trailers and prototyping
w028 we have a trailer!
🏜️ +silent valley+ teaser trailer
The trailer is finally done! I assure you that there are no spoilers you can glean about the game so feel free to watch it in its entirety.
🎲 board game prototype
In the process of fine-tuning the gameplay mechanics, I thought it would be easiest to prototype the different gamemplay abilities as a board game… but how do you translate a digital game and its mechanics to a board game? and aren’t board games really tough to print and make? Well this GDC video on practical creativity tips was really useful.
Well we started off thinking we were going to make a board game anyways, so why not kill two birds with one stone and make a board game using a standard deck of 52 cards, pretend the cards have different meanings (Eg. Hearts = Tools Diamonds = Traps), and then test it out with many players in real life?
So that’s exactly what we did. Here are the basic rules.
In the Silent Valley board game, players become hunters in a tense game of strategy and wits. Played on a custom-drawn board, you'll roll a dice to move your hunter along a path filled with different environments and hidden resources.
The core of the game revolves around a standard 52-card deck. Black cards act as traps—you can place them on spaces to hinder opponents. If they land on your trap without a suitable red card to disarm it, they either lose a card or, if a resource is present, you capture it. Red cards are your tools, allowing you to claim empty spaces or challenge territories already controlled by others. By using a stronger tool than an opponent's defense, you can expand your hunting grounds and get closer to victory.
Players must carefully balance their hand of cards, deciding each turn whether to play a strategic trap or tool, or draw new cards to prepare for future turns. The first player to either control 10 territories or collect 5 resource tokens wins the game. It’s a dynamic race where every move, and every card played, could be the key to success.
Message me if you are interested in playing and I’ll send you a full rule sheet.
⛳️ what we did this week
On Monday I met up with my friend, Dr. Manvir Singh to talk about Shahmanism.
On Tuesday I talked to a representative from Google for Startups to talk about the current startup investment landscape in google. In the end I realized that we’re still too early in development to be talking to investors and I don’t think we even want to work with investors for the time being let alone sell the game traditionally.
On Wednesday I attended a startup event hosted by Shibuya Startup Support and networked with creatives with Latin roots and other interesting people in Shibuya. It was super interesting to see other japanese and foreigners trying all sorts of interesting creative endeavors in Tokyo - I felt refreshed and energized.
On Thursday I caught up with my master’s thesis supervisor, Dr. Pat Savage about Cultural Evolution and their respective upcoming/recently released books.
On Friday ttended a live music show featuring Manda, Kiwako Ashimine and Hugen.
And on the weekend I finished the Unreal Engine C++ video introduction series that walks you through the various custom data-types, classes and gameplay abilities systems in Unreal.
🎧 listening diet
Mind is a Mountain by Deftones
Shoreline by TDJ
Bread by Hugen
Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence OST by Kenji Kawai
📚reading diet
Ghost in The Shell by Masamune Shiro
Amphibious Soul by Craig Foster
Butter by Asako Yuzuki
Shahmanism by Manvir Singh
🎮 playing diet
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Elden Ring: Nightreign
Cyberpunk 2077
That’s all folks! Let me know if you want to try out the board game, you only need a standard 52 card deck, a dice and some resource tokens like coins. Can be played with 2-4 players!
Stay hydrated - and keep playing!
🧑🚀🏜️🎲