Homebrew Games Part 2: Splendor

Splendor is a simple strategy game about becoming as influential as possible in the gem industry.  On your turn, you may do one of 3 actions: take up to 3 gems (as long as there are some left in the bank!); buy a card on the table using gems (granting you Prestige Points and permanent gems); or reserve a card (you gain a wild "gold" gem token and you may use a future turn to purchase your reserved card).  If you meet the requirements to collect a Noble card, then you automatically take it and gain 3 Prestige Points at the end of your turn.  The first player to reach 15 Prestige Points wins the game.

The game starts off relatively slowly.  Players spend most of their turns collecting gems to buy basic cards with.  As you gain more cards, you also gain "permanent gems."  You may use the card's gem over and over to buy newer, more expensive/more valuable cards.  By the end of the game, most players are taking cards (and therefore usually aquiring Prestige Points) almost every turn.  Each turn becomes a critical decision in the race to 15 points.

While visiting some extended family, we wanted to play Splendor.  Most of us owned it, but we didn't have it on-hand.  We were going to stay for a while, so we decided to make our own.

First, I researched the cost/type/points of each of the game's 100 cards.  I then cut index cards down and marked cost/type/point values on all of them, to match the original game (I didn't want to change the mechanical balance).  After every card was prepared and playable, I recruited some friends and family to contribute to adding art to the 100 cards.  This process has taken almost a year, but now each card has its own unique drawing!

A few months after we started, we purchased a plastic gem set from www.topshelfgamer.com and made a "bank" with a half-dozen muffin tray from the dollar store.  We also added felt in the bottom of the tray wells to reduce the noise.

Some of the cards are part of a set (e.g. the 3 Powerpuff Girls cards).  Our house rules include +1 point for completing a set of 2 and +2 points for completing a set of 3.  We also play to 20 points, just for fun.

Everything is hand-drawn in marker/pencil by me, Kristen, Eric, Andrew, Trevor, and Chase.

Homebrew Games Part 1: Arcomage

Over the years, I've made a couple Homebrew board/card/paper games to play when friends and I haven't had access to the real thing for some reason or another.  I'll describe them and post pictures during these next few blog entries.

The first one is from an old computer game series called Might and Magic.  Released before the more popular Heroes of Might and Magic strategy series, you could build a party and explore towns and dungeons and perform quests for NPCs.  In the 7th and 8th entries in the series, you could visit any tavern and play a virtual card game called Arcomage.

The game is played with 2 players (you vs. the computer).  Players take turns playing cards from their 6-card hand, and taking new cards to always have 6 cards in-hand.  To play a card, you must spend the resources required (shown by color/number in the bottom-right corner).  There are 3 types of resources, and each type has a "generator" to allot you at the beginning of your turn.  Bricks are Red, and are generated by Quarries.  Gems are Blue, and are generated by Magic.  Recruits are Green, and are generated by Dungeons.

There are three ways to win the game.  The first way is to increase your Tower to a predetermined amount (such as 50).  The second way is to reduce the opponent's Tower to zero.  The third way is to gain a predetermined ridiculous amount of any resource (such as 300 gems).  Therefore, Towers are your most precious attribute.  You can also build up your Wall to soak up damage and protect your Tower.

It's surprisingly fun, and actually really easy to play once you get the hang of it.  There is some luck involved, but you can start to see patterns and accommodate your strategy accordingly.  For example, red cards tend to focus on building up your wall; blue cards your tower; and green cards focus on damaging the enemy.  The biggest complaint I had was that the only way you could play Arcomage was to play against a computer within a video game...

...So I made my own.

First, I printed out every card from Might and Magic VIII.  I also printed out duplicates for some "common" cards.  I also bought some cheap card protector sleeves to make them easier to handle.  After that, I had to figure out how to make an intuitive board for tracking all the numbers in the game (tower, wall, resources).  I ended up buying some magnetic dry-erase boards and markers (some permanent and some dry-erase).

With a ruler and permanent markers, I drew the Tower/Wall indicators on a 1-foot by 1-foot board.  With magnets, cardstock, and double-sided tape, I made the pieces.  Each player has a Resources board with slots to write in generators, and resources that can be adjusted each turn by sliding magnets to the appropriate ones- and tens-slots.

It has been a blast playing with other people, and everyone who has played has enjoyed it.  I even made a few custom cards to throw some personal flavor in:

I'd recommend Arcomage to anyone of any age or strategy skill level.  If you get the chance, find a way to play it!  Oh, and if you're into party-building fantasy adventure - Might and Magic VII & VIII are some of my favorite video games in existence - and I don't say that lightly.

Red Hat Castle Version 1.4 Released!

Red Hat Castle has seen significant renovations over the past few weeks, featuring new areas to explore and new items to find!  It's all available at curse.com.

Also, just in case you want more information or don't want to take the time to complete Metal Difficulty, I've uploaded a playthrough to Youtube!  Watch the videos here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHLXPiwtCoA&list=PLSH859xvNW7VrY3MXvPfZatSz2m8_V2Um

Red Hat Castle Full Maps

Just for fun, I've ripped screenshots from TEdit to MS Paint files showing most of Red Hat Castle.  In order of least-to-most spoilery:

Basic Map:

Larger Map with Labels:

SPOILERY TEASER for super-secret extra content:

What does it mean...?!

Eversion Custom Evil Level Speedrun Video

This is a year old, but it's an awesome tool-assisted speedrun of a single custom stage I made for Eversion.  The video was created and uploaded by Botzdotcom last year!  Thanks again, Botz!

Update Log for Red Hat Castle

===== December 29, 2016 =====

-Added a Trophy Room to the end of the game, where you can view and track "Achievement"-type accomplishments for any difficulty.

-Various aesthetic improvements

-More pixel art and secret stuff

-20th Edition!

===== December 20, 2016 =====

- Greatly improved the endings for Toddler and Normal difficulties.  More love to go around!  

- More art and minor details  

- More secrets  

- More gratitude  

October 5, 2016

Changed many little things. More art!

September 28, 2016

Added an additional boss encounter in the Dark World. Added a Greater Healing Potion Shop in the Dark World. 2 Gold for 30 Potions. Moved a couple things around, and now I'm selling the game again at its original price, just like Dark Souls 2. In this case, the price is free. More knick-knacks and minor changes, too. I originally released this game over a year ago. Wow.

September 25, 2016

Added significantly more exploration in the Stratogarden. Added a mini Difficulty Block example near the start of the game. Added more vines near the forest floor, so you can try to catch one to save yourself from death. Added a new super-secret area. Many other minor things too.

September 24, 2016

New Skytree Floating Forest Space Jungle Stratogarden area added! Available to any difficulty! Even more aesthetication for maximum pleasjh!

August 4, 2016

Aesthetic improvements! Made the waterway area better. Also, the death well is now only probably death instead of definitely death. Made space much more awesome! Made many other minor changes to improve the experience.

May 31, 2016

More hidden stuff! Secret accessories!

May 30, 2016

Various minor adjustments, including a clock in the Throne Room, some aesthetic changes, some added conveniences, some added items, and some NPC-related changes.

May 29, 2016

• EDIT: Reuploaded to fix the difficulty selection at the beginning!

Changed the Forest shortcut to explosives, to avoid confusion regarding the forest switches and also cuz explosions. Many Metal-Difficulty "post-game" tweaks for balance, including added shortcuts, extra sign hints, changed item availability, and less boring parts. Many "post-post-post-post-post-post-game" changes, including the "true ending," involving me showing up at your house with a platter of delicious homemade cookies and a coupon for a back massage from Yours Truly (unconfirmed). Many minor aesthetic improvements. But can something so subjective as aesthetics be truly "improved"..?

April 24, 2016

Improved aesthetics and made the Flask chest rebalanced and slightly more exciting.

April 23, 2016

Added the Merchant NPC to the game, so you finally have something to spend your money on! That something is namely potions and shurikens. Doubled the number of any potions found in barrels. Made King Red Hat's room inaccessible until later in the game. This way, it should prevent people from carelessly walking through it prematurely.

April 19, 2016

Added an out-of-bounds NPC condo. Now, if you die on an NPC-related boss, you won't have to move tables into Save Rooms to get the NPC back! Copper Shortswords placed in the intro chest on the cloud, just in case you immediately destroy yours. Various minor changes, including some aesthetics and smoothing out the Church's challenge.

March 27, 2016

Painted the Crystal Hearts and added names for the special item chests throughout the map.

March 26, 2016

Many aesthetic changes, and a few other minor changes.

March 12, 2016

Added some signs for more flavor. Fixed Sign-Psychic's room. It both looks better and actually functions the way it's supposed to. Added triggerable shortcuts in the forest area and the trappy warehouse area Various aesthetic changes. Some make paths and triggers more obvious, others just make the world look more awesome. Added many more hidden items, especially within the Metal Difficulty-only section.

January 26, 2016

Made the Giant Tree area signiiiiiificantly less annoying ugh gross Vine Hell

January 16, 2016

Stupid King RedHat! Fixed(?) an issue where he would decide to be anywhere other than his rightful place. Made the Giant Tree area sliiiiightly less annoying Added a few items for fun Minor aesthetic changes

January 11, 2016

Giga-Update, with insane amounts of new content on Normal and Metal Difficulties.

September 8, 2015

Initial "final product." Very lame.

Red Hat Castle Giga-Update!

Finally, a version of Red Hat Castle that you can admit to your friends that you play!

• Insanely huge giga-update, more-than-doubling the size of the originally released version!  

• Normal and Metal difficulties now have the option of entering a surreal alternate dimension of sorts at the end of the original game arc!  

• Smoother difficulty curve and level design for ultimate pleasure!

• Wow!

• Improved aesthetics to make you feel immersed in an intriguing mystery world instead of just a boring rectangle world.

• More bosses, weapons, armor, and secret vanity items!

• Jiggety-Jam-packed with hidden stuff for you to discover!

• ...But watch out, Metal people - the road ahead is far more dangerous and spiky than anything you've ever seen with your eyeballs in your skull!

 Wow!  Lookit!

What even is this place?  IDK!!

You can download Red Hat Castle here: 

http://mods.curse.com/maps/terraria/red-hat-castle

Also, the older links to the game have been updated as well.  No one needs that older crap.