Surviving The Fun

 The UK Games Expo 2017

In early June there will be an event at the NEC just down the road from me, in the heart of the UK. The event is the UK Games Expo and it is, coincidentally, at the heart of the board games hobby. Last year there were in excess of 20,000 visitors over the weekend and that can be a daunting prospect. Before every large event of this kind there is a flurry of posts about what will be the best way to get the most out of it.

 

My answer is pretty simple. There is no "best way". By all means lay your plans, make your lists and prepare yourself. When you arrive most of that will go out of the window. The reason for that is also pretty simple. The organisers know what they are doing.

 

A good organiser, and the team behind the expo are very much that, will give you all the plans and the contact details and the information you need so you will want for nothing in that respect. Then they will provide you with an experience you were not expecting. Are you really going because you want to know what to expect? Isn't that what the internet is for? The Expo is the antidote to the methodical googling and pedestrian nature of sitting (literally and figuratively) at the computer. The energy there will not let you dwell, you will be drawn in every direction at once, it will be almost impossible to settle.

 

So my advice is to prepare one thing, just one. Do that one thing. Then just let go and allow yourself to discover whatever comes next. You will never see it all but accept that and enjoy what you do find because it's almost certain that what you find will be wonderful.

 

If you are struggling to focus on what that one thing should be you are more than welcome to make it a visit to the Hopwood Games stand at J25. But I admit there may be a few other things that take your fancy as well, you can see more of those here - http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

Daring Dustbunnies

The latest design from the Hopwood Games stable.

So a few months ago I playtested a game about moths being drawn towards a candle. One thing lead to another and, after a brief consideration of logs disappearing into a toilet, the moths tuned into balls of fluff and the candle turned into a vacuum cleaner. The Fluffballs became controlled by magical borrower-type creatures that live under the sofa in a rag tag tribe.

These are the Dustbunnies. They love nothing more than magically animating those Fluffballs and sending them hurtling across the carpet. The best and most skillful bunny will be the one that can makes their Fluffball skirt the very edge of danger and get closest to the vacuum without being sucked up the tube!

The game is intended to be fun but there are lashings of tactics as well. If you enjoy making brilliant and airtight plans of action only to see them come crashing down, or snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, or even smugly watching as a player sends their own Fluffball up the tube whilst still trying to keep it's identity a secret, this game is for you.

The gameplay revolves around playing cards to move Fluffballs along a track of carpet, each part of which features a randomised set of actions (take a card, play an extra card etc..). Landing on an empty space means you take the action, which is not always welcome. The Fluffball whose fate you are linked to is a secret (unless you get found out) and one of your aims is to move it to a high scoring card near the Vacuum of Doom without giving away that it is yours. The other aim is to avoid being the Fluffball that gets sucked up the Vacuum.

Throw in unique character abilities and magical charms that can be powered up with static, each with it's own special power, and you have a game that is tense, tactical and different every time.

I will be demonstrating the game at the UK Games Expo in June on stand J25. Come along for a five minute demo and I'll be donating 10p for each demo I do.

(Art by Lloyd Ash Pyne)

Find your inner games designer and panic!

I would love to say that a designer spends quiet contemplative moments during the process of making a game where they find a zen-like understanding of what will and won't work.

I would be delighted to let you know that most idea's hit you when you have meditated for a few hours and aligned all your chakras.

Sadly, it's not true. Most ideas hit you at the worst possible time. When you are a long way from a working pen, when you have twenty other things you are supposed to be doing or when the only paper to hand has another more hygiene related use.

Once you have that idea memorised long enough to write it down, and perfected. Then you have the task of seeing if it works, which it hardly ever does. So you tweak it, chop bits out, shorten some bits, expand others, go back to the start, add something from an old design, change the name, fix the problems and change it out of all recognition from the first idea. Oh and it's no longer a space war game, now it's a chicken racing game, wait.. no... it's definitely a space chicken battle game.....

Once you have done all that.. you are just about ready to start.

I am a long way down the road of making Daring Dustbunnies a reality and my 7th game (I think). I have the rules (almost) fixed, I know (mostly) how it will look and I am (90%) sure of the powers on the cards. All that remains is to, promote it, fund it and then make it, oh and ship it, and sell it... and... then get designing the next game... hmmm space battle chickens....

See you at the UK Games Expo at the NEC in June. I'll be on stand J25, come and see just how incredibly calm I am.. in spite of everything. You can also find out just what this characters' special power is in the game.

(Art by Lloyd Ash Pyne)

It's all getting official! What you see here is my advert for the UK Games Expo Guide. It's very much designed to get you lovely people to come on over to my stand. I think 5 minutes with me will be enough to convince you that Daring Dustbunnies is a plentiful helping of fun with a side order of enjoyment.

Whatever you do, make sure you get me to do the demo. Nate Brett may well be on the stand as well but he knows nothing! Sure you'll have fun and you'll learn all about the game and probably be dazzled by his wit, good looks and intellect. He'll try to convince you that he's the best at the game but you must ignore this. I am clearly the best dustbunny around.

Right now we have six of the ten characters fully fleshed out and artwork-ed up (is that even a word?). The excellent Lloyd Ash Pyne is creating some delightful little creatures for us. The final four characters for the game are in the art studio and the rules are all tested and ready. So we may have these ready to show you at the Expo as well.

So far we have sixteen charms in the game but this is growing so who knows how many will be available by June. I am loving the development of this game and it seems that each stage is just adding to the gaming experience.

The latest development (as of yesterday) is that we'll be donating 10p to The National Institute for Conductive Education for every demo we do. This charity is very close to my heart and my first game Niche has raised over £600.00 for them so far. So come on over to the stand, have five minutes fun and raise a little money for a good cause.

Blog and Chips and Spam

So here I am posting my obligatory first blog post. I should make sure I mention that it is my first blog post (check). I also need to make sure I talk about all the amazing blog posts that I will regularly be putting on here (check). So keep an eye out for the next post in about three Christmases time.

Did I miss anything? Oh yes, keep the first one short because I clearly have no idea what I am doing (check).

Anything else? Well while I am here I may as well tell you about my games. Which you can see at www.hopwoodgames.co.uk. Two award winning games and a few more besides. In fact.. maybe I could put up a post about each game over the next few days.. oooh I am immediately breaking blog rule number 3!

So that's me for now. Watch for more on my new venture Daring Dustbunnies very soon.

Short enough? I think so.