So I started designing my first solo-only game this week. It’s coming together rather nicely too. Deck building, worker placement, resource management and plenty of tension.
First look at the player board in Viscounts! The game features a mix of deck building and tableau building with the constant flow of townsfolk cards across the bottom half of the board.
Ezra and Nehemiah will be coming to Kickstarter in October. The exact date will be announced soon. This is a medium/heavy, thematic Euro game for 1-4 players, designed by Shem Phillips and Sam Macdonald, and illustrated by Sam Phillips.
It's looking increasing more likely that Sam and I will have designed the entire South trilogy by the end of the year. We've never been so far ahead of schedule, it feels weird. We had an awesome day of workshopping ideas for game no.2 today. So good!
In just under 2 weeks, Sam and I will be running a full live playthrough of Wayfarers! We're excited to finally share the first South Tigris game with you all. At this point we are still aiming for an April Kickstarter date.
Sam and I have been making a lot of progress on the South Trilogy over the past 6 months. 1 game fully designed. Another 2 in development. We want to make them all feel like they belong together, while also standing apart from the North and West. I love creating stuff with Sam!
We will be announcing our next two releases in a few weeks. We can't wait to share these games with you! Keep an eye out for a livestream announcements video on the horizon. We'll also be sharing a bit more about Inventors of the South Tigris, and an upcoming game from Arkus!
One week till pre-orders open for Age of Artisans! This will be a limited first printing, but we will also have it available as an add-on in the Kickstarter campaign for the follow up to Paladins in March next year.
Reviewers - we want to show you Chaos Order. Given the current climate and lockdown restrictions around the world, finding reviewers who can get 4-5 people together in a room to play this beast of a game is challenge, especially since you'll want to play it multiple times.
With all the illustration work completed, we are now just putting the final touches on Legacy of Yu. It's looking like part 3 of the Ancient Anthology should be live on Kickstarter towards the end of August.
Sam Phillips has been busy over the past few weeks illustrating all 30 townsfolk characters from Legacy of Yu. Here's a few of the starter cards. You can find more on BGG. Who's your favourite?
The Anarchy is the next game from Bobby Hill (Hadrian’s Wall), coming soon to Kickstarter! So for all the Hadrian’s Wall fans out there, we asked Bobby why a fan of Hadrian's Wall would want to try The Anarchy… here’s what he had to say ⬇️
🗣️"It shares similar DNA to its
It seems that a lot of the world has gone into isolation at this time. So with that in mind, I've decided to release a print-and-play mini expansion for Explorers. You can download it for free here:
We just finished an epic 5-player game of Chaos Order. This was our first time playing with all final physical components. So great to look at on the table, and so much fun to play!
So close! I filmed a solo playthrough today, with both City of Crowns and the Vassals Mini-Expansion. It should be available to watch inside the next few hours.
Skara Brae is one of the two new titles we will be bringing to Kickstarter later this year. Designed by Shem Phillips, it is a tight resource management puzzle in neolithic Scotland🏴 as you try to develop and grow your village while feeding and sheltering your people.
The Anarchy is one of the two new titles we will be bringing to Kickstarter later this year. It is designed by Bobby Hill who designed Hadrian’s Wall, and it is very much a spiritual successor.
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Design Insight ➡️ Paladins of the West Kingdom
Paladins took many twists during development. Some major breakthroughs included the 12 Paladin cards and the Suspicion system. One of the hardest challenges was integrating all the attributes both mechanically and thematically.
Legacy of Yu will be live on Kickstarter in two days! Here's a little sample of the free promo packs that will come with every Kickstarter copy of the game.
We know that the board game community and industry is often all about the next big thing! But we know that many of you out there love and continue to play all our games.
My 3D insert design for Viscounts is now on Thingiverse. This does not support sleeved cards, but I'm sure someone could do a remix of the card section to make it work.
Reviewers. Just a little suggestion - perhaps stop using the word "theme" when you specifically mean "immersion". Theme can mean so much more - like setting, story or topic. I love games with great theme, but for me that doesn't necessarily mean immersion.
Coming to Kickstarter, along with The North Sea Epilogues on Sep 12th. This deluxe play mat will be available as an add-on, or on its own.
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If you are interested in playtesting Chaos Order on Tabletop Simulator, you can find out more, and book a session over at the Garphill Games Discord server -
Our latest release, Ezra and Nehemiah, has been garnering rave reviews and currently boasts an impressive 8.4 rating on BoardGameGeek with over 1,000 ratings!
Have you had a chance to play it? Do you agree with the BGG rating? ✅❌
We'd love to hear your thoughts! Share your
Drawing on the rich history of our world, the Ancient Anthology sets out to celebrate some of the stories and cultures that are often overlooked in board games.
All 4 games are available on Kickstarter right now, including the latest released, Ezra and Nehemiah.
For those with any degree of colour deficiency, how do these read for you? I am looking at making primary-coloured dice opaque, and secondary-coloured dice translucent. I've added a slight highlight and smoke effect behind those icons to help emphasize this as well. Thanks!
I know what I will be playing this weekend and I couldn’t be more excited - Paladins of the West Kingdom from
@garphillgames
. What a surprise, I knew we were doing content on it but I had no idea it was already on the way! Yes!!!
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I’ve barely got any work done over the past few weeks. The 150hrs I put into AC Odyssey might know something about that. But since finishing it earlier this week, I’ve managed to write a rulebook and start work on two new games. Breaks are good, but happy to be back into it.
So I started designing my first solo-only game this week. It’s coming together rather nicely too. Deck building, worker placement, resource management and plenty of tension.
This weekend I'll be gathering with 15 other designers from across New Zealand to playtest games and discuss our past experiences with design and publishing. Can't wait!