Early in my game design journey, I was told an essential truth: start with an uncomplicated concept. Not necessarily simplistic, just focused. Keep the core gameplay intuitive, the theme engaging, and the path from early prototyping to final production crystal clear.
Unfortunately, I ignored this advice.
I kicked off my design career taking a course led by veteran designer and publisher Emerson Matsuuchi. For my class project, I chose a game idea I'd been working on called The Last Harvest (and later renamed EARTHFALL, after peer and instructor feedback). It is what many designers might call their "grail" game. This is a major league design -- asymmetric factions, an automated opponent AI, resource collection, territory control, branching tech trees, and over thirty custom miniature designs. It combines more than a dozen game mechanics into a complex strategy game.
It is ambitious, complex, and -- in hindsight -- a bit naive for a debut project.
The course was invaluable. It took me from raw idea to publisher pitch, leaving me with a playable physical prototype, a Virtual Table Top setup, a 30-second elevator pitch, and a polished sell sheet. But once EARTHFALL hit the table for its first live play testing, reality set in: refining a game of that scope will take a long time.
"Creating games has been a lifelong passion, and seeing this project materialize on the table is incredibly rewarding."
I decided I wanted a short-term milestone, a concrete, focused design I could steer through the entire self-publishing pipeline from start to finish. I made the decision to shelve EARTHFALL and pivot to Beyond Bluffing.
Beyond Bluffing has became my hands-on guide in self-publishing. At its heart, it is a game of incomplete information and bold-faced deception. Players push their luck building a hidden tableau of claims while opponents use their limited knowledge to sniff out the lies. The game employs a standard 54-card deck (including jokers as courtly Jesters), custom action cards, and a simple board with a card tableau, draw and discard wells, and a scoring track.
The theme evolved along the way. I'm generally curious and at one point had descended an historical rabbit hole on late 19th-century Victorian spiritualism and séances. No surprise when I originally rooted the game in this period of mystical mischief. But as the gameplay progressed, I realized a lighter, more humorous tone was more appropriate. I shifted the setting to a comical medieval royal court. Instead of somber mediums in shadowy parlors, players become mystics auditioning for the King, dodging rival scrutiny, and getting exposed by court jesters.
Mechanically, the game started in the most basic way possible: a standard deck of cards, a pencil, and a scratch pad. No special actions, no jokers -- just four suits, thirteen ranks, and the primary challenge of bluffing.
Once I felt that the basic concept made sense for a game, I started layering in structure. A physical board was necessary to manage the medium's tableau and highlight the initial summoning range. Drawing on my ancient web design background, I mocked up the first board and card layouts in Affinity Designer to enhance play testing.
Table feedback revealed that playing with just a standard deck fell short in engagement. It was suggested that action cards would add variety and provide ways to introduce catch-up and pull-back features. In addition, adding an integrated scoring track to the board, and custom player meeples, so players didn't have to break the game flow to fiddle with phone calculators to track their scores.
With mechanics refining to a vanishing point, visual identity became the priority. I wanted the game to evoke the fun, expressive energy of classic cartooning -- think Sergio Aragonés art in the margins in MAD Magazine. I connected with a freelance illustrator via Fiverr to establish the character styles, and I used those early sketches as placeholder art for the next prototype revisions.
A quick note on production ethics: AI is strictly a pre-production tool for me. No AI-generated assets will appear in the final box. Every line of text, illustration, rulebook graphic, and physical component is created by human imagination and craft. As it should be! The joy of designing should be in the work, not just the outcome.
After playtesting many revisions of the game, I believe I have landed on the right mix of components. I'm gathering quotes from multiple manufacturers to establish realistic unit costs, ensuring minor production adjustments won't derail the budget. I have fulfillment and shipping contacts to round out the landed costs and distribution overhead.
The component artwork is in progress, and the artist has wonderfully captured the comic medieval vibe. Over the coming months, he (and others) will finalize the remaining designs, and I'll prep the pre-launch crowdfunding campaign targeting an early 2027 debut.
Creating games has been a lifelong passion, and seeing this project materialize on the table is incredibly rewarding. The variety and depth of resources available online, and a dedicated community to learn from, have been invaluable to me. In my next entry, I'll talk about which resources have helped make this journey possible.