12 Hours Until Launch

Zombie lovers... see you tomorrow morning.

ZombieZone: The Story

Here's a little history of the ZombieZone.

ZombieZone: Photos

We've seen a lot of the art for ZombieZone, but we haven't seen what the game looks like. The wait is now over. 

Yesterday, "Awesome Alex" Bryant of A Squared Photograpy took a whole bunch of awesome photos during a rare lunch break game session. My co-worker Michael Fleming's zombies were out in full force too, as you will see below.

Setting up the zombie side.

Taking a chance with one on the humans.

A human "flips" into a zombie.

The blue token is a bomb, a last resort for the outnumbered humans.

Completely surrounded. Game over.

Over the next few days, I'll be posting the print and play version, the full rules, upcoming demo sessions that you can attend, and the information on how to purchase your own copy of the game. Check back!

ZombieZone: Art

I ordered a copy of the ZombieZone preview version from The Game Crafter for quality control and also to bring to upcoming events. And now, I'm excited to say that it's here and it's awesome. The tokens have always been my favorite part,  as they provide the main game mechanic (flipping zombies! ...more about that later).

Here's a quick teaser image of the tokens for now:

The tokens really came to life when Carey Pietsch started the artwork. If you don't know Carey, she's an artist from Philly, who I met at the IGDA Philly Games Showcase. There are all kinds of goodies at her site (http://www.careydraws.com) like this one called "woofs". Carey is super talented, and I'm really happy to have her involved.

Images of the board and the rest of the components will be coming very soon!

ZombieZone: Intro

ZombieZone is my head-to-head human vs. zombie battle game. I originally designed the game as a personal challenge to use one token, which would be printed in bulk. I planned on using business cards as tiles, and as you may know, you can buy 1000 of the same business card for about $20.

The game has evolved and mutated quite a bit since the original concept, and I am releasing a "Limited Edition" preview version of ZombieZone at TheGameCrafter.com starting October 1st. It will be available until December 31, 2012, at which time I will finalize and tweak everything for a full 2013 release. 

Here's a sneak peek at the postcard that will be available at upcoming events:

The game is an epic battle of humans vs. zombies. It's played on a gridded pavement board, using dice for movement. Each side will roll two dice for movement, but they are played very differently. Humans (with their functioning brains) can choose which die will represent the amount of humans that will move, and which die will represent the amount of spaces they can move. Zombies will move slower and in groups. The higher die will always be the amount of zombies, and the lower die will always be the amount of spaces they can move.

Attacking is also unique. Humans are armed with a shotgun and use a custom d6 to reach the zombies. And the zombies, armed with their teeth, just need to move adjacent to a human to INSTANTLY flip the human token over, revealing the zombie on the other side. This token is now under the zombie player's control.

There is more to the game, but those are the basics. We'll have the full rules and a print and play sample up very soon. You can also try the game at any of our upcoming events.

And don't forget to keep an eye out for ZombieZone on The Game Crafter starting October 1st!

What is Button Shy?

I've owned buttonshy.com for a long time. Years ago it was a button making company that I owned and ran, and with the help of my wife and brother we made hundreds of thousands of 1" buttons for bands, stores, and for lots of people. The business faded over time, but the website has been hanging on ever since. I've used it as a subdomain for a whole bunch of other sites that I'm a part of, (/fruitlesspursuits, /pixellincoln, etc.) but Button Shy has been sitting quietly in the background.

It's time for that to change.

Button Shy will now be the central hub of all of my tabletop game related projects. The origin of the name will never change, but the intent has shifted a bit.

Here are the plans for the new and shiny Button Shy.

-Re-posts of my board game article from Fruitless Pursuits and Board Game Geek.
-Information about my own game projects as well as projects that I am involved with.
-The home of the upcoming podcast Designing Out Loud.
-Much more!

Gen Con Recap (Part 3)

Originally posted at http://www.fruitlesspursuits.com.

Part One covered Friday. Part Two covered Saturday and Sunday. So what is left to talk about?

GEN CON MONDAY!

You may be wondering what Gen Con Monday is all about. It's the day where your flight is canceled and you are stuck in Indianapolis for an additional 24 hours. Luckily, I was stuck there with designer Jay Treat who A) was great company, and B) had a few games on hand.

Click through the jump for a look into our extended Gen Con and all of the games we were able to play. Not a ton of personal photos this time around.... sorry!