that each are easy to discern from the others.

all that remains is the final assembly of the cards. the backs are on the cards, just have 54 fronts to put on (yes 54, it includes 2 joker cards.)

more pics, and possibly a video, to come soon.

Peircing the Veil: Project Mako

i had told you a few things about my brain beginning to act up again and a leak of something about to erupt. i had no idea it would come to this.

last week, august 6th to be exact, i had a dream about a shark-based table top game. i saw shark pawns that looked like the poster for Jaws, and the swimmer tokens were nothing more than and head and an arm on a flat base to look as if the whole figure was mostly underwater.

i know what triggered this dream: driving past a digital billboard that keeps showing shark week.

anyway, thought it was an interesting idea, but left it at that.

until my afternoon shower the next day, when my brain exploded and spilled out the exact way to make this game happen. my mind sped out of control, spitting out rules and mechanics that i was lucky enough to get down on paper.

my mind continued blasting me day after day, until finally i succumbed to it. i would do it, reluctantly, but i would make the game.

i thought about how to make the pawns, especially the swimmers and the sharks. i wanted to make them with army men and a hot wire cutter, while the sharks would be sculpey based. after a while i didnt think i would be plausible...until my mind again butted in and told me to design it "on the cheap" for now and just make shark fins for the sharks, and heavy cardboard standees for the swimmers.

ok brain, you win.

i'v spent the last several hours designing the game, building the pieces and now i'm almost finished. all i need to do is design a deck of cards and type out a rules set and it's good to go.

to you, the loyal readers, whomever you may be, i give you a picture of what is to come. project mako (since i dont have a better name at the moment) is underway.

until next time...don't go back into the water.

MK