Designer Diary: Dark Horse

Dark Horse, to be released by Knight Works in late 2011, will be my first professionally printed game. During this process, I've learned that designing board games is a unique hobby in and of itself. Once someone feels that they have an excellent idea, the realities of how hard it is to publish a game slowly set in.

I have dabbled with serious board game design since around 2000. The first game that I self-published, Shadow Wars, was produced by hand. My wife and I printed, cut, collated, laminated, and boxed all of the components for the game. The game materials, pieces and printer ink cost me roughly $16 per game – not to mention taking more than two hours to produce – and I charged only $32 for a copy. I ended up selling roughly 75 games before my supplies ran out. I learned quickly that producing games by hand was tedious and not something that I wanted to do in my spare time.

So now a decade later I have five or so rough game ideas and three games very close to a final prototype stage. The problem with getting these ideas out to the public has always been coming up with the funding to print a game. Once I stumbled across the Kickstarter site, I was sold instantly. I put together a video and launched the Kickstarter campaign within a few weeks. Of the various ideas I have been working on over the past ten years, I am most excited to see the Dark Horse board game hit game tables around the world. So on that note, I wanted to share some of the history behind the game and explain the origins of the initial design.

Initial Concept

Back in 2002 I threw together the rough mechanisms for a Wild West board game. At that time I had even commissioned five pieces of artwork from my current card illustrator for the game. I had always wanted to brainstorm a western-themed game idea, but I wanted it to revolve around building up territories using both cities and railroads. I have always had a soft spot for building games and I love that mechanism. I picked at the concept occasionally but for the most part it sat on my computer for over five years before I revisited it in 2007.

As with many ideas, they usually start with a simple concept and slowly build up over time. Dark Horse originally revolved around players moving characters on the board to collect resources but after receiving feedback on that idea the mechanism was scrapped. I needed to find some way for players to take various actions and collect resources, but I did not want to create yet another dull worker placement game. I started looking around the different categories on BoardGameGeek and stumbled across Kingsburg. I was impressed by how the designers used dice for worker placement and I started cranking out ideas on how to use this in Dark Horse.

One thing that I didn't care for in Kingsburg was that a majority of the actions only allowed you to claim various combinations of resources. Another thing that bothered me was that there was very little tension in taking actions as players had numerous choices from which to pick. I also wanted the players in Dark Horse to be able build out a territory. I knew early on that my final design would be different than other dice-based games similar to Kingsburg, but it was really a race at this point to get the game on the market.

Numerous ideas stewed in my head for another year and I kept jotting down comments on the various actions and different types of characters that a player could use. As the first prototype hit the table in 2009, it was apparent to me that the main building actions in the game needed to be the focal point of the dice placement. What surprised me the most when designing the game was the level of effort that it took to balance all of the actions. In Dark Horse players have different ways to manipulate their dice, so relying upon dice ratios was almost useless. I felt that it was necessary that players were not penalized if they rolled a specific number on their dice, so even though another player may block someone from a specific action that player still has options for taking something that will help their overall goal in the game.

Expansion Thoughts

One aspect that I wanted to explore early on when designing the core mechanisms for the game was a possible expansion. This ended up benefiting the overall game and some expansion mechanisms have even migrated to the core game.

I never really considered this before, but I wonder whether larger publishers consider potential expansion ideas when designing the core game? In my experience this has refined and balanced the core concepts in Dark Horse considerably. For example, I knew that I wanted players to obtain progress cards in the expansion. These cards would be represented by actual improvements and buildings in the 1800s. For example, one of my progress cards for the expansion is called "Steam Donkey" and before I did the research I never knew anything like that existed. If players enjoy Dark Horse and choose to pick up the expansion they will have the benefit of knowing that the core game was developed hand-in-hand with the expansion ideas.

Beta test card sample

Business as Usual?

When I started Knight Works in 2001, I wanted to do something different. I wanted the players, supporters, and fans of our games to have some control over what gets published. I am not talking about any sort of open source gaming, which I know exists out there. What I am leaning towards is opening up certain elements of the alpha and beta development to the entire game community so that fans of a specific game project would have an inside track on thematic elements and components within the game and be able to take surveys and polls to decide on game content. As the game nears completion, even more ideas and mechanisms start to unfold and the first rough beta test rules hit the public.

If you think about most publishers, the games that they create are almost in a perfect vacuum. The game community may see a few product shots and read some generic descriptions as the game nears its final stages but that's about it. Of course, playtesters are involved, but if you are not included in the playtest groups then honestly you will not know much about a game until it reaches the final stages of development.

I want to change this black-and-white approach and bring the gamers and fans into the equation. This all starts with the Dark Horse board game and will continue on with its expansion and every other game that Knight Works produces. In fact, the $60 reward level on my Kickstarter campaign will form the basis of the first "insiders" group.

Closing Thoughts

So after almost a year of playtesting various versions of the game and easily hundreds upon hundreds of game sessions, I feel comfortable with releasing Dark Horse. The Kickstarter campaign is coming close to its end date and unfortunately I was late in getting out my review copies. However, various board game reviewers now have the game and will be posting articles very soon. I am crossing my fingers that this will be what the project needs for the last few weeks. For more information, please check out the Dark Horse Kickstarter page.

Limited Edition Character Card for Kickstarter Supporters

Don Lloyd