Daniel J Isom

Blokus - "Roll and Write" The game design bug bit me last month. I hadn't had any desire to design a game in quite a while, until I had an idea for a "roll and write" version of one of my favorite games, Blokus. I thought just writing out the idea would get it out of my head, but these types of games are so easy to prototype that I ended up doing that when I couldn't stop thinking about it. While the design doesn't have any dice to roll, there is a deck of cards that players use. The deck has 21 cards, each showing one of the pieces a player normally has playing Blokus. As cards are revealed, each player chooses any of the four colors and colors in that piece somewhere on their sheet. I guess it's more of a "flip and write", but games that use this mechanic are still classified under roll and write. The two major differences between this design and the original, other than there being no physical pieces or board, are: each player is wo...

After agreeing to do a co-design with my friend Shawn, I'm back to working on game designs again. Stepping away from designing for a while was a smart idea because now I have come back with fresh eyes and new ideas. As of right now I have four active designs, including the newest game Dice Rx which I'm co-designing. Here's an update on each of them:

Unpub 7 was this past weekend and overall I had an amazing time. Going in with the mindset that I wanted to socialize and play other people's games more than showing off my own, really set me at ease, allowing me to just have fun. If I'm only able to go to one convention each year for the foreseeable future, I'm more than happy that Unpub gets to be it.

The following was pulled from the blog on my now defunct publishing company's website. After Unpub 6 last year, I did a long recap post followed by some tips for those who haven't been and a checklist of things I HAVE to have when I go this year. As it stands, we're only 10 days away from the first day of Unpub 7 and I'm chomping at the bit to get there for a variety of reasons. My primary reason is to show of my designs but playing games for two and half days while seeing and meeting all sorts of cool people is the real reason. I hope you find the following to be helpful and if I can stress just one thing you read of this post more than any, it's the first point. Enjoy.

Last year I attending my first convention, UnPub 6. I had so much fun last year that I immediately signed up to go again this year. For the third straight year, it's at the Baltimore Convention Center but the dates have been moved from April to March, St Patrick's Day weekend to be exact, March 17-19. So if you'll be in the area, come play some games for free!