itch.io

Ever since I recorded that line, I've been saying it every time I stop at a red light. 

For those who are interested, I just uploaded the files for the printable version!

Yeah, chvage did a really great job with the music! I can't decide whether Solveig's or the Champ's theme is my favorite.

You can check out a demo room of the pcio version here!

MeBID will be posting the digital version soon! I submitted now so I can get some sleep, but there is the pcio version of the game available. You can check out the demo room here, but I recommend creating your own room if you want to play a full game with someone on there.

I'll have files for the printable version of the game finished and uploaded later this week (I hope)!

Been a while since I opened up this topic. Even in the Discord, I've been pretty quiet about the progress over here.  Most of that is because it's pretty tough balancing working on this and taking care of a baby (I'm writing this as baby sleeps on my chest at 2 in the morning and I don't want to wake her even though I'm behind on art). Heh, I guess it was very ambitious of me to think I could animate 16 characters. About a week ago, I decided to cut down and only draw a single sprite for each character, and the "animation" will be done in-engine by squashing and rotating these images. I'm still working on digitizing these sketches I've done (15/16 characters sketched as of this post), but I do have a single character finished and ready to show off:

I'm so excited to see all these guys on the dance floor. I got some pretty great poses imo, and I'm excited to show them off! I think I'll save it all for the stream, so that's the only sneak peek here. I'll probably post the other sprites after the jam is over or something.

So the current to-do list I've got planned is to finish all these poses by this weekend. I've got a few online playtesting sessions planned with friends this weekend as well, and after that I'll end playtesting so MeBID won't have to worry about adjusting things on the final stretch. 

Then for next week, I need to draw up portraits for the 4 team leaders along with the UI elements and maybe some other art like the thumbnail. I'm also planning on adding some voice acting to the game so I'll need to record that too. I'll also need to finish writing the script (which is really only for the tutorial) and possibly iron out some backstory stuff (don't think there'll be an actual story to this game). MeBID also created a little program for me to animate the sprites for whenever they port things into the game, so I'll do that as well.

So yeah, I don't know how many of you guys out there actually print out my games, but I likely won't be able to start working on that until after the deadline. And with that would come more playtesting and potential tweaking and such maybe... I'll aim for releasing a printable version a week after the deadline (maybe by the time results come out). Anyway, I gotta figure out what this 16th character is going to look like before I allow myself to sleep, so I'll get back to researching now. Good luck to everyone on their games!

Oh yeah, I also made a logo

Hello! I'm the board game guy who made Stardust Butterfly last year (which I just updated a few months ago) and Scrappet Kaiser Princess before that! I'm working again with MeBID to make another board game, called QQ Step!

Here's a little dev video showing off what I've got of the design so far:

QQ Step is a 1v1 chess-like board game, themed around teams of characters having dance battles in an underground dance club. The game itself is inspired by a board game called Onitama, and features 4 different teams/characters with unique powers. The basic gameplay involves using Dance cards to move your pawns across the board, trying to achieve one of 3 goals: Capture the enemy Leader, capture all the enemy's friends, or fulfill your personal goal. There will be 4 different playable characters: Privemal Mask, The Champ, Solveig, and DJ Dues. In the digital version, DJ Dues is planned to be an unlockable character. Each of these characters also has a unique ability.

So yeah, currently I'm working on playtesting and art. This year I'm going to try my hand at animating some sprites for the digital version (gonna make all the pawns dance, I hope), and I've got chvage working on some music. I've got to design and draw the concepts of the 16 characters that will be available here. Whew. Hope I can do it. Gonna be a little tough since I'm juggling a baby as well. This year the printable version might release well after the jam is over

Anyway, when it comes to story, I don't have much planned. Since this is a present for a teenage girl, and not a game that's carrying the weight of an already existing franchise, I think it's fine to not worry about telling an interesting story and just throwing in all the characters. But we'll see. As I draw more of these characters I might figure something out

Until next time!

Whew! I finally finished up the files for the print-and-play version, so you can now play this game in real life!

Currently waiting on a few extra things before the digital version gets uploaded. I went ahead and submitted the game just so I don't forget to later

Digital version uploaded! There is still another update on the way as we clean up a few more things

Happy gaming!

Cutting it close! I have finished all of my art (afaik) and I decided that I actually do need to whip up a pcio version to make a proper tutorial video for the game page. So I've been working on that. I might have to skip working on card backs for that but whenever I make them for the print and play I'll port those in. I'm hoping to record an online gameplay session with my friends as well, so you guys will get to see how the game works with actual people playing.

About the physical version, I realize there might be some challenges in bringing it to life. Notably research. In the prototype research is a token, but in a physical space it would be hard to keep track of a ton of tiny little tokens, especially if you need to keep track of it to properly math out probabilities. So I'll have to figure out a cleaner way to handle that... Maybe using a paper clip or something...

As for the digital version, meBID is working hard on it. I recently received a prototype and have been providing feedback on rules questions and design stuff and bugs and whatnot. I'm mainly excited to see the story brought to life via the endings. I might have mentioned it in a video before, but if not, the game will have multiple endings. The ending will be different depending on the character you choose, along with whether you win or lose; meaning that there will be 6 endings! And all of them are canon (for this game)! So I was pretty inspired by the arcade endings of BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. The endings of that game are all flashbacks(?) revealing some lore about the world or the character. That's the approach I went for with the endings: On a loss, the ending will show a flashback/back story of your chosen character (from the viewpoint of a different character), while a win will show a character's future/true ending. That true ending should tie back into the main Steel Love plot and hopefully give an interesting hook for a potential book 12. For the sake of the stream, the plan is to have all the endings unlock after completing a game so you guys can see the entire story that bookends the board game experience.

So how about art then? Here's a look at some of the targets:

Not sure if you guys will notice but the dude on the right also appeared as a scrappet in my previous board game. He seems a lot nicer in this version though.

And here's the title screen, and a look at the main trio:

Oh yeah! Speaking of the title, I guess I never really explained where the name "Stardust Butterfly" came from. Honestly I was looking at random shoegaze song titles and picked words I thought were cool and ended up with that. I don't remember where "stardust" came from but "butterfly" came from "Butterfly Effect" by RAY. I also thought about how in the mythology of different cultures, butterflies are tied with souls and rebirth. So it's fitting how the crew are all essentially lost, wandering souls waiting for their "rebirth"... Something like that. Anyway, I think it's a cool title and it's fun to say so that's that.

So yeah, I've got to get back to work. Hopefully everything will come together in time! See you guys on Saturday!

It's been a week, so I should give a little update.

It's quiet here, mostly because a lot of the action is on the discord. Last year, I was also juggling doing graphic design and art for three different versions of SKP (the printable version, the online pcio version, and the digital version). While I still plan to develop a printable version, I'm putting a lot more effort on helping meBID make the digital version look good. I was also able to get BIG_FR0G's help with the artwork for the different endings, so that will look amazing. The visuals are coming along. Graphic design is almost done: there are a few more card templates I need to put together. Then comes the art for the characters, targets, and weapons. Then hopefully a nice splash art for the title screen (I'm still really happy with how well Scrappet Kaiser Princess's came out). I'm a little worried about getting all the art done, as I was just informed that I will have a lot less free time this next week than I expected, but I've been going at a good pace, and not having to worry about artwork for the endings is a huge relief. And those endings are important! I couldn't really fit the story I wanted into the gameplay or the rulebook this time, so I can't imagine what I would have done without help. I'm pretty excited for when this finally releases.

I mentioned earlier that I'm focusing mostly on the digital version for the jam. It looks like I won't have the printable version finished by the time the jam ends (I would need to make a board, character sheets, tokens, and card backs in addition to what I'm already got to do), but I'll try to get it out soon after. Not sure if I'll make a really nice pcio version like I did with SKP, since the digital version will likely have local play (and theoretically you can just share your screen because there's no hidden information), but... we'll see how I feel after I finish the printable version.

Anyway, most of the stuff I would have to show are little mockups or card templates. Not too interesting. So here's some icons I made of the three characters; a little sneak peak at the character designs I've got to figure out the colors for. Oh and also the logo. See you guys next week...? Maybe? Not sure if I'll make another post here because I might be frantically doodling, but I'll try to show off some of those drawings next time

The design is in a good spot! I made a quick (lol) explanation of the rules and did a little (lol) runthrough of how the game plays:

Hey! I made Scrappet Kaiser Princess last year (the 1p board game; I actually cleaned up and revised the rulebook a few months ago while I waited for this jam to begin, so you can check it out if you'd like). I'm designing another board game this year!

Here's a little development video explaining a little bit of the design process and basic rules, then showing off a few rounds of gameplay (tl;dw below):

So with this year's theme, none of the characters were clear picks for a board game design (unlike how Ultra Mint was last year because cards). I ended up looking into game mechanics and thinking of a tone I wanted to go for. I wanted to work with dice and the idea of action drafting was interesting to me, plus I was inspired to make something with a Cowboy Bebop vibe. To more successfully capture that idea of being in a somewhat dysfunctional crew of bounty hunters, I decided to design the game for 3 players. I'm working with meBID again this year to create a digital version of the game to be played on stream with AI opponents at least, so no worries about needing to wrangle a few extra players to play for the showcase. Basically, the game involves the players drafting from a pool of actions (fighting over who does what chores on the spaceship or whatnot) then performing those actions, and the player with the most reputation points at the end of 6 rounds will win.

Since it's a 3 player game, there are 3 different characters to choose from. Whichever of the 3 characters wins, the game will play that character's ending (sort of like an arcade mode in a fighting game). While Sumiv is technically the star of the game, the other two characters (Jebbrey and Gloz) will still have endings that tie into the original Steel Love story and will (hopefully) fit within the rules of the jam. I plan on each of these endings to be canon for the game, and none of them will contradict each other. It's essentially going to be like how Cowboy Bebop reveals the backstory of its characters, and what their future holds will have strong implications (and will hopefully inspire the author to write book 12).

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now. I'm currently adjusting the design and tweaking numbers and abilities, so it's not much to look at atm. Hopefully I'll have a rulebook next time (week?) and I'll start doodling some characters designs, and maybe I'll even open it up for some playtesting! See you guys around!

My personal take is that would be okay. The original author might not like it too much though. But yeah at the very least my game is going to involve someone trying to build one (although I'm leaving whether they succeed or not up to the author in Book 12 if the franchise takes off again)

And here is the gameplay video! I did minimal editing so it's kinda long and I might have left in a mistake, but you get to listen to my thought process as I plan out my turns. Enjoy!

I released Scrappet Kaiser Princess v1.1! Check out the devlog I wrote here.

Basically, I added 5 new Event cards (and removed 1), added 1 new Starter card, adjusted the effects and Strength of 2 Starter cards, and the wording of 7 other cards. I plan on posting a full gameplay video of the print and play version sometime so you can see it in action, but other than that I'm calling this game finished!

Hello! It's been a while, but I've been slowly cleaning up and adjusting the game. I've also added new cards! I'm about to upload the new rulebooks and print-and-play files. If you want to update the digital version, I added the new cards in a new folder in the link. In addition, I've adjusted some of the rules and have a few suggestions for the digital version:

- There are 5 new Event cards. Remove "Surprise Pizza Party" from the game
- 1 new Starter card
- The other cards just have clearer or adjusted wording
- 1 new achievement:
          Platinum Crown: Become the Champion with each of the 6 Starter cards.
                    Basically a player must play the game at least 6 times to get this. To make this easier, I suggesting being able to unlock the ability to choose the Starter card after completing the game once.

I suggest you refer to the rulebook for new clarifications on the cards and extra FAQs, but here are the major changes at least:

- The Store works a little differently. Bought or stolen cards are placed into the Binder after each kid action. So if Mindy (3 bucks), Jessa, and Link (4 bucks) are at the Store, instead of being able to grab all 5 cards and then placing them in the Binder all at the same time, the player decides which kid will buy or steal first, with Mindy able to spend ego to peek in between any of those actions.
- This also means that the "age" of cards, or whatever is the oldest card(s), will reset for each action.
- Side note, but I did a single run of the digital version and got the BOGO event. The Bogo event is meant to happen immediately before anything else. So you get a bunch of cards in your binder, and then when you get to buy cards again you might have to replace those cards. The new wording should make that a little more clear.
- If Mindy and Jessa go to the Playground, Jessa will be able to gain a card for free, correct? Well Jessa can also bring resources for trade and can also trade for a card, allowing her to gain 2 cards at the Playground (if Mindy is present).

Alright, I'll go post up those files now. Feel free to ask if you have any questions. And it's fine to take your time on the update, or if you're too busy to work on it anytime soon, that's fine too.

Thanks again for your help!

Oh No My Ego is Rising and My Friends are Leaving
AKA I Made a Board Game in a Month
A Bruised Egos Game Jam Post-Mortem

I've been feeling the post-jam blues lately so I decided to make a big post about my experiences and thoughts and lessons learned and whatnot. It's pretty long so I understand if you don't read it all. I kind of just need to get it all out so I can start thinking about what's next

INSPIRATIONS
I love board games. When I discovered that Kyle started another game jam, and I saw Ultra Mint as one of the characters, I knew I wanted to make a board game about her. A major inspiration was from a few Level 99 Games board games that I really like: Millennium Blades and Argent: the Consortium. Millennium Blades is a game in which you and your friends play as collectable card game players playing a game called Millennium Blades. Over the course of the game , you buy cards from the store, trade cards with other players, sell off sets of cards, build a hand of cards for the tournament phase, and (of course) compete in a tournament. You can clearly see how this game influenced the way Scrappet Kaiser Princess worked, from the booster pack look of the back of the cards to the simplicity of the dueling system. The only thing I wish I was able to replicate in my game was the climax of each round: the tournament phase, in which you use the deck you've spent an entire round constructing. I don't know if SKP could have had that without adding too much complexity to design around (in a month at least), so I opted instead for making a story-focused climax based on a high score. In Argent: the Consortium, you play as professors at a magical university, sending loyal students to gather resources or information about a secret consortium of voters so you can weasel your way into being voted in as the next Chancellor. From this game, I borrowed the thematic idea of sending out loyal workers to do your dirty work. Mechanically, I also used the idea of each type of worker having a special ability, and how workers don't gain resources immediately. If you enjoyed Scrappet Kaiser Princess, I highly recommend checking those two games out because they're pretty great (although they're a lot more complex and are not solo games). Actually I recommend checking out all of Level 99 Games' stuff because they try to capture that small niche of board gamers that also like video games and anime.

STORY & GAME DESIGN
I always knew that this origin story would be about Ultra Mint's first time getting into Scrappet Kaiser and losing her friends because of it. The original pitch for her actually says that she considers her card collection as her most precious treasure, so I thought it would be very interesting if I could give players the choice as to whether she treasures her collection because of her strong cards or because of her friends. I personally think high-stake stories involving the end of the world is fairly overdone in gaming, so I really wanted this story to be extremely personal and contained, with the main conflict being mostly internal and emotional.

Because I had decided to make a board game, I knew I couldn't rely too much on dialogue to tell the story and I had to bake it into the gameplay. That's why the only actual written parts of the story are the Intro and Endings in the rulebook. I didn't want to clutter up cards with too much reading. Yeah I know the texts on the Event cards exist but I don't think reading those is necessary to understand the Event, and they only add a little flavor to what's already implied by the effect. Originally the Event deck was going to be a set sequence, similar to the event deck in  something like Pandemic Legacy, so I could completely control the way the story is told. But because I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to present the game at the time, and to make set up a lot easier, I opted to only have one guaranteed event card. A lot of design choices were made to be simpler actually, because I knew the audience would mostly skew toward video gamers instead of board gamers, and I feel like the game is definitely more successful because of that.

Another successful aspect is the story. Even in playtesting with friends who had no idea about the Bruised Egos concept, they always get into the mindset of Ultra Mint and go hard on boosting Ego to replace their friends with more cards. (Although maybe it's a cultural thing, because I teach English in Japan, and the students I've showed it to generally try to keep their friends instead.) But yeah, the general game arc tells the story of how this group of friends falls apart: In the beginning of the week, Mindy hangs out with her friends, working with them to earn money or sneak cards from the store. Best friends Mindy and Jessa are inseparable. But at some point mid-game (if the player decides it to be), Mindy looks at her binder and thinks "I want more." She decides to abandon her friends to play Scrappet Kaiser in the alley with some weirdo. Her friends are still stuck working each day, while Mindy plays card games and brags about how good she's getting? Well of course they would get tired of it and leave. And on the final day, Jessa confronts her. The Starter card isn't important to Jessa just because it was a gift, but also because it was one of the few things she actually bought (because she tends to steal a lot for Mindy). Whether Ultra Mint loses her closest friend is up to the player, but because she has Dog Bower in Bruised Egos, it's likely that Jessa is still her best friend there (although I suppose that's not official canon lol)

You all probably already know this, but playtesting is very valuable. While the general structure of the game remained the same as the original concept, certain character abilities and the store definitely wouldn't have been the way they are if I hadn't gotten a bunch of friends to try it out. In early prototypes, I had Mindy decide which photo she would remove from the binder. In playtesting, I found that Spiff was almost always the first to go, with Penny being the last. So I made it random, and I buffed Spiff's ability. In another prototype, a popular strategy was to send Link to the store and buy a bunch of cards, while everyone else worked the Lemonade Stand. I had to adjust how the store worked (sending cards straight to the binder) AND buff Mindy and Jessa's ability to make it more enticing for them to visit the other locations. Some criticisms I couldn't really do much about (at least without changing quite a few things), like Penny having no reason to leave the Lemonade Stand. But that's fine. Penny likes baking anyway.

ART
It's not as prominent in the Digital version of the game, but the style of the board game is supposed to be hand-drawn. Like the main board is supposed to look like a hand-drawn map that Mindy drew, which is supposed to really make you feel like Mindy planning where each of her friends will go each day. I also opted for the slightly sloppy hand-drawn style because I'm not that great at drawing imo, although I've learned quite a bit this year, especially in the week and a half of drawing I did for the game. (Annoying promotional side note, but as part of one of my goals to get in the habit of creating art, I've been doing this weekly photoshop puppet show adaptation of the Pokemon manga if you want to check it out.) But yeah, the art for the title screen was like the last thing I drew for this game, and it's the art that I'm definitely the most proud of. I had asked my wife to draw the photos because she is a much better artist than me, but because she was so busy with work, I ended up doing all the drawing and only having her color the scrappets I drew. I'm glad I ended up doing all the drawing though, because the consistent art style ties everything together nicely, and I feel like I've leveled up my drawing skills!

It wasn't until I saw this Nani stuff pop up in other games, but I didn't know Kyle had created his own little collectable card game. I mean, I have the vod sitting in my YouTube Watch Later playlist, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If I had known that, I still probably would have created my own little card game franchise, because then I would try to cram some of those mechanics into the system, which would have clogged up the game design, probably. I wonder though... Anyway, the monster design was really fun! The main design goal for these monsters was to avoid memes if possible: partly because I haven't kept up with the streams, but mostly because I wanted the cards to be funny on their own. There was a period of time last year when I decided to try doodling a few monster designs a day. Some of those monsters I named for the game and they appear as is (Dainty Shocks, Shy Bean, and Aiyai Captain are a few of these). Some were changed to look tougher or creepier to fit the strength of the card they were on (the original Slendelien was a lot more friendly, Fuzzy Tuber didn't have tentacles, and Darrip looked more sad and had more of a Foster's Home vibe). At one point, I asked any friends who playtested it for name ideas and I only got three: Dark Justice, Beelzebud (bee-el-ze-bud), and Funky Monkey Card (which I changed to Funkeemon Keycard to make it funnier). But for most of the rest, I spent half of a day thinking up names. I've had the Special and Starter cards named from the beginning, and since I had Griswald's Knees as a Special card, I decided to go all Exodia on it and add the rest of Griswald into the Store deck. I don't have too much to say about how I came up with most of the other names aside from finding names that were fun to say but were also weird (Cough Noir, Baby Filkiss, Froark). Near the end as I ran out of creative steam, I did the JJBA thing and looked through my music folder for interesting song titles to make names. "Godzuki" is a Sufjan Stevens song (skit is a more accurate word), "Idiot Boksen" and "He Who Flattened [Your Flame Is Gettin' Torched]" are Danielson songs, El Bañana was inspired by the Gorillaz song "El Mañana," similarly Vee in 20 Years is a letter change of Moses Sumney's "Me in 20 Years," and Black Hole Guppy is a Charly Bliss reference (the song "Black Hole" is from their album "Guppy"). ... I guess I didn't have to list all of those, but maybe people would have found that interesting. Oh and to the one guy I saw in chat that noticed: Yes, Zengou is wearing a Scooby Doo collar.

But yeah! It makes me really happy to see all the positive reactions to the scrappets I drew. Seeing how so many people were drawn to different scrappets feels really good. If you must know my favorite one though, it's Froark.

GAME JAM & RATINGS
This was my first game jam and I had a blast. It was great seeing so much variety in the different games. I was a little surprised at how so few games showed the reason why their chosen character was high ego or low ego, as that was the most important aspect to me when making the game. I'm not sure how much I should say about other games, and I wasn't able to get all of them to run (I went by Kyle's stream for rating those ones) , but if I had to choose a personal top 5, this would be mine:

1. Dungeon of Alexandria - Really fun game with really fun vibes. A well-deserved win.
2. Izil's Adventures: Blackfeather's Legacy - It's so much fun to explore in this game. I think the only issue that would need addressing is having a way to fix a stuck boat. It'd be fine if it's inconvenient, like maybe having to raise the anchor and have Izil physically push the boat, but yeah. I had a lot of fun with this, although I never beat it (one of the treasures didn't show up for me)
3. Executive Cobra: Origins - I love how different each route is, and the story is pretty well written, and each line is loosely connected. I think Judith is my favorite route with CJ as a close 2nd. The first puzzle in Max's route was kind of rough (I avoided watching this one on stream because I wanted to read it for myself). I just wish a battle system wasn't required because that's the weakest part imo. 
4. Scratch's Inferno - This game actually grew on me quite a bit. I had a few growing pains with the controls, like I kept walking into enemies while I was attacking them, but once I got used to it, the gameplay is very tight and the game, while a little hard, doesn't feel unfair.
5. I Saved the World but Then My Girlfriend Got Turned Into a Sword - The vibe and story for this one was really good. I love how there's actual reasoning for Bibi's sword form being tied to Haver's ego. I just wish they had more time to polish up the battle system.

The long ones I couldn't get around to playing before rating closed, so I imagine Minerva's Lost or Isle Izil or Mint's Ultra Adventure could be personal top 5 material. I'll try again sometime.

Speaking of Kyle's stream, I am super grateful to MeBID for creating the digital version. I'm not sure Kyle would have had the patience to read the rulebook on stream (especially because we went first), and it would have been a real pain to explain the rules in chat. With the digital version, Kyle was able to jump in, and we were able to have that great moment when he realizes that he must lose his friends to collect more cards. I wish we had like a week more so I could have made art for each ending or something, maybe added more detail to each menu, but I really like how it turned out in the end. I'm also grateful that, through programming the digital version, MeBID essentially helped clean up the rulebook. I was able to iron out any inconsistencies and clarify any rules questions thanks to them.

LOOKING BACK
There are definitely things I would probably have done differently. For starters, I would probably have started on art earlier. There were a few days after I felt satisfied with the actual gameplay and balance that I took a day or two off from working on the game. Then again, that little break was kind of important because I probably would have burned out, as I was for sure in the process of doing as I was working on the art. As for the actual game design, I wish I could have designed a more climatic ending. Using each card in your Binder for the big tournament instead of going off a point system would have been really cool. If I had teamed up for a digital version a lot earlier, I probably would have figured out a way because I wouldn't have to be tied to keeping the game as simple as possible. I kind of wish I playtested the digital version more before the deadline. I probably would have added clearer instructions about the goal and story of the game, and maybe caught that buck bug that caused Kyle to get an A Rank instead of a C Rank. However, I'm very happy and proud with how everything ended up. I uh, I still watch Kyle's playthrough and read the chat reactions because it gives me life. 

If I were to choose another character to make a game about, like if Ultra Mint wasn't an option, I probably would have gone with Alexandria or Executive Cobra. I think those two would have pretty good storylines for a potential board game. Alexandria's would be a sort of push-your-luck game about getting as much treasure as possible until she dies and becomes a skeleton at the end. Executive Cobra's would be an engine-building game all about gathering resources and businesses and making money and raising Ego. Iunno, I still really like what I did with Ultra Mint so it's hard to imagine going with someone else.

LOOKING FORWARD
So what is next for Scrappet Kaiser Princess? I did actually come up with a few new cards, so it's possible that I make a little expansion down the line. For example, a new Starter card could force Mindy to lose bucks at the end of each round. Thematically it would be a rare and fairly powerful card for a Starter, but it would also be really old so the kids would have to spend money to tape it together or else it would be lost. Another Event card I had in mind would be to force any cards bought in the store to go directly to the playground. The flavor being that those cards were stolen from the kids at the Store by the Nestor twins and given away at the playground... I'd have to think a bit more about more card ideas before I release a little mini expansion though. Maybe I could come up with alternate character abilities or something... Hm... I'll think about it.

A few friends have asked me if I would put this on Kickstarter. I'm not sure yet. Sure I really like it and I think it's a pretty fun game, but printing and shipping an actual board game might be too much of a hassle, especially because I live in a small apartment in Japan. The game theme is also a little niche, and it's a solitaire board game as well, so the audience for this game might not be large enough for a mass printing. So yeah, I am currently undecided about putting this up on Kickstarter and getting it printed.  I suppose I could put it up on a print-by-demand site though, but I'll have to do some research.

As for other projects, I've got nothing at the moment. I do have a few ideas though. I have an idea for Scrappet Kaiser Princess 2, which would still play similarly to the original. Instead of friends, you summon the scrappets in your binder to gather resources for you. And each one would have their own ability, and there would probably be a lot more locations, and the goal would mainly be to keep your Ego up. But I don't really have a story or emotional hook for that, and I think that aspect should be almost as good as the original at least. I've been thinking about the Bruised Egos fighting game though. There's this 1v1 card game called Exceed (also by Level 99 Games; yes they're my favorite board game company) that simulates a 2d fighting video game. I've been considering making all the Bruised Egos characters in that system, probably combining aspects of (almost) everyone's games... We'll see though

Well that's it! If you stuck around this long, thanks for reading all of this. I very much appreciate you enjoying this little project! Hopefully, we'll do this again next time. See ya!

Um... So I was going through CJ's path when I got into a fight with the Dark Warrior. We both spammed our defenses and now any attack either of us does will heal the opponent a bunch. We've been going at it for a while lol. How do I reset? Loving the story so far though

Edit: I ended up downloading the file to start a new game. Spammed Attack instead. I'm back in :)

I kept coming back to this one because I wanted to beat Dark Schippie Dues so bad... I finally got him! And with 1 hit point left, too! Really fun game.

I've just released print-and-play files if you want to print out the actual board game! Instructions are included in the file, and new print version of the rulebook is also updated with any changes.

Don't have a table so it's on the floor; hope you guys don't mind. 

Ready to begin! Happy birthday, Mindy!

Let's take a quick group photo so we can cherish the beginning of our adventure together! (Please ignore what might be coming on the Ego track.) I definitely recommend using cardstock for these standees

It's day 1 and Waffuru is messing up my plans already

After a week, this is what the crew is looking like. Unfortunately, at 138 points, I was just shy of getting the S Rank and becoming the new Scrappet Kaiser Champion.

Final group shot. Haters gonna hate.

If you were wondering what a complete Griswald looks like, this is it. Don't worry I threw away that hair after I took this picture

Anyway, that's what the printed version looks like! I still need to work on the US Letter version, as I imagine most of you use that size. The board and standees will have to be a bit smaller, and I would need to readjust the Ego track to have three rows instead of two, but yeah. It shouldn't take long. I just have IRL things to take care of, so it might be a few days before I get that out...

Actually I found the time lol. Print-and-play files for both sizes have been released on the game page!

You totally should replace it! I think most of us are still polishing up our games (at least, I'm still doing some crunching), and there are no rules against it. Kyle himself said that it is a-ok to keep updating, so you should go for it! 

Well. I uploaded files for the A4 print version, but it might take a more time to readjust and maybe redraw stuff for the Letter version... Letter size is so small, these cards are going to be pretty snug

Anyways, I'm going to take a short break from doing that. Time to print what I've got and see how it all looks! (And eat and stuff I guess.) Will post pics when I finish!

I've updated Jessa's and Link's ability cards. Not a big change, just wording. Jessa's Store ability now says "Steal" and Link's now says "Buy" but they work the same as before. Not entirely necessary to update the digital version yet, as I might have time to color the kid's shoes later

Print version is almost done! I just have to create a new rulebook and make a US Letter version (which I hope won't take too long). I also plan on spending most of the day cutting out a copy so I'll post pics later. This print version is taking a lot more work than I expected

It would not require all of DSD's cards. You just need to gain his entire deck. (This is because Baby Filkiss is fairly weak card that I don't expect anyone to keep since there's no extra point bonus in doing so)

I added a new digital reference card in the Digital folder in the file. Also adds some lore that was in the rulebook (well, more like implied, but confirmed if you read all the endings)

Btw I was watching the vod and while I do like how Kyle got an A Rank (as it's probably the most interesting ending to get on a first run imo), I don't think he was supposed to get 128pts. He should have only had 91pts and gotten a C Rank because he (hilariously) spent all his money on cards, but the game still added the original 38 bucks to his score.

I also played again and somehow didn't lose Jessa even though I trashed my Starter card early on. Spiff was still my friend at that point so I wonder if that was part of it...

Oh and one more thing! I guess I never noticed until Kyle bought a ton of cards (I mostly used Mindy and Jessa to cycle to get what I wanted), but I intended newly-bought store cards to act differently. They're meant to go into your pocket (since "Gain a card" always means it goes into your pocket) and there's supposed to be a little empty pocket phase before moving on to the playground. Looking at the rules now, I suppose it's a little vague about that part and the FAQ example sounds a little like how it works in the digital version. But I meant that FAQ example to mean that every store-bought card must have been inside the binder before moving on... That said, I really do like the way it is in the digital version, and it makes opening the booster packs more fun, I think. So you keep it as it is, I'm going to simply redefine what it means to "buy a card" in the rulebook to be more in line with the digital version. Instead of "lose bucks to gain a card" it will be something like "lose bucks to put the top card of the deck into your binder, replacing an old card of your choosing." Hm... I guess I need to change the wording on Jessa's ability also to "Steal" instead of "Gain" and define "Stealing" somewhere...

Also, as I'm working on the physical version, I came up with cool little achievements and challenges to put in the end of the rulebook. If you're interested, you could try adding them in. Here's what I've got:

ACHIEVEMENTS: 
- Canon Ending: Become the Scrappet Kaiser Champion with Max Ego without losing Jessa as a friend.
- Canon Extreme: Become the Champion with Max Ego, and with Dog Bower and Lumby But Giga in your Binder.
- Keep Her Humble: Become the Champion without losing any friends.
- Legendary Griswald Incarnate: Face Carl with all four Griswald cards. (face carl means get at least 100pts)
- I Have Nothing Left To Teach You: Gain all of Dark Schippie Dues’ cards.
- This One’s For Jessa: Win a duel with your Starter card.

If you think of any other cool little challenges that could also apply to the physical game, let me know!

Anyway, if I have time the only other thing I would want to do with the digital version (outside of checking for bugs) is update the kid's art a little. Aside from Penny, I never colored their shoes because I never planned to show that part of them, so I've been thinking of doing that. This is very low priority so I might not get to it before the deadline, just letting you know

I loved the prompt of the game jam as well. Each character was so unique and could be taken in different directions in different genres and could even interact with each other in interesting ways (like in Dungeon of Alexandria, which is my personal #1 atm). I learned quite a bit about making a board game this past month, and I enjoyed seeing other people's takes on the characters, and how vastly different yet equally cool they were from my version

I kind of wish he had set up a game lineup showing what order he would play the games. Because it was like 530am in my time zone when he started playing my game and I could have been more prepared to warn him about certain rules or even dropped a link to the board game setup in the chat. Not that big a deal though as the game went over well and he managed to see most of the cards we made, and I had a ton of fun watching everyone react to losing friends.

It's good to know that we can keep updating our games, although I kind of have this feel that once Kyle streams it, that's it, as most of the non-participants in the chat will likely only see that single iteration...

Anyway, this just means I have to try to pump out the printable version as fast as I can

If you would like to try the original board game without having to open the pcio file, or if you just want to have a closer look at all the cards, I've set up a demo room here. 

Keep in mind that other people can use this link to enter the same room, so I still recommend opening up your own room if you want to play the board game undisturbed.

Saw Kyle play the game first on stream! Thanks for the help, MeBID!

Since we are allowed to update submissions until the end of judgement, if it's okay and if you have time, here are a few things that could be added to the digital version:

- Maybe a little longer intro that could explain exactly what your goal is. There is a lot implied by the binder reveal and Mindy's photo, but explaining that there's only a week until the tournament is something that's only known if you've read the rulebook. Plus knowing that you're trying to get a high score would help new players know what they need to do. You could simply have the first paragraph of the rulebook fade in before you're given the binder along with Objective paragraph from the rulebook to show how their score is calculated

- Credits! I know it's on the game page, but we probably should give ourselves proper credit in the game as well. I should update the rulebook with that too

- Kyle went hard on buying cards and got his binder shredded lol. Maybe mention in the Store instructions during the planning phase that new cards will replace old cards in the binder

- Maybe after you complete the game, a little card gallery could unlock so people could see all the cards in the game?

- I wonder if I should make a more easily readable reference card for DSD's deck...

Yeah! I'm pretty excited! It's a shame about Waffuru though

I did another run and noticed that the New Video Game event did not give a card. It should give just 1 card.

Edit:

It has been posted! We did it! It feels good. Thanks so much for the help MeBID! It all turned out great!

After a little time to rest and celebrate, I'm going to jump back in and work on some print and play files, but for now I can only say "wooooo"

I did a test run and Penny ended up sticking around even though my Ego went past 40 at the very end of the last round. Not sure if it's a bug related to Jessa already being gone or if the limit is set to 45 instead of 40.

Also, in my second run, the actual Mindy and Jessa tokens didn't switch to the smug/sad versions when the other three leave, but the full art during the round summary changed.

As for the sound effects, it was a little surprising hearing the drum/pop sound effect for each click and placement but it's not... bad? Maybe lower the volume on that if you can? As I play more I get used to it though, so the actual sound effect is fine, it's either loud or my volume was up a little high when I booted it up... Other than that though, the other sound effects are great! I wonder if a sound effect could be added when a friend leaves. Maybe that rip sound to suggest why the photo is no longer in the binder?

I'll boot up the game and do a quick runthrough, focusing on giving suggestions that would hopefully be quick to fix:

- When I made the planning screens, I forgot to design an area that would give instructions on how to proceed. Maybe it's not entirely necessary as it won't be too hard to figure out what to do, but for a first-time player it would help a lot to say something like "Plan for a location for each kid to go to today" or something. You could put that in the card area when the cursor is not hovering over a card or location or kid

- For the duel screen, you should either make the blue band taller or the card art smaller, as the white name text gets pushed off the bottom and onto the white background, making it impossible to read. Or I guess make the text black

- I love the new round summary screen! I added a recolored smug Mindy and sad Jessa into the digital folder. If you could have the game swap their token images to those once the other three kids leave, I think it will add a little more weight to Mindy's decisions in the later rounds (also so you can see the art more than once).

- That's okay on the animated text messages btw, what you've done is great!

- A card reference for what's in DSD's deck would still be helpful during planning phase 2. I think you could take the DSD duel image from the game board and put it at the far end of the box next to "Alley", so when you hover your cursor over them, you easily understand what the reference card is for... This one might be too much to do with the time left, so it's fine if you don't get to it.

And that should be it for me as far as I can tell. I wish I could explore it a bit more to catch any bugs, but I think you've ironed it out quite a bit! Thanks! This is great!

Alright I'm heading to bed now. I'm going to be focusing my time on making the tutorial video in the last 24 hours, but if you need anything, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I'll probably submit the game as well once I get the tutorial on it, but since you have access to the page, you can upload the digital version whenever it's ready

Okay I think I figured it out. I uploaded a new link in the folder

Alright, I made an Event folder in the link and will be dropping off the parts in there.

By the way, I started writing up the submission page for this game, and while I suppose it doesn't matter too much, I'm not sure what to classify this project as. It's a board game, but it's not yet a physical game, and also has a digital version... Also I'm pretty new to this and I want to send you this key to the game page so you can be a co-creator and can add your own screenshots/update the game files without having to go through me, but I don't see a way to send a private message here... Um... I think I'll also drop that in the event folder

This took longer than I expected but I love it. Here is the title screen/box art

If my scrappet doodles didn't make it clear enough though, I'm really bad at drawing shoes

EDIT:

A few things I noticed while playing the digital version: The description for the Store and Playground mention "coins" instead of "bucks."

Anyway, here are some screen designs:

Playground trading:

And the screen for moving cards from Pocket to Binder:

This is pretty good! I'll need to make screens for the parts for the playground and whatnot but it's pretty cool!

- I forgot to add a DSD deck reference when I designed planning screen 2. That could be added by just showing the reference when hovering over "Alley"
- I agree about the Events. It's fine in the board game because you know they're just random cards, but in the digital version it should try to reflect the game state a little better. This suggestion would be more work and is a little unnecessary, but it would be fun it the texts animated... Anyway, did you need me to send a separate image for each Event notification?
- I'm currently working on a nice title screen and an actual logo (the Scrappet Kaiser logo is for the card game not the board game lol), but after that I'll try to whip up a design for trading and pocket-to-binder stuff... If I have time after making a tutorial video, I'll see if I can make a nicer duel screen as well

I have to admit, I was fairly skeptical about this digital version being done before the deadline, but this is actually coming along very nicely! I'm impressed! You've got a lot done in such a short time. I still have a few concerns though... I do like how the automated rules make the game move much faster in the digital version, and it's definitely more accessible too, but I put a lot of work in the presentation of the board game version. In the digital version, you miss out on little touches like physically removing photos from the binder (this could be done digitally, but I think it would slow down the pace of the game), or being able to put Griswald together, or flipping over Mindy's phone for the next notification... 

I guess what I'm saying is, when I submit this game to the jam, I'll be putting files for both versions in there, suggesting that the board game version has more character while the digital version is more accessible. I hope Kyle plays both versions, but if he were to choose just one, I would nudge him toward the board game and try to help him with the rules from the chat since I plan on being there

Played a couple rounds on cheat mode, mostly to see the screens for designing. But I do have a few concerns:

- I lost a friend when I wasn't supposed to. Only the first time you hit a specific Ego level will you lose a friend. I had dropped below 25 due to Carl's effect, then went back up to 28. At 25 it told me to lose a friend again, which shouldn't happen. When you have two friends left, the next point you would lose friends would be at 35 ego.
- I haven't tested it yet, but I noticed it in the earlier prototype. You can lose multiple friends in a single round as well. Since the 35 and 40 points are so close, it's common (in my playtests) to lose those last two friends in the same round.
- Mindy should still be able to trade at the Playground
- Just reiterating how the final score is calculated: The amount of Ego you have + the number of Bucks you have + 10 per each remaining friend + the total strength of all cards in your Binder. I did a max point, Jessa-only run and only scored 105 points when I should have scored 171 points. I'm not sure what about the score is missing but something isn't adding up. A max point, all friends remain run (theoretically bc I messed up) should give 114 points BEFORE binder scoring, and my score with the cards I had should have been 145 (I lost a friend so I actually had... 150?), whereas I got only 98 points.

Also, not entirely related to the digital version, but I edited the rulebook a bit. I reduced the FAQ and added all the clarifications concerning specific cards in the card list area. Some things that haven't come up yet I have clarified there, like stuff about Eggbert and Rotten Puddle.

Anyway, here's a quick screen design for planning screen 1 (action selection screen):

The right third of the screen would generally remain the same for both planning screens (I'll edit this with more screens as I finish them), and nothing interactive should be in that area (have the tokens start in the Home space). Whenever your cursor goes over a particular card or object, the relevant card or information should appear in the area where Mindy's ability currently is. This way, players know exactly where to look each time they want information. 

The binder is a quick mockup, but if the sizes are good for you, we can just use that

Planning screen 2:

I forgot to add the Day on the first screen and a Ready button but they should roughly in the same spot as here.
I mentioned on the first screen that nothing interactable should be on the right side, but on this screen, players should be able to drag cards from the binder to the kid they want. I considered doing the same with Bucks, but that would have been a little cumbersome.