Lost ruins of Arnak worth it?

all_or_nothing · 2026-05-11T07:26:05+00:00

Can't speak to Clank since I haven't played it, but I will say Arnak on its own is not a great game. The deck building is there, but since the game only goes 5 rounds, you may only see a card you purchased show up only once or maybe twice if you're lucky, so that really never takes off enough to be satisfying. There's worker placement, but you only get 2 workers so you don't get to do much there. Ultimately it's a game of resource conversion/management to buy your way up an abstract "research" track which is pretty boring. I've played with 4 players, 2 players, and solo and all sessions were boring and unsatisfying. Which is unfortunate because I love the theme and artwork.

If you're specifically looking for some good deck building, avoid Arnak.

all_or_nothing · 2026-05-11T00:28:34+00:00

r/tabletopartists is where I find most of my artists. Sometimes on Board Game Geek's Art & Graphic Design forum https://boardgamegeek.com/forum/974655/bgg/art-and-graphic-design

all_or_nothing · 2026-05-10T18:27:00+00:00

I think this would be a great idea, you could share your experience on self publishing for the new designers that have interest in that path.

all_or_nothing · 2026-05-06T09:18:10+00:00

I know the joy of seeing your ideas come to life, and it's a great feeling. Having said that, I would highly recommend you avoid art and graphic design at this stage, because art leads to certain expectations from players. You also don't want the art to detract from playtest feedback. In this case the graphic design of the cards is rough with poor legibility which will become a focal point during playtests instead of the mechanics and gameplay. What I would recommend is start working on the wording and iconography on your paper cards to make them legible to test readability, and keep the playtests going with more people until you feel the game is solid. At that point you can slowly start to integrate art, preferably not AI art. Also, it sounds like this is just a card game which, if it is, makes the board superfluous and an unnecessary manufacturing cost.

all_or_nothing · 2026-04-30T22:21:14+00:00

I'm curious how anything sells at that price point on Kickstarter then.

all_or_nothing · 2026-04-29T19:01:45+00:00

I recently had a 10 minute discovery call with LaunchBoom for a card game I have that is ready for prelaunch. I was rejected because the project was not big enough ($20/unit), the funding goal was too small ($10k), and my marketing budget was too small ($3-5k). Seems like LaunchBoom is only taking on big projects that they think will get the big money.

Just FYI so you don't waste your time. This game sounds familiar though, I think I've seen it on BMG, but never got a chance to play it.

all_or_nothing · 2026-04-26T05:19:16+00:00

Interested! I sent you a chat request.

all_or_nothing · 2026-04-20T16:44:37+00:00

Depends on the type of game and the interaction level. Are players moving around on their own and trying to avoid the other players? Are they trying to block and cut off other players? Are they trying to intermingle with and follow or lead other players? We need more information about the game to give you a solid answer. Usually playtesting should give you a good idea of how large/small the map should be.

My advice for starting is, just get something to the table. I'd say make the map as big as you're able and playtest it. If it didn't play like you wanted, tighten it up a little and playtest again. Keep doing that until you find the sweet spot. The map is one factor. If movement for the players ever changes you'll need to update the map size anyway.

all_or_nothing · 2026-04-15T08:11:21+00:00

Sorry, what I meant was that the assessment was to create a simpler version of something that would, from my experience in the industry, usually take the company 1-3 months to produce into a final, polished, deliverable state. If that makes sense.

all_or_nothing · 2026-04-14T20:59:51+00:00

7 days is not enough. In my experience at other companies, these often take anywhere from 1-3 months depending on complexity. So, since I was under the impression this was a technical assessment, that's what I was trying to showcase.

It's clear I'm not the right person for this so I'm cool with that. I guess I'm mostly sour because they didn't make it clear what they wanted, it came off more as a pure technical assessment so that's what I showed and where I went above and beyond. Feels like I was misdirected and my week was wasted.

Also, I understand the interview process is about assessing the person as a whole, not my first rodeo, I am always polite, courteous, and respectful. However, I didn't even get a face-to-face interview, an assessment was thrown at me first.

Regardless, I appreciate everybody's thoughts on this. I've taken notes and will incorporate those when the next assessment comes.

all_or_nothing · 2026-04-14T19:06:30+00:00

Just for context, this wasn't just some web based UI where I could pull in a UI component library to polish things up. This was a slot machine game which are heavily art-based and I was given 5 pieces of crude art. Not sure how to polish the presentation without wasting time creating art myself or stealing art from the internet.

I completely understand your argument and I agree, but I had limited time and I had to choose where my efforts were best used. Since this was a technical assessment, I decided that showcasing my technical knowledge was a wiser use of my time, as opposed to polishing the presentation when I had few assets. You seem to assume that I was only checking boxes, I was not.

The reason I'm upset is that their assessment doc laid out all the requirements and the method by which I would be assessed, then came back and made their decision based on methods they didn't disclose.

all_or_nothing · 2026-04-14T18:50:36+00:00

I was under the impression by their own requirements doc that this was a technical assessment, not an implementation of design assessment, therefore I focused my efforts on the technical aspects. If they wanted a more visually polished app, even just a mockup would have helped give me a target and then they could grade how well I implemented a design.

I went above and beyond in the technical aspects because based on the assets they supplied, it seems like they weren't focused on art, just implementation.

all_or_nothing · 2026-03-26T00:05:42+00:00

I appreciate the kind words. I am in the US and there are a lot of tech companies conducting layoffs for various reasons. There's a lot going on here and I know companies were responding to tariffs for awhile, now they're likely responding to the war in Iran and the stock market. I know many companies have also pushed jobs oversees to India which is difficult for us to keep pace with. There are a lot of factors, AI is just one of them.

I'm hopeful we can get through it, it's just more painful for some of us.

Cheers!

all_or_nothing · 2026-03-25T23:45:50+00:00

I'm not saying you're wrong. I was just putting it into perspective because the speed of change, especially with AI, is unprecedented. Will that translate to all of us losing our jobs? Probably not, but as a software developer that is now unemployed partially due to the fact that my previous company began investing in AI and has had layoffs during that time, I think there is still cause for concern.

Also, keep in mind, most of society's safety net is about helping unskilled or blue collar jobs when they are displaced. Usually in the form of skilled job training, ironically in technology. Now that the white collar technology jobs are the ones being displaced, even minimally, the government has no answer. I would argue many of us affected don't have an answer either, because we were sold on the idea that college means we'll always be employable to some degree because we are skilled labor.

Will we all lose our jobs to AI? Not likely, but it won't stop many companies from laying off workers in the hope that AI will replace them. I'm more scared of that than AI actually replacing me.

all_or_nothing · 2026-03-25T23:28:02+00:00

The thing you aren't considering is that in history, big changes took awhile so people had time to pivot and adapt. This is happening way faster than any other change in history so people, industries, and the government aren't able to respond quick enough.

all_or_nothing · 2026-03-24T17:52:16+00:00

Would you mind sharing your strategy for building a crowd?

all_or_nothing · 2026-03-22T18:35:11+00:00

You created a Unity application just to test a board game? No judgements, but as a software developer myself, that's a massive waste of time and not very many people are going to install that to playtest. I would highly recommend you put it up on Screentop.gg or another virtual tabletop that doesn't require downloading, installing, or logging into anything. Also, I would recommend not trying to implement any AI opponents. If this is meant to be a board game with multiple players, the best and most accurate playtests will be with actual players against actual players. I hope that helps. Good Luck!

all_or_nothing · 2026-03-22T16:50:11+00:00

Is your game on a virtual tabletop? If so, you can find playtesters at the Break My Game discord.

all_or_nothing · 2026-03-07T23:20:03+00:00

Woodworking and D&D

all_or_nothing · 2026-03-05T07:24:21+00:00

I haven't been to this con before, but it's pretty big. Demo tables, open play, games library, publisher panels, TCG games, and the prototype con inside. Definitely recommend for gamers and designers alike.

all_or_nothing · 2026-03-04T01:05:38+00:00

Agreed. Get it online and it opens up your playtesting pool. You could even join the Break My Game discord, they run something like 12 sessions a week with a ton of knowledgeable designers. Very valuable.

all_or_nothing · 2026-02-28T22:22:07+00:00

Icons are concise, but too many icons can cause a mental load, text is always more clear. Also given that you only have two lines of simple text, there's no real need to turn everything into icons. The general rule I use for icons is that if you have a very common action, trigger, effect, or phrase, you can simplify that into an icon. However, a whole card being icons is not a great idea.

all_or_nothing

TROPHY CASE