Mysterious whirlpool or a portal to epic adventure? Both!
Last Saturday Simon and I did something we’d been meaning to do for awhile: sit down and play test the most recent version of the Way Home.
The Way Home originated with a vision in my mind of a lonely ship surrounded by the night sky filled with stars and the dark sea beneath it. I began to imagine the story of the ship, of the adventures it had, and of where it was going. It was a crew of people (didn’t matter who) going home (didn’t matter where). All that mattered was that every step they took closer to home there was another adventure awaiting them, another obstacle to overcome in the winding journey from There to Back Again. And that’s where the premise of the game began to crystalize.
The game itself has been through several versions. The initial game felt too much like a racing game and we wanted it to be about adventures. The second game felt too much like a choose-your-own-adventure and not enough like a write-your-own-adventure. Finally we landed on a formula we liked. Last Saturday we playtested it and ran into a variety of kinks that have begun to take the project in a newer, leaner direction that we’re both excited about. The central premise has always remained the same but, over the course of time, we have been gradually honing in on how to mechanically represent the stories we want (you, the players) to tell. Oddly, developing the Way Home has been a lot like playing a game of the Way Home – filled with surprising obstacles but always getting tangibly and tantalizingly closer to the satisfying end.
And so we wanted to bring it here to talk about. The Way Home is about to enter it’s home stretch of play testing and that means I’m working like mad to create text and Simon is working like mad to create art. But what Simon and I are doing isn’t very interesting. The game is.
In the Way Home players take up the ships of crews trying to sail their way from some distant land back to their home again. Using only the stars to guide them they start out slowly but surely, their astronomers scouring the night sky for signs that point them home and their captains steering the crews into ever more dangerous adventures en route. Players compete to tell the greatest story of their triumphant return to their homelands, along the way overcoming the various obstacles the fickle fates have dealt them and displaying the mighty virtues of their crews. In short, it is a game of the Way Home and the legends made in the journey.
As we continue to develop the game (another round of play tests this Saturday!) we will post some teasers and art here. In the meantime, keep your eyes out for a few upcoming free games being released via our, Let There be Games! series including Simon’s gladatorial combat game, Glory in the Arena!
- Capt. B. Beards
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