Daniel Solis

Carrying on some thoughts from yesterday's pub game , I had earlier revised some art I commissioned from Kari Fry ages ago for the tile game Swap Clops. I was never really satisfied with how that game turned out, but couldn't find a solution. So instead, I've been looking for ways to repurpose the art itself for a new game. I loved the clean and elegant permutations of all the different faces paired with simply shaped bodies, and double-coding the faces to color. Custom Deck So here's a thought: Imagine yesterday's pub game with this art and some adjusted rarities. Each face/color is one rank, from 1-7. Each Circle rank appears in the deck only once, squares twice, and triangles three times, for a total of 42 cards. This way, you get some variety in strategic choices. Do you chase the circle to pursue a majority, even though it's a high card? Actions One thing I loved about Dead Man's Draw was the blend of a simple pub game with real gamery and t...

A long time ago, I designed a tile-swapping game featuring little cyclops creatures drawn by Kari Fry. I wasn't entirely satisfied with how that game turned out, so it's lingered in my mind for some time. Here is my current thought on how it would be implemented as a simple euro-style card trading game. You'll notice these mechanics from my previous post " Make Me An Offer ," which adapted Apples to Apples mechanics into a straight strategy game. The card values are based on the beans in the classic game Bohnanza. Hopefully combining the two with a dash of something original makes a satisfying game. You tell me! Click the link below for the print-and-play prototype. I literally whipped this up in an hour, so there are some rough areas. Specifically, the cards need a miniature suit icon on the top corners for ease of reference. Ah well, such is the life in rapid iteration. :) » Print-and-Play Cards SETUP Shuffle all the cards and deal five to each playe...

Clops are one-eyed creatures with lots of personality. You're going to move them around and collect groups with matching faces. Score points by collecting lots of Clops! Score bonus points by collecting Clops with the same likes! Clops have three main characteristics: Shapes, Faces, and Likes. First, Clops come in three shapes, either circles, squares or triangles. Second, Clops have five faces: Angry (Red), Worried (White), Serious (Blue), Bleeeh! (Green) and Happy (Yellow). And lastly, Clops have five likes: Sunshine, Apples, the Moon, Stars, and Books. » Development Status: Beta, Dormant » Illustrations: Kari Fry Stuff You Need A supply of 90 Clop Tiles [These designs are very beta.] 2-4 Players Set Up Arrange a grid of 8x8 tiles, randomly drawn from the supply. Make sure they're all rotated in the same direction. Click to enlarge How to Play Each player takes turns, starting with the youngest player. 1) Swap two Clops On your turn, choose two Clops...

I've been playing a lot of tile-swapping puzzle games like Bejeweled, Tetris Attack and ShapeShift HD. As is often the case when I play digital games, my mind wanders to how I can make an analog conversion, with new mechanics unique to a tabletop game. Then I started thinking about the success of Angry Birds. Now, there have been tons of missile-launching video games, but one of the big things Angry Birds had going for it was the personality in each bird and pig. (It's important to note the WORMS franchise was doing the "cute animals as avatars in a missile game" thing for a long time in the 90s.) And then I stumbled on a weird title. Swap Clops. It was going to be a Pitch Tag for Fred, but I couldn't give it up. I wanted to make something with it. A game about swapping eyeballs among cyclopses? Nah. Maybe "Clop" is a new branded name for the "floating ball with a giant eye" monster archetype. (I heard somewhere WotC has a trademark on the...