Where do I start? I think the most accurate statement I can make is “I try”. I am a “Logical” not a “Creative” by nature. The rules came pretty easily but I struggle creating the artwork. All of the art work is my own but I will be getting professionals to make them better.

I came up with the admiralty while trying to work out the back story to the game. That led to me using sea birds for the ships. I will post up more about the admiralty when i have polished it.

The Rule of 3 governs a lot of my game:

• The exploration cards are split between low, medium and high value
• The deep space cards are split into Bad, good and other
• There are 3 bases
• There are 3 player spaceships.

The rest of it is lots of play tests, taking on peoples feedback to get the correct levels of Challenge and Achieving.

I have used various different tools to create the prototypes:

• I started writing the rules and back story in Word.
• I used Visio to created the game board, Exploration Cards, Deep Space Cards, commander cards.
• I use GIMP to create the planets and to do most image manipulation as I find Photoshop counter intuitive. Quite a few of the graphics start as a blocky drawing in Visio but get finished in GIMP.
• In the last month I have been recreating everything except the manual in Illustrator. This is necessary to be able to create CMYK documents to send to the Printers.
• For 3D models I have been using 3D Builder. It is just easy. I have used Sketchup and blender for the odd bit but usually for conversion. the latest models are all completly 3D builder. I use Cura for creating the final GCODE to send to the 3D printer.
• I purchased a HP color laserjet MFP to print a lot of the materials as it started getting very expensive getting things printed at the Printers.
• For the 3D prints I initially used 3D hubs but then they kicked out the locals and upped the prices. I purchased a Monoprice Select Mini v1 and started printing my own. It printed really well but then had a couple of issues so i ended up buying a Monoprice Select Mini v2 so i could print the parts that needed fixing!. The v2 never printed as well as the v1 and started getting issues as well. They are both fun printers but I ended up spending more time fixing them than I did printing. I now have a Monoprice Select Mini delta. It is a faster printer and was a third less the price of the other two. I also now have an Anycubic Kossel delta in a box. I will put it together next week all going well.

I will share more soon.