How to play a game with everyone who plays your game. I had some questions recently about how this game is different from other games in the Helionox universe. Seems like a great design diary post to me! First off Helionox: Chronicles (sometimes called HX: C for short) is a stand alone game. That said does draw inspiration from its predecessors. Primarily, this comes in the form of deck building…
Read MoreDesign Diary 009 – Slowly but Surely
Helionox: Chronicles Update But my name’s not Shirley! Maybe it’s SLOWLY? As always, I mean to blog and social post way more than I do but the good news is, I’m generally working on games instead of blogging and marketing. The bad news is, things are still going much slower than I had hoped and here’s why: First, Helionox: Chronicles is a much bigger game than I had initially thought…
Read MoreDesign Diary 008 – Game Mechanics Continued
Part 2 of ? Welcome back! In his part of the design diary, I’m planning to deep dive into game mechanics of Helionox: Chronicles. I started this a long while back and you can see it here if you’d like to get more of an overview of what’s in the game: Design Diary 003 – Game Mechanics in Helionox What I’d like to do over the next few entries here…
Read MoreDesign Diary 007 – How much can one person do?
Dedicated to this craft. You like the tape holding my dice faces on? Somehow it seems a fitting image for today’s entry. I’m holding things together but sometimes it feel like I’m using tape to do so. For example, if you follow these blogs at all, you’ll notice pattern. I’ll write, maybe even a few entries, then silence. For weeks. Or even months…. It is so hard for me to…
Read MoreDesign Diary 006 – Guest Post from Richard Launius
Thunder Rolls Launch Day is Fast Approaching! Today we have a very special guest joining us to share his own design notes out his latest game, Thunder Rolls. I have a special vested interest in this game as I’ve helped develop and I will be running the Kickstarter for it later this month! Exciting times for sure! So without further ado: So what did you do during the lockdown of…
Read MoreDesign Diary 005 – Thunder Rolls
Status Report and an Introduction Welcome back to Taran’s design diary and intermittent blog post ramblings. As always, I get to post here far less frequently than I want to and, as always, I’m hoping to change that. There is always just so much going on! That said, I do have some exciting news about a new game project! “Wait – what?” You might be inclined to ask, “Why are…
Read MoreDesign Diary 004 – Helionox Art
Let’s try something new! Somewhere over the last year or two, I decided that I’m not only a game designer and graphic designer but also an illustrator… Too many hats?! Yes – but what’s a boy to do? I just want to do everything! It started something like this: “I need an artistic outlet for my creative mind. I liked drawing and painting when I was younger, maybe I’ll give…
Read MoreDesign Diary 003 – Game Mechanics in Helionox
Part 1 of ? Hello and welcome back. I’ve been meaning to get into to some of the nitty gritty on the game mechanics in Helionox: Chronicles for quite some time now so let’s dive right in. I’ve added a bunch of the different mechanics to the Chronicles BoardGameGeek page. You can see the listing here: Helionox: Chronicles on BoardGameGeek. I’ve linked the mechanics descriptions from BGG below and will…
Read MoreDesign Diary 002 – Inspiration
Inspiration from Leaders in the Board Game Industry Hard at work play testing, working on art, trying to build a brand and a game company – sometimes you have to come up for air. When I have time, I love to read other bloggers, watch videos on how to play games, and generally be involved in the board gaming community. I take so much inspiration from others who are doing…
Read MoreDesign Diary 001 – Intro to Helionox: Chronicles
A New Day – A New Game! Welcome to the first ZG Design Diary! As usual, I have big hopes for how this may work in the future but as a fledgling blogger, I’m just going to keep it short and simple so I’ll actually do it on a somewhat regular basis. Baby steps, right?! My hope for this series of design diary blog posts is that I’ll have a…
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