New News 2018

October 25th, 2018 New News

Hello friends and players,

I just wanted to make a very quick and quiet update, as you may not have heard from me for quite a long time, and endgamegames.com is looking a little lonely and abandoned. If we’ve intersected in the great world of games before, and you’ve got any questions that you’ve been waiting to ask me, go right ahead, it’d be great to catch-up. I’m pre-answering a few to get started.

What have you been up to in relation to making games?

I’ve been doing a lot, but with not a whole lot to show for it, apart from a few quiet credits here and there. I worked with Rule & Make throughout 2016 and 2017, starting with them as Skyward headed toward Kickstarter. I took a lot of game submissions (said no to most of them) and and helped out in various capacities with Hand of Fate and another project that didn’t quite manage to get up again after a bit of shaky start (we were unable to reroute for alternate power). This year, I took a step back and have been playing around with quite a few ideas, none of which have survived very far past the prototype stage. I’ve been working with a few friends on some collaborative designs, but they’re all in very early early stages. I’m excited about a new project right now, but it’s ambitious and strange in a few ways, and it needs more gestating time (actually, I’m working on a couple of projects that meet that description).

What’s happening with Ragnaroll?

I’m not quite sure. Occasionally I get a message from a backer or a player telling me how much they liked the concept, or the game they played, but over the past couple of years I’ve put a few different versions of Ragnaroll on the table, and they just haven’t felt right. I’m struggling to reconcile my first design, which had some fun and crazy ideas, with my current tastes as both a designer and player. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to let it go, but I’m not ready to return to it yet.

Anything else?

I went to Essen in 2017, on behalf on Rule & Make, which was fun! I saw Antoine Bauza in real life.
I’m currently working on a project that solves my gripe with PDF rulebooks using my professional skills.
I’m disabling a few features on this site, mainly things that have potential to become security vulnerabilities.
As a recommendation, Sidereal Confluence is really great, in that it delivers a truly strange and wonderful and frantic cooperative and competitive experience. It’s not easy to learn or teach, but it’s a galaxy full of fun with the right group.
I’m looking for a new job for 2019. If you, by any weird chance, know any game companies that are hiring, send them my way. I’m a bit of a Jack of All Trades with strong writing and editing skills, fierce opinions about graphic layout and rulebook design, dangerous coding knowledge, some very esoteric skills about getting inDesign to talk to a variety of applications using the infernal language of XML and HTML, and, of course, significant game design and development experience, mostly acquired in the tried-and-true method of failing forward.

Best regards,

Jason

The State of Ragnaroll, August 2015

Hail friends and followers,

Today I’d like to catch you up on what’s been happening at End Game Games with Ragnaroll over the past 6 months or so. I’d like to start with a little apology to anyone who’s a date from me in the past. Development with Ragnaroll has been ongoing but real life has thrown in an unexpected interruption over the past couple months. I’m back on track now and can commit to staying on that track through the upcoming Kickstarter and beyond. Continue reading →

The State of Ragnarol, March 2015

March 15th, 2015 Designer Diary New News Ragnaroll

Hail friend!

Ragnarol has been in development for a long time now. It’s possible you heard of it a couple of years ago, when it was bouncing around in my head, or you’ve played it with me sometime over the past 18 months. It’s getting towards completion, but this last, long march through the snow is proving longer and harder than I had planned for. I just wanted to give you a quick update of what’s been happening with Ragnarol lately and where we’re heading in the very near future! Continue reading →

New News No. 7

November 11th, 2014 New News 1 Comment

Hi internet, it’s that irregular time of month / season / harvest cycle / conventions season. I’m back from PAX and full of inspiration and con crud. On with the news!

PAX

It was fantastic to meet so many gamers and roll so many dice over the long weekend of PAX. We lost track of the number of times we played Ragnarol but hundreds upon hundreds of Vikings died imaginary deaths throughout the weekend. You can find some pictures of the event on the End Game Games Facebook page, but if you’ve got any pictures yourself, perhaps taken with more stable hands than mine, please share them around. If you want more news from PAX, check out my PAX specific wrap up.

Ragnarol: The Long Summer

Ragnarol stood up to a full 3 days of demos and though it did bend, it did not break. I’ll be working on some balancing issues over the next couple of weeks, in order to get the heroes performing equally well and making sure that a glory victory is possible but pretty dangerous. This will be a long summer of development for Ragnarol but we should have a finished game in just a few months! Those of you at PAX saw a combination of actual art and pictures of people dressed up as Vikings from the internet, if you weren’t at PAX, check out the Ragnarol page on endgamegames.com or our Boardgamegeek page to see where we’re headed with the art (and let us know what you think!).

Next, I’ll be sending out playtest packets (hopefully before the end of the month) to interested raiding parties (of which I’ve got more than a few). If you’d like to add yourself to the list, just reply to this email. In the meantime, I’ve got still got some dice stickering to do.

Hedron: Clarifications

It was great to get Hedron back on the table after a few weeks off while I went into turbo development for Ragnarol. I’ve started to have a few rules queries float back to me, and have started to put together a FAQ. If you do have a question, it’s probably frequently asked so please don’t hesitate to ask it of me, so it can also be frequently answered. Also, if you’re ever in the middle of a game and can’t decide how something works, don’t let yourself get bogged down, just pick an interpretation of the rules and roll with it. If your group has multiple interpretations, roll your flux dice and let the player with highest flux result pick the interpretation.

During the weekend, I also got to introduce the game to a great deal of players face-to-face. I was really happy to be see that moment where it suddenly clicked and players grasped the chain concept and move from confusion to mastery. I also got to experience some problematic interpretations of the Ram card, and after reading the card with fresh eyes, I believe the problem’s in my wording, not in player’s interpretation. The exact wording has been something that I was tinkering with to try and get just right and was briefing new players during balance testing. It was definitely a 1st time designer mistake not to put the final wording in front of a completely new player and watch the inevitable mistake happen. I’ve added an errata to the FAQ, but if you prefer your own interpretation, just roll with it. It will make the Ram card more powerful, and the game more dangerous. I will be making some changes to the Print and Play files and sending them out to backers to reflect the revision as soon as possible.

After getting a question about one of the maps for Hedron, I’ve also taken the time to put together a little campaign guide to better brief the players on what they could expect from each map and to give them a recommended path of progression through the maps. As well as some additional tips for designing your own battle galaxies.

Once again, thanks for reading along and sharing the journey with me.

Best, Jason

New News No. 6

October 28th, 2014 New News

Whoa, it’s been a few months since I’ve updated you, the internet, with news (although there was in fact a super secret New News no. 5 sent to out to super secret list). Since the last New News, I've delivered a Kickstarter, rescued a toddler from a burning building and got stuck back into development for Ragnarol… okay, one of those things is a lie, keep reading to find out!

Hedron: Counting up points

If you’re a Hedron backer, you should have just received you an update telling you that Hedron is on it’s way to being 100% delivered with packages going out to Aussie backers this week. If you’re not a backer, I’ll have a bunch of copies to sell at PAX and there’ll always be a digital version available for purchase online. I've still got a lot of dice rolling around in my head and I hope to come back to Hedron in the not too distant future. In the meantime, you can find some unboxing pics on the End Game Games Facebook or on Hedron’s Boardgamegeek page (a few got rejected, though).

Ragnarol: Apocalypse Pending

After finishing up Hedron, I had a look at my development schedule for Ragnarol and burned it. I was trying real hard to get Ragnarol ready to launch at PAX, but one of my key takeaways from the development of Hedron is that game development takes time, and Ragnarol just isn't ready yet. I’m now hoping for a release date of early next year but my number 1 priority is making the game as awesome as mythologically possible. In the meantime, I’ve got the Boardgamegeek page up with some teaser images.

I’m taking the time to examine a few of past me’s assumptions about the game, and this put development back a little as I’ve fiddled around with a few elements that weren’t sitting right with present me after the past year of development experience. After exploring a few different options, I’ve come back to the table with some minor improvements and a much requested addition, variable player powers. The current version is now running stable and I’ll be putting it through the gauntlet with 3 full days of demos at PAX. After that, I plan to be releasing those blind playtest packets I keep promising before Christmas.

Sonic Blast

We’re still rocking on with Tablepop, but have come to accept that our production schedule will always be a little erratic. We’d love to be able to put them out on a monthly basis but for the time being, it’s not our top priority (it comes slightly behind game development, putting food on the table and maintaining sanity). We’re 6 epsidoes deep now, with our latest episode on Star Wars released earlier this month.

If you don’t mind some slightly dodgy audio, you can also hear me talk with Allen Chang, co-designer of Rise to Power, about how we started making games with Toby and Lin from ATGN. Toby and Lin did a really great job of keeping us focussed and hopefully we provided some insights into getting started with game development. I also talked to the guys from the Action Points podcast about Hedron, Ragnarol and games in general. The Action Points podcast covers pop culture topics, including tabletop games, and have interviewed a bunch of Aussie designers recently, which has bumped them to the top of my listening list (also, fair warning some of their content is adult oriented, but the board game interviews are generally family friendly).

Thanks for reading along! You can expect some pictures from PAX and some more design diaries in November.

New News No. 4

July 8th, 2014 New News

Hey internet friends,

This is just a quick little update to say things are in a constant process of being updated.

Games Games

There’s been a lot of development since the last New News, still primarily focused on Hedron. I’ve been rolling dice, doing stuff and achieving objectives. Hedron’s getting pretty close to done, but there’s still more work to do. Check out the latest designer diary for the full break down and write up, and expect a hot new version soon. Ragnarol is also back in development, I got a couple of really good playtesting sessions in at the Toy and Game Expo, and there’ll be a designer diary and a new version once I’ve got a chance to put the feedback into practice on real players / Vikings. Continue reading →

New News No. 3

April 15th, 2014 New News

Last New News, I promised real announcements and I’ve kind of almost got some (see Keep On Hedring On). Tabletop Day got delayed a week in my particular timezone in Brisbane, for no good reason other than too many people were too busy to attend my party. I’ve been working on two different game concepts, and Tabletop Day was my self-imposed deadline to get things on the table and make a decision. Continue reading →

New News No. 2

March 19th, 2014 New News

So, the no. 1 piece of news is there is no news, at least in regards to a crowdfunding launch with Ragnarol. I’m really happy with the progress I’m making but I want to make sure the game has the best possible chance to succeed so I’m taking the long road and looking to launch in the second half of the year.

Current State

So, that’s what hasn’t been been happening, what’s actually been happening? Continue reading →

New News No. 1

February 3rd, 2014 New News

Hey internet friend / fan / associate / stranger,

First of all, how are you? Good. That’s great to hear. Now, we’ve got the imaginary conversation out of the way, we can straight to the good stuff.

It’s been a week since CanCon, which was a really great experience for me and End Game Games. We got an overwhelming positive response for both games and some insightful feedback. I’m feeling pretty encouraged but neither game is finished yet. Over the next few months, development for Hedron and Ragnarol is going to go into overdrive as I (and my dedicated team of playtesters) continually try to break and unbreak the game. Continue reading →