Posted by Josh on January 29, 2009 under Gaming | 
(If you haven’t read Part 1, here it is: Design Inspiration Part 1 – I Could Do That)
(Also, this post could have been subtitled “I Love Stargate”) 
There has been a trend in the board gaming industry in the last year or so towards cooperative games. These are games where all–or nearly all–players are working towards a common goal. For example, in Pandemic (published in 2008), all players are collectively trying to cure the world of 4 diseases. In Battlestar Galactica (also published in 2008), the humans are trying to survive and return to earth, but one or more of the players are secretly Cylons and are trying to keep them from reaching their destination and destroy them instead.
I played Battlestar Galactica (BSG) for the first time about 3 weeks ago while hanging out with Andrew and his roommates. We played 5 different board games that day, all of which were new to at least one of us: BSG, Pandemic, Race for the Galaxy, Ca$h ‘n Gun$, and Tsuro. It was a fun game, and while I’m not a fan of BSG the TV show and don’t watch it, I knew enough to tell that the game was themed quite well to match the show.
Later that week, I thought to myself that it would be awesome if Stargate also had its own board game. Then, I looked and found this piece of junk, which really isn’t true to what Stargate is about (the first line of the description is “Command a Stargate SG-1 Goa’uld, Earth or Asgard fleet of starships.” Starships? What about the Stargate?) No, a cooperative Stargate game based around going on missions would be a much better idea.
That’s when this idea merged with observations of Adam, and I thought to myself: I could design a cooperative Stargate game. So, I am. Kind of. I mean, really, I don’t expect it to see the light of day, with whatever licensing issues are in play. At the very least, though, it’s fun to work on this idea. Perhaps it might spawn other ideas, or if I’m able to put together a workable design, there’d be nothing preventing me from playing it amongst friends (unless the friends want do other things, which I would not blame them for doing).
Anyway, if you’re interested in what I’ve put together so far on the game, or in contributing ideas in some fashion, let me know, and I’ll hook you up with the site I’ve created for it (I love Google Apps).
Posted by Adrienne on January 28, 2009 under Photos |
Puget Sound is a lovely body of water:
While I wouldn’t want to swim in it – it’s *cold!* – Admiralty Inlet, that is, the stretch of Puget Sound at Fort Casey, is very pretty, especially on sunny days like the one in the picture. It’s always an interesting sight, because there’s often a ship or plane going by. I think we’ll have to go back some time soon.
Posted by Josh on under Gaming |
I’ve been inspired at times to be a more active internet participant. This is usually prompted by seeing what friends or co-workers are doing online, and realizing that “hey, I could do that too!” I also feel a little guilty when I make use of the information other regular internet people have provided, usually in the form of reviews of products I’m considering purchasing (computer parts), or reviews of trails/hikes I’m looking at going on. I feel guilty because I know the only reason I’m not contributing to this wealth of information is my own laziness.
One inspiring person for me in this regard is Adam. He has a blog, that he uses primarily to post funny or interesting things he finds on the internet. In the past he’s had a widget on the side for yelp.com, showing restaurants he’s recently reviewed. However, the most recent inspiration came from a post he made about 3 weeks ago about a card game design he was working on. He also posted his idea to BoardGameGeek, a site I find myself browsing more and more often these days. His particular game idea is not one that gets me too excited, though I would be happy to help him playtest it sometime. However, it spurred a thought in my head: “Hey, I could do that too!”
Well, to be honest, that alone wasn’t enough to spur me towards believing I can design a game, but that’s were Part 2 comes in: Cooperative Games are Fun.
Posted by Adrienne on January 26, 2009 under Doodles |
I’m still a little too busy to bring the doodle day back, but I did want to post something special for Chinese New Year. This year, it’s the ox, so I made an ox and did the character for it as well.
Posted by Adrienne on January 23, 2009 under Soccer, Sounders |
In the last two weeks, I have been paying a lot of attention to the news from MLS and particularly to news about Seattle Sounders FC. I’ve been scouring the Internet for stories and photos and wearing my blue and green scarf nearly every day. I’m ready for the season to start, but there are still eight weeks to go! How will I cope?
Read more…
