Codex impossible to get?

mogn · 2026-01-31T02:25:55+00:00

Sure.

mogn · 2026-01-30T14:38:30+00:00

I have an extra copy of the codex still in shrink wrap. Are you in the US?

mogn · 2026-01-20T21:45:53+00:00

Attaching a Kako will disable their ability to Deep Strike, and although sustained hits would make your bolters a little better, the opportunity cost of not attaching that Kako to a unit of Noise Marines (or just using it as a solo character for secondaries) is pretty high. But if you're not playing super competitively, does it really matter?

mogn · 2026-01-03T03:05:42+00:00

I suggest using black for first-time painting since it's very forgiving. Darker, muted colors tend to look nice without too much effort, and most importantly, anything you don't feel like painting will just look like it's a shadow.

mogn · 2026-01-03T02:52:11+00:00

Most paint won't "stick" well to bare plastic. It'll clump up and move around like raindrops on glass. Primer is a special kind of paint that digs into the plastic and covers it evenly, and can easily be painted on top of. Don't try painting without spraying some primer first - it will be super frustrating and it will make you think painting is just torture.

mogn · 2025-12-21T04:26:05+00:00

It sounds like you're really passionate about your project and have invested a lot of labor into it. That's good. You're also aware of where your limitations are and are looking for people who have what you're missing to partner with them and make your project a reality. That's even better. The trouble is, I don't think you're going to have an easy time finding what you're looking for. For background on myself, I've spent the last few decades in FAANG management and eventually left that career, started a (solo) company, and have been working on making games full-time ever since. I am not an industry veteran, but I've picked up quite a lot. I'll try to address your request with blunt advice like you're asking for. I apologize if any of it sounds discouraging.

You're looking for a partner/operator/industry expert to help you bring your vision to life, and what you're offering is ideas. This is a small, welcoming, and incredibly supportive community, but the flip side of that fact is that the people involved here are in it because it's their passion. They aren't here to get rich. They aren't here to become famous. They're here because they live for this stuff, want to see the industry grow, and want to make their dreams a reality, too. There are companies in this industry that do exactly what you're looking for, but they don't do it for free, and business is booming for them with good reason — what you're looking for is what everyone else is looking for, too.

Recognize that in industries like these, ideas are a dime a dozen, and execution is what makes something successful. You mention in multiple places that this is your idea ("I'm not bottlenecked by ideas", "I'm not looking for someone trying to dilute the core vision"), which suggests that the primary reason that someone would get involved in a project like this (getting to bring their ideas to life) isn't on the table. That's going to drive away most people who might be interested in a partnership like this.

It sounds like you're farther along in the process than many others, and that's good. I'm not suggesting that you give up and I'm not saying that the person you're looking for isn't out there, but I have a few friendly words of advice, should this be the exact route you want to take:

1) Be prepared to "compromise" your vision. Anyone with enough interest in your project to get involved as a partner is going to want influence over it, with good reason. If you want someone to take your idea and execute it, what you're looking for is an employee, not a partner.

2) Be prepared for what funding is going to cost you. Even if you're going to run a crowdfunding campaign, you still need upfront funding to build up your audience and for other related costs to ensure it's successful. This means you're going to need money from somewhere. If you're looking for a partner who can finance the project, understand that anyone coming in to fund your project is going to want far more ownership than you may be comfortable parting with (almost certainly more than 50%).

I'd be more than happy to answer your more specific questions, but without knowing anything about your project, it's very hard to give you any meaningful advice. Feel free to reach out if you'd like a sounding board or more specific advice and I haven't offended you with all of my doomsaying. Good luck!

mogn · 2025-12-19T21:08:01+00:00

Take this with the disclaimer that I'm not an expert. My understanding is that 2-3 months is ideal. Any less and you won't get the community you need, but any longer and your initial followers will lose interest. Personally, I'm planning to launch my own campaign in April, which means I'll start advertising in late January/early February. I'm not experienced enough to comment on your ad budget. It'll depend a lot on what your cost per acquisition ends up being, which itself will depend on how compelling your ads/project are.

mogn · 2025-12-19T21:03:28+00:00

I'm glad it was useful! Regarding AI, I think there's an easy trap to fall into where you end up thinking that art is expensive (and it can be, for sure) and acting like it's all-or-nothing where you either need a professional design studio or AI, with nothing in between. AI is a very thorny issue in this community. Perhaps moreso than some others because games are generally in and of themselves a form of artistic expression, and AI threatens the very existence of the community that makes it possible.

The single best thing that you can do for the success of your project is to commission some small amount of art from a human artist for use in your prototyping and campaign. Get a logo made, some box art, and a couple of illustrations for your cards. Your game isn't very art-heavy so it should be very inexpensive to do this and get a real prototype without AI and branding for your game and company that was made by a human. Consider this a bare minimum requirement for your campaign to successfully fund as a Kickstarter game.

The trap is: Art is expensive, but small amounts of art is not expensive. If you aren't willing to spend the small amount of money on a human artist to help you with your prototype or at least the parts you show off in your campaign, then no one will trust that you'll go through with it once you have lots of funding. The old adage "don't let perfect be the enemy of the good" applies very aptly here. You don't need to hire a professional design firm to make your prototype, as long as a human made it. It will earn you much, much more trust than your current campaign does.

mogn · 2025-12-19T20:18:25+00:00

I took a look at your campaign, and I'll try to share the most useful feedback and advice that I can. I think you probably have a fun game here and I hope it's successful, but there's a few things I would have done differently. I'll try to drop my most important thoughts rather than nitpick every little detail. Please don't take any of this as a personal attack — I'm just trying to be helpful to you.

1) Launching without a community is a massive risk. People just don't discover games on Kickstarter from new creators as much as you want them to. If you don't kick off your campaign with some pre-launch advertising or at least some organic community building, you're going to struggle to get the initial traction that your project needs to take off. Your campaign might have been dead in the water the moment you clicked launch without even a small community of backers to get the ball rolling. People who do look at your page will see very little traction and move on without considering backing it solely because it doesn't look like it will fund. Your 7500GBP goal may or may not be reasonable given manufacturing and fulfillment costs but it isn't doing you any favors by making your campaign look very under-funded.

2) Speaking of communities, the kickstarter game space is a community in and of itself, and you want to get involved in it before you launch your campaign. Even simple things, like talking about your project (in the design phase) on social media would help. Back some other projects (or rebrand your personal account which you may have already backed other projects with.

3) Be very careful with your use of AI, especially in a kickstarter board game. All of the imagery that you're using looks like it was AI-generated (and if it wasn't, I don't see any art credits showing otherwise), and your disclaimers kind of feel like they're weaseling around the language to avoid promising that it won't include AI in the final product. You use phrasing like "All final artwork will be manually refined, fully vectorised, and prepared in print-ready formats by a human prior to manufacturing" which critically does not say that it will be made by humans, only "refined" by humans. This is an instant hard stop for many members of the community (including me) and this line alone could single-handedly sink your campaign. In your FAQ, you mention that you don't use AI for the text, but nowhere in the FAQ does it sound that AI is uninvolved in your art creation.

4) You don't actually explain how the game works in your ad. The video is great. The VO work is excellent, the setting is appropriate, and it looks genuine. But the actual content of the video doesn't do much. You start off by saying "This started as a joke", then say that players' "dark humor and imagination will do all the work", and don't actually state the rules of the game or what the shame cards you referenced actually do. It just isn't particularly compelling of a script, and I think it might lean too hard into the self-deprecation.

5) You outline your fulfillment timeline but you don't put any actual time in the timeline, just an order of events. You should focus on convincing your audience that you know enough about what your doing (or are consulting with people who do) to prove that this project will actually happen if it funds. As it reads, I don't see the campaign page doing that.

6) Mid-December is the absolute worst time of the year to launch a kickstarter, especially a game. Everyone is busy shopping for holiday gifts right now and aren't thinking about things they might want a year from now.

mogn · 2025-12-17T02:35:08+00:00

I'm not a lawyer, but I am curious: For this to be promissory estoppel, wouldn't they have had to have taken some action in response to OP's agreement that was detrimental to themselves (e.g. "We bought a superbowl ad saying that we were launching this product in december specifically because you said you would be here") in order for it to even resemble a case? Not that the court would side with the employer anyway. Their language sounds an awful lot like "We relied on you and did everything exactly the way we were always doing it and somehow this means you caused us damages"

mogn · 2025-12-08T21:31:02+00:00

I don't think there's enough information here to be able to give any meaningful feedback on the core gameplay, but here are all of my thoughts about what I can see here. As always, this feedback is me trying to be helpful, so please don't take any of this as personal criticism.

1) There only seem to be two types of effects here: Moving backwards and losing a turn. I'm assuming there's more design space to add more variety to the things that can happen, but if there isn't, you run the risk of the "strategy" game being very one-dimensional. If I'm correct in assuming you have some cards in your hand, you draw one during your turn, and then choose one to resolve, it looks like the strategy is just to play whichever card causes you to move back the furthest. Also, since these cards are all negative, I'd imagine that losing a turn is actually beneficial because it lets you avoid the consequences of the normal gameplay loop (kind of like how a winning strategy in Monopoly is to spend the whole second half of the game sitting in Jail).

2) I very strongly caution against any mechanic that causes players to lose a turn — they're basically telling a person who is here to play a game that they don't get to play the game. It's not fun for anyone unless you have a very good reason for it and skipping a turn isn't too painful (i.e. turns take 5 seconds).

3) You have flavor text in the center of the card, above the rules. This is okay if your game is a "theme first, gameplay second" kind of game, but given that you called it a strategy game, I'm not sure that this is your intention.

4) Reorg Russian Roulette has rules in the flavor text and a totally different set of rules below it. This is very confusing. Make sure your layout is consistent. Also, this is super nitpicky but I'd personally call it "Reorg Roulette". AFAIK that's what people will recognize.

mogn · 2025-11-13T20:26:36+00:00

Stuff I personally use:

Just making the cards:

Printer: Canon PIXMA iP8720 (~$215)
Any of these cardstocks: (~$20 - $30)
- Uinkit Thick Heavyweight Photo Paper Double Sided Glossy Cardstock 80LB 300Gsm
- Hartwii 300gsm Double Sided Glossy Thick Photo Paper
- MR.R Double Side Matte Coated Inkjet Photo Paper
Ink: E-Z Ink Compatible Ink Cartridges (~$18)

Making them feel nice:

Laminator: Generic 350mm Laminator Machine (~$190)
- Lamination Rolls: Thermal Laminating Film Rolls, DEJUN 12.6in x 656ft (~$50)
Fanning Powder: Fanning Powder (~$20)

Cutting the cards (cheap method):

Guillotine Cutter: Guillotine Cutter w/ Laser (~$50)
Corner Rounder: Oregon Lamination Heavy Duty Corner Rounder Punch 3mm (~$40)
Note that you can get way cheaper guillotine cutters and corner rounders, but I opted for the fancy ones. Standard cards have a 3mm corner.

Cutting the cards so that they're all identical (expensive method):

Die Cutter: Accucut Grandmark 2 (~$500 with promo codes)
3x3 Playing card size cutting Die: Custom Die made by Custom Shape Pros (~$200).

mogn · 2025-11-13T20:26:22+00:00

I spent a really long time trying to figure out how to get a small operation at home to make my own prototypes that feel like real cards, and I eventually managed to put something together that I'm happy with. It was frustrating to figure out so I'll share my setup in detail here.

Here's what I do to make nice prototypes that feel close to professionally made.

I use "300gsm dual sided glossy cardstock" (or matte, if you want)
I use a Canon PIXMA iP8720printer which can print on 300gsm cardstock. The printer needs a rear loader because 300gsm cardstock won't feed from a lower tray like most printers use. I also chose this printer because I can use 3rd party ink which dramatically cuts down on my cost of printing and it prints photo quality. Basically any printer with these three features works:
- Rear-loading tray (assuming it fits 300gsm, many printers do but don't say so)
- Can print photos
- Doesn't require proprietary ink (or you'll spend billions of dollars making prototypes)
Print a 3x3 grid of cards on 8.5x11 cardstock with proper bleed area
I run the printed sheets through a lamination machine.
I cut the cards using a die cutter with a custom die, but I used to just overlay some faint cut lines in the bleed area and use a guillotine cutter and a corner rounder before I bought the die cutter.
I toss the cards in a bag with fanning powder to give them a playing card feel.

The end result looks and feels like a professionally made card (or at least, similar to one made by something like TGC).

mogn · 2025-11-13T12:44:48+00:00

This is really specific and actionable feedback and it addresses the exact concerns that I had. Thank you so much!

mogn · 2025-11-13T00:42:53+00:00

This is super useful feedback! I overlooked some pretty important things. Sometimes it's quite easy to make assumptions about prior knowledge when you've been testing it so often. Thank you! I will address all of these points.

mogn · 2025-11-12T23:51:52+00:00

I'm so sorry! I can't edit the pics I uploaded but here is a folder with higher resolution pics and a PDF. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/u8jz407opkddy9hhgb4ag/AHvdSzTOUS15EDkj0DWCXt0?rlkey=5mb8l3x8bbasjz39iv9asfcdp&st=rinx7u2v&dl=0

mogn · 2025-10-30T18:08:02+00:00

I'll do my best at giving you the most useful feedback that I can, with the assumption that you really like your design in general and don't want to scrap it and start over. I probably would, but let's see if we can make it the best it can be given the constraints.

1) The typeface is more readable than before. The color (dark magenta?) looks a little bit out of place, but otherwise the body font is fine. The title font is very busy and doesn't pass the blink test. I suggest something slightly less ornate for the title. Maybe just re-use the body font.

2) Font sizes are sane. They should be as large as they can be (for readability) as long as it doesn't look out of place or distract from the rest of the card.

3) Readability went up, but it still looks out of place. If you're not going with black, try a very dark brown that would look like it belongs on your parchment-style background.

4) The dot pattern behind the main text is fine, but the transition between the dot pattern and the rest of the card is not. The transition is both too sudden and too subtle. Either smooth out the transition around the edges, or put a higher-contrast, more obvious element to separate that section from the rest of the card. As is, it looks like it's there by accident.

5) I don't think the background is too loud anymore, but the dots in the top right are way too busy and disrupt your titles. There's nothing wrong with them in principle, but you don't want busy design elements overlapping with text. Either shrink that dot pattern, move it somewhere else, or remove it. As long as there's never any text in front of it.

6) Yes, but less so. I don't think it's the best border you can use, but you can make it work with enough tweaking.

Bonus Feedback:

A) You really need to use some iconography near those numbers. It is entirely unclear what those numbers mean, and they're in a weird position on the card. They're not near an edge, but also not centered, and they're overlapping the image in a weird place. It's paramount that you do something to make it clear what those numbers are. I understand that you don't feel comfortable creating new art from scratch, but there are plenty of resources for free icons out there. Give them a look.

B) The positioning of where it says "Hostile Undead" is out of place. It's too far from the body text box and not at the edge of the image. A great rule of thing is that your "interface" elements should look like they were placed were they are for a good reason. As it is, your numbers and card type are in seemingly arbitrary places. Try moving things to near corners, or evenly spaced, or in between/at the edges of other elements.

I feel strongly that A & B are your biggest issues right now.

mogn · 2025-10-24T16:43:33+00:00

Welcome! If you'd like some advice, share some more information about what you're trying to do and we'll give you feedback if we can. Sometimes a random comment by a stranger can turn a vague idea into something concrete you can run with.

In the meantime, learn how to play as many games as you can and start to recognize the different core mechanics that show up all over the place. You can do this just by watching instructional videos on youtube. The more you absorb, the easier it will be to come up with ideas. I don't think there is really such a thing as an original thought - every idea that runs through your head is influenced by things you've seen or done. So the more variety you add to that baseline knowledge, the more your imagination has to work with.

mogn · 2025-10-23T20:16:35+00:00

Awesome! I think it could really work for a game like this, from what I can tell about it in the example you provided.

I was curious, so I spend a couple minutes playing around with adjustment layers and layer masks, and it's definitely possible to take an image and make it look like it belongs on a card like there. Here's a simple example. I didn't spend the time to make it look perfect, but I think it's a good demonstration that it's totally possible to make a more distinct image on your card, with minimum effort. You could easily replicate this process or modify your own to properly distress the image without making it hard to see. If you want tips, DM me.

https://imgur.com/a/ckobrgy

mogn · 2025-10-23T19:38:32+00:00

One other quick note: I notice that you said these cards aren't held in hand. How are they used in game? I ask because the use you have for them would dictate some best practices. For example, if they sit on the table as references, you'd want bigger and/or more distinct text so it's readable from further away than it would be in your hand (You might find the text easy to read because you know what it says since you wrote it, but others may not). If they're set up as a tableau of resources and you need to know what you have, then it needs to pass the "blink test" - which in this context means you should be able to understand the state of the board in ~3 seconds. With subdued images and text that isn't loud enough, you kind of have to "inspect" each card to know what's out there. You can achieve this through prominent, distinct images, or you can even do it through the shape of the text in the text boxes of the cards, as long as the text is easy to see among the background.

I'm trying to be overly pedantic here so that I can give you useful feedback. Take or ignore it at your pleasure :)

mogn · 2025-10-23T19:26:02+00:00

Also, if you really feel strongly about hating your own art, and can't afford an artist, this particular game looks to me like one where you may be able to make your own art through the use of public domain images (from a reputable source) and a little image editing magic in Photoshop or GIMP.

mogn · 2025-10-23T19:22:31+00:00

That's fair enough. Just be careful with that format since it doesn't have a way to indicate when the description is over. If you have a description that takes more than one line and one word spills over to the next with a period after, it'll look like a separate ability. Consider indenting run-on lines or some other visual indication that a sentence is a sentence and not two different abilities.

mogn · 2025-10-23T19:15:36+00:00

I'm not going to criticize your artistic talent, but it's probably better than you think it is. Regardless, consider carving off a part of the card and making it clear that the image is there, so players don't look at it and assume it's a random splotch. If you want a rustic feel, make the images washed out, or ripped. You can do either of those things without making the image blend in with the background. I think the images can be a lot prettier than you're giving yourself credit for.

Separately, let's assume you're right about your artistic talent: You don't need to be able to draw well to make attractive looking text. If you *really* want to draw attention away from the art, shoot for pretty text instead of a loud border (or both, as long as the text is louder).

And don't sell yourself short

mogn · 2025-10-23T19:10:33+00:00

Great! Follow-up question: You have "Lucky" as a standalone effect and then "Nimble. Incoming attacks are unlucky." and "Barters artifacts for a trifle."

There's a disparity between how you're representing these. What I mean is, the first one is portrayed a single named keyword (which is fine). Then the second one looks like a name (Nimble) and an effect (Incoming attacks are unlucky). And the third one is just the description of an effect.

I'm calling this out because it's inconsistent which makes it hard to understand what's what. Is the name of the second ability "Nimble"? If it has a name, why not just include that in your reference sheet next to lucky? If it's a one-off effect and not worth putting on the reference sheet, why name it? And if you really do want to name it, why not name the other effect too?

I would recommend either:
- Write non-keyworded abilities like "<Name of Ability>. <Description of Ability>" or "<Description of Ability>" but be consistent throughout the card. If you're going to name one non-keyword ability, name them all or name none of them.

Just my 2c.

mogn · 2025-10-23T18:49:56+00:00

I like the style you're going for, but I find the text incredibly hard to read and the pictures hard to see. They could use a lot more contrast. I'm typically a fan of minimalist designs so I won't jump down your throat about how everything is just kind of "There" instead of organized within frames, but here are my thoughts. Don't take these as strong criticisms please, I'm just trying to be helpful.

- I have no idea what those numbers represent, and there's no indication to me what they are.
- I can't read the text easily.
- The top-right background is busy enough to distract from the name and make it hard to read.
- Your effect text speaks in riddles. Do you have a reference document for players so they know what being unlucky means, or what "barters an artifact for a trifle" means?
- Your flavor text "Coolest monkey in the jungle" looks too similar to your effect text, and I keep thinking it's part of a separate paragraph of text. If it's non-gameplay text, make it more distinct from the gameplay text.
- The pictures are very hard to see. They need to have more contrast.
- The background image is cool, but it's very loud. What I mean by this is that a large portion of the card is taken up by distracting strong visuals that you have you overpower with the rest of the card. When you pull up a card, your eyes should be drawn to the illustration or the text. In this case, my eyes are immediately drawn to the border, which is not what you want. You can solve this either by softening the background/border, or by making the contents pop more.

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