Kessel Run Game Project part 1

Summa Verminoth looking for a snack! 

Punch it Chewie!

Each year for my Fosslings, I create games for their birthday parties.  My Eldest has really gotten into playing Sabbac, and that lead me down a trail to make the Kessel Run game.

Goal of the Game

Making the Kessel run is not just a simple jump to hyperspace and then you are there. To make it you first have to thread through the psychotic cluster and then, pass through the maelstrom.

Be the first to make the Kessel run and survive. Can you do it in 12 Parsecs? (aka Game turns). First ship to leave the board wins.

Game Designer goal

I have 7 days to get this game designed from start to, what I’ll call a hard Alpha state- meaning all the parts are there and the rules are ready to be play-tested a week before the party.  As a game designer in my real life, I put all my skills to work on this project as I would launch a video game.

Scope:  I am the only rescource, so have to scope my time well.  This meant making a list of all things I needed and all the things that the lists needed.  This is actually something I learned a long time ago when I got to work with Adam Savage and Jamie Hynemen. Those guys are super pros and taught me a lot in the short time I was working on a project at M5 industries.

The list

Rules:  I had a good working race game system from when I made a “snail race” game for my youngest a couple of years ago as my starter.  The system worked well, so I just needed to adjust it and expand it a bit for the Genre.

Ships: Players will need to fly in Corellian freighters- aka the Millennium Falcon.  I have a rough of a vector file of this from a previous game I made.  This will need updating and need a movement stand.

Event Hazards:  Things that happen if you roll a 1. I landed on Tie fighter squadrons and asteroids. I have a vector I bought on line of the Ties, and asteroids are just foam rocks.  All doable.

Working on a 1/12th scale Millennium Falcon at M5, back in the 90's

Track:  I saw a cool track someone did (I really wish I remember the guy’s name) of a pod race, where he made the track by taping down the track sections and painting over.  Gonna steal that great idea, and I already had a piece of black canvas. the first part was figuring out how the race was going to go, with lots of iteration on how many turns it would take, as well as adding up to 10 players. 

laying tape down to figure out the track. Lots of iteration!

Boss monster: The Summa Verminoth.  I have nothing like this, so will have to make one. That starts with a sketch.  I decided to do it flat so that you could see it and it would take up track space as a blocker and hazard.  Ultimately to get it done fast, I used 3mm craft foam and painted it.

Spent Thursday Night doing the sketch, then scanned and printed a few copies 

I used glue stick to attach the paper to craft foam, and then cut it out. This was not as easy as I hoped

Ended up doing 2 layers to get more form and shape.

A face only a mother could love

To paint the Verminoth, I used grey and red rattlecan primer, then went into it with minis paints. Craft foam takes paint very well. The paint job is pretty loose, but it "sells" the idea of the monster. I overlapped tentacles where I could for more strength. This is a gaming piece after all. 

Protyping and Sketching

I spent a full day figuring out how to make the bases and stands for the ship models, working on 3 variations.  I ended up with something that is sturdy, can be cut out of either plexi or wood, and held dice that represent a ship’s hull points. 3mm birch plywood is very strong, so I use that for the bases for the ships, as well as for the asteroids and the tie fighters.   I cut a rough shape for the Falcon to get a sense of what scale I wanted.  Did 3 iterations before I nailed down the size. 

rough prototype of the Falcon. Actually this is rev 2, or 3...

Tie Fighters

I already had a vector file of the Tie Fighters, so it was just a matter of how to represent a squad. Top down would look to… I dunno- gamey- so I played around with sketching up a few ideas, and then went to the internets and watched a few scenes, and then came up with etching them on clear plexi and painting them.  Turned out better than I hoped. Since they were cut with acylic, I decided to cut the base out of it as well (and I had some).

Tie fighter squad. Etched plexi painted in. 

 

 Note the added support on the Falcon's base that shows I need more design work. 

During my "research" I came across this awesome anime short. 

Tie Fighter Wars

That’s all for part 1- next time we’ll  cover the rest.  Cheers!