Breaker Press Games 2017

The year has come to a close, so it's time to think about what was accomplished in 2016 and look at goals for 2017. Looking back over the last year, things have moved slowly but have been consistently exciting.

Breaker Faction Set.

Q1
In January I approved all of the printing for the Broken Contract Miniature Faction Sets. It was thrilling since this was our first completed product. February and March was all packing and shipping those Kickstarter rewards and getting ready for AdeptiCon. In my notes, I had started mapping new rules, Ability Cards, and Factions. I was thinking ahead to completing the rulebook and FerrumSky Campaign book (more on those later).

My vision of what Broken Contract can be in three dimensions!

Q2
April saw the first notes and blog post on developing a campaign system for injuries. Looking back, it was actually the biggest blogging month of the year with five blog posts on various topics. It sort of demonstrates how invigorating going to a convention like AdeptiCon can be. In May, I developed our first point system and matched point scenarios for the upcoming rulebook. My notes indicate that this is when I started really working on the next Kickstarter and building the page for it. It sadly shows how slow things can move. It is 7 months later and we are only now just about ready to launch. In June, I reimagined how scenery would be used in Broken Contract, and built a ton of it to share with people.

Troublemakers Cards I threw together. Art by Blutt.

Q3
July saw more time up in the attic, building and painting scenery, but it also saw something else interesting. My partner and I went out to visit a friend in Cincinnati and we brought Broken Contract and a card game design we hadn't touched in a year. This card game, Troublemakers, was great fun - and it didn't even have art yet. It was just handwritten cards I had made out of card stock. We had pulled the game back into our collected conscious, so through the rest of July I put my horrific Photoshop skills to work, used a street artist friend's art from their Facebook page, and sent off the art files to The Game Crafter for printing. I sent one of the 3 decks to him and he loved it (more about that below as well). August saw the introduction of our new regular playtester, Hal Crossno, and my first time holding professionally printed prototype game board tiles and the first graphic design draft of the rulebook.

Draft #2 of the Broken Contract rulebook in hard copy.

Q4
October through December was a steady mix of editing, model painting, and playtesting. Rules were stripped out of the game and new ones were added. We put a lot of time into playing through the introductory scenarios that are in the book to ensure they will be engaging and easy to understand. We also ran through the core Crew Creation and campaign rules that will be introduced in the rulebook. December ended with graphic designer, Sam Alcarez, sending over the 5th draft of the Broken Contract Rulebook, which also happened to have the last major changes to the game. From here we go to copy editing and filling out the art and design.

The FerrumSky mines are an unforgiving place.
Art by Filip Dudek

2017
Having looked back on the previous year, what are reasonable goals to pursue in 2017?

• Broken Contract Rulebook and all essential play aids - I'm finally confident that the rules to Broken Contract are in a complete state and with some copy editing and graphic design polish they will be ready to go to Kickstarter in a couple of weeks. Additionally, most of the big design challenges of the Ability Cards, Equipment Cards, Board Tiles, and Character Dashboards are completed. Assuming the Kickstarter is successful, we'll be able to get all of these things manufactured in early 2017.
• Troublemakers Card Game - This is a project I'm very excited about but a lot of this hinges on Blutt, the artist. The mechanics to the game are there with plenty of card types to make a variety of interactions possible. There is also plenty of room for expansion. But the game was designed with Blutt's art in mind, and he's the final curator of what goes into the game. Ideally, I'd like to have this ready for Kickstarter this summer. Only time will tell.
• FerrumSky Campaign Book and the Left for Dead Deck - Broken Contract was envisioned as a game designed to tell an ever unfolding story and that story begins in the FerrumSky mines. The FerrumSky Campaign Book is meant to both demonstrate that story telling vision while simultaneously giving the players expanded campaign rules and a bunch of additional scenarios that they can play. Part of those expanded campaign rules uses the Left for Dead Deck, a card driven method of determining the fates of the injured crew members. I'm really excited to immerse myself in the further development of these products, which probably won't come to fruition until the end of 2017.
• AdeptiCon and Conventions - AdeptiCon has been the lynchpin of my demo efforts, and this year will be no exception. However, I really need to get out to other conventions and expose a greater population of gamers to these games. I want to attend a minimum of 3 conventions this year, and as many as 6 - which would be extremely ambitious.

I have a lot of other little goals revolving around painting and blogging, but the above goals are the big important ones. Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for that first Kickstarter of the year in a couple of weeks! 

-Nick