UD Con XXIII: Mad Scientist Con

It's that time of the year again. UD Con is just on the horizon, and I am excited to announce that we will be having not 1, but 2 playtests there this year! That's a 100% increase in kaiju awesomeness from last year!

Click the image below to for more details about UD Con XXIII: Mad Scientist Con

FASFAC is hosting the Con in the Science Center on UD's campus this year March 4th through 6th. If you want to playtest Vulcanus, Space Hunter X, Eelian, and Fenrir come to the Fishbowl between 7 and 8 pm Friday. If you want to tryout 4 never before tested Daikaiju then come to the Fishbowl between noon and 2 pm Saturday. If you're at the convention but can't make those times, find me and I'm sure we can get a game started at an open table.

I'll also be running a panel about giant monster movies for beginners at 9:30 pm Friday in Room 119. Whether your a total newbie or a kaiju film veteran, it's sure to be a blast. Hope to see you there!

Until next time, keep the good times rolling!

An Actual Playtest for Ants

This past weekend I hosted an amazing playtest with some awesome individuals. The purpose of the test was to see how the changes made after the Gen Con Playtest held up while introducing a new monster: Gi-Ant.

Gi-Ant is unlike any other Daikaiju introduced thus far. What started as a joke from the Gen Con Playtest has turned into a monster that may go on to become a fan favorite. It could be said that he is a synthesis of Eelian and Vulcanus, but don't let that fool you! While it's true Gi-Ant can burrow to escape danger and cause city shattering earthquakes like Vulcanus, his real strength lies in his ability to spawn tiny Mut-Ants!

These Mut-Ants are terribly hard to balance. Expanded action economy is no joke in a game like Daikaiju Director. I want the Mut-Ants to provide an obvious benefit to Gi-Ant, without breaking the game, and I believe I almost hit the mark. Gi-Ant didn't win any of the games in his debut playtest, but he was a force to be reckoned with and a lot of fun to play. He'll definitely need to be tweaked before the final release, but there's a solid foundation to build from.

Now on to things that were completely broken...

If you follow the Facebook page, then you probably know that Daikaiju Director had its first kaiju kill in scene 1. This all happened in the first game of the playtest! Fenrir moved, pounced on Eelian, and then played an impressive combo of Twist Cards that ended up doing 6 damage to the space snake thanks to Fenrir's "Vicious" passive ability. Veterans of playtests past have commented on how Fenrir is either really good, or really bad. He's a glass cannon kaiju killer. After this I'm leaning towards believing he's either too good or too bad. I'm going to make some slight changes to his offensive and defensive capabilities, while hopefully maintaining the spirit of the monster.

The other games highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of the other monsters. We had a very even spread of winners throughout the afternoon. Only 2 out of 4 of the playtesters had played Daikaiju Director before, and one of them had only played it at the first UD Con Playtest. Needless to say the game has changed quite a bit since then! We were also joined by a fellow game designer, Zac Reed, who has his own game, Life is Card, available on DriveThruCards.com

Please check out Life is Card here!

One of the best moments for me this past weekend was to see the playtesters have so much fun playing Daikaiju Director. Despite minor necessary rules clarifications and balance issues, everyone had a blast, and at the end of the day that's what gaming is all about.

If you don't already, Like Us on Facebook as well as Life is Card. I should be updating soon with details about this year's UD Con playtest along with some other exciting announcements. I'm currently looking for an artist to help with some concept art. If you know someone or are interested yourself please email Daikaiju Director. Until next time, keep the good times rolling!

November Update

Hey Daikaiju Director fans! I know it's been a while since I last posted so I decided it was time for an update despite not having much to report.

There's not much going on in the development of the game at the moment, but I should be starting a new round of playtesting of the original 4 Daikaiju alongside 5 brand new monsters sometime in December/January. I'm also working on getting some concept art put together so look forward to seeing some images of the monsters you know and even some you don't in the near future.

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month again so I'm busier than ever. Any updates this month will be brief, but after November I might start posting some short fiction featuring the monsters of Daikaiju Director. I'll have to see if writing 50,000 words in a month inspires more creativity or burns me out.

Until then keep checking the site, Twitter, and Facebook for all things related to Daikaiju Director and giant monster movies in general.

Gen Con: "What is This? A Playtest for Ants?"

When they say that GenCon is "the best 4 days in gaming," they aren't joking. It was simply amazing. All of the play test slots went fantastic. Seriously, it was better than we could've ever hoped and thank you so much to everyone who participated or showed interest in Daikaiju Director. I want to especially thank Double Exposure Inc for running the First Exposure Playtest Hall so smoothly. We learned a lot and had a blast. Over 50 games were played over two days by 32 people, and we got a huge amount of feedback.

So what exactly did we learn?

Where's the Ants?

Due to a quirk with the typography of the play test slips, some people thought the were signing up for an strategy board game based on "Ant Monster Movies." With Ant Man in theaters this undoubtedly helped to a attract a few more playtesters and it inspired me to create another monster to be included in the game's release. But more on that later...

Players were very excited to play the 4 different monsters, but they wanted more. Whether they were taken straight from the Godzilla franchise or unique new monsters 1/4th of the playtesters explicitly asked for more Daikaiju in the questionnaires I handed out at the end of the play test slots. This is great because Space Hunter X, Eelian, Fenrir, and Vulcanus are just the tip of the iceberg. I really want Daikaiju Director to grow, and I've got 8 more monsters to playtest.

A Lot of People are Interested in a Kickstarter

A lot of people were interested in investing in a Kickstarter, which is fantastic. It was great to see so much support from complete strangers. Originally I was planning on starting a Kickstarter around tax return season 2016, but I don't think that's feasible anymore. I'm getting married next summer and I frankly don't think I'll have the time to get Daikaiju Director into investors' hands and on store shelves is a reasonable time-frame. I've got to push any Kickstarter or crowdfunding effort back to 2017, but don't be alarmed. This just means I'll have a bigger, more refined game when the time comes to actually produce it.

The Look

Comments on the look of Daikaiju Director varied greatly. It is going to change substantially as we get closer to the finished product. It's going to look sharper and a lot more professional. Specialized art for every twist card as well as monster art for every daikaiju is going to be commissioned. The prototype we had at GenCon was just a taste of what the finished product will be.

Game Length and Complexity

From all of the data we gathered, I believe the game length is pretty much perfect. People who had a lot of fun thought the length of games was either too short or great. People who didn't have as much fun playing thought it was a tad too long. Time flies when you're having fun. I'll include rule for modifying game length in the final release, but I think 10 scenes is pretty close to perfect. The complexity appears to be at a happy medium of not too simple and not too difficult. Those that had more fun with the game found it more simple than those that had less fun.

Randomization of the Set

More than a few people asked if the board could be rearranged or randomized. With the prototype this wasn't possible, and honestly I'm not sure randomization will be possible with the final version. I do want multiple map configurations, both to accommodate various numbers of players and to provide a multitude of scenarios. Balanced gameplay is paramount in any game, and set configuration is one area of Daikaiju Director that needs to be carefully redone. I'm working on it, and the base game is shaping up to have around 6 or so configurations, possibly more.

Wording Clarifications and Balance Tweaks

Of course, the main purpose of this play test was to uncover any wording or balance issues, and there were about as many as I expected.  Eelian's attack needs to be raised and Fenrir's defense needs to go up as well. Earthquake's range needs to be reduced one space and the wording on Vulcanus' water weakness needs to be completely redone.

Overall, most people thought Eelian was weak and under-powered compared to the other monsters, despite winning the most games. Fenrir was also viewed as under-powered in games where he died early, but overpowered in games where he stuck around until the end. This is probably caused by playtester playstyles conflicting with the Daikaiju's playstyle, but I am making some adjustments to try and make them more consistently balanced. Vulcanus was the second most frequently suggested weakest monster, which surprised me since in previous playtests he was consistently singled out as the most powerful by a large margin. I must have overcompensated in the most recent revision.


That's all for this update. I'm going to continue to tweak and test Daikaiju Director as well as implement a lot of the feedback I got at GenCon. Thanks again to everybody who came out and played!

Sneak Peek of Gen Con: What's in the Box?

Continuing our series of Daikaiju Director sneak peeks leading up to Gen Con, I present to you the game box! Before I go into the reveal I wanted to inform everyone about our playtest slots in the First Exposure Playtest Hall. Come by Friday or Saturday at the below times to play some games or talk about Daikaiju Director.

Friday

• 8AM - 10AM
• 2PM - 4PM

Saturday

• 2PM - 4PM
• 6PM - 8PM

We hope to see you at Gen Con!

Anyways, on to what you came here for. Without further to do I present to you the new Daikaiju Director game box:

Snazzy, right? It's a much needed update to the old boxes from the UD Con playtest. It's got the new logo and some fancy art. There's also a blurb explaining what Daikaiju Director is all about. Now let's take a look inside.

It's a bit bigger than the original. There's room for all of the components. You can see the set tiles sitting snugly in the lower left compartment. The Twist Decks for all 4 daikaiju fit in the spot to the right. The daikaiju standees are just above the decks. That leaves the upper left compartment for everything else. There's the building and lava props, along with dice and the various counters for health, energy and ratings points. Below the box you can see the 4 daikaiju cards, more about those later...

What's this?

That's right folks! We've got 2 prototypes finished. That means that we will be running 2 games at the same time during our playtest slots! That's double the dose of Daikaiju Director!

That's all for this installment. We will probably have one more post before Gen Con so keep checking the blog, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twiter.

Sneak Peek of Gen Con: the Set

With only a few weeks between now and the Gen Con Playtest, I figured it's time to give everyone a taste of what to expect. Today's feature is all about the set. We've been hard at work creating new prototypes for playtesting. Check them out below!

Here's the configuration that we have been using for all of the play tests so far, including Gen Con. This configuration is made for 4 player games. The center of the set, which is the focus of all of the action, features a city nestled between two lakes. The rubble hexes are where building props are placed when you start the game, and the dark green spaces are Daikaiju starting positions.

Here it is in pieces. You can construct different sets with these set tiles. There are 3 main tile types.

• Starter Tile: These tiles are just a bunch green grass and don't have any special features besides the Daikaiju starting positions. There's 2 variations of this tile.
• Waterfront Tile: These tiles feature 1 building prop and a whole bunch of water. This hinders movement for non-aquatic monsters.
• City Tile: These tiles are the center of attention in every game of Daikaiju Director. The have 4 building props ready to be wrecked and a lot of space for Daikaiju to duke it out!

Up top there's the bases for the building props. Put three buildings in them and place the prop on the rubble spaces on the set. Then the game is ready to play!

Take a look at it all set up! Not a bad looking set. It'd be a shame if some angry giant monsters showed up and started breaking things... Actually that would be awesome!

Here's another shot of the set featuring some lava. Looks like the city is about to be burned down thanks to Vulcanus!

Well, that's all for this round of Gen Con Sneak Peeks. Stay tuned too see what we reveal next week and spread the word about Daikaiju Director. Like us on Facebook and Follow us on Twitter before Gen Con @Daikaiju_Direct!

I'm Going to Disneylan-er I mean GenCon!

That's right folks! We're going to be at GenCon!

I'm excited to announce that Daikaiju Director will be having an official play test in the First Exposure Playtest Hall at GenCon Indy 2015. We haven't worked out all of the details yet so we can't say for certain when our test slots will be scheduled. I'll post that information as soon as it's set in stone. What I do know is that we will be running multiple games during our slots so make sure to tell your friends and stop by for some giant monster board gaming goodness!

Don't know what GenCon is? It's the best 4 days in gaming! 

Click this image for more info:

Follow us on Twitter @Daikaiju_Direct and help spread the word!