Introduction

North is a game concept I've been kicking around for quite a while now.

The idea started life as a video game concept, since I'm a huge fan of video games (I've been reviewing a game per week for almost two years over at Post-Launch Reviews). I thought up all the game mechanics, the setting, and even started on some basic concept art to establish the tone of the setting and the appearance of the playable character and the enemies. 

When I tried to get started on the project, I came to a very important realization: I don't know how to make a video game. 

That's a pretty big obstacle, considering that I was picturing something fairly complex. I have thousands of hours of play time across hundreds of games, so I think I have a pretty good picture of what kind of mechanics I could use to build a fun game. The problem is that none of that knowledge or experience tells me anything about programming.

So I reconsidered. There are other kinds of games. Board games, for example.

I don't have nearly as much experience with board games as I do with video games. I've played Dungeons & Dragons for 10 years, but that's a very different kind of thing (which I also write about somewhat infrequently at D4sign). It's only relatively recently - the last couple of years - that I've been introduced to "good" games, the kind the enthusiasts play and talk about. Big names like Settlers of Catan and Dominion (my personal favourite), co-op games like Pandemic and Arkham Horror, and sillier but well thought out games like Munchkin. But I really love these games, and I thought maybe North could work as a board game.

As I said, I don't know that much about board games, but the change of type gives me a distinct advantage: I don't need to know programming or use special software to build a board game. I can simply start writing rules and cutting out a board and game pieces to experiment with. I can share the material, run playtests, collect feedback, and refine the design until I have something that works.

With this blog I'll be documenting my foray into board game design. I'm not going into this with any expectations - I know that it's very hard for board games to make a profit, and that there are an awful lot of them already. I just want to make something cool that works, and actually do something with one of these concepts I've been kicking around since forever.  If things go really well maybe I'll look into a Kickstarter campaign, but that's crossing over into marketing and publicity and production, which, like game programming, are topics I know nothing about. So as of now, that's just a far-off maybe, to be ignored until I already have a solid game.

As I write this I'm taking a break from writing out game cards for a... I don't know, pre-pre-pre alpha. I'm not completely settled on anything yet, I'm still conceptualizing and playing with ideas. I'm starting with a simple base and I plan to add complexity and variety when I have the core somewhat stable.

So, early posts on this blog will talk about basic design goals: the story, basic core mechanics, the board, sources of inspiration, and stuff like that. As I start to nail things down I'll go into more detail about how things work specifically, and I'll start solo playtesting and put down some thoughts on how things are going.

Whether or not anything ever comes out of this, it'll be a  fun project that will teach me more about board games, game design, and the development and testing processes. Follow along as I explore the process!