Daniel Solis

Seems like Pitch Tag has really taken off on Google Plus! Here are some ongoing threads. » Jared Axelrod » Dev Purkayastha » Brett Myers I can already see the challenge of playing Pitch Tag on this channel, though. As the thread ages, it draws fewer new participants to add new life. Eventually the thread fades when the current participants burn out. Granted, that'll happen regardless of the channel, but it seems to happen faster on +.

Chris Farrell of Illuminating Games just wrote a thorough critique of card games setting their body text to be so small that they cannot be read at arm's length, let alone across the table. Here's an excerpt, but the whole thing is worth a read for any would-be card game designers out there. (Myself included.) Break out your copy of the base set of Dominion, and look at the Chapel. This has a text box roughly 3.5cm by 4.5cm. It's got a single line of text. That line of text is 1 (one) millimeter high. 1mm! For me, it's only clearly readable at half an arm's length even in the bright light of day. (...) Compare this to a more sane game like Glory to Rome, where the font size is 2-3 times as large (text is 2mm high, keywords 3mm and usually highlighted). I can generally read Glory to Rome cards across the table, and can certainly see the important keywords. To heap insult upon injury, not only does Glory to Rome have far more legible text than Dominion it also has...

"Ideas are like stars – Numerous and dazzling, but it takes a lot of work to confirm life near one." That got retweeted a lot yesterday. It's been a while since I made a new t-shirt and this spread fast enough that I decided to whip up a quick little design to put on some cafepress stuff . It's now available on t-shirts and outerwear in a variety of colors, sizes, and styles for men and women. » "Ideas are like Stars..." Shirts and Apparel More shirts are available, too!

Though it is many, many months away, I can't help but look ahead to the next Kickstarter project: Utara. That image above is the snazzy new branding. The big experiment this time is the backer-generated map of Utara. You've heard me talk about the power of naming rights already. I'm stepping that up a bit this time around. Now, backers can create the world of Utara. Above is a blueprint for Utara's map. It's a grid divided into about 2400 cells, each large enough for a single Utara die. Backers of certain levels will create and name islands, archipelagos, major landmasses, and greater seas. Here's a loose outline... Goal: $2000 — That covers a minimum order of 2000 dice from the manufacturer with the same specs as the Writer's Dice. I've had some requests for Utara dice to be a more traditional ivory with black inlay design. I'll look into that, but it'll be more expensive per-unit and raise the minimum goal. 30 Days — This game is a...

Evil Hat's webstore has a 10% discount on most games, including Happy Birthday, Robot! and Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple . Same discount applies to PDFs, too.

This is a creativity game for two or more players inspired by word association exercises and writer jam sessions. You can play this game over any communication medium, including in-person, but I find it works best over email, forum or comment. Stuff You Need: 2 or more players If face-to-face, a pencil and paper. If online, any email, forum or shared document. Setup: Players agree on what they'll be pitching, whether it be story ideas, character ideas, plots, or inventions. Fred Hicks and I like to use Pitch Tag to generate ideas for new games. Step 1: Come up with a title. When Fred and I play, we'll assume these will be the title of a new game. Step 2: The next player pitches a thing with that title. When Fred and I play, we pitch games. We can describe the game as deeply as we prefer, whether it's mechanics, story, or influences. The point is to just generate ideas rapidly. Step 3 and on...: That player then tosses back another title to the first player...

We have a few printed editions of Do: The Book of Letters leftover from the original Kickstarter drive. Previously only available to backers, this first expansion for Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple is 50+ pages bursting with new letters, new secrets of the universe and tips on writing your own letters to the temple. Only available from Evil Hat's webstore. Also features art from Liz Radtke and Amy Houser. Get 'em while they last! » Do: The Book of Letters [Print+PDF Bundle]

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Many thanks to Chris Schreiber for offering this suggestion. For any backers who wanted to gift Writer's Dice for the holidays, here's a simple IOU stocking stuffer with a print-and-fold paper version of the dice. The card reads: "We wanted to deliver Writer's Dice before the holidays... BUT the Kickstarter was too successful... AND our workshop won't have enough materials in-stock until January... SO please enjoy these print-and-fold dice for now." Furthermore, look for a mobile app to come out soon. We're figuring out the logistics of how to get the app to all backers for free. » Writer's Dice - IOU Holiday Card

Colin Creitz tweeted : "Story Games Day @ GameKastle - we played Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple, and here's what happened!" A lot happened indeed! Most of it to that poor, poor whale.

I'm happy to announce that Pop & Locke's Last Heist features art by illustrator James Stowe. James is an accomplished and prolific artist in a variety of projects. You might recognize his most recent work in the series of young children D&D character sheets that went viral earlier this year. Check 'em out here! Like many of you, I was charmed with his poppy, energetic character designs. I'm really looking forward to his new work for Pop & Locke's Last Heist, too. Thanks so much to everyone who backed the Writers' Dice Kickstarter. You made this campaign more successful than I ever anticipated and gave us the ability to tap such strong talent.

As with any project where I hire an artist, I've put together an Artist's Style Guide for Pop & Locke's Last Heist . This is a document I send out to any prospective artists who will work on the project. It lays out the relevant details of the game, including characters, setting, clothes, etc. A style guide is helpful for three reasons: 1) Gathering and organizing all this reference material forces you to clearly articulate the visual aesthetic for your game. You might have some image in your head, but you need to share that with others and looking at the same document can help. 2) Searching for this reference clues you into a handful of illustrators who you may initially contact for estimates. Even if you can't hire them, they might know others who will be a better fit. 3) Once artists are hired, they won't have to work from a blank slate. Again, using a common source of visual inspiration saves you both time once you start working together. You c...

Wordcount Jumble makes a game out of your daily writing session. Play it as you write a novel or participate in NaNoWriMo. It can help take characters to new locations, do unexpected things and interact with other characters in surprising ways. List Locations, Characters, and Actions List up ten items in each of the following categories: Locations in which your story will take place. For example: The deserts of Tatooine. Mos Eisley cantina. The command room of the Death Star. The corridors of the Death Star. The home base of the rebellion. Aboard the Millennium Falcon. Characters who will be featured in your story. For example: Luke Skywalker, a new hope for the galaxy. Han Solo, the pragmatic rogue. Princess Leia, the rebel leader. Obi-Wan Kenobi, the mysterious elder. Emperor Palpatine, dark ruler of the cruel empire. Darth Vader, loyal right hand to the emperor. Actions the characters will do in your story. For example: Bond. Argue. Learn. Teach. Fight. Number-List Each...

Torus Lab is the world's largest particle collider, unleashing new exotic particles unknown to science. Now the lab is out of control! The scientists must input the self-destruct codes or the unstable particles will endanger the world. Stuff You Need 1-4 players A pawn for each player A six-sided die Two decks of playing cards shuffled together Lots of particle tokens Setup Shuffle the deck and deal three cards to each player. (Seen at the corners of the above image.) Cut the remaining deck into six roughly equal stacks. Arrange those stacks in a circle face-up. (Seen in the center of the above image.) Each stack represents a space on the game board. Each space is numbered 1 through 6, clockwise from the top as shown in the image on the right. Each player's pawn starts at the space marked 1. Place one particle token each in spaces 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Finally, keep the die within easy reach of all players. On Your Turn, you can perform one of the fol...

My wife and I are halfway done reviewing, playing and judging the entries to the Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge . (Asterisks note games we've judged so far.) It's been an interesting experience to say the least. I'm glad we've had a few months' time for this phase, because we needed every minute with our busy schedules. Here's an explanation of our judging process so far. 1. Read Naturally, the first step of the process is reading the rules of the game. If we can understand how to play the game from a direct reading of the rules as written by the designer, then we'll proceed to the next step. We really do give it our best effort to read and comprehend the rules text. Sadly, in a very few cases, some entries do get taken out of contention in this first step simply because we can't figure out how to play from the text. 2. Setup We gather whatever game components are called for by the text. In some cases, this is as simple as a piece of paper a...

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to this project! It was more successful than I could've imagined. Here are our final numbers: 475 backers raised $8435 in just 2 weeks, a total pre-order of ~1650 dice! So here's what will happen next: Kickstarter and Amazon Payments are going to charge your pledges from your credit cards over the next week. Most of you have already successfully done so, but a few might have some transaction errors that Amazon will try to resolve until Saturday, Nov 12. After the pledges are all resolved, we'll place an order for about 1750 dice. We're ordering plenty of extras just in case any get lost in the mail. Once ordered, those will take up to ten business days to produce, according to our vendor. (Usually they're much faster, but we've never ordered this many dice from them.) When we have the dice here, we'll bundle them up into your individual packages and ship them to you. Estimated delivery for domestic order...

We passed 500% last night! By popular demand, I'm making a game designed exclusively for Writer's Dice. Pop n' Locke's Last Heist will be bundled with the forthcoming Writer's Dice PDF guide at the four-dice level. Pop n' Locke's Last Heist Meet the MacGuffins. During a family reunion on Pop's 80th birthday, a strange light imbued his household objects with spectacular powers. A fork-that-freezes-water. A pencil-that-pierces-any-object. A key-that-unlocks-any-door. Each family member took one object with the promise to do good... promises that were soon broken! Now, Pop and his granddaughter Locke travel the world retrieving the objects from their unscrupulous family members. Will they make it out unscathed or is this really Pop n' Locke's Last Heist? About the Game Pop n' Locke's Last Heist is a storytelling game about a grandfather and granddaughter pulling off an elaborate heist, sometimes using household objects with strange ...