Tell us a little bit about yourself and your gaming history?
Playing games does give me a brain workout, but instead of feeling fatigue I'm all the more inspired and stimulated. On the other hand, designing games is much more challenging. It's a different kind of brain work out and allows me to be creative with the design (look and function) of the game. Finally, self-publishing my creations puts me in a different mindset all together. I have to keep a cool head to think out and execute a business like plan. But emotionally, I get to see people enjoying my game, and also see my games fail miserably in the video review department. It's interesting to see my ego being boosted and bruised. In the end, we really don't need egos.
What is your favorite PNP game?
I love simple, abstract strategy games like Autumn, Seeker 9, Murder's Row and hard games like Land 6, Farlander...
How did you first discover PNP design contests?
In 2013 I found myself making things that looked like games to improve the English classes I teach here in Japan. That lead me to research more about games, which took me to BGG and the PNP contests. It has been a real pleasure to rediscover games and see how they have changed since my childhood. With a son of my own now, I'm slowly growing a collection to enjoy with friends and family.
Could you describe your game from a thematic point of view?
HAZE ISLANDS is a pirate game. You are the captain of a ship and crew, and your goal is infamy. There are many adventures to be had, they will give your the reputation you are looking for. But there is danger. Other pirates might attack you when your ship is low on crew to steal your hold and put you out of the race. Then there is The Doom, a creature unknown, that strikes at night growing stronger as the week goes on. Kill it or run away. No time to waste.
Could you describe your game from a game mechanics point of view?
Players (1-3) use a deck of map cards to take actions (such as sail, scout new islands, deploy pirates, raid for resources, complete adventures). Most of the cards start in the first players draw deck, as the first player discards them, they are passed to the next player draw deck. So as a round progresses, everyone will use approximately the same number of cards.
However, cards are used to form the locations. So the more locations you explore, the less cards there are to go round. When the cards run out the round ends and The Doom increases in strength and attacks the nearest player. Each time The Doom can travel further, so players like to explore, but that thins out the deck making the rounds shorter. Also having cards in hand reduced the deck.
Players are also in a race to complete adventure with cards from their hands and pirate crew they deployed (worker placement). There is a risk that they wont come back until you need them, so if someone takes the adventure you require, your pirate wont be able to come back until you need to spend that resource. Also, pirate tokens are hit points that you can take if The Doom attacks you.
All this mayhem and yet there is no player elimination, instead there are role changes. If you are sunk by a player you become a castaway looking to poach another player's ship. If you are sunk by The Doom you become a Ghost Ship and can hinder other players and help The Doom attack them, giving you a chance to revive your ship and break the spell you are in.
The Solo, Friendly, Competitive, and Cooperative modes, a 54 card build, a 20-60 minute playtime, some gorgeous art, an awesome rulebook, and the swashbuckling theme make HAZE ISLANDS a nice little game.
What were your design goals with the game?
My design goals for the game were to improve upon the last attempt (HAZE CITY) at designing a game where "you need something to solve a problem at a location before time runs out". The added tension of The Doom, the player interaction of the semi-shared deck, and the special actions have all been added as the design took shape.
Second to this I wanted to make the game publishable with AMAZING art and an AMAZING rulebook.
How long have you been working on your game?
HAZE CITY started in October 2015, so I guess that would be the start date for HAZE ISLANDS too since it borrows a lot from the innovative card design. The idea was to create a grid of cards, but since the cards are not square you would combine 2 cards to form a square. Part of the bottom card was covered so you could modify the quest/event/resource at that location with that one card by rotating or flipping it, offering 4 possible changes (2 per card side).
Finish the sentence: “If you like
If you like Zombie in my Pocket but want to have a lot more meat on your bone, then you’ll probably like my game. I guess, at a stretch, 1 game of Zombie in my Pocket is 1 round of the 6 rounds of HAZE ISLANDS, then multiply that by 3 players. You are going to need a pocket 18 times bigger for this game.
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Good read. So I understand you like abstracts a lot, however this game seems to take a more thematic turn. How did you decide to go in the pirate theme direction?
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