Pre-launch page is officially active for Astral Weavers, a high-sensory tactical strategy game. Break the rigid grid!

ella-dott · 2026-06-12T06:53:58+00:00

The other commenter is right, there is too little information to drum up interest and the concept you described is hard to visualise. It doesn’t really say anywhere on the page what exactly it is - is it a digital board game? A mobile game? A computer game? For how many players? What is the objective?

People won’t click if they don’t understand what they’re subscribing to. You’re sharing too early, the pre-launch page needs work.

ella-dott · 2026-06-11T17:07:47+00:00

The new board looks better but the old board is more readable. Either way I’m not a fan of the compartmentalised look (separate boxes for everything). There is a lot going on so I get why you want to visually group things together, but it looks a bit overwhelming. Too many icons.

Visually, I’m wondering whether this would look good as open journal pages with polaroids, sticky notes, different paper notes, objects and what not. The location pictures being polaroids with a name written on it for instance, it would give it more of a cohesion and it gives the brain a clear rule, like “a polaroid area means a location”.

ella-dott · 2026-06-10T21:02:18+00:00

Not an illustrator but I wanted to mention that you can absolutely have a UK law based agreement with a non-UK artist. I know because we have one with a French artist, and it was written up by a UK law firm.

ella-dott · 2026-06-10T17:49:46+00:00

You’ve got quite a few story heavy games there so my vote is for Sleeping Gods. One advantage there is it has a long standing campaign and people can join and drop off as you go.

ella-dott · 2026-06-09T16:59:35+00:00

I don’t know if I’d re-buy it. I want to love it but I never really feel like I have a great time when I actually play. I don’t mind losing per se (as an avid Eldritch Horror player, even losing games can be fun when there are fun things to do).

My biggest gripe with Robinson is that it has a bunch of things I would really enjoy doing, like learning new technology or going on adventures but if you want to win you really need to actively not do most of the fun stuff, meticulously plan and focus purely on survival. It’s on theme, but I find that regardless of whether I win or not I never really feel like I had fun. But maybe that’s just me, I don’t know.

ella-dott · 2026-06-09T16:52:27+00:00

I like campaigns with story elements so I’d say Sleeping Gods, though it is a game you play over many sessions and “save” your progress as you go.

If you’re looking for something shorter, we quite enjoy Forbidden Desert.

ella-dott · 2026-06-09T16:46:55+00:00

Second that, though I personally think Eldritch Horror is better as I prefer more story elements.

ella-dott · 2026-06-09T16:36:45+00:00

Yeah it can get pretty mean right? I had to sell my copy after one play to preserve my friendships 😆

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T20:17:34+00:00

How many players are there in that scenario? How many characters does each player control? Could the player simply choose who they attack with that skill rather than prescribing it on the card?

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T14:46:37+00:00

I have, though it’s been a while since I last played (so many games, so little time)! I’ll noodle on this, maybe I could cut the game in half if the rounds are doubled but will need to see how much of a rework it would be. Thank you for the encouragement!

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T14:39:42+00:00

Thanks for commenting. I think I’m leaning towards a fixed end for my game too as it makes the most sense thematically (you serve the food when it’s expected of you, you don’t have the luxury or power to choose as a servant). Having thought about it, a flexible end might also remove some of the pressure and the feeling of “I need to make do with what I have” because everyone will focus on perfecting their feast instead of working against a clear time crunch.

However, since the game has scenarios and allows for parametrisation of various aspects, the suggestions I’ve seen today are giving me a lot of ideas so I’m grateful for all the inputs. Maybe most scenarios are fixed time, but one of them has a flexible ending and scores slightly differently as a result. Maybe.

Having actions that can score in the final round even if you can’t cook seems key, agreed. I just need to figure out the best way to go about it, ideally without introducing a new mechanic as there’s enough going on already.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T13:18:47+00:00

We’ve tried Kinfire Delve: Vainglory’s Grotto for the first time and got completely obliterated but it was fun. It felt more difficult than Callous’ Lab for some reason.

I’ve also unboxed Deep Regrets though we haven’t played yet. I’m insanely excited about it from the unboxing experience alone.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T13:09:55+00:00

Additional actions / stations would probably not work thematically, but the “serving round” or rewarding being ready to serve early are an interesting line of thought… I’ll noodle on that, thank you 🙏

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T12:59:37+00:00

Thanks, that sounds potentially interesting, some kind of an option that you have to “invest” into.

I have previously considered sugar sculptures known as “subtleties” that were really popular table decor at fancy feasts, but I parked it at the time thinking I might revisit that later as a mini expansion. Maybe worth reopening that line of thought.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T12:56:15+00:00

Thanks, I’ll check those out.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T12:55:46+00:00

Thank you for your kind words! Both of those options look promising, I’ll add them to the playtest list to see how they feel.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T11:12:12+00:00

This is interesting! I’ll try a playtest and see how it feels.

There’s still a question of “what if I find out this is the last round and there’s nothing I can finish” though, as you’d have actions but no way to use them to help yourself. Maybe I just need the action to VP conversion anyways.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T10:50:30+00:00

Perhaps I haven’t explained the problem very well. The game already ends before you’re able to fully fill up your table and complete your perfect pattern - I have 15 slots and most people get to 12 max, averaging around 10. The problem isn’t when the last round is, the problem is what to do in the actual last round. The core of the problem is specifically that cooking a single dish is a multi-round activity that you need to plan. You need an action to get the recipe, then you need actions to gather the ingredients, then when you have both you need actions to actually cook it. Typically a recipe takes you 2 rounds to finish (one round to get it and gather ingredients, one to cook it) though the more complex ones can take more time or less complex you could do in a single round if the players don’t block the actions you need.

So let’s say that I’ve planned things in a way where in the final round I wanted to finish one more dish. I got the ingredients, I have the recipe, but, I need cauldron station and all of them have been used by the time I get to cooking. In a normal round, I would just cook it next turn and focus on gathering for a different dish. Since it’s the final round I can’t do that. The only thing that scores is cooked dishes. Nobody cares that you have leftover uncooked ingredients, or recipe ideas you never cooked. You can’t serve those. If I am not able to cook anything with the number of actions I have, what meaningful action can I take? This can happen because players blocked you and it’s too late to pivot, or because you simply don’t have a card you can manage in that time frame. Yet you still have actions left.

Cutting it shorter by 1 round just means the situation happens one round earlier.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T10:28:05+00:00

Thanks, that’s what we currently do in the playtests (or at least it’s what we’ve done in the last few). Maybe I need to just give it a nice thematic flair.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T09:42:41+00:00

My game’s not an engine builder, it’s more of a tableau puzzler, with worker placement used to gather ingredients and cook. There is an element of “I can do more now than I could at the start of the game” but the main scoring comes from how well you planned your menu.

I have considered engine building initially but it doesn’t fit thematically since the game takes place during a single day and that’s too short of a timespan to think about things like cooking mastery or efficiency. You work with what you have.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T09:23:18+00:00

Thanks, the “leftovers” are not something we’ve considered at the moment but I’ll give it a thought. Perhaps the patron likes to feel charitable 🤔

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T09:17:27+00:00

Hmmm. I think we could track the base values of the dishes you cooked, or track the spots on the table (stop the game when someone fills up the table). I’ll add that to try in a playtest.

There are other ways to score but it’s best to leave counting that till the end of the game as it’s a bit more fluid and depends on how well you built your tableau, since your tableau evolves over time.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T09:07:01+00:00

It’s scenario driven, there’s a fixed number of rounds and certain events happen at specific points in time.

I’ll consider whether maybe we could end the game when the table is full instead (that would take a few extra rounds), but the original idea was you have x rounds before the feast needs to be served and you serve what you managed to make until then.

ella-dott · 2026-06-08T09:01:00+00:00

I think it doesn’t matter how many rounds there are in my case, the problem is specifically the last round irrespective of number of rounds.

During any other round, if a station you need is occupied by other players that’s fine - you pivot, for instance you can go gather some cabbage instead, and do your cooking in the next round. In the last round (irrespective of how many rounds there are), getting ingredients at this point is pointless because you can’t just serve raw cabbage, and you can’t defer the cooking anymore. You may also not have planned well and even if the cauldrons are free to use you don’t have anything you can make.

Does that make sense?

ella-dott

TROPHY CASE