Family games, probably.
Six million rolls of 3D filament later…. We’ve got a new game out!
YATH – You and the Horde is a relatively simple co-operative skirmish game. The players take control of random civilians when the horde invasion breaks out. Abilities are randomised and everyone is very squishy. Luckily there are plenty of spares on the table!
Check out the game page here first, or go straight to the itch.io download (free with optional donation.)
It’s been some time since our last update.
The Love and Loss Games team has concluded that the lack of engagement from younger members isn’t due to a failure to find the right game. The reality is the group simply doesn’t value gaming as a way to spend their time together.
Despite creating and acquiring games, it’s common for us to go an entire week or more without playing any of them.
We dedicated over a year to exploring straightforward tabletop skirmishes using 3D printing for components. While the printing assembly and painting was a fun diversion, there was little success building a buzz for the gaming. Examples of games we’ve tried:
The gaming experience doesn’t fill the bucket very well for the family as a whole.
So, what’s next for LoaLoGa? We will no longer focus on finding or creating a single game that appeals to everyone in the family. However, we will continue to use the gaming hobby as a creative outlet. The specific form this will take remains to be seen.
One commercial game that’s had a lot of table time since January is Kyoto no Neko. I’m curious whether a gritty re-theme might hold our teenager’s attention. 🤔
Photos from a year of wargaming below.
As of this week our magnum opus, Draw Your Sword, is ready to pitch to publishers. If it doesn’t get picked up by a publisher, then we may go for the self-publishing route.
There are two videos, which are on Youtube. I won’t embed them here to avoid surprising you with 3rd party cookies. Here are the links:
A still from the game-play segment, showing what the game looks like on the table.
Going solo on an adventure game like Project-DS has some disadvantages. The biggest one is working on everything at once.
Each of these informs the other, sometimes one part is blocked because another has not been decided yet. I’m happy to say that the map is final and the story points are starting to find their homes. I spent ages trying to do this in software and ended up co-opting the door.
Planning something huge when your monitor is just not big enough.
The area of Wymol known as ‘Far Up’ The first couple of chapters start here. After which, the story moves to one of the two peninsulas; Tumpspin and Blackspin or into the Far North.
There’s lots of fantasy mapping software on the market. I wanted to make it a real map first and a fantasy map second.
The Wymol map has been built in Genbrush using wind and rainfall simulation to create the lakes and rivers. It’s come together naturally to feel authentic and lived-in.
I’ve also found the right post-processing to make the rendered scenes pop.
This painterly effect blends the characters into the scenery a lot more effectively.
The effect also fits well with the painterly texturing that Josh O’Hala has done on the models, effectively applying the same look to the scenic elements.
And finally, as a visual person I needed to put some faces to the names for my characters. I’ve started some biographies and it didn’t feel right with just the text.
Artbreeder has rescued me. I’ve generated a bunch of faces for the project. While these images may not be final, I can now put a face to the names.
Artbreeder has even put a little random personality into each one too; smiling, frowning, etc. That’s been enough for me to add colour to the profile.
It has been a long time between posts here. We’ve been working with artists on the designs for Project-DS. This may be our magnum opus.
Project-DS will be a DM-less branching adventure in same setting as our one-page RPG Wyrmbones: The Border. Experience three generations of the second gobbeling war on the island of opportunity; Wymol.
We’ve added another game inspired by the One-page RPG jam to our stable.
Still in draft, but definitely playable now: Snakes & Ladders Stories.
It’s free, so take a look. You will need some Story Cubes and a Snakes & Ladders Board.
This week, we have submitted Wyrmbones: The Border to the One Page RPG Game Jam on Itch.io. This our first Wyrmbones release and the first release with the artwork commissioned from Joe Nittoly.
There will be more releases from the Wyrmbones setting coming soon. Including a wargame and our long-term project of an epic adventure/RPG.
We have been busy with the One-page Jam and the 18-card RPG Jam over at buttonshy. However with no new jams on our radar, we’re back to core projects.
Do you need to 3D print tiny buildings for a game prototype or just for fun?
We have you covered: check out the Millitown STL files and random building generator.
The Children of the House have instructed me to tell the Internet at large of the Dunginoes Theme Tune.
Dunginoes!
Nobody knows…
how far it goes!
When daddy throws!
Dunginoes!
And then you have to… throw the box. This is only slightly less fun than the game itself. Especially when the cards go into the heating ducts.
Dunginoes is still free I’ll add a box to the downloads when we’ve put together some nicer art for it. The one above is a combination of a passepartout frame and a matchbox sleeve courtesy of https://www.templatemaker.nl/
I can’t remember where the photo originated from hence I don’t want to release it as-is.
Back in October, we mentioned that we were developing an light dungeon crawl based on a Reddit post.
The rules have been tested and we have created some themed dominoes to go with.
As a bonus, we have also included some ideas for using dominoes for random map generation in traditional RPGs.
Check it out now: Dunginoes – A PVE Crawler.