Win a Copy of Pocket-Tactics!

We're thrilled to announce IGG's very first contest! Where you can win something super rad!

Design a 3D logo for Pocket-Tactics! The chosen logo will not only earn you honor and bragging rights, but you'll also win your very own, custom-painted copy of the game.  Here's the fine print:

• - All entries should be in STL format.  (For those of you new to 3D design, Tinkercad is a great program for beginners and experienced designers alike.)
• - The winning entry will look amazing in 3D, but a snapshot will need to be clear and legible for printed marketing purposes in 2D as well.
• - Entries must be received by 6:00 pm PST on August 31, 2012
• - Entries will be judged by the Ill Gotten Games group exclusively
• - Entries must fit inside a small felt bag, so shouldn't be larger than 3" by 4" square (it doesn't need to be square though!), with a maximum height of 1/2 an inch or so.  (We have to have room in the bag for the game pieces, too!)
• - You may enter as many times as you like, but we prefer quality over quantity..

Here's the scoop... We think a lot about design at Ill Gotten Games, and we've decided we want to spend the next month or so working on additional forces for Pocket-Tactics and play testing.  Our goal is to not only develop fans of our little game, but also to encourage people to enter the maker community.  

Email us with questions, and with links to your entry when you're ready!

Introducing Pocket-Tactics!

So, without further adieu, we'd like to introduce Ill Gotten Games' first fully-realized board game: Pocket-Tactics! 

 Pocket-Tactics is a tile-based strategy game in which fantasy forces battle for control of the world. The game is fast-paced (most games lasting between 20-45 minutes) and is so small that it all fits in a little felt bag and the play area rarely takes up more than a square foot of table space. The system is dynamic though resolution is quick and there aren't a ton of rules to track or memorize, making it ideal for advanced and casual gamers alike. 

Gotta give mad props to Makerbot Industries and Tinkercad for allowing us to turn this fun little game into a reality, especially in such a short time. Arian conceived the game on a Tuesday and by that Friday morning had a working, fully painted copy. Now that's rapid prototyping! 

Still working out some kinks, though in the meantime you can see (and download!) the beta version of the game on the Thingiverse here. We're going to be marketing the game, though in the spirit of the maker community we'd like to keep it free to our fellow 3D printing enthusiasts. 

Legion of the High King

The first set, Legion of the High King against the Tribes of the Dark Forest, is hopefully just the first in an ever-expanding universe of fantastic characters from genres ranging from fantasy to science fiction. We've started with fantasy (the origins of Arian's nerdly obsessions and similar to the setting in his novel) and we'll start with a good smattering of common sword-and-sorcery concepts (thanks to Misters Tolkien, E. Howard and Leiber). 

Tribes of the Dark Forest

There's a lot of excitement over here at Ill Gotten Games and we know this game is going places. We're eager to hear from anyone who's played or is interested in playing, so if you have any questions or feedback drop us a line. 

For those of you who don't have your own 3D printer and Arian's painting skills, the full game will be available on the Etsy account soon. Check back regularly for expansions, new versions, and, of course, more (brilliant) games.

So Many Excuses but We've Basically Been Creating a Lot

So, oops. How has it been months and months since we've posted something? Well, time flies when you're having fun, and we've been having a helluva good time...

We got our first MakerBot Replicator!! Holy crow, this has revolutionized our creative process, as we create so many things for our games in Tinkercad. We no longer have to order prints from Shapeways, though we love them and certainly intend to someday order some of our models in stainless steel to put on the mantel (next to our eventual Origin Award, naturally).







Let's sing the praises of the MakerBot, shall we? We got Fred, as it's been lovingly dubbed, back in May. They've done such an amazing job with this product. We literally pulled it out of the box, followed the easy instructions, and were printing within an hour. It took some finagling to get our existing designs formatted just right, but we've been on fire (well, at about 230 degrees and 110 degrees) ever since.

Oh, meantime lead game designer Arian Croft valiantly attempted to win a  MakerBot through a contest at Tinkercad, and managed to get himself featured on their blog after a fourth place finish. All that recognition went straight to his head, so he went and quit his day job and is now working on models and game development full time.

We really take the concept of scratch building seriously, so Jeremy and Laurel Larsen took the concept one step further and created a baby! Baby Smudge is due in December, and we'd love some name suggestions.... (Yes, Smudge for now. Initial ultrasounds are pretty hard to decipher.)

So, since Laurel (that's me!) is the main blogger and is a MakerHuman and tired all the time, and Jeremy is trying to prepare the nursery while working on models and development, and Arian is glued to the MakerBot, we haven't been posting. That's all about to change...