DinoGenics board game

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Lordnine
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by Lordnine »

Chrisoc13 wrote: Wed Feb 06, 2019 12:58 pm Well we've played this quite a bit lately, and I have to say it has been a hit. My wife REALLY loves it. Not terribly surprising, she loves worker placement games and the theme is nicely attached here and we both enjoy Jurassic Park a lot so I thought it would go over well.

If anyone's interested I do occasionally write reviews for games on BGG, and I wrote a review for Dinogenics and posted it on BGG.

Also I noticed the Secret Cabal put a review for it out, so congrats on getting some attention from the popular podcasts!
Hah, I saw that yesterday but didn't realize it was you. Reviews have been coming in strong in general which makes me very excited about the future.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Hey look.

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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Also was the Surprise Unboxing on Boardgame Breakfast. 49:58

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Re: DinoGenics board game

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I look forward to superstar game designer Lordnine appearing on the BGG.CON Special Guest listings in the future.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Will you be doing demos or have a booth at Origins or GenCon?
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by Lordnine »

Conventions are a bit up in the air at this point. I would like to do a second printing but that requires time and money, both of which I don't have in abundance. Kickstarter fulfillment has a lot of hidden costs.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by Smoove_B »

Not sure how likely running another KS for an second printing is, but I've been part of quite a few successful KS projects that have taken that route. They'll add in something for the original owners (a pack of cards or materials that are fixed, a small expansion, stretch goals, etc...) and based off people missing the first printing, they can do well. I keep seeing it over on BGG, so I take that as a good sign!
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by Zarathud »

Maybe a publisher will want to help out with a second edition printing.

:geek:
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"I don't stand by anything." - Trump
“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
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Lordnine
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by Lordnine »

Zarathud wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 9:23 pm Maybe a publisher will want to help out with a second edition printing.

:geek:
The issue there is the game is incredibly expensive to produce which makes publishers reluctant to go near it. During the first KS I talked to a couple and they basically told me I would need to find a way to drop the price per unit by about $18 before they would even consider it. Then again, now that it is getting some positive press who knows….
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by MonkeyFinger »

Quick question... trying to set up some place to start a two player game of this and wondering if it and all its bits will fit on a standard card table that's 33" square? Need to borrow one and wanted to check with y'all first. Thanks!
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by Lordnine »

MonkeyFinger wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 1:44 pm Quick question... trying to set up some place to start a two player game of this and wondering if it and all its bits will fit on a standard card table that's 33" square? Need to borrow one and wanted to check with y'all first. Thanks!
You should be able to do two players on that but may need to keep some of the bits on the game board itself. You wont have much luck with higher player counts though. The game board is 20x26 and the player boards are 9.5 x 12.5.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by MonkeyFinger »

Lordnine wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 2:51 pm
MonkeyFinger wrote: Sun Feb 10, 2019 1:44 pm Quick question... trying to set up some place to start a two player game of this and wondering if it and all its bits will fit on a standard card table that's 33" square? Need to borrow one and wanted to check with y'all first. Thanks!
You should be able to do two players on that but may need to keep some of the bits on the game board itself. You wont have much luck with higher player counts though. The game board is 20x26 and the player boards are 9.5 x 12.5.
Thanks!
-mf
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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They are playing the game live on the Dice Tower right now.
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Lordnine
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by Lordnine »

Moat_Man wrote: Tue Feb 12, 2019 11:59 am They are playing the game live on the Dice Tower right now.
Just watched that! Tom and Sam seemed to enjoy it! Zee maybe not so much as he didn't enjoy the more aggressive cards but that is fine. I did get a boatload of emails during the live showing though which is very positive. :D
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by LordMortis »

I don't want to get down on the game but we tried the two player game last weekend and I'm not so sure it works so well two players. I don't think we really felt the scarcity of actions for the worker placement that brings up the competition or even chess like approach to the game. I suspect the dynamic gets much better with three, and then drops again slightly with 4 as you open up spots on the board, and then a lot better with five, where not only is there a scarcity of placement but you have four people changing that scarcity.

That said, there's still lots to like from the initial quality of component wow, to a relatively easy to understand rule set even when there is a lot going on that just makes sense. I'm sure we'll get to bring out again for three players (on the day that they decide it's not Terraforming Mars day), but I don't see it coming back to the table on two player gaming day.

Also I like that you broke from the mold and didn't make getting extra workers part the competitive dynamic. I have found games like Agricola or Stone Age or Alien Frontiers, etc... to almost entirely about the best method and timing for grabbing extra meeple placement tokens.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by Cylus Maxii »

FWIW - I want to buy a couple of copies when this go back into print. Feel free to message me if that's going to happen.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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LordMortis wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 11:14 am I don't want to get down on the game but we tried the two player game last weekend and I'm not so sure it works so well two players. I don't think we really felt the scarcity of actions for the worker placement that brings up the competition or even chess like approach to the game. I suspect the dynamic gets much better with three, and then drops again slightly with 4 as you open up spots on the board, and then a lot better with five, where not only is there a scarcity of placement but you have four people changing that scarcity.

That said, there's still lots to like from the initial quality of component wow, to a relatively easy to understand rule set even when there is a lot going on that just makes sense. I'm sure we'll get to bring out again for three players (on the day that they decide it's not Terraforming Mars day), but I don't see it coming back to the table on two player gaming day.

Also I like that you broke from the mold and didn't make getting extra workers part the competitive dynamic. I have found games like Agricola or Stone Age or Alien Frontiers, etc... to almost entirely about the best method and timing for grabbing extra meeple placement tokens.
The two player game is slightly more relaxed than the higher player counts for sure. Tools still exists in the game to be highly confrontational but it is more of an active choice than one of necessity. Part of this stems from not wanting to force players into a particular strategy.

Most players in their first couple games tend to go towards a very safe park. Mostly herbivores not a lot of risks. However, the game is really designed to allow players to be a little corrupt. Scandals are easy to get rid of and big carnivores are worth a lot of points and reputation. Players that embrace this will really fight over the goat farm, the uplink, outsourcing and the agency. This happens a little more naturally in big player counts because with more people competing someone is more likely to stumble into the path of corruption. :)
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Scandals are easy to get rid of and big carnivores are worth a lot of points and reputation. Players that embrace this will really fight over the goat farm, the uplink, outsourcing and the agency.
That's all de-emphasized in the two player and I think the scarcity of those actions, most especially related to the need to acquire scandal tokens and then get rid of them, looks like it is at the heart of the kind of things I would enjoy but they simply don't exist in the two player format. Scandal tokens were a non factor as there was no need to acquire them. However, I can see easily in a three player game where there are still covered actions but you have to wait through two people to get the action you want and they're emptying the auction house and Site A fills immediately every round, scandal would become the feature it looks like it should be. In a five player, I assume desperate times are going to happen quite a bit. The two player, not so much. Our limited experience was that you rarely needed to spend a coin on using an already used action (forgetting the name)) and competing for player order was a wholly unnecessary. We did not feel the urgency of needing to take specific actions to stay competitive.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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...or going with herbivores, then making an effort to acquire each and every goat, which then lives peacefully in a meadow behind the park.

Goat hoarding is back.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Blackhawk wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2019 4:45 pm ...or going with herbivores, then making an effort to acquire each and every goat, which then lives peacefully in a meadow behind the park.

Goat hoarding is back.
All it takes is three bits of dinosaur DNA, an 12 additional fence links, and 30 goats.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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There are only 20 goats. With a Goat Farm, that's four goats per turn you can snag. All you really need is 16 or so in a three or four player game. By the end, the players who grabbed carnivores early are going to be living in a permanent state of rampage, while Mr Herbivore quietly rides his goat hoard all the way to victory!

I wouldn't do that, of course, unless it was a group I played with regularly, and I'd only do it once, lest I find myself tied to a goat stake for the t-rex.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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The goat supply is unlimited.
Component Limitations
Dinosaurs are limited to the number of wooden meeples in the game box. There are six of each type of standard dinosaur and twelve mutants. All other components are considered unlimited.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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See? He anticipated my genius.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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LordMortis wrote:
Scandals are easy to get rid of and big carnivores are worth a lot of points and reputation. Players that embrace this will really fight over the goat farm, the uplink, outsourcing and the agency.
That's all de-emphasized in the two player and I think the scarcity of those actions, most especially related to the need to acquire scandal tokens and then get rid of them, looks like it is at the heart of the kind of things I would enjoy but they simply don't exist in the two player format. Scandal tokens were a non factor as there was no need to acquire them. However, I can see easily in a three player game where there are still covered actions but you have to wait through two people to get the action you want and they're emptying the auction house and Site A fills immediately every round, scandal would become the feature it looks like it should be. In a five player, I assume desperate times are going to happen quite a bit. The two player, not so much. Our limited experience was that you rarely needed to spend a coin on using an already used action (forgetting the name)) and competing for player order was a wholly unnecessary. We did not feel the urgency of needing to take specific actions to stay competitive.
You don't have to take scandal tokens, it can be a non-factor. But if they are a non-factor and nobody is going for them that just opens up spaces for the other player to play risky and score bigger points.

It's not as tight at 2, but I think it works well. Conversely I don't like it at 5. 3 or 4 is the absolute sweet spot, but 2 is still really good.
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DinoGenics board game

Post by Zarathud »

Apparently Meeple Source's latest Kickstarter now includes upgraded dinosaur meeples for DinoGenics -- by popular demand.

Bonus points for your game's fans.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Tom Vasel's Dice Tower Review

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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Very nice! Now you know what the blood-thirsty ghouls want for the expansion -- Dinosaurs Unleashed!
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“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” - John Stuart Mill, Inaugural Address Delivered to the University of St Andrews, 2/1/1867
“It is the impractical things in this tumultuous hell-scape of a world that matter most. A book, a name, chicken soup. They help us remember that, even in our darkest hour, life is still to be savored.” - Poe, Altered Carbon
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by AWS260 »

That's great! I really hope that you L9 has the opportunity (and capital) to continue building on this work, whether than means more DinoGenics or a new game concept.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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I'll bring my copy to OctoCon this weekend. I'll even try and read the rules before I get there. :)
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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A positive review from a big channel was basically the last piece of the puzzle I needed. DinoGenics will be returning to Kickstarter this summer for a 2nd printing.

Also, I will share this with you guys since I don't think you will spread it around the internet. One of the biggest shortcomings of the game has been peoples opinion of the rulebook. Well, I took that to heart and hired some outside help to rework it. This is a work in progress version but it is pretty close to done and most people agree a huge improvement over the original. If you haven't cracked the box and read the current rulebook, maybe start here. :) Rulebook.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by AWS260 »

That's great news! And good to hear that you're reworking the rulebook, which I think will help a lot.

[edit] Will the Facilities Reference be printed on a separate reference sheet? In the current printing, that's the one critical element that only exists in the rulebook, and the main reason we have to pass the rulebook around constantly during a game.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Board game rule books are notoriously difficult. What I've learned is that there are a few companies I know that will release rock-solid instructions, but more often than not you find they've been outsourced in some capacity. It's awesome news regardless - congrats.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

Post by Ralph-Wiggum »

Yes - congrats! Looking forward to backing the next KS! :horse:
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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If I were making a game, I'd try to hire the bloke behind all the Universal Head Boardgame Summary Sheets to write the rules. His particular reference guides are invariably second to none.
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Officially announced today!

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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Noooo!
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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Blackhawk wrote: Fri Mar 29, 2019 7:30 pmNoooo!
Expansions are generally optional... Or are you just afraid of The Meg?
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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No! Now I need to save for yet another thing that I shouldn't be spending money on, but will!
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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If money is tight, don't spend on my account. I appreciate the sentiment though!
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Re: DinoGenics board game

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But if I don't spend it, I won't be able to watch new dinos rampage across my kids' parks!vv :horse:
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