Zach Hoekstra
@zhoekstra
Game designer living in Utrecht. Chief Idea Magpie of Restless Raven Games. He/Him
🎲✂️ As Grachtenpand / Canal Houses gets localized, I'm endlessly interested in which countries choose to do a full translation versus keep the original name. China chose to keep the original name on the front with "Canal Flower Houses" translated on the top, while Germany just went "HIGH HOUSE!"
It's time, my babies! Fly, fly away and get me those pretty little reviewers!
They've loaded it in the intercontinental circus cannon but haven't lit the fuse yet
🎲✂️ UPS says our preproduction copies will be here tomorrow, but given that they're still in new delhi right now, I think UPS is full of shit
Me hearing the latest drama in some niche fandom subreddit I'd never heard of before (My artist for Pact is working on some promo card sketches and I'm having a lot of fun describing fun intrigue things for him to draw)
board game designers too - there is a special quality to games that are cheerfully handmade and bad. Don't make slop, make the board game equivalent of Halal Movie Night
🎲✂️🧵 So let's imagine there's a game that's designed for 4 players, and is playable but not as good at 3 (Spoilers it's Pact) It's got a deck of 90 some cards and a board and tokens.
Now is the time for my solitaire Game of the Goose design to wow publishers and earn accolades
I may look like a fluffy golden retriever on the outside but I'm a big fan of the morbid, the gothic, and the frightening. So this was my reaction on finding Danse Macabre at the Efteling this weekend. Haunted Mansion eat your heart out
Bellevue version Parthenay! I love that the window signage actually goes up and down with the houses
🎲✂️ After close to a month of design, the pre-production files for Pact have been sent! I'm so excited to see what we made You can see a little sneak peek of what everything looks like put together in the screentop implementation. Check it out! screentop.gg/@zhoekstra/p...
🎲✂️ "Reeding" is the term for marking and channels made around the edge of a coin in order to make it harder to shave or counterfiet. But I've always called them greeblies
🎲✂️Wait I just wanted to design a game how did I turn into a product owner
YES they're not chess sets they're excuses to sell 64 plastic models and a board on which they will be arranged so that you can't tell any of them apart. There's a reason abstracts use simple pieces, they need to be readable, so you've ruined chess AND the models don't even look good.
🎲✂️ Hey a general cast out there, if you're one of them newfangled Instabooktube content creators and you've been following Pact with some interest, reach out to me, because we're starting planning for the media part of the publishing cycle.
🎲✂️ One thing I'm really appreciative of for Jason Gamber, my graphic designer for PACT, is that he does an amazing job at blending symbols to really communicate some subtle stuff about the world. See his coin notes here for example (www.jasongamberdesign.com, he's done a ton of great stuff)
🎲✂️ More tokens for Pact! Convert tokens mark courtiers that have been converted to the Weaver faith, and serve as a conduit for Neith's strange Weavings. Loyalty marks courtiers that have a particular loyalty to Jenna, having been promoted by her in some way.
How dare they make a solo rpg specifically for me and my love of an obscure and sightly problematic Ghibli film
Getting back into miniature painting as a relaxing hobby. I stopped painting like 12 to 15 years ago and I was not very good even back then, so there's a lot to learn I'm focusing on cheap miniatures I can print with my 4mm fdm printer, so I can work on my basics without breaking the bank.
LOOK THE ROOTS SPACE HAVE ACTUAL ROOTS WEAVING THROUGH THEM I love it
Getting back some QoL updates on the board for Pact and I'm so deliriously happy about the details. Look at these floral patterns!
🎲✂️ Kickoff party for Pact planning went well! We also got in a great game where, with everyone having collectively defunded the military, Jenna nearly got enough support to instantly win the game round 2!
"Die Vlegel Reynaerde / That Rascal Reynard" based on the old Middle Dutch tale
Alternatively, theming around the tale of Van De Vos Reynaerde. Is that too niche? I feel like that's a bit niche
🎲✂️ Currently musing over a small box card game about squabbling over something and getting so passionate about it that you end up destroying the thing you're squabbling over. Politics? No. Seagulls fighting over a bag of fast food.
🎲✂️ In a forum about miniature spaceship combat rules, while discussing how and where to design in complexity, we accidentally hit upon the most important ur-rule of spaceship games