Another Short Day

The Wife and I are off to Bristol this afternoon to visit our folks, so I'm just doing a half-day today. I've got until the end of next week to finish the box and rules for Carpe Astra, so I'm under the cosh a bit at the moment. I'm taking my computer with me, so I can continue working down there. We're not coming back until Tuesday, so I'll need it on Monday and Tuesday to make some progress.

The rules are coming on nicely. Initially they were just a text file with the rules written out in. I did several versions like that, then I sent the game to a few playtesters in the US and Germany. At that point I needed to include some rough diagrams to explain things a little better. I whipped up some quick diagrams in Photoshop, and conbined them with the text in InDesign to make some rough and ready PDF rules. There was no background art, the diagrams were line drawings and the text needed some love, but in essence everything was there.

The playtesters came back with loads of comments about how to improve the wording/clarity of the rules and I got to the point where the rules were pretty much written, but really ugly. So this week's work has been to 'pretty them up'. I've been going through the diagrams, replacing the line-art with pictures of the components. I've added a 'components' page showing pictures of the various bits, and I'm adding a few extra diagrams too. I've extended the rules from 2 pages of A4 to 3, folded into an A5 booklet, which gives me room for the components page, a front cover and a back page showing the scoring. It also allows me a little more room for the explanation - letting me cover a few more things in detail - the less the first-time player has to guess the better!

I've also got to do the box, but I'll leave that until I get back next week.

In other news, the UK distributor I've been waiting to hear from finally got back to me on Tuesday, saying they'd cut me a purchase order on Wednesday. No sign of it yet though...