I wanted to not just make this a blog, but actually use this as an opportunity to chronicle my journey in developing and publishing a game. So, with this post I want to take you back to the very beginning and walk you through the initial inception of Xenofera.
I first began playing with the idea for Xenofera last fall. The initial catalyst for the idea was actually a series of posts on Facebook where people were coming up with fanciful names for real creatures. I started thinking about how that could be used as the premise for a game.
Over the course of about a week, I worked out the basic mechanics of the game, recruit a crew, build cages, and use the cages and crew to capture the creatures. I liked the simplicity of it. I wanted a game that was relatively easy to learn. I personally have always preferred games with short rule books. I can get bored with a game even before I play it if it takes to long to read and understand the rules. So I wanted to create a game whose rules would fit on only a couple of pages.
At the same time I was coming up with the idea for this new game, I had reserved time at the Midwest GameFest in Kansas City to play testing another game I was working on. I had decided to attend the event alone. So the first evening found me sitting at the bar next to my hotel creating the first draft of my game. I had an enjoyable evening chatting with the bartender, bouncing creature names off of him. By the end of a few beers, I had my first deck. I should also note here that some of the creature names were probably influenced by those few beers.
The next day I sat down with a fellow gamer I had met the previous day and played. To my surprise, he was impressed with the game even in its rough form. His feedback encouraged me to set aside my other game, which needed some rework of the mechanics, and focus on this new concept.
Over the next 10 months I would play it, tweak it, play it again, and tweak it some more, until finally I had a game that I felt was ready for a Kickstarter. And as you look through the website and learn more about the game, I thope you'll agree.