Biomancer was our entry for ScoreSpace Jam #28 in January 2024, and it’s the last game we made as the original family team–me, Fintan, and Ellie on art and music.
You’re a wizard living peacefully on an island. You’ve let settlers move in, which seemed neighbourly enough, until they started capturing the magical creatures you use for your research. So you do what any reasonable wizard would do: send mutant minions from your laboratory to assault the settlements and get your beasts back.
The core mechanic is creature combination–you splice the front of one animal with the back of another to create your minions, and each half grants different abilities. A creature with the front of a boar and the back of a spider plays completely differently from one with those halves reversed. Your minions scavenge buildings and forests for more creatures, which fuel the creation of more minions. You lose when all your beasts and minions are gone. Your army IS your resource–every unit you send out is a unit you might not get back.
The concept is genuinely interesting, but people didn’t really engage with it. Two problems: the splicing system is hard to get your head around without more onboarding than a jam entry can provide, and we didn’t get enough animals in to make the combinations feel as varied as they needed to be. When you’ve only got a handful of fronts and backs, the “create your perfect monster” fantasy doesn’t quite land. We also ran out of time before implementing sound, which doesn’t help.
Ellie’s moved on to other things since this one, and the games we want to build now are all multiplayer, so Biomancer will probably stay as it is–a jam curio with a clever idea at its core that needed more time than a weekend could give it.
I’m a big fan of Wood Elves, having played them in multiple editions. For a long time, I posted a bunch of content on the Asrai forum, and I’m starting that up again. I usually cross-post to my blog, so here we are! I’m starting with the Army Wide Rules. Likely I’ll write some more about each unit, tactics, etc. as I start playing more games. First tournament in 3 weeks!
Elven Reflexes: replacing the overpowered “Always Strikes First” of 8th edition, this gives a minor buff of +1 Init in the first round of combat. For most troops, this means going to I5, which I think will really only come into play when being charged by slow opponents (e.g. Dwarfs, Skeletons etc.). When charging, we’ll likely be on I8 and going first against virtually everything else. When being charged, even a human will likely be faster (base I3, with a +3 for charging 3″ or more). A minor buff, in line with the overall toning down of power for the whole game.
Talismanic Tattoos: no change here, still granting 6+ ward save to Wardancers and Wild Riders.
Tree Spirit: broadly the same, this makes it so that Elf characters can’t join units of Dryads or Treekin. Interestingly, it also prohibits Tree Spirits from using the Ld of a non-Tree Spirit character, but does give any Tree Spirit character a command range bubble for other Tree Spirits, just like the general.
Tree Whack: this rule now applies to Tree Kin as well as Treemen, making the Kin a bit more useful against slow opponents, particularly other Monstrous Infantry. One attack is turned into an Initiative test, and if failed, the model suffers D3 hits at model Strength with no armor save. Potentially useful for a Treeman Ancient in a challenge, but probably only worthwhile against I3 and lower, which is not common among characters. Will experiment with it and see.
Woodland Ambush: we get a free forest again (and it doesn’t have to be a GW one!). Between 8 and 12″ in size, and not in the opponents deployment zone nor within 12″ of the table centre.
So, not a whole lot new here, but minor tweaks on the rules from the old editions. Expect to see that for most of the army list.
Lore of Athel Loren
I figured I’d cover this here, because it’s very short and not a full lore any more. In brief, instead of taking a signature spell, a wizard can take one of three spells from the Lore of Athel Loren. I’m not super happy about that, because I think two of the spells work well together in tandem, but it is what it is …
Tree Singing: Cast on a 7+, it puts a 3″ round forest on the board that remains in play and counts as dangerous terrain for enemies. If you roll a 9+ (pretty easy for L4 casters), it’s a 5″ round forest. I will probably use this all the time, because hindering enemies while providing benefit for our brave Asrai is just brilliant. However, it’s a pretty easy dispel on later turns, given it only needs a 7+. Will try it out and see!
Forest Walker: Move a unit that’s in a forest to another forest–this has been a staple of the Asrai for as long as I can remember. You can’t be fleeing, and you can’t place the unit within 6″ of enemy models. I think this works well with Tree Singing, but given that this spell is cast in the Movement phase and Tree Singing is cast in the shooting phase, it may only be of occasional use. However, it seems like an excellent way to teleport a unit of Waywatchers into/out of trouble 🙂 Relatively high casting value of 10+.
Flock of Doom: Small template S3 AP -1 magic missile. First thought is: meh.
Asrai Longbow
This is the last “army wide” rule, which is the return of the good ol’ Asrai Longbow. It has a range of 32″, which is excellent as it gives a short range of 16″ (thus avoiding the -1 to shoot), and Armour Bane (1), which means the occasional 6 to wound will have AP -1. It also grants Volley Fire, which is the same as 8th edition except now only the front rank gets to shoot fully (unless you’re on a hill, in which case it’s the front two ranks). You also can’t move and volley fire, and given the mobility of our army, I suspect this will rarely prove useful.
Everyone who can take an Asrai Longbow can also take one of the 5 types of enchanted arrows. 3 of these I’ll call expensive, and two are cheap. That is to say, that they cost 2pts/1pt per model for rank and file, and 6pts/3pts for characters. All of these are coming from previous editions, and are broadly the same.
Expensive Arcane Bodkins: Yep, the bodkins are back, and grant AP -2, which in this edition is pretty huge. It also stacks with the Armour Bane of the bow, so when you roll a 6 to wound, it’ll be at AP -3.
Hagbane Tips: Same as before, the Hagbane tipped arrows are Poisoned Attacks, which will auto-wound on a 6 to hit.
Swiftshiver Shards: Grants Multiple Shots (2), which sounds great until you remember that the shots will be at -1 to hit.
Cheap Moonfire Shot: Counts as both Flaming and Magical attacks. This basically means it cuts out all Regeneration saves.
Trueflight Arrows: Grants Ignores Cover and Quick Shot. To me, this is the stand out arrow of the bunch. This removes so many penalties from the to hit roll, so you can move and shoot with impunity (remember the 6th ed book?). I suspect that Trueflight Arrows will be stapled on to all my Glade Guard units, given the low cost and high value.
It’s worth noting that the magical longbows we get access to also count as Asrai Longbows, and so can use the magic arrows. I’ll do a separate post about the magic items I think.
We’re going to be rolling pretty soon with content about Warhammer: The Old World, but until then I’ve uploaded a bunch of Oldhammer content about Warhammer 8th edition, taken from my previous podcast, Dimensional Cascade. A lot of the tournament related stuff is probably boring and irrelevant, but there’s bunch of hobby content that is evergreen, and even some of the tactical information is likely to be of use in any rank and flank style game. Hope you enjoy!
Infralight was our love letter to Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday on the Sega Genesis–a game our whole family agrees is the best retro RPG ever made (we will not be taking questions on this).
Built for Dungeon Crawler Jam 2023, the theme was “Duality.” We ran with it literally: two types of light, two types of enemies. Robots you can see normally, mutants that are invisible unless you switch to infrared. The game is set on an asteroid mining base, and you’re assembling a party, exploring corridors, and fighting tactical turn-based battles where you issue orders and then watch them resolve simultaneously.
The ambition was there. The execution got about 60% of the way. The combat system was the centrepiece, and it was too big a stretch for the jam timeline. The first level plays through fine, but there’s a bug that stops you getting past the second combat encounter. We’d planned additional party members for levels two and three, but the clock ran out.
Our friend Miles from Bad Juice Games joined us on this one–partly as a way for us to hang out together, and partly so Fintan could learn from someone who actually knows what they’re doing. I’m a regular software guy, not a games guy, but Miles is the real deal, with experience on shipped titles like Marvel Puzzle Quest. Even with that firepower, we’d bitten off more than a week could chew.
No artists or composers on the team, so we leaned on Synty asset packs and the Badlands music pack. The focus was code, story, and level design–which is a polite way of saying “we couldn’t draw.”
Still, the core of something good is in there. The infrared mechanic genuinely changes how you approach each room, and the tactical combat (when it works) has that satisfying “plan and pray” feeling that made Buck Rogers so compelling.
The recent posts about Watchtower were from a one-shot adventure I ran for my son’s gaming group. They’ve been playing (mostly) D&D together regularly for 3-4 years, and it was a good opportunity to test out the rules with a group that had no preconceptions. The players created Talos-class exotics (the middle of the three classes, which is still very powerful). A few things that I learned from this:
* We need to update our skills to reflect the Watchtower world
* Some power stunts are probably too powerful (looking at you, Chronatics)
* Definitely need to write the rules for Prototypes for high tech heroes
However, broadly speaking the system worked as intended, character creation was pretty quick and fun, and the game flowed easily. We’re going to attempt a variant using troupe play, where each of the players creates a trainee (sidekick?) Achilles-class exotic (the lowest class) to be paired with one of the other players, and in this way we get two different Watchtower teams, and the players get to try different powers and power levels.
Jack Whyte, exotic and indestructible billionaire, adds Watchtower SF to his stable of Watchtower franchises. This brings his franchise total to four, starting in 2013 with the NYC franchise, and adding the Twin Cities in ’15 and Miami in ’19. “The San Francisco franchise of the Watchtower has a long history, with many beloved legends on the national and international stage,” said Whyte at press conference today. “I will bring the same level of oversight and investment as at my other franchises, and will work with local law enforcement to help keep the Bay Area and northern California safe from exotic crime.” He was joined at the press conference by several existing Watchtower members, all of whom confirmed they will be staying under the new management. This includes old-timers such as Captain Brian “Crackshot” Thomson, the bulletproof ex-cop; Dr Automaton, the robotic-bodied, long-standing leader of the Watchtower’s primary team; as well as some of the more recent additions like Tyrannus, our first visitor from another galaxy; and the shapeshifting, duplicating Primordial. No other personnel changes were announced. This correspondent hopes that Whyte’s experience, discipline and deep pockets can help prevent another tragedy like we suffered in ’99, when then-Watchtower leader Atomic III turned on the people he was sworn to protect and devastated the downtown area by using a commuter train like a missile. Maybe the new management will finally be able to determine what happened to that team back in the day? Either way, there’s a new sheriff in town.
Tower of Teens?
San Francisco Examiner, July 15th 2022, Op. Ed.
After buying his fourth Watchtower franchise in what is clearly a bid to control the whole company, Jack Whyte today announced that two local teenagers have been added to the roster. One who can control gravity, codenamed Windrunner, and the other who can control time, codenamed Kairos. Seriously, Jack? Are there not enough adult exotics to choose from that you have to employ kids? And do these kids’ parents even know what they are being exposed to? It’s long past time that we introduced laws preventing the exploitation of exotic abilities in people under the age of 21. What’s next, babies who can shoot lasers out of their eyes being used as mobile weapons platforms? The safety of our civilians shouldn’t come at the cost of our youth!
Meteorologists were shocked today when a massive iceberg several miles long appeared off the coast of Marin County, seemingly on a collision course for the Golden Gate Bridge! “This iceberg cannot be a natural occurrence,” said Dr. Karl Limewall, Professor of Climatology at Caltech. “Nothing that large could have traveled from either pole to San Francisco without being spotted.”
Indeed, the Watchtower seemed to agree, dispatching six agents out to the iceberg as soon as it was spotted. It became clear why Windrunner was added to the team recently, as all team members were transported directly through the air rather than via a helicopter as might be more customary. The Chronicle was able to confirm that a combination of extreme digging and strategically placed explosives were able to reduce the iceberg to smaller and more manageable pieces, which were then destroyed or redirected away from the bridge.
Conga-line … of Doom!
San Francisco Examiner, Op. Ed.
Icebergs are one thing, but why is nobody talking about the impromptu parade today that took place in the north of San Francisco? Over 100,000 people “just felt like dancing” and danced all the way up Highway 101 and onto the Golden Gate bridge, completely halting traffic and putting themselves directly into harm’s way. And where was the Watchtower during all this? 110 year old Dr “I’m not a robot” Automaton landed in front of the crowd and shot a few people off into the water, including fellow teammate and old-timer, Captain Crackshot! Seriously, why are our lives in the hands of these geriatrics?
Not that the youngsters were much to be seen, seemingly having to spend all their time flying back and forth to the city to get instructions from the Overmind, Jack Whyte, before blowing up the looming iceberg. Great, happy we didn’t ‘berg the bridge, but are we going to get any answers as to who is controlling the minds of all the so-called Bridge Boogie Brigade? And what is Watchtower doing about it?
Power Outage in Western San Joaquin County
The San Joaquin Valley Sun
Around 800 homes and farms are still without power, following an outage at a local substation earlier this morning. Local officials are working to get power up and running, and they are confident everything will be back to normal within 24 hours. The cause of the outage is being put down to a freak storm, which blew up out of nowhere, dumped a load of rain and lightning and dissipated as quickly as it came. County Sheriff John Watson stated in a press conference earlier today that there was no cause for alarm, and that Watchtower had been alerted as part of standard procedure.
Slo Moe’s Space Salvage was our first 3D game, built for the LowestPoly GameJam in March 2022. The jam was–honestly–more about low-poly tech demos than actual games, but we wanted to make something you could actually play.
You’re Moe. Moe is a sloth. Moe runs a space salvage company, which is the sort of career choice that makes perfect sense for a sloth in zero gravity. Guide Moe’s ship through rocks and debris to collect cargo (conveniently shaped like crates of bananas, because even in space, sloths have brand standards).
WASD rotates your ship, spacebar boosts in whatever direction you’re facing. The catch is that boosting commits you to a straight line–no turning until the boost runs out and recharges. So you’re constantly weighing “do I boost now and hope nothing’s in the way, or do I drift slowly and run out of time?” It’s a simple tension, but it works.
This was Fintan’s project on itch.io (under the 7isanoddnumber account), and our first time wrestling with 3D in Unity. Turns out that going from 2D pixel art to 3D–even low-poly 3D–is a completely different discipline. But the low-poly constraint actually helped, because we couldn’t over-scope the visuals.
After coming 5th in our first game jam, we were feeling pretty confident. Dangerous, that.
Airlocked! was our entry for Make A Game, The Game Jam, where the theme was “Connected.” We went with a dual interpretation–aliens that are physically connected to each other when they multiply, and a power grid that connects the ship’s systems. You’re the last crew member on the USS Arkenfeld, and the ship has an alien infestation. The aliens multiply every time you open a door, and you can only flush them out through the airlock if they’re all touching each other. So you’re running around, opening doors, repairing junction boxes to keep the power flowing, and trying to herd aliens into a corner.
Great concept. Really clever puzzle mechanics. The kind of thing that sounds brilliant when you’re explaining it at 1am on day two of the jam.
The execution, though? The game more or less didn’t work. We had to make a silent YouTube tutorial video because players couldn’t figure out what was happening–which, in hindsight, is a pretty clear sign that something has gone wrong with your game design. If you need a video to explain a puzzle game, you haven’t made a puzzle game. You’ve made a riddle with a download link.
Built in Unity, runs in the browser. It’s pixel art, it looks decent, and if you squint hard enough you can see the good game hiding underneath the bad UX. One of those “great on paper” situations.
In early 2021, I was living in Seattle while my family was back in Ireland. Covid had made the world very small, and we were running out of ways to spend time together across nine time zones. So when Zeno Game Jam 3 came around with the theme “It Never Ends,” we figured–why not make a game?
Tomb of the Snake King is a rogue-like snake-like (a genre I’m fairly confident we invented). You venture into a tomb to grab cursed treasure that trails behind you like a growing serpent tail. Dodge mummies, avoid scarabs, don’t touch the walls. The “It Never Ends” theme fit perfectly–the longer you survive, the harder it gets, because you’re literally getting longer.
Ellie, who was twelve at the time, did all the art and music. The pixel art has a charm to it that I genuinely couldn’t have produced–sometimes having a twelve-year-old’s sensibility is exactly what a game about raiding cartoon tombs needs.
We built it in Unity, targeting browser so anyone could play it. WASD to move, and the whole thing runs in a few minutes. It’s the kind of game where you die, say “one more go,” and then it’s 2am.
We came 5th overall out of the jam entries. For a first attempt–a family scattered across the Atlantic, cobbling a game together over video calls–that was a massive boost. It went from “that was a fun experiment” to “so when’s the next jam?”
