Aerial Assault is new game robot card game that simulates the 2014 FRC Robotics competition.
Sorry I’m going to be one those guys that Kickstarts a game. The game is called Aerial Assault. Click on the link to see the exciting video about the game. We hired a Dustin Hoffman look a lot for a short clip at the end of the video. Don't bother reading my crappy boring story/blog about helping design the game.
Here's the Link: Aerial Assault
Here’s my crappy boring story/blog about helping design Aerial Assault.
Like many people who play board games, I've tossed around ideas for designing my own game. Coming up with the basic concept for a game is easy but I play games for fun and fully designing and selling a board game seems like work (actually is way to much like work). I never designed a game because I didn't want my fun hobby to become work. It wasn't until I was watching a FRC robotics event that I decided to design a game.
For the past 3 years my daughter has been on a First Robotics FRC team. FRC combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, teams of 25 students or more build and program robots to perform prescribed tasks against a field of competitors.
Does that sounds like something that can become a board game? Well, I was at a FRC event Aerial Assist this year and as I was watching the competition, I started thinking that this could be a great card or board game. I got home from the event and quickly created my first prototype by using the back of my wives old business cards. I soloed the first game and while I knew the game had a lot of issues and problems, I still felt it could still work as gaming concept.
The game Aerial Assault is targeted at teenagers and family members. I noticed daughter’s friends liked Magic the Gathering, Cards against Humanity and Werewolf. What do all these games have in common? First, they’re portable card games you can throw into a backpack. Second they’re all fairly easy games to learn how to play. All three games can be played in less than an hour. Finally, they’re games you play in groups. Yes, even though Magic the Gathering is a 2 player game it’s still played by groups of teenagers. So, the goal was to design a card game that was easy to learn how to play, could be played in less than 1 hour. At the same time the game had include many of the aspects of First Robotics.
There are 3 phases to the Aerial Assist game. Phase #1 Build Phase. Players will design and build their robot. Phase #2 Train your driver. Players will select action cards that control the movement and other actions of the robot. Phase #3. Aerial Assault Matches. Teams of 2 or 3 robots will compete in matches to see who can score the most points.
After some play testing of the game I sent my daughter, Gracie to play test the game Aerial Assault with her robotics teammates. I received some interesting feedback from the Robotics teammates. Being a gamer, I decided to put a draft mechanism for building the robot. I figured it would make the building phase more competitive if players had to draft or perhaps bid or auction off robotics parts. At least I didn’t make it a worker place game.
The robotics teammates hated the idea of drafting robotics parts. The feedback was they wanted to build the robot that they wanted to build. They didn’t want to be limited by a draft or auction. I guess they would hate Agricola when you want to bake bread and somebody was already baking bread. So we changed the build phase of the game. Now players will have 6 weeks to build a robot. Each part takes different amount of times to build. So if you spend all your time building a great drive train you might not have time for to build a great shooter.
So what cool about Aerial Assault and why should you support it?
1. 1. It not another Zombie, Vampire, Adventure game or Eastern Front game
2. 2. It’s not a beard scratching BGG elegant gamers game. It's a cool game designed by robotic students.
3. 3. While there have been other robotic games like Robo Rally, Aerial Assault is about real robots competing the 2014 First Robotics Competition.
4. 4. If you have children or know friends and families with children that might be interested in Robotics, Engineering or Science, this is fun way to learn about more about robotics. I learned a lot about robotics helping design this game.
5. 5. Aerial Assault is a fun team game. I love team games. Team games are great for families. You can pit Mom and Dad against the kids or mix and match the team.
So you made it this far maybe you should check out the website.
Here's the Link: http://bit.ly/aerialassaultks