We are excited to announce that Antibyss will be attending Protospiel Madison 2025 (11/14-11/16) to showcase Project Aleutian! For those who aren’t familiar with the Protospiel, it is an event focused on playing prototype games with other designers, play testers, and publishers. This will be Project Aleutian’s first Protospiel and we are excited to get feedback and play several other up and coming games.
If you live in the Madison Wisconsin area and are interested in checking out Project Aleutian or other prototype games as a play tester, it is just $20 for the weekend. You can register at tabletop.events/conventions/protospiel-madison-2025. I am excited to see you there!
Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:
Mercurial: Alchemia (hyperlixir.com) – this project is live on Kickstarter until October 17! If you like brewing potions and other worker placement deck builders (like I do) this is a game that you should check out!
Mystic Moon (unstablegames.com) – this project is live on Gamefound until October 22! If you are looking for a quicker and lighter potion brewing experience, check this game out and its fun art and brewing mechanics.
Marsh Hallow (forwhygames.com) – this project is live on Kickstarter until October 7 (tomorrow)! Continuing with the spirit of spooktober, Marsh Hallow is a cooperative flip and write dungeon crawler game played over 18 rounds. In the game you play as a marshmallow trying to rescue your family from a fire loving cult. So, use those unique transparent movement cards to get out there and save them!
Games we were playing this month:
It’s a Wonderful World (luckyduckgames.com) – This is one of our favorite drafting games. I have been really enjoying sharing with friends because it has the right length where it is easy to play two games back-to-back once you have the hang of things. There is nothing quite as satisfying as getting your production line to combo just right during your turn.
Lost Ruins of Arnak (czechgames.com) – Speaking of worker placement deck builders, this is definitely a favorite. I just enjoy playing some adventure music, setting off into the jungle, and exploring the ruins with my trusty green compass. The theming is just so great, and by the time you are in the last round it is just an all out push to get a huge set of points.
Tigris and Euphrates (bgg, 1997) – This game has been on my “want to play list” for a long time and I finally got to play it this month (and I got to play one of the early German editions of the game too). It has such a simple turn structure but the strategy is so deep. At the end I was just left wanting to play more. Hopefully I’ll get to play it again soon, but unfortunately this one is currently out of print.
First, we want to start with a bit of an update on progress with Project Aleutian. We are still making good forward movement on the game art to keep bringing the visual aspect of the game to life. Admittedly, the artwork might take a bit longer than I was originally hoping. The key thing is that we won’t be making moves to get quotes until the game is in a stable place with the components.
We are also continuing to refine the game itself by working on getting more feedback from more people. We are looking at prototype events through the fall and early spring to help get more feedback and the final touches on the game itself.
In an effort to continually push this project to be the best that it can be, I am continually looking for books and resources about different stages of the process (whether it is motivation or board game specifics). Here are a few of the books and blogs that I have read, am actively reading, or referencing and rereading:
Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:
Endearment (duxsomnium.com) – this project is live on Kickstarter until October 2! Don your finest attire and let’s go take a stroll through Jane Austen’s England. From everything I see, this game looks like its gameplay and theming will make it fun to play and great introduction for people new to the hobby.
Macaraccoon (shasnthegame.com) – this project is live on Kickstarter until October 2! Cute animals making baked goods is great on its own, but I’ve been of fan of layering transparent cards in other games and I think it will be very interesting applied in a recipe fulfillment setting.
The Order (on bgg) – this project is live on Kickstarter until September 16! This is from a small self-publishing duo and it seems like it would be a quick and fun game of sabotage and satire. It makes me think of other similar games like We’re Doomed! or Exploding Kittens that I love.
Games we were playing this month:
Nemesis (awakenrealms.com) – This is one of my favorite games because of the strong sci-fi survival horror theming and how it does a great job of generating tension and suspense as you try to escape the intruders.
SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (czechgames.com) – I got to play this one at a friend’s place for the first time, and I’ll admit it was a bit intimidating at first. There are a lot of things on the board, but once you get used to the symbols it starts to really click.
7 Wonders: Architects (rprod.com) – Second month in a row with a 7 Wonders title on our list. This game is great because it can accommodate a large number of players, is quick, and is a really easy game to teach.
Does the algorithm keep burying all of that sweet sweet Antibyss content? Well, I have solution for you! The Antibyss email newsletter is officially live, and there is a sign-up button here!
I started collecting emails back during the Dice Tower West prototype con with the hopes of getting an email newsletter up and running. It took some time to get everything in order, but it is finally here!
The newsletter is planned to be sent out monthly around the 15th of the month (the last thing anyone needs is more spam). Topics of the newsletter may include blog updates and content, invitations to playtest prototype games, game announcements, production and shipping updates, and special offers.
We may increase frequency around crowdfunding campaigns (to a weekly update) since that is a critical milestone for the Antibyss team. Join up, get that reminder, and beat the algorithm!
Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:
Compania (level99store.com) – this project is live on Kickstarter until August 14! I mean, steampunk with crystals… sounds like a pretty cool theme to me! A cool theme mixed with hidden worker placement and area control mechanics looks like it will be a great combo.
Vine (cavernwire.com) – this project is live on Kickstarter until August 19! I always enjoy quick paced tile placement games, and the interactions from playing on your vine and a neighbor’s sounds like it will be a really fun experience.
Underisles (hatchlingsgames.co.uk) – this project is live on Kickstarter until August 14! It is a tabletop RPG that teaches players American and British sign language. I think that is just a really cool concept, and this is the third installment in the RPG series.
Games we were playing this month:
Slay the Spire: The Board Game (contentiongames.com) – I love both the board game and the video game that inspired it. I finally gave Act 2 my first run and failed spectacularly. Guess I’ll have to sharpen up my co-op skills for the next climb!
7 Wonders Duel: Pantheon (rprod.com) – 7 Wonders Duel is one of my favorite games (and Project Aleutian definitely pulls inspiration from the 7 Wonders franchise), and I finally collected the one expansion, Pantheon, I’ve been missing. It was definitely a fun twist on the base game.
Everdell Farshore (tycoongames.com) – My wife and I play Everdell in some form almost every month. This month was Farshore, which is a fun standalone variant of the original game.
Working on the artwork with Madelyn has been a really fun an interesting process.
The artwork for a card starts with a prompt that I write, trying to capture what I envision the card art to look like. The prompt for the image shown was “a road laced with green crystals to prevent it from wearing.”
Madelyn then takes that prompt and cooks up some concept art in the form of pencil sketches. There is sometimes a bit of discussion at this point if either of us thinks anything is missing.
I’ll then take it into my vector art platform of choice (at the beginning of the project I was using Inkscape exclusively, but I’ve been starting to use Affinity Designer 2 more), and use the sketch as a reference for the vector art that I make over it. This involves some tweaks as I’m making the vector art, and I’m also making color decisions.
After the vector art is done, I’ll send it back to Madelyn to get some more feedback.
It has been a fun and effective way of getting unique ideas from both of us into the theming of Project Aleutian.
Prototypes/Crowdfunding Projects to keep an eye on:
STACCS (sticcy.cc) – this project is live on Kickstarter until July 30! It brings a fun and visually exciting twist on traditional deck of cards, and the hex shape lend itself to an interesting set of rules only made possible by the hexagonal shaped cards.
Witches’ Quarrel (witchesquarrel.com) – this project is live on Kickstarter until July 20! It is a quick 2-player deckbuilding game of casting spells and has progression game-to-game with legacy mechanics.
Shrine – Duel of Light (brighthorizongames.com) – this project is live on Kickstarter until July 25! It is a 2-player puzzler with some unique mechanics made possible by the LED board.
Games we were playing this month:
Azul Mini – the trend this month was what fit in our carry-on as we went on summer travel. This mini version of the classic fit the bill nicely.
Qwirkle – this was a new game for me, but if you just put all of the tiles in the provided bag it gets pretty small and you can travel with it. Nice approachable game to play with everyone.
Tiny Towns – while this is on the bigger side, I did fit it in my carry-on bag. This game is a nice length when travelling and can easily accommodate up to 6 people.
So far this year we have been giving you more detailed insight into the gameplay and the different kinds of cards that you will encounter in Project Aleutian. Given that we are about half-way through the year, I wanted to give you an update on the timeline for Project Aleutian.
Right now, we are primarily focused on developing the game art and playtesting. The next big milestone we are working toward is completing the game artwork, and our pace suggests we should be completing this in November. That will be a big milestone as it will start shifting our main focus from development to preparing for crowdfunding (current plan is Kickstarter). At that point we will begin to firm up a lot of the dates far on the timeline horizon.
We will keep this up-to-date as things are changing going forward.
We are going to continue with our current every other week posting schedule, but the plan is to alternate between Project Aleutian updates (similar to all of the posts to date), and a style of post we’re calling “The Antibyss Remark.” The goal with this new style of post is highlight the kind of games that our team is playing right now (published games) and highlight some projects we’re excited for in the prototype, crowdfunding, and development spaces. Really this is just an excuse for me to spend more time playing and reading about games.
All of that said, we are very excited about where the game is at, and we are looking forward to the all of things still to come in 2025.
During a game of Project Aleutian, another type of card that you will encounter is a stone cloud prosperity card. These cards reward you with prosperity (victory points) for having collections of a set card type.
The top banner of the card shows the point value per card of the specified type. These cards represent fulfilling requests from different nations while recovering different resources. Unlike the standard prosperity cards, these only show up during the cloudfall phase of the game in the stone cloud deck. With the right planning, they can be the needed point boost to push your nation to victory.
Since Project Aleutian is still a prototype, the graphic design, layout, and art on the cards are preliminary and subject to change. Artwork for cards marked with a “?” is still in development.
