In preparation for both the Kickstarter later this year, but also my appearance at Dice Tower West next week, where I will have a booth, Tristam Rossin has been hard at work helping me give my game this new amazing look!
The base game for DEER!, including box and card art has been completed, as well as some promotional products!
I am completely in love with this art and grateful to Tris for taking my lackluster clip art design and being able to see the vision and come up with this incredible look for DEER!
The goal of DEER! is to not only create and a fast, fun and enjoyable game, but also be able to impart a little bit of information and also be able to express the beauty of both Colorado and the animals.
He’s been able to create components that both feel like Colorado and these wild animals without going too far in one direction or the other. It was an important balance to walk with regards to this game.
Too cartoon-y and goofy and it looses that element of beauty and awe that the area where I live invokes from me. However, too far in the opposite directions with too much seriousness and reality, the game loses the fast, fun, and light-hearted element.
I look forward to working with Tris on the rest of DEER! Right now, we’ve got the base game with a goal of working on the art for the several expansions that I have planned following the Kickstarter.
Here is a closer look at the various cards that are part of the base game.
If you’re not familiar with DEER! then the short version is the game plays with a slap-jack style mechanism, where a card in play prompts each of the players to slap a specific reaction: stop, slow, or go. Each time a player successfully slaps the correct reaction the fastest, they take the road card into their score pile.
Deer, elk, or moose in the road prompt the STOP reaction. The images of these animals are larger and clearly have their hoofs in the road.
If the deer, elk, or moose is standing on the side of the road, smaller without any hoofs on the road, then the reaction is to SLOW.
Then finally, if the road is clear, the response is to GO.
The game timer revolves around the shown “Rotation Card”. Four of these are shuffled into the deck. The stop light cards on the table in a triangle in front of the players. Each time a rotation card is pulled, players will rotate the location of the different reactions, shaking things up occasionally. When the fourth rotation card is pulled, the game ends.
At the end of the game, the player with the most cards in their score pile is the winner!
I have had so much fun designing and developing this game, making it ready for people to have and enjoy in their own home, so this awesome art on this has been just the icing on the cake.
Dice Tower West is going to be our official first event for the game and I’m going full press with showing it off, sharing this as much as I can and working to build that following that we will need to get this to a successful Kickstarter.
If you’re going to be at Dice Tower West, come see me! Look for this awesome banner. I’ll be running playtests of DEER! and two of our trick taking games by designer Micah Sturr throughout the day Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Events can be found on the Cardboard Event platform and just walk-up.
If the shipping gods are nice to me, I anticipate having prototype copies of the game with the updated art available to play and you’ll be spared my terrible clip art.
If you’re in Colorado, look for updates on events happening in Summit County and the Denver area.
Otherwise, catch me at any of the big conventions this year! I’ll be there with Capstone Games this year (hopefully with my own booth starting next year). At least come by and say Hi!, but I’ll also have DEER! and many other games on the in the off hours.
Thanks for taking the time to tune in and check out this update.
Take care all!
Jordan Thomas
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