Publish or Perish - board game

05/17/2024

Another playtest with previous boards while waiting for new prototypes to arrive

04/29/2024

Latest design diary up on the YT channel, talking through various iterations of the game board. A few examples here

04/26/2024

Another day, another board iteration, another playtest. This one went better than the last both mechanically and in the players doing better. Though one still ended up hundreds of thousands in debt...

04/18/2024

Had fun with today's playtest and learned a lot. Including that I'm really bad at my game.

04/10/2024

Today's design diary covers the debate about whether and how to incorporate grad school into the game

04/03/2024

In-game "goal cards" give players quick ways to grab some achievements, as well as help guide them in immediate-term strategies:

While they're not *necessary* to win, the game includes some secondary goals (like mini "side quests") that can give bonus achievements along them way. But t...

03/27/2024

Here's some of the *UNUSED* AI-generated images made while I was trying to get some quick draft character logos for prototype character cards. Apparently when specifying things like "anonymous" or "indeterminate person," AI often interprets that as "wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, got it."

03/27/2024

Today's design diary: introducing some of the characters you can play AS...

What makes the various characters you can choose from in the game unique?

03/22/2024

today's design installment: creating competition and player interaction within a game centered whose core mechanic is about how YOU spend YOUR time:

Board games are more fun when the players are interacting with each other, not just doing your own thing. A discussion of how this happens in the game, while...

03/19/2024

Children/childcare are the focus of this design diary. This was a design element I struggled with for quite awhile before figuring out - wanted families to be part of the game (that noted "work-life" balance) but in a game about succeeding in academia it took a lot of figuring to make it a potentiallyGOOD strategic decision to have a family instead of just focusing on your career. But I think we finally cracked that nut:

Children are an important part of many people's personal lives, but take time, energy, and money. So how to incorporate children/family into a game about pro...

03/15/2024

design diary #5 looks at adjunct roles (part-time faculty, generally hired on a per-course basis for a single course at a time, though often regularly teaching the same class at the same school every semester or year) and how those fit into the game:
https://youtu.be/wmoOPZDbWow

03/13/2024

latest design diary looks at one of the core parts of the game: academic jobs!

How job openings and "job cards" work in the game. A look at how the job cards and the details included have evolved through 3 different iterations.