Board Game Design Enthusiast
I've been a hobbyist board game designer since 2018. This part of my website is dedicated to showing you some of the games I've been working on. You can see them categorized based on their level of completion.
Finished Games
This is a solo only roll&write game, designed during the Covid lockdowns. As for publishing, I just made it available as a free to download Print and Play game.
What is the game about?
The war at Troy has been waging for 10 years now. Achilles, hero of the greeks prepares to avenge his dear friend Patroclus. In order to do so, Achilles' mother, the goddess Thetis ask the help of Hephaestus (you), blacksmith of the gods to create a new shield for him.
During the course of the game, you will craft the famous shield depicting scenes of ancient greek life. Your objective is to score more points by crafting the shield than the points on your discarded dice by the end of the game. These discarded dice values represent the scrap metal that Apollo steals away from you to create arrows for Paris, who is destined to kill Achilles.
Components you'll need:
1 pcs gamesheet & rulebook
3 pcs D12 dice
4 pcs any kind of small markers
any type of writing material
Links:
Download the game from here in English, German or Spanish.
Download the Print and Play version from PNPArcade.
Check it out on BoardGameGeek.
In Development
These are the games I'm currently working on. Some of them - I hope, are getting closer to being published one way or the other, some need lots of work.
A game for 2 players. 20-30 minutes playtime, Ages 12+
Main mechanics: I cut, you choose, Worker Placement, Area Majority/Influence.
The players are two conscripts in a cold war - eastern block army base, about to finish their mandatory military service. They want to go home as rich as possible. Taking turns during their final three weeks, they will try to sweep the base inside-out for anything valuable while dodging orders, avoiding each other, while building their strength for a final face-off at the discharge. The victor is the player with more treasure at the end of the game.
After a semi-randomised setup, gameplay is:
One player draws 3 cards. They keep 1, give 1 to the other player, and move the 3rd to the bottom of the draw pile. Cards mean locations players can go to on that turn.
The other player, upon receiving their card, decides if they go inside a building, or on the street of given location. The first player must then go to the other type (street or building) with their own card.
These repeats until players loot the area. At the end, After scoring location bonuses, the stronger player takes some "money" away from weaker player. Then, the richer player wins.
Download the print and play files or try it online here.
Note1: I think the game mechanics could work in any kind of "mercenaries in a war" setting, from Ancient times through vikings, Medieval armies, pirates, Napoleonic, or even modern eras. I'm very open to retheming the game.
Note2: This game also began it's life as a BGG Contest Entry in 2020. Other than the collecting stuff by going to locations in an army base, it was pretty different. You can see it for yourself here.
The park is full of wonders for puppies, so no wonder when given a chance, they will try to run away from their owners to have fun chasing birds, chewing sticks, digging holes and peeing on grass tuffets. In the game, the vagrant puppies are represented by flicking items on the map, aiming for spots where the Interesting Things are. As players do more of the activites, (marked on their personal sheets), they may become more skilled.
However, there are zones forbidden to dogs as well, and activities already done by other players become unavailable to others, so as the map "shrinks", it becomes easier to irritate the owners by the tomfoolery, forcing them to take their dogs home. The winner is the puppy first to complete the rows of fun activites on their sheets, or the last puppy to be taken home by their owners.
This is a very light flick and write game, aimed at children and adults who just want to have fun (it's also a drinking game). It plays with up to 4 people, and game shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.
2-4 players, 45+ minutes, Ages 12+
Main mechanics: Deck building, Tableau building, Area control
Players are trying to craft the holy book of a fictional faith, with the goal of creating the most virulent religion, able to spread faster amongst the people on a fictional landmass.
The cards represent religions themes and concepts (ie. animal symbolism, seasonal symbolism, various institutes) without invoking any actual existing faith - and leaving out concepts that has proven to lead to subjugation of people throughout history. You can only win by making the "catchiest" faith.
Players on their turn draw cards from their personal decks, then use cards to either build their tableau, their book of tenets, which periodically cycles out older concepts, or use them for one-time effects of manipulating their personal deck, or collecting advocates via triggering intuitiv, formal and concrete religious experiences in them, who then spread the players religion on the map. Players score points based on their influence over the map.
"Congratulations! You have just been selected as an Executive Producer candidate of the network’s flagship morning show, The Sunrise Special! Achieve higher viewership ratings than the numbers of That Other Show and please your ad sponsors to win the promotion for the long run. You must invite the most interesting Celebrity, Political, Cultural and Sports guests into your show to pump up the ratings, but your sponsors will also want a say in who gets in the show. You must also take care of your relationship with your Hosts, the stars of the show, because depending on how much they like you, will set your victory condition to win the job (and the game)."
Another entry for a BGG Contest (this time for a Solitaire competition, 2022). Another variation of the "collect positive and negative points at the same time with each decision" game idea - this time there are two consequences of each decision: Hurt Guests go to That Other Show as ratings you have to compete with, and Hurt Hosts throughout the game influence what your victory condition will be at the end of the game.
After the contest, I wanted to keep developing the solo mode - especially streamline-ing the fiddlyness of the gameplay, and to turn this game into a proper multiplayer game, idally with up to 4 players.
You can check out the Contest Ready phase - as well as some encouraging opinions 🙂 - on the BGG WIP Thread.
This is my forey into 18 card games territory. I've created this for the Button Shy Games Legacy contest, held in spring 2020. The game is kind of complete, I am only thinking of making it available for higher player counts with more components.
You can check out the pitch video:
And download the PnP files from here. (It's a Google Drive link)
In Development - Images
Common Conscripts Prototype
Common Conscripts Prototype - with a previous name
Vagrant Puppies Prototype
Vagrant Puppies Prototype
The Good Book Prototype - TTS
The Good Book Prototype - TTS
The Good Book Prototype - TTS
The Sunrise Special Digital Prototype
Instant Photo School prototype
Abandoned Prototypes
This is the name I gave to game ideas that I haven't touched in the past 12 months. Maybe at some point, they will move back to the In Development phase.
Created for the 2020 2 player PnP design competition on BoardGameGeek.
The players are fighting on the frontline of the Cold war, in the divided city of Berlin in the 50's, 60's. The players are trying to win by scoring the most points, achieved by drawing an effective network of safe houses and other buildings for their spy agencies on their side of the Wall, trying to turn as many agents of the enemy into moles working for them, or trying to prevent the other player from turning their own spies into moles.
Inspired by my love for Captain Sonar, I wanted to create a similar, but easier to play, and way easier to teach roll&write game. Players have the same available actions for their turn: use 3 dice for 3 different actions: 1. Set up safe houses in districts on their side of the wall, using a polyomino mechanism. 2. To infiltrate beyond the wall, by drawing lines towards objectives on enemy territory. 3. To defend against other players doing action 2, by using dice value for action points for asking questions and making raids against enemy lines.
You can check out a previous game state through the WIP thread of the game on BGG.
I wanted to keep working on this game idea after the contest, but then Covid lockdowns and my move to Berlin happened, making group playtesting for me impossible for a while. Also, I fell out of love with the polyomino mechanisms, so I want to redo the whole Action 1 thing.
A sandbox-y crime solving R&W game set in the San Francisco area, which we did with Chris for a BGG competition.
You are detectives tasked with solving a case (by collecting fresher clues) quicker than any other player. The game gives you a collection of loosely sketched up “starter” cases to work on, with more on the way and a toolkit to create your own scenarios!
You can check out PnP files on the game's WIP thread, or our explainer video.
The best thing that came out of this process is my collaborative friendship with Chris, since then we are working on another, larger game - check out The Good Book in the "In Development" section.
My Little Blockbuster was created for a hungarian design competition. Playable by one or two players - with my design focus on the solo mode.
It is a Roll&Write economic game about Hollywood accounting. Players are movie producers. Making a great film is not enough on its own - you need to pay attention to keep the budget under control, put enough "stuff" in the film that in theory ensures high ticket sales, and also consider the studio's requests to keep them satisfied. Throughout the game, you collect both negative (expenses) and positive (revenue) points, and you win if the balance of your film is positive, meaning it generates profit.
I consider it a mechanical follow-up to The Shield of Achilles, in that it is also a balancing act of plus and minus points, with a different theme, and more accessible components: now players need D6 dice, and a deck of poker cards.
To continue work on this one, I'll have to translate the game from Hungarian to English, and also, it needs plenty of work on the multiplayer mode - I'm happy with the solo variant.
I started to work on this for one of the 54 cards design contests on BGG.
The game is about "blocking" (designing the choreography of the camera and actors in) a scene from a stereotypical eastern european arthouse movie - which usually uses long takes. For reference, see movies from Béla Tarr. Players were cinematographer students, who are competing for the chance to work with The Great Artist - by showing their skill with this demo scene.
Gameplay, as I imagined it, was kind of semi-cooperative tile-laying, action programming puzzle. The stage, where the actor meeples can move around, is shared by the players. The cards represent two things on their two sides: One side is a dolly track - the rails the camera move on. They come in different shapes, straights, corners, crosses, etc. The other side of the cards represent directions for the camera (move forward or backward on the dolly track, turn 45, 90 etc. degrees with the camera) or for the actors (movement, turning).
Players on their turns can decide which card to play (and with which side), then, if they put down a direction card, they have to play out their blocking sequence. If, at the end of the sequence, the camera is not pointing towards any of the actors, the player would loose a "life" (reputation? respect of The Great Artist?). Then, game continues until all players except one looses their "lives".
The main reason I stopped working on it, is that I found out pretty quickly that a game with this topic can't work with the component limitations (54 cards and a few meeples for actors and the camera) of the 54 card design contest. Also, I've found that the victory condition of "being the last player standing" works better in a much lighter game - see Vagrant Puppies.
This is my first game design which I've followup through to a playable, pitchable stage. It was first created with two co-designers, Judit Czefernek and Márk Hegedüs, at BG12, a 12 hour design competition held by A-Games, a hungarian publisher in 2018. We ended up on the shortlist of the best 10 games, but didn't reach a publishing deal.
Eat the best meals from the office fridge during your workweek by earning the highest score! If you have to steal food from your coworkers to do that, so be it! However beware, you may also find nasty surprises in the fridge that can upset your stomach (earning points).
The game lasts for 5 rounds. During each round (= workdays), players can choose to do 1 or 2 actions with the aim of manipulating or investigating the face-down card stacks (= fridge racks). Two scoring phases (Elevenses and Lunch) happen at the middle and the end of rounds, when each player must pick a fridge rack, and eat it's content. The winner is the player with the highest score.
What's special about the game is the scoring. It is based on the value of "consumed" cards, meaning the points on food cards are influenced by both Sauce cards next to it and general trickery cards, which means there's plenty of agency just in the "looking and moving around" action - and randomness from the other perspective. It is also the hardest part of the rules explanation process - probably that's why plenty of publishers passed on the game, and I don't blame them. I've seen similar games since then, which have similar problems, so I consider this prototype very valuable in terms of "I learned valuable lessons from my mistakes."
Abandoned Prototypes - Images
The Berlin Wall - Mid Game
My Little Blockbuster
Silicon Valley Mystery
The Longest Take
What I Eat is Mine - Mid Game
What I Eat is Mine - Scoring example
