Daniel Solis

Woot! It's the annual Xmas in July sale over at the DriveThru network, including all Smart Play Games on DriveThruCards . Head over there now to get 25% or more on every single card game on my storefront! If you've been holding out for the past few months, now is the time to get off the fence. These are the BEST deals you're going to get all year. Don't wait! The sale only lasts until July 30th. Go go go!

Yay! Trickster: Starship and Trickster: Symbiosis are now ready for outside playtests! If you can play these new Trickster sets in the next four weeks or so, please email gobi81 at gmail dot com . For further details on Trickster, check out the tutorial video below. Trickster: Starship The theme of this set is pioneers and discovery , with art by Brian Patterson. Most of these heroes affect the visible information in the game. This set also adds a new rule, the Boldly Bonus, which only applies to heroes from this set: Boldly Bonus: If you lead with any of these heroes, you may resolve their effect twice. (The second resolution is optional.) Trickster: Symbiosis The theme for this set is growth and balance . Many heroes let you thoughtfully cultivate your House and manage your majorities. This set features heroes from Steven Sanders’ biopunk Symbosis universe. Find more about it here: http://www.studiosputnik.com/ If you want to playtest these sets, please e...

This week I'm on the Game Design Round Table podcast mainly to ask advice of the prestigious hosts. The topics range from international licensing, to crowdfunding, to generally how to make a living as a game designer. I ramble a bit, as is my habit, but hopefully there are a few cogent points scattered amidst my mad ravings. Please enjoy! Game Design Round Table Episode 129 0:00:26 – Daniel’s background 0:07:01 – Card counts 0:11:10 – Sharing ideas 0:15:27 – Playtesting 0:18:31 – Kigi 0:22:04 – Publishers in different regions 0:33:39 – International legal matters 0:39:49 – Royalties and crowdfunding 0:53:58 – Upcoming projects   Subscribe and review the show on iTunes as well ! Please support high quality game design discussion like this show. Thanks!

When game designer Paul Peterson was interviewed for the upcoming Titans Series of games from Calliope Games, there was one segment at 1:55 that really caught my attention (emphasis mine): "A couple years ago I was teaching people how to play Guillotine and I hadn't played in a while. The first thing I did was say, 'The first thing you gonna do when you open your game is you look through this deck and you take this card.' I pulled out the Callous Guards card and threw it over my shoulder. Everybody laughed. I said, ' That's the biggest mistake I ever made as a game designer in my life.'" Oof. Those are strong words. What's the big deal? For context, the game Guillotine is all about collecting the heads of French nobles during the revolution. There is only one guillotine, with a line of nobles waiting for their grim fate. On your turn, you play action cards to change the order of the line, then take the Noble card from the front of the ...

The second release for Trickster is still in development, but it will be a pair of Sci-Fi themed sets. Today, I wanted to show off Brian Patterson's new art for Trickster: Starship . This set is centered on the ragtag crew of the starship Emphasis . It's a loving mashup of the goofiest parts of Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy, Firefly, and Farscape. Brian really knocked it out of the park! I'm eager to share more about Trickster: Starship as it develops!

This summer I'm trying to get into the habit of running 5k each weekday morning, then sketching some ideas over breakfast. The running is the easy part to keep up, but the sketching has been a little more difficult. But today I've got a little notion that popped while I was stewing over Battleline, Pixel Tactics, and Gwent. I'm imagining this as an 18-card microgame with a pick-and-pass drafting setup. With only 18 cards for two players, I think it would be easy to memorize each card, thus making "advanced" play much more accessible to newcomers. There are three ropes, represented by three columns with a flag at the center of each. The goal is to win at least two out of three flags. Each player has their own 3x3 field in which to play one card per space. Each player simultaneously chooses the space into which they will play by placing a card face-down in that space. Then each player simultaneously reveals their card. Whoever has the highest total stren...

Yay! I'm so happy and proud to present the Trickster tutorial series . I hope you dig this method of releasing producing and releasing video tutorials for the series. Share, like, and subscribe! HOW TO PLAY TRICKSTER - Introduction TRICKSTER: FANTASY    Buy it here    Read the Rules PDF    Rate and Review on BoardGameGeek TRICKSTER: TIANXIA    Buy it here    Read the Rules PDF    Rate and Review on BoardGameGeek Find more games from Smart Play Games at DriveThruCards MUSIC CREDITS: "Morocco Sting" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ "Meatball Parade" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Production Notes Each Trickster set is a standalone game, but with the option to mix-and-match heroes from different sets, so it was a ch...